Columnist Ron Kantowski: Rebels: Is the head dead yet?

Thursday, Feb. 12, 2004 | 10:21 a.m.

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

Given what has been going on within the basketball program, don't be surprised if UNLV drops "Win With the Rebels" and adopts Don Henley's "Dirty Laundry" as its new fight song.

Or perhaps that should be "in-fighting" song.

Kick 'em when they're up, kick 'em when they're down. Kick 'em when they're stiff, kick 'em all around.

Actually, that's pretty close to what Utah did to the Rebels Monday night, after which Odartey Blankson, there-to-fore perhaps the smartest of the Rebels, did a really dumb thing by airing out his sweat socks in front of the media.

Space limitations in today's newspaper preclude rehashing every thing that Blankson, the main cog of this year's team, claims is wrong with it. Let's just say he has more complaints than a Saturn owner after the warranty expires.

And you just knew that every one of them was going to make it into print. In terms of a juicy story, this was better than a watermelon truck overturning on I-15.

To the media and chat room denizens, that is. But it couldn't have endeared Blankson to coach Charlie Spoonhour, whose biggest problem before Monday night was figuring out how to get the ball inside against Utah. Now, if what Blankson says is true, he may be dealing with a bunch of malcontents who don't even care enough to listen to whatever strategy he might come up with.

Somebody must be playing tricks with my desk calendar. Could it be only 10 days since the Rebels beat first-place Air Force, an impressive victory which, according to the chat rooms, put UNLV back in the MWC hunt?

At 3-5 in conference play and with Air Force strafing the rest of the MWC at 7-1 by getting the most from marginally talented players who like each other, the Rebels would have trouble finding the hunt with one of those Wirehaired Pointers competing at the Westminster Dog Show.

At this crucial stage of the season, about the only categories in which the underachieving Rebels lead the league is team meetings and shouting matches. They've got more problems than an algebra book. Or the Jackson family.

Not that their situation is unique. If you haven't noticed, players who don't have "TEXAS TECH" stitched on their jerseys don't respect (or fear) their coaches like they used to. In fact, a quote from Fordham coach Dereck Whittenburg this week in a Cox News Service story attributed undefeated St. Joseph's success to two outstanding players who -- get this -- pay attention when coach Phil Martelli speaks.

"They have two great players (Jameer Nelson and Delonte West) who listen and play within the system," said Whittenburg, who, when last heard from, was still explaining that great "pass" he made to Lorenzo Charles in Albuquerque back in '83. "We have some talented players on our team who haven't had success and don't listen. I'm surprised (Nelson and West) listen. They've had the success not to listen.

"These new kids, it's harder to deal with coaching them. Twenty years ago when I played, the coach was sacred. The coach would tell you to do something and you just did it. Now you've got these kids who buy into the NBA. They get into this thing where they just want to play for show. How good can I look out there?"

So, subscribing to what Whittenburg says, how much of what troubles the Rebels can be put on Spoonhour? Well, in that he's still the head basketball coach, all of it.

If you think this was just an isolated case of a frustrated player blowing off steam, guess again. Reporters got another earful from Blankson after practice on Wednesday. First, he refused to back down from what he said in Salt Lake City. Then, behind closed doors, he apparently got into it with a team trainer. Something apparently is wrapped a little too tight over at UNLV, only I don't think it's Blankson's ankles.

This can't be what Spoonhour, one of the game's truly nice and well-respected guys (at least by his colleagues), envisioned when he decided to get back into coaching. But you could make a case that there aren't many guys who lose to Northern Arizona, and then lose control of their team in the same season, who are still coaching. Not even in Montana.

Next-to-bottom line: The Rebels' players appear to be a bunch of self-centered ball hogs who don't know when (or how) to keep their mouths shut.

Bottom line: The Rebels' coach is the one who recruited them.