The Elevator: Hi-def edition

Saturday, Nov. 28, 2009 | 2 a.m.

GOING UP

($249 high-definition TV sets)

Lon Kruger and the UNLV basketball team: For getting off to a 4-0 start heading into today’s big game against the non-handshakers from Louisville. Just two more victories and the Rebels will be bowl eligible.

UNLV President Neal Smatresk: For recommending a contract amendment absolving UNLV basketball coach Lon Kruger of the financial risk of marketing his own program because the former athletic administration under Mike Hamrick was unable to do its job. That’s basically why Kruger put up $200,000 last year out of his own pocket to help build a following for his team, regardless of what was said in those news releases.

Dan Rohn: It is a known fact that utility infielders (and maybe catchers) make the best baseball managers and that Dan Rohn once was traded by the Cubs to the Indians for a guy named Jay Baller. It doesn’t get any more utility than that. So Rohn should do just fine as the 51s’ new skipper.

GOING DOWN

(standing in line to pay for $249 high-definition TV sets)

Beat me in Seattle: Or something like that. The Seattle University basketball team beat Utah on its home floor in what technically was the second round of that college basketball “tournament” at the Orleans that continues today. But instead of advancing to play Illinois of the Big Ten, Seattle played Presbyterian of the Big South, because these “tournaments” are really more about making a buck than anything else, and an Illinois vs. Utah game would sell more tickets than an Illinois vs. Seattle game. Whereas The Elevator operator understands this, he doesn’t have to like it.

Awful UFL uniforms: Let’s say for the sake of argument the UFL succeeds in overcoming the bazillion-to-one odds stacked against it and one day merges with the NFL, à la the old AFL. Do you think we’ll ever see the Las Vegas Locomotives and the rival Florida Tuskers wear their “throwback” pastel-colored uniforms when they play each other as former AFL teams do now? For the sake of our retinas, let’s hope not.

Mike Sanford: Given one last chance to back off on statements the administration was 100 percent to blame for his firing and that his ability to coach had zero percent to do with it, the UNLV football coach defiantly said he said only about 10 percent of the negative things he could have said. I am 90 percent certain that fake field goal call out of a timeout against Utah had at least 5 percent to do with his dismissal, but then, I have never been very good at percentages.