Columnist Ron Kantowski: Utah isn’t the only one bending the rules in Mountain West

Thursday, July 31, 2003 | 9:13 a.m.

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

Congratulations, Wayne Hogan. It appears you impressed most of the UNLV types you met while shaking hands on Monday and Tuesday, and so it would seem that you are the right man -- or at least the best man available -- for the athletic director's job.

Of course, back in my younger days, I, too, had a few first dates that I would consider a success. But from what I have heard and read, which would include excerpts from your resume and dozens of e-mails from your friends in Montana, taking me to task for questioning whether somebody who breathes fresh air rather than carbon monoxide was the ideal man for UNLV, perhaps you are.

I just hope President Harter doesn't do anything crazy and give the job to one of the two other guys feigning interest in it, because I'm gradually warming to the idea of you taking over.

I said here last week that your first responsibility will be hitting up Rebels boosters for a little spare change -- your coaches call it "soft money" -- that would replenish the dwindling supply in petty cash. About $10 million should suffice.

As a Sun colleague was fond of saying, "best of Irish racing luck."

No doubt, raising discretionary funds should be your first priority. But while you are at it, could you also teach those cheaters up in Salt Lake City a lesson and get your coaches to play by the rules?

Everybody said it would be different around here after they ran Tark out of town. You were probably still at Florida State then, before it became known as Free Shoes U., as Spurrier used to call you guys. But I'm sure you remember Jerry Tarkanian. His basketball teams used to strike fear in opponents, even before the games started.

Unfortunately, the ship he ran was a little looser than Captain Hazelwood's on the Exxon Valdez, and when Tark left in 1992, UNLV was knee-deep in NCAA probation.

Well, Tark has been gone for 11 years, and the Rebels are still knee-deep in NCAA probation. So other than the fact that UNLV hasn't won anything since he left, nothing really has changed around here.

And you can't blame Tark for that.

I know for a fact that the lack of detail paid to compliance rankles some of the higher-ups on the academic side more than the athletic program's recent mediocrity. I mean, if you're going to finish sixth in an eight-team conference that gets little respect, the least you can do is abide by the rules.

UNLV spends so much time self-reporting violations to the NCAA that it has the enforcement staff's telephone number on speed dial. When Harter sent former basketball coach Bill Bayno to his room -- a small office on campus where he was reassigned after getting into water that was every bit as hot as Tark's -- most viewed it like playing a "Get Out of Jail Free" card in Monopoly.

But since then, there have been NCAA violations in women's basketball and men's tennis, and the assistant football coaches can't seem to keep their long-distance phone cards in their wallets and out of the reach of their players.

To use the Monopoly analogy, these violations don't hurt you like landing on Boardwalk with a hotel. But if you have played the game, you know that when you are strapped for cash that even stopping at St. Charles Place with a couple of houses on it can be quite a nuisance.

Unfortunately, Parker Brothers isn't responsible for writing the NCAA rule book, or it would certainly be smaller than 500 pages and easier to follow.

That said, there are some big shots at UNLV who are getting awfully tired of not passing Go and not collecting $200 because the Rebels don't seem to understand the rules.