Columnist Dean Juipe: Rebels owe it to fans to play hard

Dean Juipe

Friday, Feb. 23, 2001 | 11:37 a.m.

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

For the paying fan in the stands, it's impossible to comprehend those occasional instances when the athletes performing in front of them are giving less than their best efforts.

The fan sees it only one way: If someone was paying to watch me play, I might let them down due to a lack of comparative ability but it would never be for lack of trying.

Fans envy athletes, always have. They see the athletic ability, the glory and the perks (including money, lots of money, for the pros) and can't help but wish they were in the athlete's shoes.

So when an athlete or a team goes into the tank, it's demoralizing.

UNLV's basketball team went into the tank in its most recent game, Monday at New Mexico, and beyond the head scratching is the thought that it was either a telltale lapse of judgment or an unforgivable mistake.

Either way, whatever slim chance Max Good had of being invited back to coach the Rebels next season disappeared during the second half of the New Mexico game when his team allowed 20 consecutive points and scored a mere 16 in a performance that was doubly embarrassing for being nationally televised.

Not a single person associated with the program is in denial on this one: UNLV packed it in.

In fact, had Kaspars Kambala -- ripped here earlier in the season but playing more enthusiastically of late -- not shown signs of life, the entire team could have been mistaken for the cast of a second-rate horror movie.

There's no excuse for it, of course, and it further tarnished an already difficult season.

Yet, while it's not fully understandable, it's easy to see how and why the Rebels looked as if they had hit the wall. They have been subjected to one disappointment after another, not all of which is their own doing.

It could be argued that never has a UNLV team been put through the wringer like this one. The fact that the New Mexico debacle came only three days after the NCAA closed the book on the school's appeal of its post-season ban was hardly coincidental.

Go back and look how this season began: Optimism abounded with the Rebels not only coming off a 23-8 season but one that included an NCAA Tournament appearance; Kambala was expected to be a force; Dalron Johnson was looked at as a potentially dominating forward; Lou Kelly was finally eligible; and there appeared to be no fewer than nine decent to excellent players on the roster.

Yet the missing ingredient of on-court leadership quickly became evident and the team's array of shooting stars fell into a pattern of alternately bad games. Inconsistent, stressed and looking over their shoulders at what was then an NCAA inquiry, the Rebels bottomed out with a December loss at Reno.

Head coach Bill Bayno was fired the following week in the wake of NCAA sanctions that were far more restrictive than anyone initially imagined.

In the aftermath, speculation continues to this day concerning a new coach and the team only occasionally hits on all cylinders.

Sympathetic as any of us might be, the players need to keep one thing in mind throughout their remaining three games: Despite your hardships, most of us would pay to be in your position.