Columnist Ron Kantowski: Lady Rebels could have used an assist

Tuesday, Dec. 30, 2003 | 9:43 a.m.

Ron Kantowski is a Las Vegas Sun sports writer. Reach him at ron@lasvegassun.com or (702) 259-4088.

As part of the player profiles in their media guide, Lady Rebels basketball players were asked "If you could change one thing in women's basketball what would it be?"

"More publicity," said one.

"Attendance and publicity," echoed another.

"For us to get more recognition."

"More fans."

And so on and so on.

Like just about every other live sport in Las Vegas, women's college basketball has yet to catch on here, the Lady Rebels' recent success notwithstanding.

But on Sunday, when the UNLV athletic department had the perfect chance to feed the attention-starved Lady Rebels a bounce pass for a slam dunk, it wound up chucking the ball out of bounds.

Rather than scheduling the women's game against Mississippi State, one of the Lady Rebels' few marquee home opponents, and the men's game against Bradley back-to-back, there was a 2 1/2-hour break between games. With the Lady Rebels tipping at 3 at the Cox Pavilion and the men at 7:30 at the Thomas & Mack across the concourse, fans who might have been inclined to leave a little early to catch the women did not have that option.

While I'm no marketing major, it's almost as if the right hand didn't know what the left was doing.

I mean, it's not as if the 403 Lady Rebels loyalists were going to cause a traffic jam by leaving the parking lot as the 5,000 or so who attended the men's game were arriving.

I'm not saying it should have been a 2-for-1 with both games on the same court. After all, the Lady Rebels don't want to be viewed as the JV team, nor should they.

But with Sunday night better suited for "60 Minutes" instead of 40, perhaps both games should have been played in the afternoon, with UNLV fans encouraged to make a day of it.

Neverett to Denver

Play-by-play announcer Tim Neverett, a fixture on the Las Vegas sports scene for the past 12 years, is leaving town immediately to host a daily sports show for the ESPN Radio affiliate in Denver.

"When the opportunity came up, it was way too good to pass up," said Neverett, the voice of UNLV football and co-host of the "John Robinson Radio Show."

"But I am leaving all my doors open here while I try to open new doors up there."

Among the doors Neverett hopes to keep open is the one to the UNLV football booth. In that he will be situated smack dab in the middle of the Mountain West Conference, he is trying to work a deal where he could stay on as Rebels play-by-play man.

When it came to local sports, Neverett was more versatile than a Swiss army knife. Among his gigs were Las Vegas Thunder hockey, Las Vegas Bandits basketball, Las Vegas Sting football and Las Vegas Dustdevils soccer, all of which he survived/outlived. He also broadcast hockey and freestyle skiing at the Salt Lake Olympics and is one of the voices for Sega Sports' NCAA Basketball 2K3 video game.

Around the horn

Speaking of UNLV play-by-play men, while flipping channels on Christmas Day I stumbled from "A Christmas Story" marathon onto a "You Gotta See This" marathon where a familiar voice was describing a squid being tossed onto a baseball field in deadpan detail. It was Ken Korach, the voice of UNLV basketball, who "moonlights" as the Oakland A's play-by-play man. So Korach officially has seen it all. ... Alex Shelton, another local broadcaster who mostly concentrates on high school sports, called last week's Blue-Gray Classic in Alabama for network radio and also has the Maryland-vs.-West Virginia Gator Bowl on New Year's Day in Jacksonville and the Tulsa-vs.-Georgia Tech Humanitarian Bowl in Boise two days later. Expect him to come down with a nasty cold on Jan. 4. ... If you're wondering why Bradley didn't put up much of a fight against UNLV Sun day night, it might be because its best player in now hooping it up at New Mexico. Danny Granger, a 6-foot-8 forward! , averaged 20 points and eight rebounds as a sophomore in 14 games at Bradley last year before transferring to New Mexico -- at very short notice -- during the semester break. The Lobos, by the way, are 5-0 since Granger became eligible. ... Former Bishop Gorman star C.J. Watson is averaging 11.4 points and 6.6 assists as the starting point guard for the 6-1 Tennessee Vols. ... Spotted near the sidelines: Nevada State Athletic Commission director Marc Ratner, trying to keep up with the prolific Houston and Hawaii football teams (and elude their postgame punches) on Christmas Day. Ratner, a longtime Mountain West football official, was the line judge at the Hawaii Bowl. ... Pending NCAA certification, the Seattle Bowl will return in 2004 with a new name -- the Emerald City Bowl -- with the same conference affiliations, the Pac-10 and Mountain West. So let's hope next year's fourth-place team in the MWC is running wind sprints as we speak. ... Having said that, her! e's a Las Vegas Bowl update: The Oregon State football team returned home to Corvallis on Christmas Day -- and New Mexico scored three plays later.