Columnist Ron Kantowski: UNLV has chance to showcase Robinson signing

Tuesday, Dec. 1, 1998 | 10:28 a.m.

Ron Kantowski's notes column appears Tuesday. Reach him at ron@ lasvegassun.com or 259-4088.

If UNLV and John Robinson close the deal this week -- and a source close to the UNLV search committee said Monday "all the eggs" are in Robinson's basket -- the Rebels will have a golden opportunity to introduce their eighth football coach on the most prominent of center stages.

How does national network TV grab you?

If UNLV is smart, it will announce the signing of the Southern Cal coaching icon at halftime of Saturday's WAC championship game between Brigham Young and Air Force at Sam Boyd Stadium.

While it probably is going to take significant bucks to get Robinson's autograph on the bottom line, UNLV could get its first bang for them, courtesy of ABC.

Besides, the precedent already has been set. When Jim Strong came on board as Rebels football coach prior to the 1990 season, Cheryl Miller, then with ABC, interviewed him during the UNLV-Iowa nationally televised basketball game at the Mack.

If ABC was willing to put a little-known guy like Strong on camera, it probably would forsake the entire Valvoline at the Half report for a few words with Robinson.

Johnnies come lately

One coach with an impressive record who definitely won't be considered for the UNLV job is 72-year-old John Gagliardi of St. John's in Minnesota, a school of 1,800 students founded and run by by cigar-smoking Benedictine monks.

The coaching graybeard has guided the Johnnies to 353 victories in 46 seasons with an approach that is more Wilfred Brimley than Mike Ditka -- no playbooks, no practices more than 90 minutes, no drills beyond working on actual plays, no tackling during practice once the season begins, no organized weight training and no calisthenics -- or virtually no calisthenics. Sometimes players do one jumping jack, just for laughs.

St. John's was feeling its Quaker Oats until Saturday, when the Johnnies were knocked out of the NCAA Division III playoffs by Wisconsin Eau-Claire 10-7. ...

Flying Continental

Former Bishop Gorman standout Matt Othick is ranked sixth among Continental Basketball Association assist leaders heading into this week's action. The ex-Arizona Wildcat plays for the Yakima (Wash.) Sun Kings. Other CBAers with Las Vegas ties include ex-Rebels Tyrone Nesby and Elmore Spencer (Sioux Falls) and ex-Rebel recruit Lloyd Daniels (Idaho).

One of the CBA's more notable talents is Master P, the rap artist who is bustin' moves with the Fort Wayne Fury in the guise of Percy Miller. That's the name Master P played under at the University of Houston. ...

Lou Henson, who has yet to have a good hair day, should get reacquainted with Sy Sperling after receiving an unprecedented 140,000 percent raise at New Mexico State. That's his base salary for coaching the Aggies basketball team this season after doing it last year for $1. Henson, who guided Illinois to 12 NCAA Tournament appearances, volunteered to return to Las Cruces and coach for free, but school policy requires all coaches must be paid something for their efforts. ...

There's a lot of this $1 stuff going around. That's also the pay check Kareem Abdul Jabbar is taking home as an assistant coach at Alchesay High School on the Fort Apache Reservation in Arizona. The basketball legend developed a relationship with the people there while researching a book about the Buffalo Soldiers, black cavalry members who were stationed at frontier forts during the Civil War. ...

It's Miller's time

When's the last time the Lady Rebels had more wins than the Boy Rebels, at any stage of the season? The distaff UNLV basketball team is off to a 4-0 start under first-year coach Regina Miller and hasn't played at home yet. ...

Miller hasn't weighed in on the subject, but most women's basketball coaches are calling the NCAA's decision to eliminate hand checking this season absurd. ...

The folks at Adidas must be watching the English Premier League on the satellite. Adidas has filed suit against the NCAA, claiming the organization's rule limiting corporate logos on a uniform to a 2 1/4-inch vertical square violates federal antitrust laws. If Adidas wins, college football and basketball uniforms might be designed like European soccer jerseys, with the logo of the corporate sponsor plastered across the front. "The lawsuit has got to scare the NCAA and its members a great deal," said Gary Roberts, director of sports law at Tulane and an expert on antitrust sports law. ...

PBA raises the roof

The Professional Bowlers Tour, which keeps trying to re-invent itself, will hold the finals of next year's tournament on Long Island outdoors. The televised finals will be held on temporary lanes in Bryant Park in midtown Manhattan on May 1. ...

Cut off the jam: According to a news report out of New York, Las Vegas will have a team in a new roller derby "league" that begins Jan. 15 on The Nashville Network. No word on where the Nevada High Rollers will play their games, other than from Thomas & Mack director Pat Christenson, who said he has never heard of or from the World Skating League. ...

Stat of the week: Back in 1970, Ross Montgomery led the Chicago Bears in rushing with the paltry total of 229 yards. Despite going on injured reserve after the third game of the season, Greg Hill continues to lead the St. Louis Rams with 240 rushing yards. ...

Kentucky athletic director C.M. Newton is practicing what he preaches. In the aftermath of the drinking-related accident that killed a Wildcats football player and another passenger, Newton said he will terminate the school's sponsorship contracts with Budweiser, Miller and Maker's Mark, a Kentucky bourbon manufacturer, when they expire. But patrons in the 40 luxury suites being added to Commonwealth Stadium in Lexington still will be allowed to sample their products. ...

The Thunder's problem isn't clearing the air, it's clearing the puck out of its own end. After holding yet another closed door team meeting following yet another loss to Grand Rapids last Friday, Las Vegas was outshot 50-14 in a humbling 8-0 loss to Houston the following night. ...

And finally, if the Las Vegas Bowl gets stuck with San Diego State and Miami of Ohio on Dec. 19, it should be renamed the Lack of Insight.com Bowl.