Competing coaches routinely rip Rebels when recruiting

Steve Addy

Wednesday, April 12, 2000 | 10:16 a.m.

When point guard recruit Kevin Bradley cited potential NCAA sanctions as his reason for turning down a UNLV scholarship last week, the Rebels couldn't challenge the vadility of his fears.

Facts are facts, after all. The NCAA has alleged a long list of violations by the UNLV program, the most serious of which could result in probation next year. Bradley selected Utah, saying he couldn't risk committing to the Rebels because of their uncertain future.

But coach Bill Bayno and associate coach Glynn Cyprien weren't surprised by Bradley's decision. Though neither accused Utah's coaching staff of stressing UNLV's predicament in its recruitment of Bradley, the Rebels say they have grown accustomed to negative recruiting by some schools.

In other words, while telling prospects how wonderful their own programs are, coaches make sure to point out the flaws in UNLV's program and the pitfalls -- real or imagined -- of living in a fast-and-loose party town like Las Vegas. It's the college basketball equivalent of a political attack ad -- running down your opponent to divert attention from your own blemishes.

Lumped atop UNLV's previous outlaw reputation, a result of the Tarkanian years, the latest NCAA allegations have made it even tougher for the Rebels to overcome negative recruiting. But Bayno said it has been a stumbling block since he became UNLV's coach in 1995.

"We're always going to get negatively recruited. It's just something that UNLV is always going to have to deal with," Bayno said. "It is the nature of the city. It is a city that is easily knocked, no matter how things have changed, and a program that has always been knocked. That is something we have to live with."

Cyprien, the Rebels' chief recruiter, said he constantly runs into negative perceptions of UNLV and doesn't doubt that other schools inflame and exploit those images.

"There are teams in the (Mountain West) that negatively recruit against us, and coaches in our former league (the WAC) who do it," Cyprien said. "We hear it every day. There's always a new story out there about us.

"Obviously, we are getting killed because of the (possibility of) probation or hard sanctions. Coaches talk about us because they're insecure or don't feel good about their own situations."

However, Bradley's spurning of UNLV can't necessarily be traced to negative recruiting, and the Rebels' two freshest recruits, Steve Scoggin and Lafonte Johnson, said other schools didn't rap the Rebels. Scoggin did not have an opportunity to hear negative talk because UNLV was his only recruiting visit, but Johnson said Ohio State and Pitt didn't run down the Rebels.

"UNLV didn't do it to anybody else, which I liked," Johnson said.

Cyprien said he has always been careful to stress UNLV's positives, not other schools' negatives.

"That's something we feel really good about. We've never negatively recruited another program. There is no room for that in the game," Cyprien said. "We don't have to do it. We try to turn negatives into positives.

"Sometimes, a (recruit's) parents might think there is nothing here but the Strip, but we show them this is the fastest-growing city in the country. If you get beyond the Strip, you'll see a whole city that's booming. There are many former Rebel players who are doing well in this town, and there will be great opportunities for these players after basketball."

Both Bayno and Cyprien point out that negative recruiting hasn't stopped the program from being successful.

"It hasn't hurt us," Bayno said. "I think the reality of the situation is we're not a school that is able to attract McDonald's All-Americans. We don't have a great academic history like a Stanford, Duke or North Carolina. We have to sell what we have.

"We're a school that has to get developmental players -- sleeper kids who weren't recruited by the big schools. We make the most of that. That is how we got guys like Dalron Johnson and Mark Dickel."