Wednesday, Jan. 26, 2005 | 10:18 a.m.
Ron Kantowski is a Las Vegas Sun sports writer. Reach him at [email protected] or (702) 259-4088.
We're No. 11! At least when it comes to hiring a new football coach, in the estimation of CBS SportsLine.com.
Actually, we're not anything. It's UNLV that ranks No. 11 on SportsLine's list of off-season NCAA college football coach hirings for bringing in Utah offensive coordinator Mike Sanford.
In that there have been 22 hirings since the regular season ended, that puts the Rebels smack dab in the middle of the program savior poll. That's not bad, but had SportsLine had those ratings five years ago, I'd have wagered that John Robinson's appointment would have ranked in the upper third.
"After waiting 27 years as a college and pro assistant," wrote SportsLine's senior writer Dennis Dodd, "Sanford chose UNLV. That should tell you the Rebels are headed up."
Dodd, noting Sanford's aggressive recruiting since taking over here, said he has the energy to make UNLV into a mid-major power.
Well, that smacks of Miami of Ohio instead of Miami of Florida, but at least it's something.
Not surprisingly, SportsLine ranked Florida's hiring of Sanford's boss at Utah, Urban Meyer, as the most consequential transaction of the offseason. Steve Spurrier (South Carolina), Ed Orgeron (Ole Miss), Mike Gundy (Oklahoma State), Les Miles (LSU), Kyle Whittingham (Utah), Tyrone Willingham (Washington), Charlie Weis (Notre Dame), Ron Zook (Illinois) and Greg Robinson (Syracuse) rounded out the top 10 hirings, according to SportsLine.
Just the same, this is one poll that I think I'll clip and watch turn yellow under one of my refrigerator magnets before weighing in on.
Scott Linehan, a UNLV football assistant during the forgettable Jim Strong regime, has resigned as Minnesota Vikings offensive coordinator to accept the same post with the Miami Dolphins.
Linehan, according to reports, will receive a significant raise and about as much job security as one could hope for at the NFL level, given that new Dolphins coach Nick Saban is going to be given the resources -- namely time and money -- to get the job done.
Plus, Linehan won't have to deal with Randy Moss on a daily basis in his new job.
In Monday's column on the new $15 million Darling Tennis Complex going up at Buffalo and Washington, I noted that the facility would be named in honor of longtime local tennis patron Fred Darling, whose $1 million donation got the ball rolling on the project.
In reality, the complex is being named to commemorate the memory of Amanda, Stacy and Ron Darling, Fred Darling's children. Amanda and Stacy Darling were killed in an automobile accident in 1993. Ron Darling lost his life in a motorcycle accident in 2001.
"Their legacy will live on at this wonderful facility," said Clark County Commissioner Lynette Boggs McDonald, who helped spearhead the project.
My column on UNLV soccer star Boomer Arbelaez generated a nice batch of e-mail from the local "futbol" community, including one from Chris Johnson, the former Rebels soccer information director.
Johnson pointed out that although Arbelaez is the first Rebel to be drafted by Major League Soccer, he won't be the first from UNLV to play in the MLS, should he decide to sign with the San Jose Earthquakes. Former Rebel Scott Uderitz had a stint with the Kansas City Wizards during the league's infancy.
And, no affront to Arbelaez, Johnson also wanted to plug Robbie Ryerson as the best soccer player in UNLV history. Ryerson, who starred at UNLV from 1982-85, is the Rebels' career scoring leader with 67 goals and 25 assists and was named a first team All-American by Soccer America magazine following his senior year.
Let's just say you couldn't go wrong by having either one of these guys on your side.
It was a busy week in cyberspace, as I also heard from Brian Koppelman, thanking me for my kind review of the poker movie "Rounders" in this space last week ... and chastising me for panning "Tilt," ESPN's paean to the inside straight that is currently running on the all-sports-and-sometimes-entertainment network.
Well, he oughta know, as Koppelman and his partner David Leview authored both scripts.
Koppelman suggested I might change my mind if stay with "Tilt" a little longer.
"Perhaps the twists and turns the series makes will change your impression," he wrote. "Interestingly, many of the criticisms raised about 'Tilt' were initially raised about 'Rounders' as well, but over time, they dissipated."
As for the part about a 12-year-old girl cleaning up in a high stakes game in a Las Vegas hotel room, Koppelman said that's not as farfetched as it may seem.
"I have personally seen hotel room games with all sorts of characters, of many ages. It's true, normally 12-year-olds do not sit at those stakes, but she had special reasons, which will come clear in the next few weeks," he wrote.
Well, hopefully by then, the rest of the viewing public won't have turned to Old Maid.
I'm sure somewhere there is a Donald "Slick" Watts fantasy camp where CEOs disguised as NBA fans pay a nice chunk of change to shave their head, don a headband and hack the heck out of guys from the Nate "Tiny" Archibald fantasy camp.
But you won't find either of those camps among ESPN The Magazine's list of top 10 sports fantasies.
It does, however, put The Black Widow Experience, a March 17-20 fantasy camp featuring billiards star Jeanette "Black Widow" Lee at the Plaza Hotel downtown, near the top of its list.
For $2,950, wanna-be pool sharks can rack 'em with Lee, but they had better beware: Like her nickname, Lee takes special delight in eating up her male opponents.
"Jeanette likes the idea of beating men at a men's game," her manager Tom George says. "Any guy who comes in with a swagger, she'll beat pretty badly."
Early contender for this week's Irrelevant Statistic of the Week: Air Force's NCAA-leading scoring defense.
Utah apparently was not impressed, as the Utes shot a school record 80 percent from the field (24 for 30) in routing the Falcons 63-51 on Monday.
Anybody who follows the Mountain West knows that in Air Force's case, the best defense is a good offense -- or at least a deliberate one. The reason the Falcons appear so stingy on defense is because they milk the shot clock on offense, which usually prevents talented opponents such as Utah's Andrew Bogut (11 of 12, 25 points Monday) from getting their usual number of shots.
Let's see now, Duke, supposedly the No. 1 women's basketball team in the land, loses 56-51 to a North Carolina team on Monday night that had its hands full of UNLV Lady Rebels at Cox Pavilion earlier this season before pulling out an 84-76 victory.
I guess there's two ways to look at that.
Either the Lady Rebels (9-8, 0-3 Mountain West) are fast in danger of becoming underachievers or there isn't a single NCAA women's basketball team worth a darn this season.
While those other Rebels seem to have curbed their appetite for launching 3-point jump shots during the past couple of games, the same can't be said for their fans. Or at least one fan in particular.
During the first half of Monday's win against Wyoming, a fan seated on Gucci Row wearing a "Hustler" T-shirt retrieved an errant pass that had sailed out of bounds. But instead of tossing the ball to the official who was calling for it, the guy in the Hustler shirt fired a 35-footer at the UNLV basket.
It was an airball, and at least a couple of leather-lunged fans responded with a derisive cheer.
Wyoming point guard Jay Straight immediately asked the refs to "T" the guy up for delaying the game another 30 seconds. But, like the Cowboys' defense under the basket, the zebras let it slide.
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