Columnist Ron Kantowski: Rebels fans are busy plotting Mack attacks

Tuesday, Aug. 8, 2000 | 11:02 a.m.

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

If it's a little more raucous in the Thomas & Mack Center this winter, UNLV coach Bill Bayno can thank the hellish weather we've been having and the personal computer.

Together, those two have done more to bring Rebels fans together than a rare home game against a ranked opponent.

Twice in the past week the Sun has heard from factions who are trying to get organized in the manner of the Rojos, that group of Duke Cameron Crazies imitators who put Bayno's picture on a plain red T-shirt and starting acting like fruits of the loom at UNLV games a few seasons back; and the Frojos, another band of hoop misfits (calling card: red afro hairdos) that splintered off from the original gang.

The new group calls itself "The Rebellion." It already has a logo which has been unveiled on one of the UNLV Internet fan sites.

One of the more popular e-mail threads focuses on potential "props" the group might use to establish an identity. Among those are a stuffed referee with arms and legs attached by Velcro -- so he could be ripped limb from limb when calls go against the Rebels (not exactly original).

Another thought was to have a Rebellion heir dress as the Grim Reaper, who would parade in front of the visitors' bench after Bayno and the boys deliver the knockout blow in the second half (not bad).

But you could almost smell the wood burning when some of the more deviant fans began weighing in.

"Are there any games that we can afford to get a technical for throwing tortillas on the floor after the first made basket?" wrote one.

No -- not unless the Rebels drop Monmouth for Chalupa State.

Another Rebel backer, an Air Force imagery analyst named Michael Casper, proposes UNLV designate selected games as "Rebel Blizzard" nights. Fans would show up at the Mack dressed in white -- "whether it is a white T-shirt or white tuxedo" -- Casper says of a tradition that began at Phoenix Coyotes and Sacramento Kings playoff games.

The trouble with that is given UNLV hasn't sold out the Mack since the Jerry Tarkanian days, the blizzard might look more like scattered flurries.

Noting their gigs with the Arena Bowl and the Los Angeles Avengers of the Arena Football League, Krikorian wrote that Kahn and Lamb "are available for appearances at birthday parties, bar mitzvahs, high school class reunions, Sierra Club banquets, NRA rallies, Moose Lodge roasts and Shriner conventions."

And here Dennis Miller thought he was cannon fodder for critics.

As always, we'll give Kahn a least a couple of quarters to get acclimated before rushing to judge him. But those who are familiar with his work say he'll be more than adequate, especially in this market.

* AROUND THE HORN: Being a transplanted Hoosier, I never thought I'd have anything nice to say about Kentucky. But you've got to admire the UK basketball program for one thing -- when it establishes a "no tolerance" policy for messing up, it means it. Former Wildcat Desmond Allison has enrolled at tiny Martin Methodist College in Pulaski, Tenn., after being charged with DUI for testing .013 -- about half a beer -- over the legal limit and being booted from Tubby Smith's program. ... Miss Budweiser driver Dave Villwock, on fuel restrictions designed to slow down his omnipotent unlimited hydroplane: "That's like asking Tiger Woods to play golf with a shovel." ... This past weekend every rodeo cowboy who ever stayed aboard Bodacious -- all six of them -- turned out for a rodeo in Houston to honor the notorious 1,800-pound Charbray bucking bull who died May 16 of kidney failure. Bodacious was the only bull to have an agent and his own line of merchandise, although I'm not exactly ! sure what he did with his money.

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