Grudge match should be set between Mountain West, Missouri Valley conferences
When it was announced last year the Mountain West and Missouri Valley conferences would play a four-year challenge series in basketball, there were mostly yawns around here. When UNLV drew Southern Illinois, there were more yawns.
But who among the UNLV faithful wouldn't want a grudge match against Northern Iowa next season?
After the Panthers' NCAA Tournament run that included victories over the Rebels and No. 1 Kansas, the Mountain West team assigned to Northern Iowa -- last year it was Wyoming -- won't have to do a background check before traveling to Cedar Falls.
A panel of three athletic directors from each conference will determine next season's matchups after this year's were determined mostly by preseason rankings and last year's Rating Percentage Index.
My guess is that Brigham Young will "draw" Northern Iowa and that the game will be shown on national television, provided the Utah and Texas Christian women don't go into overtime.
THREE UP
■ IZZY DIMARIA, 1932-2010: When he was feeling up to it, Izzy DiMaria, the longtime Bishop Gorman booster, American Legion baseball coach and "Hairdresser to the Stars," would invite me to lunch, usually at a restaurant owned by some guys from Buffalo. He would tell these great Las Vegas stories, such as when he was married to Connie Francis or when he saw Frank Sinatra whip somebody's rear end on Nancy's wedding day, after Iz did her bouffant. Then he would insist I try the spumoni ice cream, which, if you knew Izzy, was always on the house.
■ LEE PETE, 1924-2010: During my first week in Las Vegas, I was a guest on Lee Pete's radio show at the old Frontier. I was on after Tommy Hearns, the boxer. I remember being nervous and Lee asking me where I was from and me telling him the Indiana side of Chicago, or something to that effect. Then I remember him talking in an avuncular way about how Gary, Ind., and Toledo, Ohio, where he was from, must have been separated at birth. Before you knew it, my 20 minutes were up and I wasn't nervous anymore, although my shirt smelled like a cigar.
■ CHRIS LUSCOMBE, 1989-2008: A couple of years ago, Chris Luscombe, a football player and nice kid I had met when Clark High was mired in its long losing streak, was killed during a shooting at a public park where he innocently was standing by. On Saturday, his parents threw a party for him on what would have been his 21st birthday. And so I thought of Izzy DiMaria and Lee Pete, and the stories they accumulated over long and interesting lifetimes, and wondered if they appreciated their longevity and good fortune.
THREE DOWN
■ YOUR WISH IS GRANITE: Tom Pecora, a former UNLV assistant under Rollie Massimino, has been named the basketball coach at Fordham. The Rams finished 2-26 this season, affirming the belief that whereas the Seven Blocks of Granite works pretty well when part of a football offense, in basketball a little more mobility might be called for.
■ THE EYES OF TEXAS WERE UPON ME: For failing to point out last week that Texas made a brief appearance in this year's women's NCAA Tournament -- it lost to 11th-seeded San Diego State of the Mountain West in a first-round game -- and that Ashley Gayle, a former Bishop Gorman standout, started 29 games and averaged 6.4 rebounds and 5.4 points for the Lady Longhorns.
■ NAIR BALL: This concept of form-fitting basketball jerseys with gigantic baggy shorts, like so many of the teams are sporting in this year's NCAA Tournament, doesn't seem to make sense. Then I remembered the short shorts that Charles Barkley wore at Auburn and decided these new uniforms could be a lot worse.
Las Vegas Review-Journal sports columnist Ron Kantowski can be reached at rkantowski@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0352.
