Herod, Richardson accepting their roles

Steve Carp

Wednesday, Dec. 9, 1998 | 3:19 a.m.

When Desmond Herod and Chris Richardson were seeing ample playing time at the start of the season, they should have known that UNLV coach Bill Bayno wasn't a man who broke his word.

Because the two freshmen are sitting most of the time, they are now wondering what did they do to deserve such treatement?

Nothing, said Bayno.

Playing the likes of Sacred Heart and Troy State merely gave him an opportunity to give the 6-foot-7 Richardson and the 6-5 Herod extended minutes. But the reality of the situation is the level of competition has risen significantly, and Bayno is playing just seven men in his rotation.

And he doesn't want to put Richardson and Herod in a position where they will fail.

"That's normal with kids," Bayno said. "There'll be games where they'll play and there'll be games where they won't. But I talked to both of them and the message is the same as when we recruited them -- they've got to compete every day in practice, learn the system and try and get better."

How much Richardson and Herod play Saturday against No. 15 UCLA is hard to gauge. Assuming no one is hurt or in foul trouble, there won't be a lot of minutes available. But if someone is struggling, Bayno may opt for the freshmen, both of whom have done good things when given the opportunity.

"I think they understand," he said. "If they get better in practice and are prepared to get minutes, that'll lead to more minutes."

The players do get the message, even though they admit it is a tough adjustment. Both were stars on their respective high school teams where they played virtually all game.

"We played well the first couple of games, so we thought we'd get more time," Richardson said. "But I guess you can't really count that because the teams we played weren't very good."

Herod said: "Me and Chris talked about it and we thought we were doing something wrong. But Coach Bayno said we weren't. He told us to keep our heads up and keep working hard in practice and we'll eventually get our chance."

Herod said he treats practice as a game situation.

"I want to show him (Bayno) that I deserve to play," he said. "It's a big adjustment for me. But I knew that coming in, so I can't be too upset."

Bayno said he initiated the pep talk to assure the freshmen they were an important part of the program.

"It's about accepting roles," he said. "Their goal is to get better in practice every day and be prepared to help the team. And they're doing that."

Hoop du jour

Shawn Marion didn't practice Tuesday as he is nursing a head cold. Kaspars Kambala wound up sitting out the latter part of the workout with a cold as well. Both are expected to practice today and should be ready by Saturday. ... The school officially announced Tuesday what had been in the works for several months, that the first-ever UNLV Spanish-language telecast will be Jan. 2 when UNLV plays Cal Poly-San Luis Obispo. KBLR Channel 39 (Cox Cable 9) will be the outlet as the school attempts to reach out to the ever-growing Hispanic population in town. ... The latest Ratings Percentage Index list is out and UNLV is ranked No. 119 among 310 Division I schools. Ohio is rated No. 1 while the WAC is rated No. 11 among 31 Division I conferences.