Southern Nevada ABA team keeping dreams alive

About 10 minutes before the Henderson Hawks were to tip off against the Yuba City (California) Goldminers in the opening game of the ABA Far West Desert Classic at Dula Gym downtown Friday, senior citizens were playing pingpong at the top of the key.

The Arizona Scorpions had been suspended at short notice, forcing a schedule change at short notice.

The Hawks and Goldminers tipped at 2 instead of noon. There wasn’t any water in the gym, and when the players stood for the national anthem, there wasn’t a flag, so they turned to a corner to face one of those portable chairs you see at cookouts. It featured an American flag motif. One of the player’s dads had been sitting in it.

These shortcomings seemed of little consequence. The narrative was more about keeping the dream alive, and for the Hawks, it also was about trying to put a body on Tyler Monroe, the Goldminers’ Joakim Noah doppelganger. As the public address announcer cried to the dozens of spectators: “Monroe — he’s been a problem all day.”

Monroe, who averaged 13 points during two seasons at NCAA Division II Azusa Pacific, scored 29 points in Yuba City’s 108-104 overtime victory. Tyler Fry also scored 29 — when his dad, Mark, learned there wasn’t any water, he went to the parking lot to fetch a few bottles that had gone unconsumed on the drive down from the Sacramento, California, area.

The shots weren’t falling for Hawks star Spencer Mathis — he finished with 16 points on 7-of-20 shooting. But earlier Friday, Mathis had signed with Atletico Club San Martin of Argentina. The 20-year-old, who played at Valley High and briefly for Northern Colorado, is going to get paid to play basketball for the next 11 months, whether somebody shows up or not.

“I got the look starting with this ABA team,” he said before the game. “When we went down to play the San Diego Surf, I had an outstanding game. I got known (to international scouts).”

Spencer Mathis had kept the dream alive. He said he owes it to this new ABA, which like its namesake, features a red, white and blue ball and teams of which you have never heard, but none called The Floridians.

The water arrived at halftime. The narrative lives on. It continues Sunday with four or five games at Dula, beginning around noon or 2 p.m.

WILL IT BE 16?

Last year, the inaugural Vegas 16 men’s college basketball postseason tournament at Mandalay Bay was trimmed to the Vegas 8 because of a lack of interest, which wreaked havoc with the official logo. Tournament chairman (and former UNLV athletic director) Jim Livengood will soon learn if it will be the Vegas 16 this March.

It won’t be the Vegas 8 again, Livengood said. In a worst-case scenario, it might be the Las Vegas 0. If the interest isn’t there, bd Global, the event management company out of Kentucky, might pull the plug.

But Livengood expressed optimism the Vegas 16 will happen.

“We’re trying to get all our ducks lined up during the month of January, but we need some help from some of these conferences,” Livengood said. “I don’t think eight (teams) pencils out for anybody. I think it needs to be 16.”

Livengood, who is promoting the Vegas 16 as one would a basketball bowl game, said he could get to 16 teams quickly if one or two of the Power 5 conferences would commit a side or two.

None of the major conferences was represented last year when Old Dominion beat Oakland in the championship game.

AND WHAT ABOUT THE WOMEN?

A novel idea to bring the entire women’s NCAA Sweet 16 to Las Vegas is gaining momentum among women’s basketball types, Livengood said, but such a development will be contingent upon the NCAA governors (read: presidents) altering their two-hand set shot perspective on hosting championship events here (though a bazillion conferences already do).

When NCAA pooh-bahs convene in Nashville, Tennessee, on Jan. 21 and 22 with many hot topics on the agenda, the archaic ban on deciding championships here could be revised. Livengood said he detects enthusiasm from among governors he knows (he once was chairman of the NCAA men’s tournament committee, so he knows a lot of governors) for joining the 21st century.

So come on down, Geno Auriemma. We’ll leave the light on for you.

LAST LINE OF DEFENSE

When Carolina Hurricanes equipment manager Jorge Alves got into a NHL game against Tampa Bay for the final 7.6 seconds as an emergency goaltender, it might have brought back memories for local hockey fans of when Jay White, better known as a Neil Diamond impersonator, put on the pads for the defunct Las Vegas Thunder and Las Vegas Wranglers in similar situations.

Born in Kitchner, Ontario, White had been tending goal since he was 8. As I recall, he did not appear in any official games here, but then when was the last time you heard Henrik Lundvqvist sing “Sweet Caroline” between periods?

Local hockey fans of a certain age also might remember when Manon Rheaume, pro hockey’s Danica Patrick, got into two games between the pipes for the Thunder during the 1994-95 season. “The First Lady of Hockey” played 52 minutes, made 14 saves, let in three goals.

I was at the Thomas & Mack Center during one of those games. The Thunder defense, led by former NHLers Rod Buskas and Jim Kyte (and Darcy “Chainsaw” Loewen must have been lurking near the blue line, just in case), formed a protective gantlet around Rheaume that recalled Clint Eastwood and Sondra Locke driving through downtown Phoenix in a hijacked bus.

TAKING A KNEE

• Congratulations to Centennial High girls basketball coach Karen Weitz (who made coaching in a warmup suit fashionable long before AAU coaches did) upon notching her 600th victory. When Weitz stood on one sideline and Bishop Gorman’s Sheryl Krmpotich on the other, you could feel the electricity, and sometimes it was hard to find a seat.

• Remember when Lyndon Johnson said if he had lost Walter Cronkite, he had lost middle America (over the Vietnam war)? I wonder if Mountain West commissioner Craig Thompson feels likewise about Chris Maathuis, the hard-working and almost always optimistic Channel 8 sports director? Maathuis posted a graphic showing the traditional MW minnows having their way with the traditional big fish on the basketball court the other night on his Twitter account followed by the hashtags #mediocre and #onebidleague.

• When I sent Kris Bryant’s dad a text, asking if he would send me one after watching his offspring exchange marriage vows with longtime sweetheart Jessica Delp this weekend, this is what Mike Bryant texted back: “We have to check our cellphones at the door! A la Jeter!”

Contact Ron Kantowski at rkantowski@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0352. Follow @ronkantowski on Twitter.