Columnist Ron Kantowski: Widow’s web pockets Sun reader

Wednesday, March 30, 2005 | 10:22 a.m.

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

Contrary to what you may recall from biology class, the Black Widow doesn't always eat its mates.

Sometimes she just teaches them how to shoot the 9-ball into the side pocket.

John Rousseau, a Sun reader from Phoenix, has spent much of his adult life attending sports fantasy camps. None, he says, compared to the "Black Widow Experience" recently hosted by billiards legend Jeanette "Black Widow" Lee at the Plaza Hotel and Casino.

"I have played in six baseball fantasy camps with three different (major league) teams and three bowling camps with two different groups but the Black Widow Experience was the easy winner," Rousseau, who calls himself "Dababe," wrote in an e-mail.

Rousseau said the instructors at the other camps seemed more interested in cocktail hour and trying not to pull a hamstring. He said Lee graciously provided pointers to anybody who wanted them.

"I was a national collegiate pool champion in the 1960s but I turned to corporate life and had not hit a ball in 27 years," Rousseau wrote. "Despite this, Jeanette taught me how to 'jump' the cue ball ... and I was shocked as I made 23 of the next 27 jump shots.

"I assure you, this participant will be at the second Black Widow Experience, whenever and whereever it may be."

In Rousseau's case, I guess it was once bitten, twice as eager to be bitten again.

In addition to getting a preview of next year's Turkish pro basketball league, where departing Rebels such as Odartey Blankson and Romel Beck probably have a roster spot waiting, the 4,000 or so UNLV diehards who turned out for the NIT opener against Arizona State most likely also got to see a real pro in action.

Ike Diogu, the 6-foot-8 bruiser who scored 29 points and snared 11 rebounds in ASU's 89-78 loss to the Rebels, has declared for the NBA draft. In that he did not hire an agent, Diogu is still eligible to return to Tempe for his senior season. But the consensus is he's going to need one of those guys with the tailored suits and beady eyes to negotiate his first pro contract.

Diogu is projected as a late first-round pick. Sun Devils coach Rob Evans already has wished him well at the next level.

You may be aware that the Lakers and Kings have agreed to play yet another meaningless preseason professional basketball game at the Thomas & Mack Center on Oct. 28. But you may not be aware that the really good seats will cost $95.

Seems a little steep to watch 10 multi-millionaires play a glorified game of H-O-R-S-E.

The really bad seats will cost $14. So my advice would be to purchase one of those and bring some gauze in case of nose bleed. Then if you squint real hard, you can pretend that Lamar Odom is Magic Johnson.

Just like Odom does most nights.

It was a good day for the little fish in the big pond at last weekend's NCAA Men's Swimming and Diving Championships at the University of Minnesota.

Despite operating with the athletic department's smallest budget, the UNLV men finished 24th in the final standings as three of its relay teams scored points -- a school record.

On the individual side, Michael Day, a sophomore from Villa Hills, Ky., just missed All-American honors in the 200 butterfly by finishing 17th with a time of 1:46.40. The top 16 at the championship meet make the All-American squad and Day just missed the deep end of the talent pool by 16 hundredths of a second.

The 24th-place effort was the second-highest finish for the Rebels, who were 22nd in the NCAA meet in 1990.

As predicted in this space last week, if you want to watch the Cubs' Greg Maddux pitch in Las Vegas for the first time since he graduated from Valley High School, you'll have to crash the Wiffle Ball game against his kids in his back yard this weekend.

Injuries to Kerry Wood and Mark Prior, the chronically wounded aces of the Cubs' staff, have moved Maddux ahead in the rotation to No. 2, just behind budding star Carlos Zambrano. With Chicago playing games that count in Phoenix on Monday and Tuesday, the only pitching Maddux will do at Cashman Field on Friday and Saturday in games that don't count against the Mariners is warm-up tosses in the bullpen.

If Maddux pitched for somebody other than Chicago, it might hurt attendance were Dusty Baker to hand the ball to some guy wearing No. 85. But given the Cubs' popularity, I think most local fans headed out to the ballyard this weekend will be more than satisfied with a Maddux autograph.

The Mountain West Conference's decision to bolt ESPN for College Sports Television isn't such a bad idea after all, at least according to one Sun reader's review of ESPNU -- the all-sports network and propaganda machine's new channel for college sports.

"Well, now we know what the 'U' in ESPNU stands for," wrote local hockeymeister Bobby Bryde in an e-mail after watching the first two rounds of the NCAA Ice Hockey Championship via satellite (ESPNU is not available via Cox Cable).

"Unwatchable.

"I don't need 24 inches taken up on my screen telling me I'm getting 'bonus coverage.' And listening to Barry Melrose comment about a player being suspended for breaking (another) player's neck -- that it's part of the game and to be expected -- was enough to make me puke."

Then Bryde took a swig of Pepto-Bismol and told me what he really thought of the U.

Move over Pat, here comes Harry.

Actually, there went Harry is more like it.

Everybody made a big to-do over Pat Summitt's 880th victory last week, which moved the legendary Tennessee women's coach past Dean Smith on college basketball's all-time victory list.

That would be NCAA college basketball's all-time victory list.

Summitt still has a little ways to go to overtake Harry Statham, the longtime coach at McKendree College, an NAIA school in Lebanon, Ill., who is at 896 victories -- and counting.

In that Statham's team went 25-8 this year and Summitt's is headed to the women's Final Four for the umpteenth time, these two may be keeping each other company in the pursuit of 1,000 W's.

First there was D.C. United. Now comes FC Dallas and Real Salt Lake.

Apparently, Major League Soccer's strategy heading into its 10th season is that if it can't beat the top European clubs or compete with them for players, there's nothing that says it can't change the names of its franchises to sound like those famous ones overseas.

In addition to FC Dallas, heretofore known as the Dallas Burn, and Real Salt Lake, an expansion team, MLS will also welcome another new side patterned after one in another country.

Chivas USA, a first-year club owned by the wildly popular Club Deportivo Guadalajara -- the original Chivas -- of Mexico, will share the Home Depot Center, the new purpose-built soccer stadium in Carson, Calif., with Manchester L.A.

Just kidding. The Los Angeles Galaxy will continue to go by its original name, although it will share a locker room with the fledgling Chivas franchise.

Former UNLV star Boomer Arbelaez will play for Chivas, having been traded downstate last week by the San Jose Earthquakes. San Jose selected Arbelaez, a midfielder who scored four goals for the Rebels last year, in the third round of the MLS draft.

San Jose 81, Gladiators 75. I think our football-in-a-can team needs work on its perimeter defense.

Did you see they unveiled a monument in downtown Syracuse on Saturday that pays homage to the 24-second clock?

Honest. The 24-second clock. The fact that it was downtown Syracuse probably explains a lot.

But that was where Danny Biasone and Leo Ferris, the owner and general manager, respectively, of the old Syracuse Nationals, came up with the idea of the clock in 1954 to add some flow to pro basketball games that were degenerating into foul and free-throw contests. Sound familiar?

Immediately after the monumental shot clock was unveiled, the city of Mt. Pilot, N.C., called a press conference to announce plans for the Shin Guard Hall of Fame.

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