Columnist Ron Kantowski: MWC: Rodney Dangerfields of NCAAs

Tuesday, March 25, 2003 | 9:02 a.m.

Ron Kantowski's insider notes column appears Tuesday. Reach him at ron @ lasvegassun.com or(702) 259-4088.

One of these years, a Mountain West team may get to wear its light-colored jerseys, indicative of the higher seed, in an NCAA tournament game.

If you look beyond its 1-3 record, the MWC proved it was deserving of three berths in the NCAA basketball tournament.

Then again, it may not matter, because the conference continues to fight a credibility problem that will not go away.

You need look no farther than Dick Enberg, a Hall of Fame broadcaster who kept referring to Colorado State as "Colorado" during the Rams' first-round game against Duke Thursday night, and repeatedly referred to a CSU player named Matt Greene.

The Rams have a Matt Williams and a Brian Greene, but as much as CSU coach Dale Layer probably would like to combine the two, no Matt Greene.

Innocent mistake? Perhaps. But I've never heard Clark Kellogg -- or for that matter, Craig Bolerjack -- refer to "Nick Hinrich" when discussing Kansas. Or call Kansas "Kansas State."

If that happened, people in Kansas would demand an apology. Toto, too.

Just to set the record straight, Colorado State is the school that usually beats up on Colorado on the football field, another little-known fact to most who don't reside in the Mountain Time Zone.

But in Enberg's defense, Digger Phelps was about the only so-called expert who gave CSU any kind of chance against Duke, and the Rams nearly proved him right. They had two chances to tie in the final two minutes before the cream rose to the top, or at least made its free throws.

If you don't think Duke was worried, did you see its bench players lock arms and move to the edge of their seats when CSU made its run? That's the telltale sign of a life-and-death struggle during March Madness.

A struggle against the Mountain West's sixth-best team, I might add, if you go by the regular-season standings.

Likewise, Brigham Young was down two with two minutes to play against Connecticut before losing by five and Utah was able to knock off Oregon by playing five dwarfs -- injuries and fouls left Rick Majerus with two point guards, two shooting guards, a small forward and an apologetic mascot (Swoop, the Utah mascot, received a lecture from tournament officials after he ripped the head off the Oregon Duck during their on-court skirmish) for the final 6 1/2 minutes.

Three of those were freshmen, although I'm not sure about Swoop's eligibility.

Playing without their best player (6-foot-10 Britton Johnsen), the Utes ultimately got whipped, 74-54, by Kentucky. But at least they made it interesting enough that CBS switched back to the game, as Utah trimmed the deficit to single digits with about eight minutes to play.

Majerus' pomposity aside, this might have been his best coaching job. Midway though the second half, the much quicker Wildcats actually were walking the ball up the court, having been drawn into the Utes' deliberate style.

Then Kentucky started dunking again.

But at least UK coach Tubby Smith gave the Utes more credit than the New York Times did. Its game story was labeled "Oregon-Kentucky," as some editor obviously didn't think much of the Utes' chances against the Ducks in the first round.

A local acquaintance of Steve Lavin's said the ex-UCLA coach is definitely interested in the Penn State job. ... Former UNLV athletic director Jim Weaver, who wound up on his feet in the same position at Virginia Tech, has apparently run afoul of some Hokies fans. A website (www.weaversucks.com) is up, blaming him for everything that has ever gone wrong in Blacksburg. ... This week's NASCAR race finally got knocked off its perch atop the Las Vegas TV sports ratings, drawing a 4.8 on Fox to the 5.3 generated by the Utah-Kentucky NCAA tournament game on CBS. But here's some really frightening news. NBC's sitcom duo of Friends/Scrubbs earned a 10.4 locally Thursday night, compared to ABC's 7.9 for the War in Iraq. Channel 8's NCAA basketball coverage was a distant third with a 4.1. ... In its introduction to Sunday's NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series race at Mesa Marin Speedway, Speed Channel referred to Bakersfield, Calif., as "the backside to the Hollywood Hills." While Bakersfield is definitely the backside to something, it's a distant 105 miles to Hollywood.