THE ELEVATOR

Wednesday, Aug. 29, 2007 | 7:18 a.m.

A special FIBA Americas edition of who's going to the penthouse in local sports - and who's getting the shaft:

Gaston Essengue

The former UNLV center scored lots of points and pulled down many rebounds to help his native Cameroon finish second at the FIBA Africa Championship and qualify for next summer's Olympic Games in Beijing. Cameroon lost 86-72 to Angola in the finals, but Charles Barkley will be glad to know that it appeared the Angolans have been eating well.

The former UNLV basketball player, who never met a shot he couldn't take, has even made a lot of them for Mexico - Beck's mother was born there - during the first round of the FIBA Americas tournament at the Thomas & Mack Center. It would appear Mexico coach Nolan Richardson 's "40 minutes of hell" philosophy suits Roberto Castro Beck, which is what the Mexican media is calling him through Sunday. It was 40 minutes of passing the ball to Odartey Blankson that Beck didn't much care for.

Nolan Richardson's wardrobe

The former Arkansas coaching icon has resurfaced as coach of the Mexican team in the FIBA Americas basketball tournament at the Thomas & Mack Center , but apparently his luggage is still in Mexico City or at a Taco Bell in El Paso, Texas. I'm not sure where Richardson gets his coaching duds, but Abdullah's locker in "Car Wash" would be a good guess.

There were 116 spectators at the first-round game featuring Uruguay and Panama, and everybody said attendance would get better in the second round. Sure enough, there were 153 fans at Monday's Canada vs. Uruguay game.

We had been hearing for weeks how Manu Ginobili and his NBA pals of Argentinian descent were going to pick-and-roll Team USA all the way to Beijing. Apparently, they're back on the balcony at the Casa Rosada, hanging out with Eva Peron. But don't cry for Argentina. Cry for Las Vegas basketball fans who bought tickets hoping to see Argentina's best basketball players hoop it again against Kobe, LeBron and Carmelo.

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