Columnist Steve Addy: Cyp happy on the other side

Steve Addy

Friday, Dec. 1, 2000 | 9:57 a.m.

Steve Addy covers college basketball for the Las Vegas Sun. His column runs on Friday during the season. Reach him at 259-4087 or by e-mail at addy@lasvegassun.com.

There was no mistaking the happiness in the voice on the other end of the phone.

Glynn Cyprien, Oklahoma State's new assistant coach, is loving life in Stillwater. After a five-year stint as the Rebels' lead assistant and chief recruiter, he left Aug. 14 to join Eddie Sutton's OSU staff and presumably put himself in the NCAA head coaching pipeline.

Cyprien will be reunited with his former UNLV players on Saturday when the Rebels play the Cowboys (2-0) at the Myriad Center in Oklahoma City.

"It was a great move for me," Cyprien said this week. "It's been better than I expected it would be. I've gone to a program that was one game away from the Final Four (last year) and I couldn't be happier. I've already had the opportunity to do a lot of coaching."

Though Cyprien expressed minor regret for leaving the players he recruited here -- Trevor Diggs, Sylvester Dotson, Jermaine Lewis, Danny Brotherson -- he wasn't going to lie and say he hadn't been eager for fresh surroundings.

After all, Cyprien interviewed for various coaching jobs while at UNLV. He nearly left for Nebraska in 1998, but stayed on Bill Bayno's staff after being promoted to associate head coach. This year, he interviewed for the Jacksonville (Ala.) State head coaching job, then was a rumored candidate at Arkansas-Little Rock.

A few months later, with little fanfare, Cyprien was gone to OSU. He splits the recruiting duties with associate coach Sean Sutton, the coach's son, who will surely succeed his dad in a few years.

But Cyprien believes he will get a chance to join Gene Keady, Bill Self, Rob Evans and Leonard Hamilton as ex-Sutton assistants who became head coaches.

"I have learned so much in the short time I've been here," Cyprien said. "I'm surprised that coach (Sutton) is so hands-on. I thought by now he would be doing more observing, but he's hands-on in every aspect. He definitely sets the daily routine."

Cyprien said he and Bayno have spoken only briefly since he went to OSU, but he has talked with Diggs and other UNLV players.

"Those guys still call. I want nothing but the best for them," Cyprien said. "I watched the Illinois game and I was rooting for them like everybody else. I hoped they could pull it out, but they couldn't do it."

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