Columnist Ron Kantowski: Too bad Lloyd, Lamar didn’t play

Thursday, March 16, 2000 | 11:14 a.m.

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

All the turmoil and grief they have brought to UNLV might be a little easier to swallow if the jerseys of Lloyd Daniels and Lamar Odom were hanging from the rafters of the Thomas & Mack Center alongside a few more national championship banners.

Ironically, neither one made so much as a single basket for the Rebels. Yet their recruitment is a big part of the reason Jerry Tarkanian is no longer coaching the Rebels and that the program run by his successor, Bill Bayno, is facing further NCAA sanctions.

The NCAA alleges that UNLV booster and Las Vegas dentist Dr. David Chapman gave $5,600 to Odom, $4,000 of it when the current LA Clipper was enrolled in summer school at UNLV. That seems to be the most damning of 12 pages of charges that were levied against the men's basketball program in a document released on Tuesday.

So what does it all mean? That's hard to say. Everybody seems to have a different take on the matter, none more diverse than those of local TV affiliates Channels 8 and 13.

In reporting the story, 8 all but swept it under the studio rug -- a loss of a scholarship, if that, said sports anchor Dave McCann, quoting anonymous sources about the penalties UNLV will face in June, after it answers the charges.

The tone over at 13 was much more ominous -- as if the Rebels were being charged with kidnapping the Lindbergh baby.

My guess (and it's no more than that) is that the gravity of the transgressions -- especially because they fall under the heading of "repeat violator" -- lies somewhere in between. I don't think the Rebels are going to get the electric chair, but they probably won't walk like O.J. Simpson, either.

Although with this kinder, gentler NCAA, you just never know.

When former Notre Dame booster Kimberly Dunbar was found to have embezzled more than $1.2 million from her employer to lavish gifts on Fighting Irish football players, the NCAA was much less harsh than Judge Judy: two years' probation and forfeiture of two scholarships.

The NCAA did not touch Notre Dame's annual $9 million TV contract with NBC, nor did it ban the Irish from postseason competition (provided it is good enough to qualify).

Gov. Kenny Guinn is hopeful the Rebels will get off just as lightly. Speaking on POV Vegas Wednesday, the man who as interim UNLV president hired Bayno said in that the Rebels are not being charged with the more serious offense of "lack of institutional control," he is hopeful the sanctions will be moderate at worst.

Guinn said all he knew of the probe was gleaned from what he had read in the newspaper, adding that the transgressions appear to be confined to "two or three small areas" involving overzealous boosters.

"What do you do? They can't have scholarship tickets, they can't be around the team but you can't keep them from coming to the games," Guinn said. "They can buy a ticket like anybody else."

Guinn also questioned the timing of the announcement, what with the Rebels on the verge of opening NCAA Tournament play against Tulsa on Friday.

"I suppose it would have more humane had they waited another week to bring it forth," he said.

Upon further review, I guess that means the governor doesn't think much of the Rebels' Sweet 16 chances.

* NO CONSOLATION PRIZE: It was bad enough Lady Rebels fans were outnumbered about 6-1 by New Mexico boosters -- on UNLV's home court at the Thomas & Mack Center, no less -- when the teams met in the Mountain West conference quarterfinals last week. It got worse when the Lobos were selected ahead of the Lady Rebels when the women's NIT bids went out last Sunday.

To anybody who follows the women's game -- which here, isn't many -- that comes as a stunner, given the Lady Rebels beat New Mexico all three times the teams played this season.

It's an unwritten rule that the NIT committee considers a team's ability to draw on its home court (all but the NIT semifinals and finals are played at campus sites) much more crucial than wins and losses and RPI ratings when the invitations are divvied up.

Hence, New Mexico, which averages more than 9,000 fans per game, is still playing. And UNLV, which didn't attract that many fans for the entire season (7,481 total for an average of 575), is not.

It's no different on the men's side of the NIT bracket, with the exception that a team's reputation also figures into the mix. For those reasons, a fun-to-watch Wyoming bunch and Colorado State, which along with UNLV were the MWC's best teams down the stretch, this week are spending all of their time in the classroom and none in the gymnasium.

Even worse than not receiving a lovely parting gift for having a decent season is that by not playing in the NIT, the Lady Rebels, Cowboys and Rams miss out on the exposure those events provide.

Now you know why the rich get richer in college basketball and conferences such as the Mountain West continue to wallow in anonymity.