Santoro: Remember that big cannon, Pack fans?

Sports Fodder:

It is never too early to start thinking about The Battle for the Fremont Cannon.

You remember the Fremont Cannon, don't you? It was that 500-plus pound beast that used to be painted blue and sit proudly in a corner of Cashell Fieldhouse behind Mackay Stadium most every year. Yeah, that cannon, the one former UNLV coach John Robinson was referring to when he once said, "It's too big to steal."

The cannon, when everything else is said and done, is the heartbeat of the state of Nevada's college football world. In addition to being a trophy for the state's rivalry game, it also unofficially served as the state's first rudimentary form of Twitter between the two universities. The Nevada players, after all, once sent a Tweet to UNLV, inscribing "University of Notta Lotta Victories" on the barrel and UNLV later responded with "University of Northern Rejects."

You can't steal the cannon, but you can break it apart like firewood or an IKEA bookcase. UNLV once broke the wheels off it on the field after beating the Pack and the Wolf Pack once took it apart just to get it on an airplane for the flight home. And there weren't even helpful instructions to put it back together written in Swedish.

Well, UNLV is sending a not-so-subtle message to the Pack once again this year in anticipation of the historic 50th meeting between the two schools on Nov. 30 at Las Vegas' Allegiant Stadium. Each UNLV season-ticket holder will receive a free black-and-red (UNLV colors, of course) hat that commemorates the 50th Fremont Cannon game. And, oh yeah, one other thing. The hat proudly features a red Fremont Cannon smack dab in the middle of the front.

Take that, Wolf Pack. You are going to have to look at a 500-plus pound red cannon on the field as well as thousands of red cannons on hats come Nov. 30. That's what you get for losing four of the last six Fremont Cannon games and six of the last 11.

But this, as all Wolf Pack supporters are well aware of, is just UNLV being UNLV. They win two Cannon games in a row and win nine games and go to a bowl game and the Mountain West championship game last year (they lost the bowl and the league title, by the way) and now they think they own the cannon and the state. Nowhere on that hat, by the way, will you find the words modesty, unpretentious, humble or discreet. Well, what do you expect from a university that once had a Confederate uniform-wearing mascot.

Yes, we are well aware that the Wolf Pack has also fallen a bit short in this rivalry when it comes to class. The University of Notta Lotta Victories message and all those tasteless F-UNLV shirts we've seen through the years are proof of that. So, nobody is without guilt here.

But that's all well and good. Let UNLV think it owns the state and the cannon. They earned it. It is, after all, a bit silly to argue with them right now. But come Nov. 30, wouldn't it be fitting if the Rebels, in addition to handing over a red Fremont Cannon to the Pack, also require their bandwagon fans to hand over their silly hats so the Pack can stomp on them at midfield?

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UNLV, simply because of the schedule, always gets the good anniversary games in the Wolf Pack-Rebel football rivalry.

UNLV has gotten the 10th, 20th, 30th and 40th games and now this year is getting No. 50. Yes, the Pack got No. 1 but that was before the rivalry even had a cannon or lights in the stadium.

Something has to change to even things out a bit. As things stand now the Rebels will get the 60th, 70th, 80th, 90th and 100th games of the rivalry. Think of all the red-and-black hat possibilities. It might be a good idea if the Pack slaps a few coats of blue paint on the cannon each decade so that the UNLV marketing department's imagination doesn't get totally out of control.

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How good will UNLV be this season? Well, the Rebels extended head coach Barry Odom's contract one year after he won nine games last year in his rookie season. They obviously don't believe a nine-win season was a fluke.

We will remind the Rebels that Jeff Horton won seven games and a Big West Conference title his first year and also went to a bowl game (which he won) in his first year as UNLV head coach in 1994. Horton then proceeded to win six more games over the next four years combined before he was mercifully fired. Horton, like Odom, also won his first Fremont Cannon game as UNLV coach.

Odom's 2024 Rebels, though, have a lot of talent. They might have one of the most talented rosters in the Mountain West. Athlon Sports recognized 17 Rebels on its recent Mountain West preseason projections. Yes, of course, college football preseason publications are meaningless and full of misinformation. But the Rebels this offseason did lose the biggest reason why they won nine games a year ago when quarterback Jayden Maiava, the Mountain West Freshman of the Year, transferred to USC to become the next Caleb Williams.

UNLV replaced Maiava with Holy Cross quarterback Matt Sluka, a run-pass threat that terrorized FCS defenses the last four years. Sluka is a tough kid (he is also a standout lacrosse player) who should perform well in the defenseless Mountain West. He is also fortunate that Rebel wide receiver Ricky White, who caught 88 passes last year for 1,483 yards and eight touchdowns, also didn't transfer.

But nine-win seasons don't happen often in Las Vegas. The last time before 2023 it happened was 1984. And all those victories were later forfeited because the Rebels were using ineligible players. So, no, it doesn't count.

The Rebels might struggle to reach nine wins again this year, even if all their players remain eligible. UNLV opens the season at Houston and has to go to Kansas in Week 3. It was Kansas that beat the Rebels last year in the Guaranteed Rate Bowl, 49-36. Kansas also beat the Pack last year (31-24) so maybe the Fremont Cannon should spend the 2024 season in Lawrence, Kansas.

The Rebels then play Fresno State and Syracuse at home and could be looking at a 1-4 or 2-3 start to the season.

Games at Utah State and Oregon State follow and Boise comes to Las Vegas on Oct. 25. Don't be shocked to see the Rebels no better than 3-5 heading into November. The last four games (Hawaii and San Jose State on the road and San Diego State and Nevada at home) should be enough to get the Rebels to six wins and bowl eligibility. But nobody will likely extend Odom's contract after the year.

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Nobody should also be surprised that Connecticut coach Dan Hurley turned down the Los Angeles Lakers' offer of $70 million for six years. Why would anybody with options want to coach the Lakers right now?

Hurley, who has won the last two NCAA Tournaments, certainly has options. The Lakers, with an aging and delusional LeBron James, are a circus. They are always a circus but now that circus is about to become ridiculous with LeBron openly forcing the Lakers to add his son Bronny to the roster this offseason. Nobody has ever truly coached LeBron and nobody will coach Bronny as long as his dad is his teammate. At Connecticut, Hurley can and likely will coach the university president and the governor if he wants to.

The Lakers, despite the $70 million, just aren't worth the aggravation. It's a dysfunctional organization right now with no real future. Hurley is now the King of Connecticut. All college men's basketball coaches are now kings and rule their kingdom accordingly, even those like Nevada's Steve Alford who really haven't won anything of note.

But Hurley has won two national titles. He is a genuine king. Connecticut will now reward him with a contract that will be every bit as lucrative as the one the Lakers waved in front of his face. And he won't have to be the straight man in the LeBron-Bronny sitcom.

Hurley is a great college coach. He built a great program at Connecticut and won two national titles by convincing his players in the transfer portal era to play unselfishly and efficiently. In the NBA he'd likely get fired in less than five years and then return to college coaching. 

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The Boston Celtics, currently up 2-0 in the NBA Finals against the Dallas Mavericks, are clearly the best team in the NBA. They had the best record in the regular season (64-18) as the only team in the league to win more than 57 games. They sailed through the postseason with 14 wins in 16 games and now seem well on their way to their NBA-record 18th championship.

Take that, Lakers.

The Celtics are much deeper than the Mavericks, a team that won just 50 games in the regular season. Dallas has had a more difficult and more impressive run through the playoffs compared to Boston, beating the Los Angeles Clippers, Oklahoma City Thunder and Minnesota Timberwolves, but their thin roster (Luka Doncic, Kyrie Irving and 10 guys LeBron wouldn't allow off the bench for the Lakers) seems to be running on fumes right now.

As long as a 28-year-old Dirk Nowitzki doesn't come out of the Mavericks locker room anytime soon, the Celtics should cruise to a title. But it might not be a sweep. The Celtics, led by Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown, have a history of losing focus in the playoffs.  They lost Games 4 and 5 against the Philadelphia 76ers in last year's Eastern Conference semifinals before winning Game 7. And they lost the first three games in the East Finals last year to the Heat and finally fell in seven games. They were up 2-1 on the Golden State Warriors in the 2022 NBA Finals and lost the last three games.

So don't be overly shocked if Luca and Kyrie erupt in Games 3 and 4 at home this week and make the Celtics sweat.

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NBA commissioner Adam Silver said this week that Seattle and Las Vegas are the top two places the league will look if expansion is officially put on the table for discussion. It obviously is up for discussion since Silver is now throwing out cities as possible new franchises. Silver also mentioned Mexico City as a possibility but that was likely just to give the Mexico capital hope and keep them interested in the league for now. NBA superstars won't play for more than half the teams in the NBA now, let alone one south of the border.

There is no doubt Las Vegas could support an NBA team. The city has already proven it can support an NHL team, a sport that really has no business being in southern Nevada in the first place. But Las Vegas was made for the NBA.

Major League Baseball might still be a stretch for Las Vegas. It's too hot for baseball in Las Vegas. The population of the area might not be able to support 81 games a year. And the Oakland A's are one of the worst-run franchises in all of professional sports.

But the NBA doesn't bring with it any of those concerns. The NBA probably wishes half their current franchises would consider a move to Las Vegas right now. A Las Vegas franchise would also have no problem attracting superstar players to their roster.

Most NBA franchises, like the vast majority of college basketball programs, struggle to play anything better than mediocre-to-bad basketball. Most regular season NBA and college games are boring blowouts. There's just not enough elite coaches and players to go along, no matter what your favorite college program has told you in their latest plea for NIL dollars.

But the NBA, like college basketball, is just about chasing the dollar. Adding franchises is really the only way sports leagues (professional and college) can grow significantly financially. The colleges do it by increasing the number of teams in their conference. The pros do it by adding new franchises.

Expect Las Vegas to get an NBA team within the next two years.