Columnist Dean Juipe: Shrink wrap threatens UNLV bench

Dean Juipe

Monday, Nov. 29, 1999 | 11:01 a.m.

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

It's chic in any sport for a team to be branded with "a long bench."

The term applies not to the bench's actual physical length, of course, but to an enviable condition that reflects the quality of a team's depth. A long bench equals a long night for the opposition.

Everyone desires a long bench. It's an asset that means even when things are amiss, someone among the reserves has the ability to step in and right a rollicking ship.

As the UNLV men's basketball team was roughing up patsies Mississippi Valley State, Fairfield and Nevada-Reno to open the current season, the Rebels' bench appeared especially long. The players in the farthest chairs from head coach Bill Bayno were getting into games and producing.

The Rebels looked to be blessed.

Perhaps they still are, as the faces haven't changed. But as was demonstrated Sunday in UNLV's scintillating 85-69 victory over Georgetown at the Thomas & Mack Center, Bayno may have a few reservations about some of his guys and that lengthy bench the fans thought he possessed might actually be entangled in shrink wrap.

In all probability the Rebels are not as deep as initially celebrated. And whereas Bayno under optimum conditions might need binoculars to see who he has at his disposal, in reality he could probably get by with eyesight no better than Mr. Magoo's.

Arguably, the Rebels have six mainstays: Dalron Johnson, Mark Dickel, Kaspars Kambala, Trevor Diggs, Danny Brotherson and Chris Richardson. In terms of playing time, maybe Issiah Epps should be added to that list -- although it's his height and not his production that's behind his playing time.

When Lou Kelly becomes eligible next month the Rebels will add a seventh catalyst to their rotation. His playing time will come at the expense of a current starter who is seldom used for too many minutes and who is almost certainly the designated odd man out once Kelly arrives, Donovan Stewart.

Stewart may be in the process of joining Chris Popoola, Vince Booker, Kenny Dye and Sylvester Dotson as players good enough to make the team yet looking as if they're merely rounding out the roster.

This isn't written in stone however. Dye was vanquished Sunday but had been playing, and Dotson has the size and type of wide body that any college team could utilize.

It was surprising he didn't play more against the Hoyas, given Kambala's foul troubles and Epps impersonating the Invisible Man.

But with the Rebels playing in bursts and streaks, Bayno, for the first time this season, shortened his rotation and put the brakes on the notion UNLV was 12 deep and remarkably strong.

What they are is solid and hopeful.

Beating Georgetown before an enthusiastic crowd was significant for the Rebels even if the visitors had spent the last week sampling the pleasures of Maui and Las Vegas and have lost their special allure.

It was a good win, no question about it. But in the process of getting to 4-0 the Rebels may have lost a little something, and it's the optimistic belief that they were balanced and interchangeable.

Depth perception? It's a diagnosis that's subject to interpretation, but if those warming the bench don't improve their play they had better get used to their sideline view.