Columnist Dean Juipe: UNLV, coach flustered right now

Dean Juipe

Monday, Jan. 15, 2001 | 10:45 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.

If you're a member of the UNLV men's basketball team, the world must seem as if it's spinning a little too fast.

Of late, the team's games have been interspersed with news-making events such as NCAA sanctions, the removal of one coach, the adapting to another and the distracting conjecture that will continue to build this week even after a third canceled a visit to town to assess the situation.

It's a blur that hasn't allowed the players a chance to stop and think and collect themselves.

Without a serious leader among the players, the Rebels may have something of a fragile collective psyche. If so, they will suffer the consequences again tonight in Provo and will run the risk of a complete collapse that will have impartial observers and fans alike wondering if they've quit.

It could happen.

Based on how the team played Saturday in a 79-70 loss in Salt Lake City against Utah, throwing in the towel seems to have become a viable alternative. Little was made of it in the immediate aftermath, but more than once the Rebels were beaten down the floor -- by a team they thought they could outrun -- with the game on the line.

(Interim) coach Max Good wasn't pleased, yet he may be adding to the wounding of the team's spirit. He has taken offense at UNLV going after Rick Pitino as his replacement, and all those stories about Good and Pitino exchanging phone calls and being buddies is largely bunk.

He doesn't particularly care for Pitino and it's uncertain whether he will remain at UNLV as an assistant to Pitino if the latter takes the head-coaching job.

He also volunteered a rather vague story to the TV crew that was doing the Utah game, saying just last week he was approached by "an Eastern school" in regard to its coaching job. He added that he turned a deaf ear to the overture because that school "already has a coach in place."

It was easy to picture him begging that everyone see the analogy: That he wouldn't undercut a coach in midseason, so why should Pitino be doing that to him?

The players have to be aware of all this, including the possibility that Good may have quit in a huff before the completion of the season if Pitino was hired.

UNLV's administration has taken some (misguided) heat for its handling of the removal of Bill Bayno last month and now the Pitino courtship, but the real mistake it may have made was in not labeling Good as the "interim" coach. Had it done so, it could have actively sought a replacement for Good while not worrying about hurting his feelings or wounding his pride.

Instead, there is a certain animosity attached to the program today, as Good's supporters praise him for being a solider who stepped to the fore at a difficult time and the coach himself dutifully plays the martyr. Meanwhile, many a would-be or estranged UNLV fan sees Good as merely a caretaker whose early success with the team was a direct result of all the Chicago States on its holiday schedule.

Had Pitino come here this week, he would have found a program in turmoil, especially if the Rebels don't play well and are beaten by BYU tonight. With the team losing and Good grousing, there's no painting a happy face on it.