Columnist Dean Juipe: Don’t blame Cavagnaro or Harter

Dean Juipe

Monday, March 12, 2001 | 9:37 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.

With things having gone so poorly for UNLV in its pursuit of a new men's basketball coach, it has been easy to get caught up in the Blame Game.

But let's state this for the record right off the top: For all the uncomplimentary remarks directed toward school president Carol Harter and athletic director Charlie Cavagnaro for their roles in the saga, neither deserves to be held unduly accountable for the failure to land either of the leading choices, Rick Pitino or Rick Majerus.

Unable to pull either of those rabbits out of their hat, Harter and Cavagnaro have been vilified in some quarters for their allegedly poor performances. Yet, honestly, what did the critics want or expect them to do? Lie? Paint a stilted and too rosy picture of the situation? Redefine reality?

Harter may rub some patrons the wrong way and might occasionally overstep the bounds of good taste with her paradings around the basketball team, but her enthusiasm is legitimate and there never has been any question about her heart being in the right place.

Like her or not, her image, as it relates to the basketball program, is that of a friendly, if doting, grandmother who is tolerable in short doses.

She's not hurting the university's quest to secure a respectable and proven coach.

Neither is Cavagnaro.

Yet for those critics desperate for a fall guy, he comes in handy. Perceived by some as too stiff, too corporate and too lacking in congeniality, Cavagnaro is stereotyped as a by-the-book bureaucrat by those who disapprove of him.

While he may have his shortcomings as an A.D. -- such as failing to make some time and express more than passing interest in the majority of the school's athletic programs -- he isn't a deal-breaker or an obstacle when it comes to finding a basketball coach. Whether he's an asset or not is unclear, but he's definitely not a liability.

For people immersed in the Blame Game, here are the real culprits: Bill Bayno, of course; David Chapman, the overzealous booster who helped get the Rebels on the NCAA probation that has undercut the school's ability to find a replacement for Bayno; and, lest we forget, Greg Vetrone.

Remember him?

He was an assistant under Bayno and, by all accounts, the man who drew the NCAA's attention to UNLV when it was going after a highly regarded recruit named Lamar Odom. The trail left behind resulted in Vetrone "resigning" under pressure in 1999, in Bayno being "fired" last December and in the current malaise that seems to be so negatively impacting the basketball program if not the city of Las Vegas itself.

Let's face it, basketball fans here are whimpering like beaten dogs after what has happened the past few months. It's not something they're accustomed to and it's not something they like.

To have a Selection Sunday come and go without UNLV even being eligible for the NCAA Tournament (or the NIT) damages the community's overall psyche.

And while there's plenty of blame to go around -- tracing back to Bob Maxson, the man who sent these dominos in motion -- Harter and Cavagnaro are hardly the reason(s) for the program's demise. Do yourself a favor and consider them exonerated.