It’s time to change channels

People around here already knew how good former Green Valley High standout Billy White and the San Diego State basketball team are. How high the Aztecs jump. How quickly they get up and down the floor. How they can transform the offensive backboard into a meat tenderizer, they pound it so hard.

Now the rest of the nation knows it, too.

It knows it because Gonzaga is a member in good standing with ESPN, and any time ESPN puts together reindeer games, these made-for-ESPN events such as Tuesday's College Hoops Tip-Off Marathon featuring 21 live games played over 25½ hours, the Zags have a standing invitation to join.

People used to laugh at the Zags, like Rudolph and his red nose, and call them names. A few victories on national TV took care of that.

The Zags figured they might add to that total against San Diego State and Billy White of the Mountain West Conference. They figured wrong. The Aztecs won, 79-76. White was magnificent, scoring a career-high 30 points.

One of these foggy Christmas Eves, maybe ESPN will say to UNLV coach Lon Kruger what it said to Mark Few, the Gonzaga coach. That with his future so bright, won't he play UCLA on national TV tonight? Or Wisconsin? Or even Northern Bleeping Iowa, now that Ali Farokhmanesh is shooting baskets in Switzerland?

I'm encouraged by the quote attributed to Javan Hedlund, the Mountain West communications director, that something is going on behind the scenes to make all of this a possibility.

"The way things are right now, if you're not on the ESPN family of networks, you're not on television," Hedlund told the Los Angeles Times.

I'm encouraged that new blood around the conference, such as UNLV athletic director Jim Livengood, thinks the current MWC TV deal with its own network, the Versus network, CBS College Sports and any other cable channel not committed to showing "Hogan's Heroes" reruns might have seemed a good idea then but warrants further review now.

"If not for ESPN, people wouldn't have known about the blue turf," Livengood said about impending Mountain West member Boise State becoming the college football equivalent of Gonzaga, thanks to all those Friday night games on the Entertainment and Sports Programming Network. "Love 'em or hate 'em, those are four magical letters."

I'm encouraged by what Steve Fisher, the San Diego State coach, said after the 25th-ranked Aztecs knocked off No. 11 Gonzaga in a game that pulsated like a shower head at a five-star hotel.

Fisher said any time you beat a team such as Gonzaga on the road, it's huge. Do it on national TV during ESPN reindeer games, and there's almost no way to measure its significance.

"This one I know got national attention," Fisher said. "Many people were wondering what we were like."

People might be wondering what Kruger and the Rebels are like, too.

The Rebels' best opportunity to make an early-season impression comes Thanksgiving night when they play Tulsa at the 76 Classic on ESPN2. But that game doesn't start until 8:30 p.m., or 11:30 JBT (Jay Bilas Time). By then, most of the nation will be lying comatose on the sofa, victims of a deep tryptophan-induced sleep. Plus, it's not a home game. The atmosphere at the Thomas & Mack Center is electric. The atmosphere at the Anaheim Convention Center will be like watching paint dry during late-night curling.

Probably the next best chance for UNLV to make a statement is Saturday, against Wisconsin of the Big Ten. Versus will televise from the Thomas & Mack Center. Versus says it is the nation's fastest-growing sports network, available in 75 million homes. The ESPN family of networks burps up that many viewers after a ham sandwich.

Plus, I can guarantee that if "nothing is on" TV and you walk into a bar or a barber shop or even a bait and tackle shop, they'll have ESPN on, because when there's nothing on, ESPN will show replays of guys fishing for bass on Lake Okeechobee.

I have never walked into a bait and tackle shop, at least not on purpose. But I can almost assure you that if I did, they wouldn't be watching the Wisconsin-UNLV game on Versus.

Las Vegas Review-Journal columnist Ron Kantowski can be reached at rkantowski@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0352.