Columnist Ron Kantowski: Florida recruit has schools doing double takes

Tuesday, Feb. 8, 2000 | 9:44 a.m.

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

As indecisive as Lynn McGruder was in finally choosing to play his college football at Tennessee last week, the hulking Cheyenne High defensive lineman looks absolutely sure of himself in comparison to Jonathan Colon of Coral Gables, Fla.

All McGruder did was commit to Tennessee on Saturday, renege on the oral agreement on Sunday, and say he was leaning toward UNLV on Wednesday before leaning back the other way to sign with the Volunteers on Friday.

But if the intense recruiting process made McGruder feel all dazed and confused, it turned Colon into Margot Kidder.

The 6-foot-7, 300-pound offensive tackle apparently was so torn between the University of Florida and the University of Miami that he signed with both schools last week.

Not committed. Signed. As on the bottom line.

According to a news report, Colon last Wednesday announced he had signed a letter of intent with the Gators. But that came as news to Miami coach Butch Davis, who said Colon had signed with the Hurricanes three hours earlier.

Davis said because Colon signed with Miami first, he's their piece of meat -- er, recruit. Florida, of course, disagrees, and the case likely will be resolved by the Collegiate Commissioner's Association.

At last report, the schools were having trouble reaching Colon to find out what he could have been thinking.

You can only hope that this kid is not planning on getting married any time soon.

* DANCE LESSONS: With neither the Mountain West nor the WAC owning an automatic berth to the NCAA Tournament this season, one theory is that the two leagues (which used to be one) will divvy up three invites to the Big Dance. There's a lot of basketball to be played between now and then but if they continue at their present pace, two of the NCAA bubble teams could turn out to be UNLV and Fresno State.

The Bulldogs were playing so poorly early in the year that a miserable Jerry Tarkanian was talking about turning his Miss Hawaiian Tropics judging duties into a full-time gig. But Fresno has won 12 of its past 14 to improve to 16-7 overall and 6-1 in the WAC.

And in the RPI (Rating Percentage Index) that is so crucial in deciding the at-large berths, Fresno is ranked 55th, four spots ahead of UNLV at 59.

* BUNCH OF YO-YOS: "Walk the Baby" is one of the tricks entertainer and yo-yo meister Tommy Smothers does to humor galleries at golf outings, such as the AT& T Pebble Beach National Pro-Am which concluded Monday.

But if you caught Smothers in a private moment, he'd probably say that also is part of the job description for Tiger Woods' caddie.

It seems tournament organizers received an anonymous complaint that Smothers' yo-yo demonstrations on the green after holing out were slowing down play at the pro-am even more than usual. Woods' group was playing right behind Smothers'.

"I don't think Tiger is a yo-yo fan," Smothers said to a laughing gallery.

Woods tried to take the high road but didn't really succeed.

"Well, it was ... it's been interesting I guess," he said on Sunday, a day before mounting his miraculous title charge. "I don't know, he's having a good time and that's fine. But just so long as he doesn't get in the way of playing in his group and the group behind."

That's usually Bill Murray's job, but he didn't show up this year.

* RECKLESSLY AMBITIOUS: In a story on the Isiah Thomas-owned Continental Basketball Association in the current Sports Illustrated, the magazine terms the CBA-rival International Basketball League (which includes the Las Vegas Silver Bandits) as "brazenly ambitious."

SI must have talking about the IBL's plans to start up a league without much of a plan. Or a clue.

* GANG'S MOSTLY HERE: Last week, all of the ads trumpeting this weekend's Big League Challenge home run derby at Cashman Field began with the salutation "You can see ... (insert name of juiced-up behemoth here)."

The ad featured photos of Mark McGwire, Sammy Sosa, Ken Griffey Jr., Barry Bonds, Jose Canseco, et al, as if every one of the game's great home run hitters will be taking target practice on the Cashman scoreboard.

That's still the plan, although the ads that are running in the sports section now say "scheduled to appear" rather than "you can see."

Sure enough, there was a defection on Monday as Griffey bailed out. He'll be replaced by Alex Rodriguez, so most fans may hardly notice.

But if you've already got tickets, keep your fingers crossed that this doesn't turn into another Hard Rock 3-on-3 celebrity basketball tournament where virtually none of the celebrities -- not even a Baldwin bother -- bothered showing up.

* AROUND THE HORN: Well, the streak continues. Proving once again there doesn't a week go by where Las Vegas isn't mentioned as a host for some bogus minor league franchise comes this from the San Francisco Examiner: The first-year National Women's Hockey League lists seven cities on its possible expansion list for next year, and Las Vegas apparently is one of them. ... Once again, the final scores of the NFL (51-31) and NHL (9-4) all-star exhibitions (game is too strong a word) played over the weekend were non-representative of their sports and confirmed that the only all-star game that matters is the baseball one. ... Don't know where this got started, but the rich dudes and their companions who have season tickets near courtside at UNLV games have this ritual where they hug and kiss each other upon arriving at their seats. It's like having an episode of "The Sopranos" break out during the pregame warm-up. Rest assured this doesn't happen at The Palestra in Philly. ... Speaking of tears, I saw Elaine Wynn dabbing at her eyes following the Rebels' upset of Utah Saturday night. I guess she heard that Utes coach Rick Majerus was heading to the Bellagio for a postgame meal.