Columnist Ron Kantowski: Teaspoon has made his old man proud

Thursday, March 11, 2004 | 9:49 a.m.

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

DENVER -- Although conspiracy theories are popular around UNLV whenever a coach of one of its marquee programs is fired, resigns, is run out of town by his own administration or ordered by doctors to the Grapefruit League for the beginning of permanent sabbatical, I don't believe Charlie Spoonhour's fate as Rebels basketball coach was decided on a grassy knoll adjacent to athletic director Mike Hamrick's office.

Nor do I think that Spoonhour's decision to join his old buddy Tony LaRussa down at Cardinals spring training in Florida with six games remaining in the regular season was a thinly veiled plot designed to allow his son Jay to campaign for his former job, or another head coaching position somewhere else.

But I do believe that's exactly the way it has turned out.

According to the Termite Nation, which is what some in the local media have dubbed the fervent UNLV fans who have infested the infrastructure of the basketball program via the Internet chat rooms, point guard Jerel Blassingame has been the star of the post-Charlie Spoonhour Rebels.

While Blassingame's Marcus Banks impression has been spot-on during the past six games, he'd be my No. 2 star of the stretch drive.

Just behind Jay Spoonhour at No. 1.

Win or lose against New Mexico in tonight's Mountain West tournament quarterfinal at the luxurious Pepsi Center, the younger Spoonhour's stint as head coach since his father resigned due to health concerns is the warm-and-fuzzy story of the Rebels' year.

Although it would be a lot warmer were this tournament played in Las Vegas, its rightful home.

As for the fuzzy part, somebody should fit Jay Spoon for a mohair sweater. Not only have the Rebels peformed well (like you knew they could?) under his watch -- they are 4-2 with the two losses, to Air Force and Brigham Young, the MWC's two best teams, by a combined three points -- but he has handled a difficult situation with aplomb, class and dignity.

If Spoonhour doesn't go on to be become a head coach, he's got a future as a hostage negotiator. Or a clinical psychologist. Before he took over, you would have thought that if anybody could get the mercurial James Peters to contribute to the cause, it would have to be one of those guys with a beard, patches on the elbows of a tweed jacket and a long, leather sofa in his office.

But Spoonhour should go on to become a head coach, if not in Las Vegas, then somewhere else. Of course, it won't be in Las Vegas, but maybe it should. Since Teaspoon took over, the Rebels are averaging 82 points per game with a running and gunning style remiscent of the Rebels of Tarkanian past. Or the Raid on Entebbe.

Sure, there are times when these blacktop Rebels throw the basketball into the fourth row. But far more often, it has been winding up in the bottom of the basket. The P.C. (Post Charlie) Rebels are shooting 52 percent from the field after knocking down only 46 percent over their first 21 games.

While their styles couldn't be any different, Jay Spoonhour has made his old man proud. Although it's another old man, Guy Lewis, who probably wants to adopt him, or at least make him an honorary member of Phi Slama Jama.

But as I've said before, this isn't the sequel to the Steve Fisher Story.

Unless the Rebels do something totally wild and crazy -- like run the table here on a neutral court -- it wouldn't be a shock were UNLV to call a news conference for Tuesday or Wednesday, after the furor over who got dissed by the NCAA selection committee subsides, to announce Lon Kruger as its new men's basketball coach. After which Jay Spoonhour probably will be forgotten more quickly than your mother-in-law's birthday.

My prediction is that the next time we'll hear from him is when some little-known program from the Pariot or Metro Atlantic Conference gets around to naming its new men's basketball coach.

They could do a lot worse than Jay Spoonhour, the guy who has put a magic bullett in the Rebels' attack.