Columnist Ron Kantowski: He’s a fashionable choice, but don’t bet on Pitino

Tuesday, Jan. 9, 2001 | 10:22 a.m.

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

It's hard to believe UNLV could lure a guy like Rick Pitino to become its next basketball coach, given the last time the job was open, his assistant might have turned it down.

You may recall that before the Rebels settled for Bill Bayno, John Calipari's caddie at UMass, guys such as Jerry Green (then at Oregon), Larry Eustachy (then at Utah State) and Herb Sendek (than at Miami of Ohio) said "no thanks" to the job. Not to mention Lorenzo Romar, who at the time was only an assistant at UCLA.

The Rebel program is a little better off now than the way Rollie Massimino left it in 1994. However, it's nowhere near being one of the nation's top jobs as it arguably was, thanks to Jerry Tarkanian making it such.

But there certainly seems to be some smoke as far as the Pitino-to-UNLV rumors go. People in high places, such as Dick Vitale and ESPN.com, are trying to spark a flame by suggesting that Pitino is UNLV's top choice/has the inside track on the job.

I hate to be the one to throw a wet blanket on the intriguing prospect of Pitino becoming the next Rebels' coach but I don't think it'll happen and here's why:

If Pitino snags one of his Armani suits on a cattle guard in Fort Collins or Laramie, where is he going to get it fixed? Taxidermists outnumber tailors in those Mountain West cities by about 10 to 1.

The lights in the Mountain West Conference may not be bright enough, nor its cities big enough to suit a man such as the dapper Pitino, who seemingly was born for prime time. His teams are used to playing in front of millions on national TV, not a few somnambulists who toss and turn during the third game of Big Monday on ESPN.

A guy like Pitino certainly would turn the Rebels around quicker than you could say John Robinson or Kas Kambala picks up his third foul.

But unless he has arrived at the same one-more-challenge stage of his career where Robinson was when he made Las Vegas his final coaching stop, I just don't foresee Pitino strolling the sidelines in front of a few hundred cadets sprinkled among the empty seats at Air Force in the immediate future.

But then, what do I know? No way, no how would I have predicted than Max Good -- and not Bill Bayno -- would be coach of the Rebels as they embarked on the conference season Monday night.

If Pitino does take the UNLV job, at least New Mexico's Fran Fraschilla, who also talks funny, would have somebody to converse with.

Around the horn

Well, it is proving to be a match made in basketball heaven -- or at least Daniel-Meyer Coliseum in Fort Worth. Daniels has become the leader of the Horned Frogs' high-octane offense and has been responsible for more steals than Nicolas Cage in "Gone in Sixty Seconds."

Take Saturday's game against San Jose State, for instance. Daniels had 26 points and seven more steals in TCU's 65-58 victory. In just 15 games he has amassed 70 steals, moving him into second place on the Frogs' all-time single season list.

He needs just 26 more to surpass Mike Jones, who is now starting for the Las Vegas Bandits.

In all the years Knight spent at Indiana, his teams never once beat a top-rated team at home. Davis, in his 16th game as interim coach at IU, accomplished the feat Sunday, guiding Indiana to a 59-58 victory over previously undefeated and defending NCAA champion Michigan State at Assembly Hall.

The last time the Knight-led Hoosiers beat a No. 1 team was in 1987, when the Hoosiers defeated Jerry Tarkanian's Rebels 97-93 in the Final Four.