Columnist Dean Juipe: Easy win hides talk of transfers

Dean Juipe

Friday, Jan. 29, 1999 | 10:42 a.m.

Dean Juipe's column appears Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday. His boxing notebook appears Thursday. Reach him at juipe@lasvegassun.com or 259-4084.

Call it a feel-good victory for the UNLV basketball team, one where almost everything went right.

Lots of points, lot of smiles.

Turmoil? Discontent? Neither was evident during the Rebels' ridiculously easy 96-75 win over a colder-than-Laramie, Wyoming team Thursday night at the Thomas & Mack Center.

The fans loved it. A game that appeared competitive on paper was anything but, as UNLV's gunners rifled in shots while its big men bound and gagged their younger counterparts on the Cowboys.

It was a rout.

Yet just beneath the surface if not quite behind the scenes, the conversation wasn't quite so rosy. It has become apparent that coach Bill Bayno has a minor insurrection on his hands.

He has at least three players with eligibility beyond this season who are contemplating leaving the program and transferring. In addition, it looks more and more likely that his best player, junior Shawn Marion, will almost certainly say goodbye to his teammates after the season and turn pro.

Marion's decision comes as no surprise and has to be expected. NBA scouts are said to be very high on his abilities and he's a potential lottery pick.

That's too much to resist, so enjoy him while you can.

But his situation is entirely different than those of sophomore Greedy Daniels and freshmen Desmond Herod and Chris Richardson. The scuttlebutt is that Daniels will transfer, that Herod might if his playing time doesn't increase during the final third of the season, and that Richardson would probably go with him if his mother wasn't objecting to the notion.

Ideally, none of these guys bails. The Rebels need them and so does Bayno.

He has had skirmishes with each of the three and no matter who is at fault, it's the program and coach that will take the hit if they say adios. Put it this way: Rival recruiters will make it a big, big issue with potential Rebels if there's a perception -- valid or not -- that Bayno is tough to play for.

He doesn't need his young players walking out. In fact, truth is, it's bad enough that they're even considering it.

Daniels probably only has himself to blame for his status as a second stringer, as he was projected to be the team's starting point guard by now. But he's a little too wild on the court for Bayno, and Bayno's a Mark Dickel fan.

If Daniels were playing better, it would be easy to side with him. But he's not -- although he certainly has far greater potential than Dickel.

Herod and Richardson have better grounds to complain, and they have. Granted, Brian Keefe was hot in the game with Wyoming and showed what a marksman he can be, but Herod deserves more minutes than he has been receiving. It could even be argued Herod should be starting and Keefe should be the one coming off the bench.

Richardson, who is suspended although still practicing with the Rebels, is an exciting player and one the fans would like to see. In the 15 games he has played, he has averaged only seven minutes and that's not nearly enough.

Bayno wouldn't agree, but he's the one who should appease these players. They're crucial to the program's future.

If there's a mass exodus, the repercussions will be plentiful and very much negative.

That's reason enough for Bayno to be a little more accommodating.