Columnist Dean Juipe: Bayno’s job safe in spite of criticism

Dean Juipe

Wednesday, Jan. 5, 2000 | 10:35 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.

Callers seem outraged and e-mailers are equally perturbed.

Whether voicing their sentiments to the city's sports talk radio shows or merely bouncing them off their fellow zealots, they're targeting UNLV men's basketball coach Bill Bayno and sounding vindictive about it.

Tuesday night's victory over High Point aside, Bayno, for the first time in his five seasons here, suddenly is under the gun. A 40-point loss at Cincinnati on Sunday -- on top of the Lou Kelly fiasco -- left such a sour taste that his performance in big games and his overall qualifications to coach have come under question.

Of those who see Bayno with some indignation, the more belligerent repeatedly wonder what it will take to get him fired.

They may shudder, but the answer is simple: In all probability, he will never be shown the door.

That isn't to say Bayno is the Rebels' coach for life. But even allowing for his supposed shortcomings and the possibility he will take some heat when the ongoing NCAA investigation is completed sometime this millennium, he's very secure.

It takes some imagination to picture him quitting or surrendering in the face of even increased pressure or administrative scrutiny. And Bayno is so well liked by those who run the university that, to date at least, they are oblivious to his faults.

The animosity he faces in some quarters is fairly newfound and driven by UNLV's poor showing this season in three games with ranked opponents. While whipping the High Points on their schedule, the Rebels lost by 24 points to North Carolina, by 14 to Oklahoma State and by 40 to Cincinnati.

The latter was UNLV's worst loss in 29 years and its 10th straight to a ranked nonconference opponent. Bayno's overall record against ranked teams is 4-14.

The absolute fact of the matter is that the Rebels have had only one noteworthy week in his tenure as head coach, and that came during a 1998 run through the Western Athletic Conference tournament. Unexpectedly, they went 4-0 and qualified for the NCAA Tournament.

Throw that week out and Bayno's career has been a mix of potential and promise without much in the way of encouraging results.

But here's the key to his defense: Both he and his supervisors have preached patience since he arrived, and it would be impatient to push him toward a premature exit today.

Oddly enough, the current season opened with a hearty dose of fanfare. The rebuilt Rebels clearly have some talent, even if it isn't the type of overwhelming talent that can carry the program back among the nation's elite.

But there is something to build on and the team's devoted fans are fairly resilient. While they may be annoyed at the Rebels' repeated failures in big games, they want Bayno to succeed and they don't want to see the program handed over to still another coach bent on reinventing the wheel.

Unless that NCAA inquiry explodes into something far more damaging than it appears from a distance, no amount of hate mail and disparaging calls will chase Bayno out of town.

For continuity's sake if nothing else, he has a long leash.

He also has a contract extension and a commitment, and he's here for the long run.

Only if the Rebels are still losing when your grandchildren come of age will his job truly be in jeopardy.