Ron Kantowski says fans who showed up to see a rejuvenated Rebels team got their money’s worth

Thursday, Jan. 4, 2007 | 7:04 a.m.

One day into the Mountain West Conference basketball season, this much is known:

With no time showing on the clock and his team trailing by 2, Utah's Stephen Weigh had a chance to silence Dickie V., at least momentarily, by sinking three throws.

He missed the first one and made the next two, forcing overtime.

There was a second overtime and nearly a third before Wendell White stole the ball and went coast-to-coast for a layup as the Rebels escaped with a 97-94 victory and Dickie V. lived to shout another day.

At least twice during the past week college basketball's town crier got on his soapbox on national TV and proclaimed the Rebels "PTPers" - that would be Prime Time Players, for those not versed in Vitaleics - deserving of more fan support than they've been getting at the Thomas & Mack Center.

Well, some of you apparently were listening while the Rebels were putting a damper on what was supposed to be Knight's record-setting 880th career victory by handing him the 354th loss of his brilliant coaching career.

Judging from the empty seats in the arena just five minutes before tip-off Wednesday night, my first thought was that Rebels fans were watching Cal beat up on Texas A&M in the Holiday Bowl last week when Dickie V. was giving them what for.

Who could have guessed it was because the biggest walk-up crowd in recent memory was impatiently standing in line outside for tickets?

Although it wasn't nearly as easy as expected, the Rebels ran their record to a Jerry Tarkanian-like 14-2 by beating the Utes in front of a, well ... a Jerry Tarkanian-like crowd of 12,369.

The Lower Bowl - which, come to think, might be the only bowl not recognized by the NCAA these days - was nearly filled. The student section was filled and the seats in the upper deck looked weird with all those warm bodies in them.

"It's still nuts outside," UNLV associate athletic director Jerry Koloskie said midway through the first half about the traffic jam at the box office.

Dare I say it, but if this had been a Saturday night and Notre Dame wasn't playing a meaningless bowl game on TV, the place might have been darn near full. While I can't recall the last time I wrote that, I vaguely recall Dr. Naismith nailing a peach basket to the wall.

If the Rebels are the biggest surprise of the Mountain West season so far, their usually apathetic fans turning out in such a large group on a school night would have to rank a close second.

Perhaps the Rebel Nation isn't the most knowledgeable when it comes to college hoops, but it's good to know it appreciates, at long last, a team that defends the perimeter as if a passing grade in calculus were resting on the 3-point line.

The victory over Utah, which must have played one of its better games of the year, considering it also lost to Northwestern by 33 points, was UNLV's 10th in a row. At 14-2, the Rebels are off to their best start since Rollie Massive Ego's first team went 16-2 to begin 1992-93.

Not that the national media have noticed. The Rebels received seven votes in this week's Associated Press poll, which sounds OK, until you consider it took 118 votes to crack the Top 25. Then it sounds like a slap in the face. I guess the Back East media were watching the Holiday Bowl, too.

The coaches were a little more generous, granting UNLV 26 of the required 66 votes it took to qualify for their Top 25. But given the Rebels entered Wednesday's game with a Ratings Percentage Index in single digits - College Basketball News had them at No. 9 - it would appear that too many of the coaches from the power conferences are still scratching each other's back instead of Lon Kruger's.

Kruger was itching for a little attention, too, although he'd never say it because his demeanor ranks right alongside Sheriff Andy Taylor's on Mother's Day in Mayberry. He's a nice guy (except when you don't help on defense). So he chose to take the high road, offering little comment on the pollsters and thanking the fans who have been coming out instead of complaining about the ones who have been watching meaningless bowl games on the living room sofa.

Selling fans on the merits of stingy defense is something Kruger never had to do at Florida and Illinois. But when he invited me out to lunch before the season started - not to complain about something I had written but to pick my brain about local sports fans, and what a guy might do to entice them to come out to the games - I knew he was getting pretty desperate.

"Win," I told him.

I should have added that beating the pants off a coaching legend on national TV with a certain bald-headed member of the college basketball media sitting at courtside wouldn't hurt, either.