Columnist Dean Juipe: Poor play has Rebels under siege

Dean Juipe

Friday, Dec. 11, 1998 | 10:08 a.m.

Cliches can come in handy.

Here's one: The bloom is off the rose.

As sayings go, maybe it isn't all that thought provoking yet it can be timely and effective if used properly. And it applies perfectly to the UNLV men's basketball team.

Top 25? That's where Sports Illustrated had the Rebels before the season.

Top 10? That's what the team's fans were thinking after UNLV overpowered patsies Sacred Heart and Troy State to open the season.

Topsy-turvy? That's what has happened of late, as the grandiose expectations of a month ago have given way to a pockmarked reality check that includes far more blemishes than gold stars.

The Rebels are in the midst of a difficult stretch of games and they not only haven't been impressive, they've been downright disappointing.

Disheveled vs. Southern California, blown away by Kansas and embarrassed by Arizona State, UNLV has lost its three toughest games and is 4-3 heading into a Saturday game at UCLA. Following immediately: Equally crucial games with Cincinnati and Oklahoma State.

If those games are all losses, the Rebels will be destroyed in the Ratings Percentage Index that plays such a vital role in determining invitations to the 64-team NCAA Tournament.

UNLV can defeat all the Sacred Hearts it wants -- it still has weaklings Columbia, Southern Utah and Cal Poly SLO on its agenda -- but it is hurting in the games that really count.

More to the point, the Rebels are losing and everyone from the ball boy to the fireworks specialist is discouraged. If unhappiness can be contagious, the campus and the city are in the midst of an epidemic.

When bad teams lose, people shrug.

When talented teams lose, people start pointing fingers.

They're pointing right now at Bill Bayno.

"Great recruiter but can't coach a lick," growl the truly disgruntled. They see him frantic on the sidelines, losing his voice and shouting, shouting, shouting incessantly to players who have tuned him out. They wonder why he can't be like John Wooden, who sat with his arms folded while the ball was in play and became a legendary coach by tactfully making a point or two when he had his players' complete attention.

Bayno is no Wooden, yet he can at least say hello to the Wizard of Westwood at Saturday's game with the Bruins. If so, Wooden may offer this singular tip: Let your guys play.

If Shawn Marion, Kevin Simmons, Kaspars Kambala, Brian Keefe and Greedy Daniels were left to their own devices in a playground game, they'd be tough to beat. In a free-flowing setting like that, the ball would gravitate to Marion and the future pro would make the opponent pay.

But in Bayno's structured offense, there's a little of this and some of that but not much in the way of consistent production. He is strangling the team's offense with his over-involvement.

There are other problems. Troubles with zone defenses, foul shooting and disappearing acts (particularly by Simmons) have the Rebels looking streaky and susceptible.

They also look dumbfounded, the result, no doubt, of seeing all that flowery praise from a month ago vanish like so many moldering petals.