NCAA staff to speak with Bayno, ex-student manager

Steve Guiremand

Thursday, March 18, 1999 | 10:18 a.m.

Former UNLV basketball manager Mike Viellion, who has accused Rebel associate coach Glynn Cyprien of breaking several NCAA rules, said he will meet with representatives from the NCAA's enforcement staff today.

The 20-year-old Viellion has accused Cyprien of giving him money to make car payments on behalf of former Rebel Tyrone Nesby. He also said that Cyprien loaned his 1995 Thunderbird without his permission last July to UNLV center Kaspars Kambala while Viellion was out of town. Kambala subsequently totalled the car by driving it into a street pole.

Both allegations are major NCAA infractions if proven true.

UNLV head basketball coach Bill Bayno said he also would be interviewed today by NCAA officials.

"I'm looking forward to meeting with them and getting down to the truth," Bayno said. "The allegations are false."

Cyprien, who just finished his fourth season at UNLV as an assistant, has called Viellion's charges "bogus."

"I just got off the phone with (UNLV senior associate athletics director) Jerry Koloskie," Viellion said Wednesday afternoon. "He said the NCAA wants to speak with me again (today). ... I've already talked to them on the phone about it."

UNLV reportedly notified the NCAA of the incident regarding the wrecked car on Wednesday. Athletic department officials did not return phone calls seeking comment on that development.

The scope of the NCAA probe is unclear. Several UNLV players were scheduled to be interviewed but as of Wednesday, none have.

Viellion, who told KTNV Channel 13 that he "had enough information to blow this program up," denied he was on any sort of vendetta against UNLV, where he is a sophomore international business major.

"That made it look harsher than it really is," Viellion said. "I'm not out to get the program. I'm just trying to be made whole."

Viellion and his attorney, Metairie, La.-based Basile J. Uddo, both said the matter could have been resolved privately if Cyprien, Kambala and UNLV had agreed to come up with approximately $18,000 that Viellion feels he is owed as a result of Kambala's accident.

"Two weeks ago they told me they would settle and then they went back on their word," Viellion said.

Uddo, who agreed to help Viellion with the matter because he is a family friend, said he never anticipated the dispute would evolve into the media circus it has become.

"This was something that was so simple," Uddo said. "Mike wasn't even asking for his car to be replaced. All he wanted was what the difference between the market value of the car and the insurance value ($4,000). And he wanted some compensation for his car insurance, which dramatically increased (from $1,100 a year to more than $5,200 a year). And he just wanted that for three years. Most people would have asked for ten."

In a Feb. 10 letter to Karl W. Armstrong, Assistant General Counsel for the University and College System of Nevada, Uddo also asked that Viellion be reimbursed $500 for his insurance deductible as well as another $500 for a fee associated with "Mr. Kambala allowing the car to be impounded by the Las Vegas Police." The total compensation Uddo and Viellion asked for totalled $18,434.

Uddo further wrote in the Feb. 10 letter to Armstrong: "While I understand that the University does not accept any responsibility, especially since there are NCAA regulations implicated by the conduct of Coach Cyprien, my client does not insist on the University taking such responsibility. However, he is a student in good standing at UNLV and the conduct of one of your coaches has caused him harm. ... What (Cyprien) did involved two UNLV students. The University should certainly be concerned to see that this matter is resolved."

Uddo also expressed concern about an alleged threatening phone call from Cyprien to Viellion. Viellion said that Cyprien also challenged him to a fight in the stands after UNLV's loss to TCU at the Thomas & Mack Center on Feb. 22.

The irony of all this is that Viellion attended the same high school as Cyprien --Jesuit High School in New Orleans -- and, according to Uddo, was a big fan of UNLV and Cyprien.

"That's the shame of this whole thing," Uddo said. "Mike liked Cyprien and wanted to go to UNLV. Now he feels abandoned.

"I taught for 22 years at the Loyola Law School here as a full-time professor. One of the things you never want to do at a university is make a student or his family feel like you're not interested or concerned about these kids who are entrusted to you. I think that's exactly what UNLV did here."

Uddo said he wasn't concerned that Viellion might be viewed as the villain by some hardcore UNLV basketball followers.

"I think if anybody looks at this thing and looks at it fairly, they understand that (Cyprien) basically took advantage of Mike. ...

"Mike has been very reasonable and decent about it. He didn't run out to the press when it happened and make a big deal out of it. That's because he felt all along that they were going to do the right thing and help him out."

"Even if UNLV didn't self-report (the NCAA violation), I wouldn't have said anything," Viellion said. "I'm not some disgruntled employee. All I want is the money that is owed me for their mistake."