Good to be interviewed for job

Steve Addy

Wednesday, March 28, 2001 | 9:55 a.m.

Max Good will get the interview he has been seeking, and that appears to be one of the final steps before UNLV hires its next basketball coach.

Sources with knowledge of the coaching search said Good will meet with athletic director Charlie Cavagnaro today or Thursday, and that UNLV will likely offer the job to someone by the weekend.

That someone could be Purdue's Gene Keady, who has denied official contact with the school, or former St. Louis coach Charlie Spoonhour, who interviewed with Cavagnaro here last week. They are leading outside candidates.

Pitt's Ben Howland had planned to meet with Cavagnaro today, but Panthers athletic director Steve Pederson denied permission after Cavagnaro contacted him Monday. Howland has three years to go on his contract, and Pederson wasn't eager to join the other 21 Division I schools looking for new coaches.

With Howland out of the derby, that clears the way for Cavagnaro to finally sit down with Good, the former assistant coach who led UNLV to a 13-9 record this season after replacing the fired Bill Bayno on Dec. 12.

Though Good didn't carry an interim title during the season, his contract expires June 30, and he has become more vocal in his quest for the permanent job.

At first, Good said he merely wanted to guide the program through a tough period after it was sanctioned by the NCAA, but Bayno and others encouraged him to campaign more openly for the full-time position.

"No question, I want the job," Good said. "I would love the opportunity."

Though Cavagnaro has never said Good wasn't a candidate, some UNLV insiders believe his upcoming interview is being done only as a courtesy, and that Cavagnaro intends to hire his next coach from outside.

If Cavagnaro goes outside, Keady has the longest resume of the candidates, with 456 wins in 21 seasons at Purdue and six national coach of the year awards. But Boilermakers AD Morgan Burke has denied UNLV permission to speak to Keady, and said any school luring his coach would have to buy out the remaining two years of his contract, at $200,000 per year.

Keady has been coy about his interest, claiming he hasn't been contacted, but not ruling out the possibility of coming to UNLV.

Spoonhour said Tuesday he hadn't heard anything new, and didn't know if he would be offered the job. A local radio show said that a UNLV offer to Spoonhour was forthcoming.

"That's news to me," Spoonhour said from St. Louis, where he was preparing to leave for the Final Four in Minneapolis. "There's been no change, unless they call me in the next five minutes and tell me otherwise."

Spoonhour, who turns 62 in May, retired from coaching in 1999 after seven seasons at St. Louis (122-90) and nine at Southwest Missouri State (197-81). His teams made eight NCAA Tournament appearances.

He also has local ties. His wife Vicki lived in Las Vegas for a year recently, and the couple had planned to retire here, even buying a condo in Summerlin. But Spoonhour began serving as a TV-radio commentator on Conference USA broadcasts last year, so the couple remained in St. Louis and sold the condo.