Columnist Ron Kantowski: Extra hype, extra hyphen mark Bandits’ debut

Tuesday, Nov. 30, 1999 | 10:06 a.m.

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

I know of at least two guys who had a lot of nice things to say about the Silver Bandits after taking in the season debut of Las Vegas' newest minor league pro sports franchise last Friday night at the Thomas & Mack Center.

At that's saying something because these guys are like Mikey, the kid from the old Life cereal commercial who hated everything.

Alas, it wasn't all hearts and flowers and rap artists (there were more of those than made free throws at Friday's game, according to sources) for the Bandits on opening weekend. While the team had the good sense to get Saturday's rematch with the San Diego Stingrays on the air, somebody pulled the plug on the Metro 48 telecast with 13 seconds to go and the game tied at 88-88.

Master P, meet Heidi.

Las Vegas went on to edge San Diego and Master P, the former University of Houston guard turned rap mogul turned NBA wannabe, in double overtime. But nobody here saw it. One source told the Sun that when the 2 hours and 45 minutes of air time that the Bandits had purchased expired, so did the telecast. But Silver Bandits spokesman/play-by-play man Tim Neverett said that wasn't true.

Neverett said when it appeared the game would run long, the Bandits asked for and were granted extra time from Sure Shot, its satellite company. But Neverett said from there, the "video teleport uplink" people and Pacific Bell had to play ball with the IBL. And one of them apparently dropped it.

"I don't know where the error was, but it was a human error," Neverett said. "It had nothing to do with our staff or Cox (Cable)."

Neverett said Cox received a "barrage" of complaints so the Bandits are making plans to rebroadcast the game in its entirety, once they receive a copy of the game tape from San Diego.

While they are in making-things-right mode, here's one more relatively little thing the Bandits should fix: those print ads that proclaim "Pro-Basketball Is Here!" Why the hyphen?

And get a new photograph that conveys that pro basketball is here. If it's true that the IBL features "the best non-NBA players" in the world, then why use a couple of guys playing one-on-one at Sunset Park to illustrate it?

Maybe I should quit being so picky. Maybe, like Mikey, I should just get some/a Life.

* EAU DE HOYA: That smell emanating from the Thomas & Mack Center Sunday wasn't coming from the livestock pens set up for the upcoming National Finals Rodeo. It was the odorous Georgetown Hoyas. Lost in the euphoria of UNLV's victory over a quality opponent (or at least one with a pedigree) is that the Hoyas just plain stunk on Sunday.

Need proof? Georgetown made just 11-of-30 free throws and turned the ball over 26 times. Many/most were unforced errors. That's why the Rebels were able to win so easily, despite making a paltry 36 percent (25-for-69) of their field-goal attempts.

And those Big East officials that former Georgetown coach John Thompson had arranged for before stepping down last season prevented any up-and-down type of game from developing. The last time I heard that many whistles was when Pam Anderson walked by a construction site dressed in black leather.

There were 52 fouls, resulting in 70 free throws. At least the Rebels made most of theirs (30-for-40).

* PRETZEL LOGIC: Did you notice that the Thomas & Mack logo, the one with the "pretzel" (actually an ampersand turned on its side) was removed from the court prior to Sunday's game against Georgetown?

While we can understand the pretzel being sent back for salt, you have to wonder how Mr. Thomas and Mr. Mack felt about the players not walking over their good names.

A UNLV source said the logo would be reinstalled on the court once the ampersand is returned to its locked and upright position.

But a non-UNLV source said some high-profile boosters were not happy that the T&M logo was done in purple letters. That may explain why the purple mountain majesty depicted on the Mountain West logo in both free throw lanes at the Mack is a red mountain majesty instead.

Having said that, when did black become one of the Rebels' colors? The baseline areas under both baskets and the sidelines at the Mack have been painted black instead of the usual red this year.

* LET'S NOT GET TECHNICAL: So just when it appeared the Lady Rebels were going to get a chance to see how they measure up against a juggernaut program such as the No. 2 Lady Techsters of Louisiana Tech, UNLV loses on its home court to low-profile Weber State in the semifinals of its own tournament.

But I suppose by losing to Weber, the Lady Rebels discovered how they would stack up against La Tech, anyway.

Not very well.

* UNIFORM APPEARANCE: I didn't like it when NBA teams starting putting clip art on their uniforms where it used to read "DETROIT" or "PHILA" (Wilt-era Sixers) in block letters. Now the colleges are starting to do it.

North Carolina's uniforms this year have the school logo -- the intertwined 'N' and 'C' -- instead of "NORTH CAROLINA."

Hey, it could be worse. They could have featured the foot with the tar dripping off the heel, which used to accent their basketball shorts -- when they used to be shorts.