Mayne excited to do what he does best at Thomas & Mack next Friday

By Ryan Greene

Friday, Oct. 10, 2008 | 12:41 p.m.

While it's not the most ideal way to emcee an event such as next Friday's FirstLook 2008, which marks the official start to the UNLV men's basketball season, it's nothing Kenny Mayne isn't used to.

The UNLV quarterback turned über-successful ESPN personality has entertained people via video for years.

"I wish I could be there in person," Mayne said by phone earlier this week. "Unfortunately, I wish I could do more in regards to UNLV, but I'm 3,000 miles away, and one or more jobs at once at all times plus my wife and two kids. We just sometimes have to pick and choose how many times I can be away for things."

Yes, Mayne has the same responsibilities as most American males. But he's still going out of his way to emcee the Rebels' 'practice' session via video. It'll be one heck of a way for the program to debut its new center-hung video board in the Thomas & Mack Center in an event that's free to the public, kicking off UNLV's homecoming weekend.

For Mayne to be here in person next Friday, combining that with a loaded work schedule which involves spearheading ESPN's coverage of the Breeder's Cup, he would have been on the road for 14 straight days. So the video presence is understandable.

Either way, it should be quite the show, as Mayne has entertained audiences for years by combining sports and witty, sarcastic humor in his multiple roles at ESPN. Now, he sort of serves as the ultimate utility infielder for the Worldwide Leader.

While Mayne doesn't get to make it back to his alma mater as much as he'd like to, he's stayed loyal to his school throughout the years.

"More often it's more like I'll be in there real quick for a story, and I'll at least get to see some old friends, old teammates, old coaches," he said. "It's sort of cliché about the relationships you establish, but it's really true. Some of my best friends in life are people I was with when I was at UNLV."

Some of those folks were even involved in a video story he did a few years back -- one of the rare opportunities he's had to make UNLV a major focus in one of his comedic pieces.

"I got to work with Ben Stiller on a Brett Favre story once because of their Something About Mary connection, and about a year later, Stiller sent me an e-mail saying 'I've got another story Idea for you if you want to do it,' and it was involving the Dodgeball movie," he recalled. "Most of these stories I do are fictional accounts. We pretended that UNLV's dodgeball team was on probation, because one of the athletes had eaten an extra buffet item ... like the lamest possible violation. Really the joke was meant to be against the NCAA, not UNLV. Coach (Jerry) Tarkanian pretended to be either the current or ex-dodgeball coach, and I got Randall Cunningham to be in the story as well, he was playing the grad assistant or something."

Mayne said that story may be findable somewhere on the Interwebs, but after (honestly) hours of diligent searching, I've got nothin'. A couple of co-workers even chipped in some time.

But there is plenty of Mayne that's easy to spot on the Internet. A quick YouTube or Google search will bring up several entertaining pieces he's constructed over the years. A couple are linked up on the right. The spoof of the Sopranos finale is my favorite, easily.

And Mayne is on the verge of of making his Internet legacy grow much larger. That will begin when his new show, Mayne Street, debuts on ESPN.com on Nov. 11. The 15-minute webisodes will essentially be an extension of what Mayne does best.

"It beats work," he joked.

Fist bump of the week ...

We'll keep it with UNLV this week, and hand the honors over to the senior trio of René Rougeau, Wink Adams and Joe Darger.

The three starred alongside Lon Kruger in a pair of videos on the school's official athletics Web site promoting just how eager they are for the start of practices on Oct. 17.

Who ever said jocks can't act? These three did a pretty good job, if you ask me. See the evidence to the right.

They join the ranks of UNLV alum Reggie Theus, who I'm shocked never won an Emmy for his role as coach Bill Fuller on "Hang Time" --one of the crowned jewel TV shows of my childhood.

At the window this weekend ...

I'm calling them Principle Bets. Three things stood out on the sheet this week when looking at the college lines.

1) The over/under for Missouri-Oklahoma State in Columbia, Mo., is, brace yourself ... 80 points! Even if both teams are averaging around 50 points per game, that's a lot of points to put money on. That said, I went with the under ... out of principle.

2) The over/under for Nebraska-Texas Tech in Lubbock, Texas, is 71. Same feeling as No. 1 ... again, out of principle.

3) I don't care how bad Washington State is, the fact that a sub-.500 Oregon State team is a 30-point favorite over the Cougs is pretty wild. Not sure I'd ever take a 30-point favorite to cover in any conference game ... yet again, well, you get the point.

We'll see if my principles are as out of whack as my jumpshot after four weeks in a cast.

See you all again in a week.