Ron Kantowski is a Las Vegas Sun sports writer. Reach him at [email protected] or (702) 259-4088.
One of these days, Rick Majerus is going to show up to one of these "Big Monday" games wearing pajamas and house slippers, and maybe then ESPN will get the idea that starting a basketball game at 9 p.m. is a bit too late.
When it comes to complaining about stuff, Majerus is like that crotchety old man played by Dana Carvey on the old Saturday Night Live.
"Why, when I was young, there was no ESPN, and we had to listen to college basketball games on the radio or read about them in the newspaper the next day. But they started at 7:30, and we l-i-i-ked it."
That's basically what Majerus tells anybody who will listen, and this time, he's not the only one griping.
But unless your favorite team plays in the Yankee Conference, the days of scheduling games for the fans going to them are long gone. Which explains why if you were on hand for Monday night's Rebels-Utah game, you probably are nodding off as you read this.
On Sunday, when I bumped into the UNLV athletic braintrust at the Lady Rebels' game, athletic director Mike Hamrick and associate A.D. Jerry Koloskie were a lot more bright-eyed and bushy-tailed than they are today. But both said the advantages to playing late still significantly outweigh the disadvantages.
Hamrick said you can't get into a recruit's living room without a TV contract. And Koloskie added that the hefty paycheck the Mountain West receives for agreeing to have its teams stay up past their bedtimes helps finance those recruiting trips and sundry other expenses.
Agreed, but part of the benefit to being on TV is impressing those would-be recruits with a big crowd. You can bet that Monday's half-empty arena would have been a lot more full had the game started at 7:30 on a Saturday night.
My suggestion to the Mountain West would be when the current contract expires, talk to ESPN about playing on Friday night. The only conferences that play on Friday are the Ivy League, West Coast and Conference USA, and of those three, only USA has a TV deal.
Of course, if you're a season-ticket holder it could always be in worse, especially if you reside in the Mountain Time Zone where six of the Mountain West's eight teams are situated. In New Mexico, Colorado and Wyoming, Big Monday games tip at (yawn) 10 p.m.
Forget a bedtime story, warm milk and cookies. I know guys in Albuquerque who can't fall asleep unless Jimmy Dykes is breaking down the 1-3-1 defense.
Around the horn
Spotted: Mike Tyson, at the Monte Carlo brew pub Sunday, watching the Eagles-Packers NFL playoff game. Not-so-Iron Mike was sporting a buxom lady friend on his arm and what appeared to be about 30 extra pounds around his waist. ... A story in the New York Daily News Monday claimed Las Vegas-based Top Rank boxing paid one of Eric "Butterbean" Esch's sideshow opponents $5,000 to take a dive. Top Rank, which wasn't commenting on the allegation, referred all inquiries to the Surf Buffet at the Boardwalk Casino. ... Contrary to what you've been watching, LVMS does not stand for Las Vegas Movie Studio. Roughly 10-12 television spots are shot every year at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, with several national ones (Dodge, Pontiac, Ford trucks) running now. ...
According to reports, the American Football Coaches Association this week will propose adding a fifth BCS game featuring one team from a non-BCS conference. The payout is expected to be $9 million, about half of what the current four BCS games pay -- but about seven times more than what the Mountain West champion receives from the Liberty Bowl. ... The mid-major teams might not want to be so hasty in calling for the BCS computers to be unplugged. Four of the five non-BCS teams in the final top 25 polls, including MWC champion Utah and Miami of Ohio, had significantly higher computer ratings than poll ratings. ... UNLV's Larry Croom scored as many touchdowns in the college football postseason all-star games (3) as he did all year for the Rebels. Of course, during the regular season he wasn't running behind a bunch of refrigerators in Pac-10 colors. . ..
I saw an item recently quoting Artie Gigantino, an Oakland Raiders spokesman. Hardcore UNLV football fans may remember that Gigantino was one of the finalists for the UNLV head football job back in the late '80s that went to Jim Strong. ... Former Rebels football assistant Tom Cable, recently fired after four seasons as head coach at Idaho, his alma mater, has been hired as UCLA's offensive line coach. ... Stanford basketball coach Mike Montgomery doesn't lose many players during recruiting because he usually only goes after guys who can meet the school's lofty academic standards. One of the exceptions was David Padgett,, the Reno High star who couldn't get admitted at Stanford but is doing just fine at Kansas. The Cardinal is doing OK without Padgett, too. Just ask Lute Olson.
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