Wednesday, June 22, 2005 | 9:22 a.m.
Ron Kantowski is a Las Vegas Sun sports writer. Reach him at [email protected] or (702) 259-4088.
If there is going to be a trickle down effect to the NBA's decision Tuesday of putting a 19-year-old minimum age limit on its players, Lon Kruger said it won't make it as far as Maryland Parkway in Las Vegas.
In fact, the Rebels' coach doesn't expect the decision will heavily impact the college game in general, if at all.
"I don't think so," he said. "So far, it's been a rare exception when anyone has been affected by that rule ... because few have gone prior to 19. So I don't think it will have any huge effect."
There were only 11 high school players who bypassed college to go straight to the NBA from 1995-2000. But this year alone, there were 12 who applied for the early draft.
Indeed, it has been a while (like never) since UNLV had to out-recruit the Spurs or Pistons for a player. But the blue blood college programs might have been an option to precocious talents such as Kevin Garnett and Tracy McGrady before the NBA started plucking them out of high school.
It's rare these days when a McDonald's All-American plays four years of college ball, but Kruger said he doesn't think that fact or the new age restriction will change the face of college recruiting, even if some behind the scenes say it already is happening.
Kruger said as coach, you still want to recruit great players, even if they may be with you only for a year or two, rather than good players who are more likely to stay for three or four.
"For the most part, coaches want to recruit the best players they can get and if they leave for the NBA, well, that's not all bad, either," Kruger said, implying that conference championship banners aren't the only things that impress a high school phenom who aspires to play pro ball.
As for the notion of college coaches exerting subtle pressure on the NBA to change the age requirement, Kruger said it simply didn't happen.
"None," he said of what impact the college coaches had on the NBA negotiations. "We weren't involved in any decision. I think it was just that everyone would rather see kids stay in school rather than go to the NBA and have them sit on the bench for a couple of years."
Like most who have seen it, I thought "Cinderella Man," director Ron Howard's paeon to Depression-era boxer James J. Braddock, was a fantastic movie. But what little I read about Braddock and his 1935 heavyweight fight with Max Baer suggests the two were friendly rivals, so I figured it was only a matter of time before somebody questioned the portrayal of Baer as a blood-thirsty killer in the movie.
Sure enough, somebody has -- Max Baer Jr., better known as Jethro of "Beverly Hillbillies" fame.
"People my age had an idea who my father was," Baer Jr., 67, told the Sacramento Bee. "But those under 50 years of age will forever think of Max Baer by the way he was portrayed in the movie. And that's what is unfair."
Jeremy Schaap's book on the Braddock-Baer fight, also titled "Cinderella Man," confirms Max Baer Jr.'s claim that his father was a fun-loving guy who got along fine with Braddock and just about everyone else he fought.
For what it's worth, a photo on Braddock's official Web site shows Braddock, Baer and Jack Dempsey having a beer together. Based on their smiles, Baer certainly doesn't seem to be saying anything untoward about Braddock's wife Mae, as was depicted in the movie.
Max Baer Jr. said his father basically boxed to attract women to the ce-ment pond.
"He hated boxing," said Baer Jr., who lives in Lake Tahoe and is a frequent visitor to Las Vegas. "He did it basically for money and women. If Ron Howard had had any guts, he would have called me before he made the movie."
I thought it was pretty cool that songstress Celine Dion stayed for all nine innings of the 51s' 11-1 victory against Tacoma at Cashman Field on Monday night.
It would have been even cooler had she been invited to sing that Titanic song during the seventh-inning stretch, given the way the home boys have been sinking in the PCL standings.
The 51s were mired in a 12-game losing streak before finally avoiding the iceberg with a 6-3 win against Tacoma on Sunday.
Add a spicy meatball and a pound of Bologna to that Ruben sandwich.
Ruben Douglas, the former New Mexico basketball star who gave the Rebels all kinds of fits during his college career, hit a 3-pointer with less than a second on the clock to lift Climamio Bologna to a 67-65 victory against Armani Jeans Milan in Game 3 of the best-of-five Italian League Championship.
Listed as a 6-foot-5 guard with the Lobos, Douglas is now about 6-9. A story in an Italian sports magazine said his hair has gotten out of control in a "vertical direction" since he left for overseas.
According to the magazine, the fashion designer Giorgio Armani was in attendance at the finals and "liked Douglas' look."
Which is more than Marcus Banks might say.
If you need further proof that the NCAA is full of fertilizer, consider this quote from spokesperson Gail Dent from Gestapo -- er, NCAA -- headquarters in Indianapolis upon learning that UConn women's basketball coach Geno Auriemma plans to open a restaurant at the Mohegan Sun Casino.
"There are no NCAA rules that would prohibit a coach from opening a restaurant in an establishment that would be associated with gambling," Dent told the New York Times. "But we would discourage our membership from doing this because the association could possibly lead to sports-wagering behavior."
Sports-wagering behavior? What the heck is that?
Maybe it's like when you book -- er, seed -- the teams in your men's basketball tournament 1 through 16, thus making it easier for those who don't follow the game to fill out the brackets in their office pools.
I'm not quite sure how this could happen, in that his team didn't play any games last season, but Brian Sutter was fired as coach of the Chicago Blackhawks on Tuesday.
Give Dale Tallon, Chicago's new general manager, credit. He got away with something that not even George Steinbrenner would have had the guts to try when Billy Martin was his manager.
Well, that's it for me. I've got to get my pickup tuned up because I hear there's another Formula One race this weekend and I need some points.
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