Columnist Ron Kantowski: Rebels are behind the eight ball

Thursday, Dec. 7, 2000 | 11:46 a.m.

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

Well, the rodeo hasn't even left town yet and the UNLV basketball team's fate already has pretty much been determined.

It appears the Rebels will have to reprise their Minnesota Fats routine one more time if they are to make the NCAA Tournament. They'll have to run the table in the Mountain West Conference tournament in order to sneak into the field of 65.

Of course, given the tourney is played on their home court, there's at least a 50-50 chance these mercurial Rebels will do it.

But there were high hopes that this might finally be the season where the Rebels walked into the Big Dance through the front door. Not likely. There simply aren't enough games against quality opponents remaining on the schedule, or enough against Division I Lee Harvey Oswalds (patsies) to get the Rebels to 22 wins -- the minimum total it's going to take to raise the selection committee's collective eyebrow.

Normally, that number is a more attainable 20. But because the Rebels couldn't beat anybody in the first two rounds of the Maui Invitational, their not-so-lovely parting gift was a victory over host Chaminade -- an NCAA Division II school.

A week from Monday, they'll play Alaska-Anchorage, another D-II school. The Seawolves may not be the Washington Generals, but that's the way the committee will look at them. That win and the one over Chaminade won't be listed on the Rebels' NCAA Tournament application.

Competitive losses to good teams certainly don't hurt as much as blowout losses to good teams, UNLV's specialty the last couple of seasons. But right now, UNLV has only one of those -- Illinois in the first round at Maui.

Any equity earned by the Rebels in an overtime loss to Louisville in Hawaii was scuttled Tuesday, when Georgetown built a 33-11 first-half lead over the Cardinals at Freedom Hall en route to an easy win. Oklahoma State? The team the Rebels lost to last Saturday featured virtually nobody from last year's Cowboys edition that made a run at the Final Four.

The Rebels will have only two more opportunities to make a blip on the national radar. They'll host a retooled Cincinnati team on Dec. 16 and visit Georgetown in the middle of the conference season, on Jan. 25.

UNLV will also play Pepperdine, which made the NCAA Tournament last year but isn't nearly as interesting this season. Other than that, the Rebels' non-conference activity will be confined to shoot-arounds against Monmouth, Old Dominion, Chicago State, Loyola Marymount and Nevada-Reno, this Saturday.

The Rebels won't earn many committee brownie points by spanking that group.

Unfortunately, once UNLV gets into its conference season, the general public -- if not the selection committee -- stops paying attention. Take away plodding Air Force, and the Mountain West is shaping up as an improved league from top to bottom. Trouble is, the games start too late for anybody east of Ole Miss to notice.

The Rebels would have to do something really outrageous -- like end Utah's homecourt winning streak and win a bunch of games on the road -- to enhance their NCAA tourney outlook via the provincial method.

So start chalking those cues, Rebel fans. If the NCAA Tournament is the eight ball, then the Rebels already are behind it.