Columnist Ron Kantowski: Coach K’s legacy began with UNLV

Wednesday, March 23, 2005 | 9:18 a.m.

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

He's known as Coach K but in the NCAA tournament you might as well call him Coach W.

Although Duke's Mike Krzyzewski, who this weekend moved past Dean Smith into first place on the all-time March Madness win list, would have trouble recalling each of his 66 tournament victories, he doesn't hesitate when asked which was the biggest.

"The win over Nevada-Las Vegas in 1991," he said on TV last weekend, referring to the Dookies' stunning 79-77 upset of the previously undefeated Rebels in the Final Four at Indianapolis in 1991.

"We beat a great, great team and it set the tone for the kind of team we would be from that point on."

So if you ever get tired of Coach K heaping all that flowery praise upon his "kids," as he likes to call all those Parade All-Americans who play for him, you can blame it on that charging foul on Greg Anthony.

By this time, it'll cost at least a couple of hundred dollars on eBay to watch North Carolina State's Julius Hodge and Michigan State's Kelvin Torbert play ball in the NCAA regionals this week, but savvy basketball fans in Las Vegas have never had to reach that deep into their wallets to watch guys like them hoop it up.

Hodge and Torbert are just two more graduates of Las Vegas' AAU summer basketball tournament circuit, Hodge having starred for the New York Ravens and Torbert for the Michigan Mustangs, two of the Big Time tournament's traditional powers.

Hodge still holds the Big Time record for field goals made (91) and with 218 points, trails only Carmelo Anthony (Baltimore Select, 227 pts.) on the all-time tournament scoring list.

Both Hodge and Torbert made the 2000 all-Big Time team. As did Kansas' Wayne Simien (Kansas City 76ers), Syracuse's Gerry McNamara (NEP AAU, Fla.), Georgia Tech's B.J. Elder (Atlanta Celtics), North Carolina's Shelden Williams (Athletics First, Okla.), Mississippi State's Lawrence Roberts (Houston AAY) and Oklahoma's Kevin Bookout (Athletics First).

To name just a few.

They're already planning one heck of a luau at the California Club.

Kudos to UNLV athletic director Mike Hamrick and Herman Frazier, his counterpart at Hawaii, for seeing the value of a home-and-home football series between the Rebels and Warriors, the first of which, set for 2006 and '07, was announced Monday.

This could be the mid-major version of the Red River Shootout between Oklahoma and Texas without the "y'alls" as three of the biggest home crowds in Rebels history have come against Hawaii. A crowd of 34,287 watched the Rebels edge the Warriors 34-32 in the teams' last meeting here in 2003.

"Everyone wins when we play a home-and-home series with the University of Hawaii," Hamrick said.

Especially down at the California, where the Boyd Group practically runs an outrigger canoe shuttle between Honolulu and Las Vegas, turning the hotel-casino into the eighth Hawaiian Island on any given weekend.

Former Rancho High football standout Steve Kazor will be inducted into the A-K Valley (named for the Allegheny and Kiski rivers) Sports Hall of Fame in New Kensington, Pa., on May 21. Kazor, a native of Arnold, Pa., is being honored for his exploits as a standout lineman at Westminster College in Utah and for his long tenure as a football coach.

Kazor has held coaching positions at Colorado State, Texas, UTEP and Wayne State and also spent several seasons in the NFL as an assistant with the Cowboys, Lions and Bears.

He was recruited to Westminster by former 49ers coach George Seifert during the late 1960s.

Among Kazor's fellow inductees is Mickey Morandini, a former Phillies second baseman who once turned an unassisted triple play. Morandini grew up in Leechburg, Pa.

Next stop, the Federal League. Look out, Oggie Ogilthorpe.

Former Las Vegas Wranglers bad boy Billy Tibbetts has been banished for the remainder of the ECHL season after receiving two more game misconducts and a gross misconduct for going after a referee while wreaking havoc for the Idaho Steelheads.

Tibbetts, who has been suspended more times than Wilford Brimley's trousers, amassed 132 penalty minutes in 13 games for the Wranglers this year before they revoked his Get Out of the Penalty Box Free card.

In Boise, where he accumulated 132 PIM in 15 games, he claimed to have turned his life around.

"Basically, I've got to surrender my life to God's will. Instead of worrying what everyone else thinks, I only need to concern myself with God's love and acceptance," Tibbetts told the Idaho Statesmen recently.

But if the big guy wearing the referee's armband upstairs is keeping score, I don't think he would love or accept a five-minute major for high sticking.

As expected, Kerry Wood has a hangnail and Mark Prior has a hangnail which may jeopardize the likelihood of hometown hero Greg Maddux pitching at Cashman Field next weekend when the Cubs close spring training with two games against the Seattle Mariners.

Actually, the oft-injured Wood has bursitis in his right shoulder and the oft-injured Prior has a sore right elbow. They were scheduled to pitch the Cubs' season opener and second game of the season in Arizona when Chicago leaves here, which could move Maddux up in the rotation if they are unable to perform.

If Maddux moves all the way up to No. 1 or No. 2, it's unlikely that he would pitch here.

Cubs manager Dusty Baker told reporters it was too early to tell if the Cubs would have to shuffle their rotation.

I see where 42-year-old Julio Cesar Chavez is going to fight again, as Las Vegas promoter Bob Arum will match him against 83-year-old Jake La Motta May 28 at the Staples Center in Los Angeles.

The promotion will be called Raging Constipation.

Actually, Chavez, the former legendary Mexican champion who is now about 15 years past his prime, will fight, or at least get into the ring with, somebody named Ivan Robinson. The bout is being advertised as a way for Chavez to say goodbye to his many fans in Los Angeles. And to pay for his hip replacement surgery.

And the hits just keep on coming. The runs, too.

On opening day of their respective prep seasons, the Palo Verde baseball team beat Clark 32-2 and the Cimarron softball team beat Western 41-1.

Afterward, the scoreboards were taken down and tested for steroids.

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