Unlv

After two seasons at Connecticut, Roscoe Smith   is headed west to finish out his college basketball career. The former All-Metro forward from Walbook has committed to UNLV, according to CBSSports.com's Jeff Goodman . Smith should be eligible to play for the Runnin' Rebels immediately because of UConn's NCAA postseason ban for academic reasons . Smith had a promising freshman year for the national-champion Huskies during the...

After two seasons at Connecticut, Roscoe Smith   is headed west to finish out his college basketball career. The former All-Metro forward from Walbook has committed to UNLV, according to CBSSports.com's Jeff Goodman . Smith should be eligible to play for the Runnin' Rebels immediately because of UConn's NCAA postseason ban for academic reasons . Smith had a promising freshman year for the national-champion Huskies during the...

Sometimes a 30-0 record and a 29-point winning margin aren' convincing enough. Such is the case of Nevada-Las Vegas, which despite the figures above is not the pick of the majority of "It's Your Call" respondents to win this year's NCAA basketball tournament.Sixty percent of Evening Sun readers and other respondents to yesterday's phone survey thought "someone other than UNLV" would win the tournament. The other 117 of the 296 respondents (40 percent) said UNLV would repeat as champion."It's Your Call" represents a sampling of opinions from certain segments of the community, but it is not balanced demographically, as would be done in a scientific public opinion poll.

Some of the top senior basketball talent in Baltimore will be in action Sunday at the Charm City Senior Classic at St. Frances. The "Unsigned" game, scheduled for 4:30 p.m., features Patterson's Shakir Brown and Dunbar's Evan Singletary on the East squad, while the West will be led by Calvert Hall's Denzell Richardson and Justin Beck and several others. The "Signed" game, set for a 6:15 p.m. tip, includes an East roster featuring St. Frances' Daquan Cook (UNLV)

LAS VEGAS -- A Nevada Las Vegas professor, saying he is "thoroughly embarrassed" by the school's basketball program, yesterday placed a resolution before the UNLV faculty senate urging administrators and the University of Nevada System Board of Regents to suspend the program for two years.Jim Deacon, UNLV distinguished professor of biology and director of the school's environmental studies program, submitted the resolution to the faculty senate for airing at the body's regularly scheduled meeting.

LAS VEGAS, Nev. -- Forward J. R. Rider of Nevada Las Vegas said yesterday during a news conference that school officials should be held accountable for their role in his season-ending suspension. Rider was suspended Tuesday when it was revealed that a tutor had done some summer-school work that Rider submitted as his own."I feel that I've been made a public scapegoat by the university," said Rider.

TUCSON, Ariz. -- The NCAA tournament suddenly became interesting yesterday.If a Georgetown team that sneaked into the tourney through the back door can take defending national champion Nevada-Las Vegas down to the last two minutes, well, there's hope for the Arizonas, the Seton Halls and the Ohio States of the world.The Hoyas might have felt bad about losing to the top-ranked Runnin' Rebels 62-54 in the West Regional, but 15 other basketball teams watched with glee."I do think it's possible for somebody to beat them," Georgetown coach John Thompson said.

LAS VEGAS -- Two years ago, when former Villanova basketball coach Rollie Massimino came to Nevada-Las Vegas to replace Jerry Tarkanian, then-UNLV president Robert Maxson said, "We had to hire someone who, the day he walked onto campus, we would be perceived as a better university, and Massimino was a perfect fit."To which a teary-eyed Massimino replied, "I never had as nice a compliment in 20 years at Villanova."Today, the Nevada Ethics Commission will be looking into what has become known in this town as "The Massimino Mess."

LAS VEGAS -- The newest and latest set of charges facing the Nevada-Las Vegas basketball program have university officials digging in for another lengthy battle with the NCAA.But lawyers representing the team's coach, Jerry Tarkanian, and one of his former assistants said yesterday they were skeptical of the allegations."This is not a kinder, gentler NCAA enforcement division," said Chuck Thompson, the attorney for Tarkanian. "It's the same as it's always been. I see nothing different in their approach or the allegations."

It was supposed to be "The Ambush." Instead, it became "The Exclamation Point."If there was any doubt left as to how good top-ranked Nevada-Las Vegas really is, roughly two weeks before the Runnin' Rebels' coronation begins in the NCAA tournament, it should have been erased Monday night in Las Cruces, N.M., as UNLV dismantled 11th-ranked New Mexico State 86-74."

Get to know No. 1: Kansas (32-2) will try to remove the sting of being upset by Northern Iowa as a No. 1 seed last season in the second round. The Big 12 champions operate through twins Markieff and Marcus Morris (left), who together average 31 points and 15 rebounds and have led the Jayhawks in scoring in 23 games. They also have capable shooters in Tyshawn Taylor, Tyrel Reed and Brady Morningstar and lead the nation in field-goal percentage (51.4). Cinderella: USC. The 11th-seeded Trojans have a few bad losses, but they also boast victories against Texas, Arizona, Washington, Tennessee and UCLA.

Minnesota took the biggest fall of the week, from 8th to 22nd. Records through Sunday (last week's ranking) 1. Duke 13-0 (1): The Blue Devils began ACC play with a win over Miami. 2. Ohio State 14-0 (2): The Buckeyes have more than an inside game. They shot 68 percent from 3-point range to beat Indiana. 3. Kansas 13-0 (3): It hasn't cooled down in Lawrence. The Jayhawks lead the nation, shooting 54.2 percent. 4. Syracuse 15-0 (5): Scoop can find the hoop.

THURSDAY'S TELEVISION HIGHLIGHTS M. bask. Old Spice: Boston Coll. vs. Texas A&M ESPN2Noon Old Spice: Manhattan vs. Wisconsin ESPN22 76: Cal State North. vs. Va. Tech ESPNU2 76 Classic, DePaul vs. Okla. State ESPN24:30 Old Spice: Georgia@Notre Dame ESPN27 76 Classic: Murray St. vs. Stanford ESPNU9 Great Alaska: Ariz. St. vs. Hou. Baptist MASN9 76 Classic: Tulsa vs. UNLV ESPN211:30 Great AK: AK-Anchorage vs. Weber St. MASN11:30 NBA Philadelphia@Washington (T)

The Mountain West Conference has been the baby of Division I basketball, in existence for only a little more than a decade. No. 15 New Mexico, No. 17 BYU and No. 23 UNLV proved this week how much the conference is growing up. Those teams are in a three-way tie for first place in the conference and represent the first time the league has placed three teams in the Associated Press Top 25. "The exposure for the league is great," UNLV's ...

Remember that gifted Kansas State team with Michael Beasley two seasons ago? Remember the one that was relegated to the NIT last season? This season, Kansas State is figuring out how it will be remembered. The Wildcats have taken some impressively long strides recently. Kansas State was picked in preseason polls to finish around the middle of a talented Big 12. A narrow loss to Mississippi and a victory against Dayton in Puerto Rico had some thinking the Wildcats would be just fine.

Citing turmoil within the University of Nevada-Las Vegas track and field program, Shalaiyah Sommerville rescinded her commitment to the Runnin' Rebels and signed a letter of intent with Hampton University yesterday. The Western senior said she asked UNLV to release her from the letter of intent that she signed in November after the school dismissed Garfield Ellenwood, the assistant coach who recruited Sommerville, in March and several Runnin' Rebels called her and warned her that the situation at the school was unstable.

LAS VEGAS -- In an apparent compromise worked out between Jerry Tarkanian and University of Nevada-Las Vegas officials, Tarkanian will spend one more season as UNLV's basketball coach before leaving the job he has held through nearly two decades of triumph and turmoil.Tarkanian's plans were announced yesterday after two days of talks between Tarkanian and university president Robert Maxson.Tarkanian's program has been the subject of negative publicity on an almost weekly basis during the last few months -- the most damaging item being the publication of photographs in the Las Vegas Review-Journal May 26 showing former UNLV players Moses Scurry, David Butler and Anderson Hunt socializing with convicted sports fixer Richard Perry.

LAS VEGAS -- It was a play in the second half Sunday afternoon that did not appear in the box score of top-seeded Nevada-Las Vegas' tense, 62-54 victory over Georgetown in the second round of the National Collegiate Athletic Association West Regional in Tucson, Ariz.UNLV's Larry Johnson had just completed a nine-point run to give the Runnin' Rebels a 44-29 cushion with 16 minutes left. As the muscular 6-foot-7, 250-pound forward ran back on defense, he did not bother to take a detour around the Hoyas' Brian Kelly, who had decked Rebels guard Greg Anthony in the first half.