Rebels aim to slay giant-killer

Steve Carp

Monday, March 9, 1998 | 12:55 p.m.

They had gathered in the Si Redd Room at the Thomas & Mack Center, munching on fried chicken, swilling Gatorade and iced tea, still reveling in their triumph of the night before.

Kevin Simmons still was wearing the remnants of the netting as a necklace that he had left the court with less than 24 hours before. WAC championship hats, earned in the 56-51 win over New Mexico, adorned the heads of several other players. Coach Bill Bayno, physically tired and emotionally drained, smiled a weary smile while chatting on a celluar phone.

Like the rest of the country, the entire UNLV basketball team was glued to the television set Sunday, wondering where the Rebels' next game was going to be.

It didn't take long for them to find out.

The East Region bracket appeared on the screen and UNLV, sporting a six-game winning streak and a 20-12 overall record, is slated to face No. 8 Princeton, the Ivy League champion, Thursday at Hartford, Conn., in the opening round of the 1998 NCAA Tournament.

The NCAA will announce the game time today once it has made its arrangements with CBS, which has the tournament broadcast rights. The game will be shown in Southern Nevada on KLAS Channel 8 and will be broadcast live on KXNT 840-AM.

When the UNLV-Princeton matchup appeared on the screen, there was a loud roar of approval, even though the Rebels are seeded No. 12 in the East and the Tigers are the No. 5 seed.

"I had a feeling we would go to Hartford," said junior guard Brian Keefe, one of the heroes of UNLV's WAC tournament championship Saturday after scoring 18 points against the Lobos in the title game. "I told my mom when I got up, 'We're going to Hartford' and she thought the same thing."

Keefe, a New Englander who hails from Winchester, Mass., and transferred from Boston College and UC Irvine, didn't get to play back east when UNLV faced Rhode Island Dec. 13 because he still was ineligible.

Now, he gets the opportunity to play close to home as one of the catalysts of the team's amazing four-wins-in-five-days run that earned the Rebels the WAC's automatic berth into the Big Dance.

"I'm looking forward to it," he said. "This is why I came here (to UNLV). To play in the NCAAs."

Despite Princeton's gaudy 26-1 record, top-10 ranking and reputation as an NCAA giant-killer, the Rebels were happy about drawing the Tigers, a team they last played in 1990.

"If it wasn't Princeton, it would have been someone else," coach Bill Bayno said. "It's a great opportunity for our kids and we're excited about being part of it."

Simmons, the power forward who has become this team's on-the-floor leader, said, "I'm very happy with the draw. I'm looking forward to getting on a plane and going somewhere to play. To me, that's exciting."

The team left late this afternoon for Connecticut. Should UNLV win Thursday, it would play the Eastern Michigan-Michigan State winner Saturday for the right to advance to the Sweet 16. UNLV faced Eastern Michigan earlier this year in the Preseason NIT with the Rebels beating the Eagles, 84-66.

The Rebels have been away from the NCAA tourney for seven years. A lot has changed since UNLV was in the 1991 Final Four, but one thing that hasn't changed is the demand for tickets to the tournament.

The school has received only 350 tickets as the Hartford Civic Center, the site for Thursday's game, already is sold out.

After school officials, the players, cheerleaders and the band take their share of the tickets (which is 189), 26 student tickets will be available and assigned via lottery today. Six additional tickets will go to faculty and staff.

That leaves a mere 129 tickets for everyone else.

Seven years ago, UNLV instituted a priority points system where donors who make the largest contributions get priority at purchasing tickets to the NCAAs. That policy has remained in effect during the seven-year drought and is being instituted today. Donors are being contacted by the school's sports marketing department.

Because of the low number of tickets available and the fact all 350 are accounted for, there will be no public sale at UNLV. However, for those seeking information on possible unused tickets in Connecticut, the Hartford Civic Center box office number is 860-486-2724. Any available tickets cost $30 apiece.