Columnist Ron Kantowski: Rebels’ schedule needs some bulking up

Tuesday, Feb. 23, 1999 | 10:13 a.m.

If college basketball coaches had snack food deals similar to their shoe contracts, Bill Bayno's would be with Hostess.

How else do you explain the Rebels' willingness to use a bonus 28th regular-season date next year (as per the new NCAA limit) to schedule another college basketball cupcake?

A proposed game in January between the Rebels and the University of Missouri-Kansas City will be convenient for both schools. It will happen in January during a week in which UNLV is scheduled to play only once, against San Diego State, and UMKC will be in Cedar City to tangle with Southern Utah University in a Mid-Continent Conference game.

But like this year's home slate, which featured non-conference fare against the likes of Sacred Heart, Troy State, Columbia and Southern Utah, it won't do much for season ticket sales.

As the Rebels proved this year in their one and only marquee game, against Cincinnati, they have enough talent to hang with the big boys. Isn't about time their scheduling philosophy reflects it?

Missouri-Kansas City started this week with an 8-21 record.

If UNLV's home schedule gets any more watered down, they'll probably start serving it on the rocks as part of the two-drink minimum at a local strip joint.

* MOVE OVER PRINCETON: The College Professional Basketball League (CPBL), a proposed circuit for college-age players that plans to debut in November, has established a new poll that combines a school's on-court performance with its effort in the classroom.

Called the BEST (Basketball Education Statistical Tracking) Index, the most recent CPBL poll has Stanford number one, followed by Duke, St. John's, College of Charleston and Wisconsin. Those teams were rated 7, 1, 10, 18 and 13 in the Associated Press men's college basketball poll.

To determine the index, the CPBL takes the top 30 teams from the AP poll and then gives each school a separate ranking based on its 1997 graduation rate. The two rankings are combined and averaged, with each school receiving bonus or penalty points contingent on its deviation from the average NCAA Men's Division I basketball graduation rate, which is 41 percent.

Two WAC schools made it into the BEST Index poll, with Utah checking in at 16 and New Mexico at 25.

The BEST Index is designed to emphasize the new league's commitment to educating its players. Players who sign with the CPBL will receive free tuition to the school of their choice in their particular market or region.

* AROUND THE HORN: Having watched Utah repel Fresno State 88-82 in Fresno on Saturday for its 17th straight win, Pat Christenson should have his Thomas & Mack maintenance crew prepare the heavy-duty ladder with the shock absorbers so Rick Majerus doesn't get hurt cutting down the nets at next week's WAC Tournament. ... When the Fresno game was on the line, Utah got the ball to Andre Miller and Hanno Mottola, its two stars, on every possession. As has been pointed out ad nauseum since the Rebels' two-point loss to SMU Saturday, Sean Marion, UNLV's best player, usually is the empty set during crunch time. ... The student apathy toward the Rebel basketball program outlined in a front page SUN story on Monday also extends beyond the Thomas & Mack Center. There were a grand total of three patrons watching Saturday's SMU game at Moose McGillycuddy's, a popular w atering hole across the street from the UNLV campus. ... The shooting percentages are up in women's college basketball, but there's a good reason for it. T

he women's ball is so small in diameter that if three players let fly in pregame warm-ups and all three shots were on the mark, each would fit in the hoop at the same time. Only two men's basketballs will fit inside the rim at once.