Where I Stand — Brian Greenspun: UNLV blew Pitino deal

Tuesday, March 6, 2001 | 9:24 a.m.

Brian Greenspun is editor of the Las Vegas Sun.

WE COULD have been a contender.

We may yet be, but it won't be UNLV with Coach Rick Pitino leading the way. That's because while the rest of the world expected it and UNLV flirted with the idea of Pitino coming to the desert and returning the Rebels to greater glory, something bad happened.

There will be plenty of reasons and excuses given why one of the hottest properties on the college coaching scene was the one that got away from UNLV when it was ours for the asking, but when you peel it all away -- the public relations aspects, the respectful niceties and the cover-our-behinds requirements for continued employment -- the fact of the matter is that we messed up.

The we, of course, is UNLV.

There is no good reason why the powers that be on Maryland Parkway did not have a brand new and highly rated coach already signed, sealed and delivered long before the job at the University of Louisville opened up, or Rick decided that capturing junior college players was too difficult for a coach and program that most blue-chippers would love to have considered as a college experience.

All the reasons given are just excuses for what, in the end, was bad timing. If we have learned anything as adults in this fast-moving world, it is that timing is not just something, it is everything. And practically from the very first moment that UNLV made the decision to remove Bill Bayno from the head coaching position, Rick was there, practically ready, willing and able to make the move. A move, by the way, that very few experts would not have predicted would have been followed by substantial NCAA Tournament appearances and, more importantly, NCAA leeway to rebuild a program along the relatively straight and narrow of major college basketball.

I don't know exactly why it took so long for the UNLV president and the UNLV athletic director to sort through the fine points of the all-important wooing process that was already under way long before UNLV got involved, but the fact remains that they blew it. I don't know how else to explain how Pitino was allowed to hang on the hook for so long without UNLV reeling him in.

So what is UNLV left with in the wake of Pitino's bowing out of the process?

There are other coaches, and I am sure we will wind up with one of them, perhaps even a person who can lead the university to the kind of basketball dominance it was once headed for before the roof caved in. But instead of announcing the signing of the man who could have gotten us there in a relative heartbeat, all UNLV gets to talk about is a lawsuit filed by its former men's head basketball coach.

And don't think the university's mucking up Bayno's departure had nothing to do with Pitino's decision not to work his way westward. Who in their right mind would want to come to a university that not only fired its head coach and has so far refused to even discuss an honorable resolution of their differences but which would have allowed the incoming coach to be embroiled in the fight as sort of a welcome to Las Vegas gift?

That told Pitino two things: The first is that fighting is preferable to resolving disputes with head coaches (not a good sign for a head coach looking to sign a contract of honor with UNLV), and the second is that, rather than concentrating on building a top program, he could spend a good deal of his time preparing for a legal defense that was not his making. Neither should have been palatable to a responsible coach.

One wonders what the fight with Bayno is all about. If it is only money, and it appears that's the case, then how much could it have cost UNLV in the wake of an almost $2 million package it was considering for Pitino? The phrase chump change -- relatively speaking, of course -- comes to mind. And yet, the prospect of tying him in with UNLV's dirty laundry should have been more than anyone could have expected Pitino to pack.

In the end, though, there was every reason to believe that Rick had worked his way through the NCAA restrictions so that, in his mind, he could see the light needed at the end of the tunnel. Even he could expect the NCAA, relieved that a man of Pitino's on- and off-court integrity was at the helm of UNLV's program, would have cut the university enough slack to get back in the game.

And that stuff about junior college players vs. high school standouts? I think the word "lame" describes that excuse. Pitino would have had no trouble getting the players he would need to return UNLV to the days of its former glory.

What happened is really no surprise. It happens in the private sector as well as the public one, just not as often. The people responsible for making this good thing happen fooled around so long and spent so much time covering their own backsides that they let this fellow get away.

And no matter how much Rick tries to put a good face on it and no matter how long and how hard UNLV officials try to convince Las Vegans otherwise, the fact will always be that we -- UNLV and no one else -- blew this great opportunity.

So what's next? Rather, who is next? Whatever and whoever the answer is, the best advice I can give, especially since nobody asked, is get it done. And don't forget the Bayno thing, for as long as that hangs out there it will continue to remind any future prospects how UNLV deals with its commitments.

Sometimes in the private sector we don't have the luxury of worrying about how things look. Sometimes we just have to act when the opportunity presents itself. I hope that UNLV, an institution of higher learning, could have at least learned that much from the Pitino fiasco.