Columnist Ron Kantowski: Playing ‘big boys’ no longer means UNLV

Tuesday, April 24, 2001 | 10:34 a.m.

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

One of the biggest complaints registered against Rick Pitino in the aftermath of UNLV's failed attempt to land him to be its next basketball coach was that he merely was using UNLV to better his own position.

I've got news for Rebel fans -- it appears he's still doing it.

Pitino last week was talking about the new and improved schedule his Louisville Cardinals will play next season, mentioning Indiana, Tennessee and UNLV.

Now hold on a minute. If the UNLV program is all that, then why didn't Pitino just take the job when it was offered to him?

Because he never took the offer seriously, that's why. Just like he knew when he made that statement about playing UNLV next year that he had no intention of following through.

Besides, he talked about playing the Rebels as if it were his idea. The game was agreed upon before he began negotiating with either school.

Although the Associated Press quoted Pitino as saying Louisville would honor the commitment and play the Rebels as scheduled next year, Slick Rick subsequently told the Louisville Courier-Journal that the teams wouldn't meet until the 2002-03 season.

"We had one game open on our schedule (next year) and we've booked Indiana at Bloomington," Pitino said. "We had UNLV on our schedule, which for a few reasons we postponed for one year."

Why didn't he just say that in the first place?

But I would defy any Generation Next kid to put the two heavyweight champions of today up against a couple from my era.

Let's see ... Hasim Rahman and John Ruiz. Or Muhammad Ali and Joe Frazier.

All I can say is that the current belt holders had better hope that Tex Cobb doesn't get the urge to mount a comeback.

If that's true, it would mean there's a bunch of guys going through Sgt. Hulka's Boot Camp from Hell with a camouflaged shirt that says "HE RECRUIT ME" on the back.

The report wasn't too kind in speaking of San Jose State tight end Sean Brewer, whom the Bengals picked in the third round Saturday.

" ... poorly conditioned ... needs better eating habits ... body is mis-proportioned, containing more than 19 percent body fat ... tough guy attitude has gotten him into confrontations with coaching staff ... spoiled kid with a gangsta mentality ... has to give up his pack-a-day cigarette habit."

If Brewer doesn't survive training camp, there's always the newspaper business. That bio sounds like a lot of columnists I know.

Huh? Isn't that liked getting kicked out of law school, and then being let back in so you can study to become a lawyer? Or being kicked out of the bar (the other kind), only to be allowed back inside so you can have another drink?

I went to a small school, so somebody's going to have to draw a picture to help me understand the logic.

And finally, to everybody who said Alex Rodriguez was overpaid since he started the season 1-for-8 or whatever it was. Well, he's still overpaid. Only he's hitting .351 today.