Sutton, Okla. State hope to continue good luck in LV

Steve Carp

Thursday, Oct. 7, 1999 | 10:29 a.m.

At the time, it didn't seem to be the appropriate place to turn things around. But there are a few people who come to Las Vegas and leave town flush with the feeling of success.

Count Eddie Sutton and his Oklahoma State basketball team among the fortunate who departed from McCarran International Airport with a smile after the Cowboys soundly defeated UNLV 81-69 three days before Christmas last year.

It wasn't hitting basketball's version of Megabucks. But it was a nice score just the same, considering Oklahoma State had come to the Thomas & Mack Center loser of three of its previous five. The win over the Rebels jump-started the Cowboys onto a five-game win streak, which provided the momentum to get OSU into the NCAA Tournament.

On Dec. 18, Sutton and the Cowboys return, hoping to ride another hot hand, this time in the fourth annual Las Vegas Showdown (previously known as the Shootout) against the Rebels.

Arizona, which thumped Iowa State in this made-for-television doubleheader a year ago, returns to the Mack and will face another Big 12 team -- Nebraska -- in the 6:30 p.m. opener.

"It was one of the turning points of our season," Sutton said Wednesday as he and UNLV's Bill Bayno were featured at the annual golf media outing at Stallion Mountain Golf Club hyping the event. "We discovered our personality and started to understand our roles."

The bulk of that 23-11 team is back, headed by standout point guard Doug Gottlieb, who led the nation in assists with 299; and Desmond Mason, who averaged 15.4 points and 7.9 rebounds.

"We should be a good team," Sutton said in a rare moment of candor. "We've got a lot of experience."

Bayno knows the Cowboys will be good. And for his team, it will be the biggest nonconference home game on the schedule, one that will likely draw the biggest crowd of the year.

"This game has always been one of the bigger games we've played," he said of the Showdown, which has drawn the likes of Tulane, Syracuse and Cincinnati -- all nationally ranked at the time -- in the past. "I think there's a lot more riding on it. There's an NCAA (tournament) atmosphere to it and the players get excited."

There could be added excitement for UNLV fans if JC recruit Lou Kelly plays that night. Kelly plans to enroll for the spring semester and should be eligible to compete against OSU. However, Bayno said it was too early to predict whether or not Kelly would play on Dec. 18.

"Right now, if I had to guess, the answer would be no," he said. "He won't have had the benefit of practicing with the team and there's the matter of chemistry.

"I know it's an important game. But we're not going to rush him. Let's wait and see what happens."

* TICKETS ON SALE: For those who are not UNLV scholarship season ticket holders, individual seats are available through the Thomas & Mack box office and through tickets.com. Prices are $28 for downstairs and $22 for the balcony. The doubleheader is included in the season ticket package.

* SHOWDOWN GAME: EA Sports is the presenting title sponsor for the Las Vegas Showdown and the company, which markets video computer games, gave a sampling of its new college basketball game, "NCAA March Madness 2000," using the Arizona-Nebraska and UNLV-Oklahoma State matchups. Dick Vitale did the voice-overs using all of his standard "Vitaleisms." The games were not played through to their conclusion, so there's no predicting how the real games will stack up.