Everyone's a winner in Vegas
Posted: Tuesday October 27, 1998 07:04 PM
Sports Illustrated's Kelli Anderson checks in with the
fifth in a series of glances around the college basketball
scene.
Las
Vegas
TEAM: UNLV Runnin' Rebels
VENUE: Thomas & Mack Center
(18,500)
'97-98
record: 20-13 (Lost to Princeton in NCAA first round)
PREDICTED '98-99
STARTERS: G
Mark
Dickel , C
Kaspars
Kambala , G
Brian
Keefe , F
Shawn
Marion , F
Kevin
Simmons
Interior designers like to use mirrors to give the
impression of space, but what is the point of the mirrored
facade of the Thomas & Mack Center at UNLV? Certainly
no one needs to make the desert surrounding Las Vegas look
any bigger than it already is.
Anyway, as I walked up to the T&M I caught a reflection
of the weird hotel fantasyscape that is the Strip—the
Faux France, the Imitation Italy, the Not-quite New
York—and had to stop.
No, it can't be. Is that a replica of the St. Louis Gateway
Arch? I know Vegas caters to some strange tastes, but who in the
world would come here to stay in a St. Louis-themed hotel,
whatever that might be?
But I digress. I had come to Vegas to talk to the
rejuvenated Runnin' Rebels, who survived a fractured,
all-hope-is-lost regular season last year to win the WAC
tournament. They made their first NCAA appearance since
then-undefeated UNLV lost to Duke in
the 1991 Final Four. Word had it that this team, with seven
returning lettermen and five newcomers, had its act
together and was planning to wreak havoc in the
WAC.
To take the pulse of student interest in this team, I
wandered around the student union as the sun was sinking
over the Luxor pyramid in the distance. The first three
people I encountered professed no interest in and little
knowledge of the basketball
team. Then I waylaid two students—I'll call them
White
Cap and
Black
Cap —who had attended games last year and assured me that
there is a lot of student interest in the Rebs, that men's
basketball is definitely the most popular sport on campus.
When I asked White Cap about his thoughts on the upcoming
season, he said, "I
don't think it's started yet." Worried that he was coming
across as too rah-rah, he added, "I'm not a
fan, you know. I just go to games." Black Cap smiled and
sucked on a Slurpee.
Alrighty.
It was time to head back to the T&M and wait for coach
Bill
Bayno to finish his closed practice. As I waited in a press room
decorated with pictures of entertainers who have played the
T&M, like
Jerry
Seinfeld ,
Billy
Joel and
Mickey
Mouse , an injured
player— Shawn
Marion , the 1997-98 NJCAA student-athlete of the year at
Vincennes (Ind.) University—was helped into the
training room down the hall. Moments later, expressions of
shock and pain filled the
hallway: yow, geez, egad,
ouch!—or words to that effect. A severely sprained ankle,
Bayno told me later. Marion would probably miss a few days
of practice, but it shouldn't jeopardize his role this
season, which will be significant. Marion got a lot of
looks from NBA scouts last
season, and he, 6' 8" senior forward
Kevin
Simmons and 6'9" sophomore center
Kaspars
Kambala will probably draw a herd of them this year. Of course,
all those scouts will have to stay somewhere. I asked point
guard
Mark
Dickel , a native New Zealander with a keen interest in hotel
management, to name his favorite hotel on the Strip. (Just
don't tell me it's a place called "The
Meet-Me-in-St.-Louis," I thought). Dickel likes
Steve
Wynn 's new multi-billion dollar opulence dome, Bellagio.
"I would love to run a place like that someday,"
says Dickel. For now, his job is to run the Rebels'
offense, a place where, in contrast to Bellagio, there are
winners everywhere.
Ciao for now,
KA
P.S. I didn't leave UNLV without asking SID
Jim
Gemma about that arch. I have to say I was a little disappointed
to find out that it is a ride at the MGM theme park and not
someone's impassioned tribute to the
Midwest.
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