Las Vegas Sun

March 28, 2024

Columnist Ron Kantowski: Kansas, postgame interview were off the mark

Ron Kantowski is a Las Vegas Sun sports writer. Reach him at [email protected] or (702) 259-4088.

With all those missed free throws, turnovers, blown opportunities and general sloppy play, it would be hard to identify One Shining Moment from Monday's NCAA championship game.

It didn't come after the game, either.

Perhaps in keeping with the theme of a brutally played second half, CBS did its part to make the postgame activities as uneven as the game itself.

Bonnie Bernstein's interview of Kansas coach Roy Williams might rank right down there with Jim Gray's grilling of Pete Rose at the All-Star Game a few years back.

I suppose Bernstein -- or as Williams said, the guy who was talking in her earpiece -- was compelled to ask Williams about the possibility of pursuing the head coaching job at North Carolina.

But did anybody actually believe he might make a decision within 10 minutes of what had to be his most crushing defeat?

Williams answered the question with about as much grace as he could muster -- the first time it was asked.

But when Bernstein -- or whoever was talking in her earpiece -- persisted with a follow-up question, he went off like one of Nick Collison's free throws.

"Right now, I don't give a (expletive ) about North Carolina," he spat, mentioning CBS' lack of sensitivity before ending the interview.

It wasn't exactly like watching Survivor contestants try to choke down live crustaceans. But Williams' scatalogical reference on national TV was a bit of reality TV that CBS probably had coming.

Skurat was referring to 6-foot-6 swingman Andy Hannan, who recently committed to UNLV after beginning his college career at Binghamton -- as Skurat points out, not exactly the Beast of the East.

"Binghamton has only been a Division I member for two or three years, and was not one of the top three teams in (its) conference," Skurat writes. "Is Charlie Spoonhour really recruiting castoffs from the super power American East Conference?

"Unless he (Hannan) has improved an awful lot, there are dark days ahead for the UNLV program."

Although Hannan deserves at least a cursory look before writing him off, I know what Skurat is thinking: If you recruit a guy who couldn't cut it at his previous school, you'd rather it be some place like Kentucky rather than Binghamton.

During his spot last week, Anthony was glib, insightful and also came across as personable -- a trait he didn't always exhibit during his Rebels career.

Although no charges have been filed, you can bet that had the incident occurred at UNLV or Michigan, it probably would have been the lead story on SportsCenter.

Police reported that five students, one of them Redick, had red eyes and smelled strongly of marijuana. Officers searched the room and found no marijuana, but discovered a water pipe used for smoking pot -- commonly referred to as a bong.

Funny, but that's the same noise most of Redick's jump shots made against Kansas as they crashed off the rim.

In a press release announcing that NBC Sports and Warner Bros. have agreed to air the theatrical trailer for "Matrix: Reloaded" during Sunday's AFL telecast, the league included several press clips, one of which that said:

"NBC Sports is hoping to administer a shot of adrenaline to its low-rated Arena Football League games by scheduling the network TV premiere of the 2 1/2-minute "Matrix: Reloaded" trailer during the second half of Sunday's contests."

"Low-rated" games?

I'm no public relations expert, but perhaps the AFL should let viewers do their own research regarding its lame ratings.

On second thought, let me just give them to you, because I don't want to part with the bat. The five are Brian Boehringer, Pirates; Toby Hall, Devil Rays; Ryan Ludwick, Rangers; T.J. Mathews, Mets; and Matt Williams, Diamondbacks. A sixth ex-Rebel, oft-injured pitcher Donovan Osborne, was released March 26 by the Mets.

archive