Columnist Spencer Patterson: UNLV, UNR miss out on local stars

Spencer Patterson

Thursday, March 23, 2000 | 10:29 a.m.

Spencer Patterson's prep sports notebook appears Thursday. Reach him at 259-4085 or spencer@vegas.com

There's no doubt that the last two months have been one of the most remarkable football signing periods in Southern Nevada history.

No fewer than 12 area athletes have accepted full scholarship offers to Division I or I-AA colleges, among them national powerhouse Tennessee and Pac-10 schools UCLA, Oregon State and California.

But while the class of 2000 will certainly go down in history as one of the top football crops in local history, the area's boom has hardly translated into a windfall for the state's two universities -- UNLV and Nevada-Reno.

For a UNLV program looking to rebuild, there would appear to be nothing better than top-caliber talent right in the Rebels' backyard. But to date, UNLV has signed just two seniors from the group -- Durango safety Jamaal Brimmer and Bonanza linebacker Adam Seward.

And in Reno, the Wolf Pack apparently missed the boat entirely on the happenings to the south, failing to garner a single commitment from the Las Vegas area.

To be sure, the schools aren't going to convince every local athlete to stay in state. Some players clearly welcome the opportunity to leave home and broaden their horizons.

And there's certainly no shame in losing Cheyenne defensive end Lynn McGruder to Tennessee or Chaparral offensive lineman John Ream to UCLA.

But there's no good excuse for UNLV allowing Western's Marcus Levi, a 6-4, 275-pound fearsome defensive end with the speed of an athlete half his size, to ride off to San Diego State -- one of the Rebels' Mountain West Conference rivals.

And there's no good reason Silverado's Steve Vaccaro had to look to Mississippi's Alcorn State after UNR backed off the state's top tight end at the last minute.

More than a few high school coaches have expressed their feelings that the UNLV and UNR coaches have a tendency to overlook Nevada prep stars in favor of the greener pastures of football-rich California.

Most years, it would be hard to blame the state's college coaches for such a decision.

With the class of 2000, it could prove to be a major mistake.

THEY'RE GOING TO DISNEY BOWL: Boulder City's football team has been selected to participate in next month's Disney Bowl, a 24-team event in Lake Placid, Fla., in November.

The Eagles will play one of the event's 12 contests against a school of similar size. Boulder City is the first Southern Nevada school ever invited to the Disney Bowl.

"They needed a school our size, and we just happened to come first in the alphabet (in Southern Nevada)," Eagles coach Dan Cahill said.

* TOURNEY TIME: Four area graduates have made their marks in this year's college basketball postseason, two in the women's NCAA Tournament and two in the men's NIT.

Old Dominion senior Nicole Bellinghausen, a Bishop Gorman product, has played 15 minutes in her squad's two victories over Wisconsin-Green Bay and SMU, scoring two points thus far. Her Monarchs will take on top-seeded Virginia in a Midwest Regional contest at 5 p.m. Saturday.

Nebraska freshman Paige Sutton, another Gorman grad, got in for eight minutes in her first NCAA Tournament last Friday. Her Cornhuskers were knocked out of the event by Boston College, 93-76.

On the men's side, Cheyenne product Demetrius Hunter played in one of most thrilling NIT contests in history last Wednesday, as his Georgetown Hoyas slipped past Virginia 115-111 in triple-overtime. Hunter connected on 4-of-7 3-pointers before fouling out of the ballgame.

Hunter's Hoyas bowed out of the NIT Tuesday night, falling 60-49 to defending champion California on the road.

Michigan's Kevin Gaines, a Clark graduate, saw his solid freshman campaign come to an end last Wednesday in the NIT's first round. Gaines, who started at point guard for the Wolverines for most of the 1999-00 season, played 39 minutes in his team's 75-65 loss to Notre Dame, scoring nine points and dishing out five assists.