Columnist Ron Kantowski: No favoritism coming from NCAA baseball committee

Wednesday, June 2, 2004 | 9:01 a.m.

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

Last year, when UNLV athletic director Mike Hamrick wasn't a member of the NCAA baseball selection committee, the Rebels were seeded second and put in a regional as a No. 2 seed that included only one big fish (Arizona State) and two minnows (New Mexico State and Central Connecticut State).

This year, with Hamrick sitting in on the pairings discussions at a board room in an Indianapolis hotel, the Rebels were given a No. 4 seed and placed in the same region as No. 1 Stanford and fellow perennial College World Series contender Long Beach State.

It should be noted that when a committee member's school comes up for discussion, he is asked to leave the room. But as I teased Hamrick, they must have sent him to Evansville, given where the Rebels ended up.

In reality, there wasn't much for UNLV to hang its batting helmet on. The Rebels sneaked into the tournament by earning the automatic berth in a weak conference. Their power rating was one of the lowest of the tournament teams, probably because they were 0-9 against teams ranked in the top 100.

But Hamrick said the committee meeting was a worthwhile experience, and not just because he didn't get caught in traffic on the same day of the Indianapolis 500 or in the tornado that shortened the race and wreaked havoc in the Indiana capital later in the day.

"It was (enlightening), in that we learned some things about who we need to schedule and what we need to do," Hamrick said about UNLV's goal to improve its baseball reputation.

In that I don't have to face the Stanford lineup, there actually is a silver lining -- or at least a light jacket -- in the Rebels' being sent there. The weather in Palo Alto should be about 30 degrees cooler than in Tempe, where UNLV played last year.

Around the horn

ESPN baseball analyst Harold Reynolds was raving about the state of college baseball during Monday's NCAA pairings show, saying, among other things, that the college game is the real deal. "You don't see 19-18 games anymore," he said about the dearth of pitching and the surplus of aluminum bats. Maybe so, but you do see way too many 13-5 games. That was the average score of the 10 games played in last week's Mountain West Conference at Wilson Stadium. In half of the 10 games, the winning side scored at least 13 runs and in only one did it score as few as five. Even more tedious is that six of the 10 games took more than three hours to play. It was like watching an Oliver Stone movie, only you could follow what was going on. ...

It's a good thing Commissioner Majerus has retired, or half the UNLV baseball team probably would be headed to the Cape Cod league rather than preparing to meet top-ranked Stanford in the NCAA regionals on Friday. Rick Majerus, the former Utah basketball coach, was primarily responsible for getting the MWC postseason hoops tournament moved from Las Vegas, where it belongs, to a neutral site in Denver because he felt UNLV had too much of an advantage in playing at home. The Rebels breezed to the championship of the baseball tournament last week by going 4-0 as a No. 3 seed on their home diamond. But Coach Rick -- or even Tony Gwynn, the San Diego State baseball coach who also seems to be getting larger than life and is in favor of dropping the tournament -- needn't fret, as there's a good chance the postseason shindig will be abolished when TC U joins the conference in 2006. ...

Although he would never say it, Scott Shoemaker, the San Diego state pitcher who took a no-hitter into the seventh inning against Utah in his only MWC tournament appearance, will probably get over the Aztecs' championship round loss to UNLV a bit more quickly than his teammates. As a fifth-year senior who went undrafted in 2003, Shoemaker, the MWC pitcher of the year, can sign a free-agent contract with the major league team of his choice before next week's MLB draft. Had SDSU advanced to the regional, Shoemaker would have had to enter the draft and lose his bargaining power. ...

The NCAA baseball tournament will have more Las Vegas flavor than usual this season. Besides the Rebels, their former coach will also be represented, as Jim Schlossnagle guided Texas Christian to its third NCAA berth ever in his first year as Horned Frogs coach. TCU will play Oral Roberts in the Austin regional on Friday. Also, former Valley High star Steve Rodriguez directed Pepperdine to a regional berth in his first year as head coach. The Waves, who also feature a couple of Las Vegans on their roster (pitcher Brandon Boesch of Bishop Gorman and infielder Danny Kelly of Durango), will play Arizona State in a tough first-round matchup at the Fullerton regional. ...

According to an official news release, this will remembered as the year that the Arena Football League got some ... well, new balls. Third on the list of the league's so-called achievements this season was introducing a "new, cutting-edge gameball created by Spaulding." But if a snazzy ball is all it takes to be successful, people would still be lining up for Memphis Tams tickets. ...

I guess it's a coach's prerogative to fine his entire team, even after a win, which is what the Gladiators' Frank Haege did following Las Vegas' 64-51 football-in-a-can victory against Columbus in the season finale Sunday. But then Haege should fine himself every time the Glads lose a game in the closing seconds, especially when somebody on the other team throws that snazzy football off the net to an eligible receiver. And Haege should donate his entire salary to charity -- or to the team's cheerleaders, many of whom quit over a salary dispute -- for stripping down to his sleeveless undershirt to protest the officiating after Las Vegas' loss to Arizona in March. ...

And while were at it, add the following to this week's bagging on the Glads: How could Channel 8's Chris Maathius not have been named MVP of Media Arena Bowl I on Saturday morning? Maathius, the personable weekend sports anchor, completed 10 of 19 passes for 142 yards and rushed 3 times for 30 yards to pace Haege's Homies to a 35-33 victory against Clint's Loose Cannons, named for Las Vegas quarterback Clint Dolezel, in the 50-yard indoor war (or at least a loosely contested skirmish with a lot of huffing and puffing) featuring local sports media. ...

Arizona Cardinals football fans who reside in Las Vegas -- both of 'em -- will have an opportunity to meet the teams' cheerleaders and wide receiver Nate Poole at ESPN Zone Friday as the Cardinals' caravan stops here to celebrate its second year on the dial (KLAV 1230-AM) in Las Vegas. The Cardinals' troupe will also be at the Galleria mall on Saturday afternoon to sign up kids for an NFL-backed flag football league. ... Henderson residents Sam Schmidt (car owner) and Richie Hearn (driver) pocketed $207,740 for their 20th-place finish in the rain delayed/shortened Indianapolis 500. While not exactly A-Rod money, it's still not bad for finishing two laps down during a Sunday afternoon drive. ... Finally, one the spoils of victory Buddy Rice received for winning the Indy 500 was a lawn mower, which you probably will be able to pic k up at a greatly reduced price at his next garage sale. Rice lives in Phoenix, where his lawn consists of rocks and gravel.

archive