Commentary: Missing party isn’t worth crying over

Thursday, March 7, 1996 | 11:59 a.m.

THIS IS SUPPOSED to be the best time of the year for a basketball writer. It's March Madness and everywhere you look, there's a slam dunk being thrown down, smack being talked and an upset brewing.

So what am I doing sitting here in Las Vegas while the rest of the hoop world goes about its merry way?

Simple. The basketball season, as I know it, has come to a screeching halt.

UNLV's season has come to an ignominious end. The Lady Rebels had their worst season ever. And what that means is the Big West tournament tips off in Reno Friday without UNLV, and without me.

What about the WAC tourney in Albuquerque, you say? Wait 'til next year when it's at the Thomas & Mack.

As for Selection Sunday, it has been so long since that mattered around here, the only reason to watch is to get a head start on filling out the office pool brackets (Some advice: take whoever plays Arizona in the first round -- hey, that's a reach, isn't it?).

But the more I thought about it, the more I realized that life can go on without being at the Big West tournament. So what if I can't watch four games a day? That beer that was waiting for me in the bathtub in the media hospitality suite in Reno is just as readily available at the Palace Station sports book.

Of course, I won't be able to converse with my colleagues or watch San Jose State SID Lawrence Fan play bartender-bouncer-ID checker at the suite in Reno. But that's what happens when the team you cover can't beat Cal State Fullerton.

So, with tradition having drowned itself in the Truckee River and Bill Bayno off to Australia in search of a point guard, here are 10 legitimate reasons not to shed a tear for missing out on the Big West party:

10) Reno's Virginia Street panhandlers will have plenty of other sports writers to bum change from.

9) Yeah, like there was going to be time to go skiing in Tahoe, anyway.

8) Thanks to Jeff Horton, all UNLV types are banned from the Little Waldorf.

7) No Bruce Pascoe to hang with at courtside while watching three days of bad basketball.

6) Won't be able to ask Neil McCarthy about New Mexico State's impending doom from the NCAA. (Like he would tell you. Besides, he's not going to be there, either.)

5) Need to begin work on SUN's "Best of the WAC."

4) Three words -- No Mike Toney.

3) Don't need 7,000 empty seats to give me a feeling of tranquility.

2) Won't have to battle Lawlor's "Can Nazi" trying to sneak a soda out of the press room.

And the No. 1 reason I won't miss the Big West tournament:

1) I've already seen those "We Love Maxson" posters in Long Beach.

So let Pacific and San Jose State kill each other. Let Seth Greenberg get a T. Let Pat Foster try to right his sinking ship, the U.S.S. Wolf Pack. I'll settle for watching Tark and Fresno State on the satellite dish and get ready for beach volleyball at the Hard Rock Hotel.

Gee, I hope I survive this weekend.

STEVE CARP is a Las Vegas SUN sports writer.