Columnist Ron Kantowski: Call this Rebel squad ‘ordinary’

Thursday, Jan. 17, 2002 | 9:41 a.m.

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

It's a good thing that back in 1688, when the French moralist Jean De La Bruyere said, "There are certain things in which mediocrity is intolerable: poetry, music, painting, public eloquence," that peach baskets were used mostly for collecting peaches.

If not, the 2001-02 UNLV basketball team might be on its way to Bartlett's Book of Famous Quotations instead of (fingers crossed?) the NIT.

Granted, there's still a lot of basketball to be played before the last errant 3-point shot clangs off the peach basket at the Georgia Dome. But anybody who watched UNLV fritter away an ideal opportunity to upset a disinterested BYU team in Provo on Tuesday night should have concluded by now that this Rebels bunch ranks right up -- er, in the middle -- there with utility infielders, the Buick LeSabre, Ringo Starr and the pear.

Even the Rebels' record at the midpoint of the season -- 8-7 -- is as ordinary as vanilla ice cream.

In fact, this just might be the most mediocre team that I have witnessed in my 15 years at the Sun.

Before we get started on this trip down Average Lane, a mediocre team is not to be confused with a bad one, such as the 1994-95 Rebels, who had three coaches (Tim Grgurich, Howie Landa and Cle Edwards) and two losses to Nevada-Reno. Or underachieving ones, such as almost any Bill Bayno-coached team. Bayno had all kinds of NBA talent (Tyrone Nesby, Keon Clark, Shawn Marion) but utilized it so poorly, you almost weren't aware of it.

By definition, Webster's (Merriam, not Marvin) defines mediocre as "neither very good nor very bad; ordinary."

Sound like any five guys with "UNLV" on their shirts that you know?

It also sounds a lot like last year's Rebels, who finished 16-13 and 7-7 in the Mountain West. But in that many of those ordinary players are part of this year's ordinary team, we won't consider them.

That would leave Bayno's 1997-98 bunch and Rollie Massimino's 1993-94 crew to battle Charlie Spoonhour's modern day Rebels at the middle of the road.

The 1997-98 Rebels went 20-13 and played some pretty formidable nonconference opponents (Kansas, Southern Cal, Michigan, Rhode Island, Syracuse and UCLA) but were a truly mediocre 7-7 in conference (WAC) play. Alas, they screwed up a very average thing by running the table in the WAC tournament on their home floor and crashing their NCAA Tournament, where the Rebels were run out the back door by Princeton.

Massive Ego's second (and final) UNLV team also managed four straight victories, but they were early in the season against Loyola Marymount, Vermont, Eastern Kentucky and Adelphi -- not exactly Murder Incorporated. Those Rebels finished 15-13, 10-8 in the Big Wurst, and their leaders were Reggie Manuel (points), Kebu Stewart (rebounds) and Dedan Thomas (assists). In a game of 3-on-3, I'd make them a small favorite over Manny, Moe and Jack.

But this year's half-baked team (20 minutes of good basketball is about all it's good for) still has six weeks to become the Pep Boys. In that they don't move the conference tournament to Denver until next year, it has the same shot to salvage the season that the '97-98 team did.

I make it an average one, at best.