Columnist Ron Kantowski: Old Sports Illustrated cover jinx takes a new twist

Tuesday, March 16, 1999 | 11:04 a.m.

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

It doesn't take a whole lot of athletic prowess to get your mug on the cover of Sports Illustrated these days.

A couple of weeks ago, supermodel Rebecca Romijn graced the cover of the nation's premier sports magazine wearing little more than a basketball net.

And this week, at least on the West Coast, Stanford's Jason Collins has the front of the March Madness issue all to his lonesome.

The problem with that is Romijn and Collins scored the same amount of points in the NCAA West Regional -- zero.

Collins was supposed to be a key reserve for the Cardinal this season, but didn't play in Stanford's first-round victory over Alcorn State or second-round defeat to Gonzaga due to an injury.

But SI knew that going in. It says so on page 128 of the current issue.

" ... but injuries to key reserves Jason Collins and Ryan Mendez mean Stanford isn't as deep as last year," the magazine states.

Then how did Collins get on the cover? Sort of like overlooking Gonzaga, it was a mistake, pure and simple.

Joe Assad, senior publicist for SI, said Stanford stalwart Mike Madsen was supposed to get the cover treatment but the photo of Madsen "didn't quite work out" with the design.

"It was a last-minute mistake that slipped past us," Assad said Monday about the substitution of Collins' photo.

SI actually did eight regional covers for this week's issue. With the exception of Collins, each of the players featured -- Michigan State's Mateen Cleaves, UConn's Khalid El-Amin, Kentucky's Hemishu Evans, Duke's William Avery, Auburn's Chris Porter, Arizona's Jason Terry and Maryland's Steve Francis -- is crucial to his team's success.

"He's in there with some good company," Assad said sheepishly of Collins' inclusion to the spectacular seven.

If you thought Arizona had another rough week at the Big Dance, put a copy of SI in Lute Olson's mailbox. In its preview of the Wisconsin-Southwest Missouri State game, SI claimed "Wisconsin won't be able to respond when Southwest Missouri State turns their Round 1 game into a track meet."

Final score: SW Missouri 43, Wisconsin 32.

If that's a track meet, call it the William Conrad Invitational.

* HOT RODMAN: Dennis Rodman's leave of absence from the Lakers apparently has begun in Las Vegas. As far as upsets go, that isn't exactly North Carolina State over Houston, circa 1983.

Two callers said they spotted the tattooed one at two of his favorite Las Vegas haunts on Sunday -- Caesars Palace and the Hard Rock Hotel.

Noah Gjurashaj, a Detroit native here on vacation, said he clicked a snapshot of Rodman after the latter made a purchase at a Caesars jewelry store.

"He had five or six guys with him -- no girls," Gjurashaj said. "He bought something and somebody said 'There's Dennis.' He just started running."

Gjurashaj didn't say if the jewelry Rodman bought had wife Carmen Electra's name engraved upon it. If so, he might have to deliver it to rocker Tommy Lee's house.

Rumor has it Mrs. Rodman and the Motley Crue drummer have taken a shine to each other, which some have speculated is the reason for Rodman's sabbatical.

* AROUND THE HORN: Heard a Paiute Smoke Shop radio ad Monday advertising two tickets for the Las Vegas 400 NASCAR Winston Cup race. I know I said in this space last week that leaving early for the track was a good idea, but 51 weeks early seems be a bit extreme. ... That the best and most popular player in Thunder history will be "the player to be named later" in a trade seems preposterous. Patrice Lefebvre is a class act who even went so far as to thank reporters for the positive press he received during his Las Vegas career. Here's wishing him well. ... Mandalay Sports Entertainment, which co-owns the Las Vegas Stars and Thunder, is spending $22.7 million on a state-of-the-art Class A baseball stadium in Dayton, Ohio, but apparently not a penny to keep the Thunder from leaving town following this season. ... What remains of the Western Athletic Conferenc e is so desperate to proclaim its legitimacy that it uses the circulation of newspapers in WAC cities as a selling point in its most recent newsletter. But

the WAC would probably trade all 4.4 million subscribers within its spacious boundaries for one automatic NCAA men's basketball tournament berth.