Columnist Ron Kantowski: Rebels school ‘Griz Kids’

Wednesday, Dec. 31, 2003 | 10:10 a.m.

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

Just exactly what did UNLV gain by beating Montana 86-67 at the Thomas & Mack Center Tuesday night?

Well, for starters, in that the Rebels don't play Weber State or Eastern Washington this year, beating the Griz kids should make them at least a No. 3 seed in the Big Sky tournament, should UNLV balk at having to leave the friendly confines of the T&M to play in the Mountain West tournament in Denver's Pepsi Center.

Bring back Northern Arizona. The Rebels want a rematch.

It was just 13 days ago that the Lumberjacks, also of the Big Sky, chopped the Rebels down to size at the T&M. That loss defies even more logic now, given the way UNLV took care of business against a Montana team that, its 3-8 record notwithstanding, was bigger and better than N-A-Who.

At least Montana has a little tradition. Micheal Ray Richardson played there. So did Larry Krystkowiak, who had a nice NBA career with the Bucks, among others. Back in 1975, the Griz made John Wooden fold, spindle and mutilate his rolled-up program before losing 67-64 to Bill Walton and the Bruins in the NCAA West regional. Just last year, a Montana team almost identical to the one that took the court Thursday beat Stanford at Maples Pavilion.

Nothing against Mike Adras, the Bishop Gorman grad who coaches NAU, but Montana coach Pat Kennedy can leave home without his American Express card and people still know him, based on his success at Iona, Florida State and DePaul.

In fact, when Kennedy and Charlie Spoonhour shook hands at center court, for a second I thought I had stumbled into the Rosemont Horizon where Spoon's St. Louis U. Billikens and Kennedy's Blue Demons used to knock heads in Conference USA.

For all those reasons, this, as Spoonhour said afterward, citing Colorado State's win against No. 21 Purdue and Belmont's shocking upset of No. 23 Missouri, was one of those "scary" games that make a lot of coaches forget a lot of auld acquaintance at this time of the year.

Sure enough, the Rebels found themselves behind 31-30 late in the first half before Romel Beck, to paraphrase Brad Pitt in "A River Runs Through It," gathered his teammates 'round and said "Brothers, we ain't never gonna lose to Montana."

As far as Montana was concerned, Beck was the Rebel who ran through it. The fly on Beck's line kept finding the bottom of the basket, as he scored 24 points on 10-of-15 shooting, including 4-of-7 from beyond the 3-point arc.

That's better shooting than Tony Montana. Just plain Montana, on the other hand, didn't have enough lit-l friends for Beck to say hello to.

There was a time when it appeared Beck, a 6-foot-8 junior forward, and not Odartey Blankson would be the star of this year's team, and maybe he still will. Certainly, the Rebels will need more from Beck when the conference season begins in a couple of weeks.

They may or may not need James Peters, but at least the mercurial Chicagoan proved he still can play when he's not sulking about his minutes or lack thereof. Peters scored 15 points in just 12 minutes Tuesday and looked good doing it.

UNLV hit 57 percent of its field-goal attempts, which is fantastic in the clutch-and-grab era of college basketball. And as they did at USC, the Rebels showed they can be a good free-throw shooting team when they want to. They sank 22-of-25, proving that Montana's free-throw defense was not quite as effective as Bradley's on Sunday.

Even the crowd wasn't half-bad, so it was a pretty good night all around. I know, I know. It was only Montana. But two weeks ago, it was only Northern Arizona. And the Rebels lost.

With only a game against Division III Occidental waiting to happen before the conference season begins, this was a good way to ring out the old year.