Rebels: So far, so good

Steve Carp

Wednesday, Jan. 15, 1997 | 11:59 a.m.

Bill Bayno took Monday off to give himself a mental and physical tuneup. And he couldn't have picked a better time to do it.

Bayno's UNLV basketball team has hit the midpoint of its 1996-97 season. With the Rebels 11-3 overall and 3-1 after their first two weeks in the Western Athletic Conference, it was the perfect time for the coach to stop and reflect on his team and where it needs to go the next seven weeks.

"Our goal all along has been to improve individually and as a team and I think we've done that," he said of a program which already has won more games than it did the entire 1995-96 season when it went 10-16. "If you had said to me back on Oct. 15 that this team would be 11-3 and 3-1 in the WAC at this point, we would've taken it.

"There hasn't been a game where we didn't come out and play hard and compete. But there's going to be a lot of peaks and valleys. We just have to stay together."

The Rebels fought through some early-season injuries as well as defections in the ranks which shrank the team's overall depth. But stringing together some close wins and finding a way to bounce back from consecutive road losses at Nevada-Reno and Syracuse with a seven-game win streak gave the team some much-needed confidence and secured in Bayno's mind what he was doing was right.

"Whenever you have a new team, it takes time for everyone to learn each other and get comfortable," he said. "When we lost (center) Keon (Clark), we still managed to win some games, but it wasn't until he came back and we adjusted to having him back that things started to come together."

Clark sprained his left knee in the Nov. 23 opener against Cal State Northridge and didn't rejoin the team until Dec. 14 at Reno. And while he played well, the team struggled as it had learned to play without him, especially on defense.

Bayno had installed a matchup zone which suited the players. And when Clark came back, he had to adjust to it. The team was a bit out of sync, but when the Rebels bounced back and beat Tulane 76-63, everything seemed to fall into place.

"We started getting comfortable with each other and we started making shots," Bayno said. "The Tulane game was big because we had faced adversity for the first time and we reacted well."

And the formula for success -- defense, rebounding and making shots -- has given UNLV the ability to win away from the Thomas & Mack Center. The Rebels are 3-2 on the road after winning just once in 11 tries a year ago.

Bayno said the goals haven't changed for the second half of the season, which begins Saturday at Oklahoma State and continues Monday with a trip to Selland Arena and what should be an emotional game against former UNLV coach Jerry Tarkanian and his Fresno State Bulldogs.

"The chemistry has to remain good," he said. "We've had guys accept their roles and that has to stay status quo. We've got to keep playing together and be unselfish.

"Nothing's changed. Our goal is to still win more than we lose and put ourselves in a position to make a run late in the season. The WAC's as tough as I thought it would be and we expect a war every night."