Columnist Steve Addy: Rebels better off this season

Steve Addy

Wednesday, Dec. 19, 2001 | 10 a.m.

Steve Addy covers college basketball for the Las Vegas Sun. Reach him at 259-4087 or by e-mail at addy@lasvegassun.com. Regular columnist Dean Juipe is on vacation.

Considering the calamitous events of the last three months, it would be bad form to overdramatize the indignities suffered by UNLV's basketball program in the past year.

None of the Rebels' misfortune qualifies as tragedy.

However, from this side of the firewall that protects sports from real life, it's indisputable that the Rebels have experienced few happy moments from last year's Nevada-Reno game to the one coming up Thursday.

The one-year anniversary passed without mention, but several strange events were set in motion on Dec. 9, 2000 when UNLV traveled to Lawlor Events Center and lost to the Wolf Pack 80-71.

It was a crushing, demoralizing defeat and coach Bill Bayno was rightfully worried. On the flight home, he stared wordlessly out the window, never opening the Tom Clancy thriller on his lap. If he didn't know his job was in danger, it wasn't for a lack of clues.

Less than 48 hours later, Bayno was history, fired in the dark of night after he refused to quit. Thus began 12 months of staggering upheaval for the Rebels.

The NCAA socked the program with four years of probation and two years of scholarship cuts. Max Good was boosted to interim coach, but without an interim title. Rick Pitino declared his interest in the job, then rejected it after two months of jerking everyone around. And UNLV's appeal of a postseason ban was met with yawns at NCAA headquarters.

If the shameless genuflecting at Pitino's feet wasn't pathetic enough, there were many more black eyes for the Rebels. Kaspars Kambala's Big Monday bailout at BYU. Bayno's lawsuit that was never filed. UNLV honchos clumsily pandering to Mrs. Pitino. The team losing badly at Colorado State, San Diego State and New Mexico, allowing 20 straight points to the latter.

For those who see UNLV not as a place of higher learning, but solely as a vessel for their narrow athletic interests, the dominant emotion was embarrassment. There was no joy in being a Rebels fan, and the gate receipts continue to reflect a hangover.

However, these events are not recounted today to paddle the guilty, but as a point of comparison for fans already unhappy with new coach Charlie Spoonhour.

Instead of recognizing that he's building a program for the long-term, some fans complain that Spoonhour's offense doesn't give them Tark-era goose bumps or that their favorite players are glued to the bench. Seven games in, they accuse Spoonhour of not maximizing the team's talent.

While there is nothing wrong with ambitious expectations, fans need to (A) stop overrating the Rebels' players and (B) stop deluding themselves about UNLV's rightful place in college basketball.

This is not a program with a top-10 birthright, being held back only by NCAA meanies. That status left when Jerry Tarkanian did. Though still a major program, the Rebels play in an unexciting league that scavenges for crumbs of national attention. Also, UNLV's crucial monopoly on Juco talent ended a decade ago.

If those reality checks are too tough, just remember the fix the Rebels were in last December, and ask yourself if you want to go back. Nope, didn't think so.