Ron Kantowski on why the Rebels should be everyone’s favorite underdogs

Tuesday, March 20, 2007 | 7:14 a.m.

Where have you gone George Mason? A nation of college basketball fans turns its lonely eyes to you, or somebody like you - a bracket-busting upstart that simply won't be denied.

But a not-so-funny thing happened over the weekend. All of the double-digit seeds were eliminated. Even a worthy No. 9 capitulated under the pressure, because when the clock goes inside of two minutes and one of the top-seeded behemoths is in your face, that's what worthy No. 9 seeds usually do.

Sorry, Xavier, you had your chance. You couldn't close the deal. But if that's not an intentional foul on Ohio State's Greg Oden at the end of the game, the NCAA might as well remove the rule from the book. And somebody should pardon Scooter Libby.

So America needs a new sweetheart to cheer for in the Sweet 16. Some, no doubt, will anoint Southern Illinois or Butler, and you could make a strong case for either in an odd year. But this is a more-than-even year for the Salukis and Bulldogs, as indicated by their seeds.

Southern Illinois is a 3 and Butler a 5. Too lofty, even for midmajor teams with directional and funny-sounding names.

That's why I am nominating UNLV.

Those with memories like Dumbo would never christen UNLV as Cinderella because they remember how the Rebels of Jerry Tarkanian tore through their brackets in the early 1990s as if they were made of papier-mache.

Larry Johnson? In Cinderella's slippers? Who's gonna sweep up the broken glass?

But this year's Rebels are a much better fit. For starters, at a No. 7, they are the lowest seed still playing. That should be enough to get your foot in the pumpkin coach.

Like most midmajor teams, most of the nation probably had never seem them play on TV before this weekend. That's because most of the nation, like satellite subscribers in Southern Nevada, can't get the mtn., either.

More importantly, the Rebels play like a midmajor team - they are small, tough, determined, shoot like the cast of "Hoosiers" and get after you on defense like the '85 Bears.

When you break it down, they're a lot like Gonzaga - only without the weird name, bad haircuts and pencil-thin mustaches.