Loyalty to UNLV didn’t pay off for Good

Steve Addy

Friday, March 30, 2001 | 10:43 a.m.

When Max Good's cell phone rang Wednesday night, it was UNLV athletic director Charlie Cavagnaro, calling to say that Charlie Spoonhour had been hired to replace him as the Rebels' basketball coach.

Good glanced at the clock, and it was 11:20 p.m. The irony struck him immediately.

"Within about five or 10 minutes, that was the same time Charlie had called me in December to take over for Bill Bayno," Good said. "Kind of funny."

Funny, like a crutch. That was how the end came for Good's four-month stint as head coach. It was accompanied by the realization that UNLV's administration didn't seriously regard him as a candidate to retain the job.

"Everyone asks if I was treated fairly and if I was given a chance," Good said. "I don't know, but my perception from others is that I wasn't. I'm not saying that, but it's hard to discern reality from perception in my position."

Good, who guided UNLV to a 13-9 record after succeeding Bayno on Dec. 12, was the last coach to interview for the permanent job, doing so Wednesday afternoon. But by then, the wheels were already in motion for Spoonhour to be hired, as he was Thursday.

Cavagnaro said Good did "a great job" as Bayno's replacement after the NCAA levied major sanctions against the program. He praised Good and his staff for "handling very difficult circumstances with style, class and dignity."

"But in the final analysis, my obligation was to get the right person at the right time for this job," Cavagnaro said. "The more I looked, the right man was (Spoonhour). And that's not to denigrate any of the other candidates."

Cavagnaro denied that Good's loyalty to Bayno worked against him in the coaching derby, but Bayno was not so sure. After the last game of the season against Wyoming, Good asked Bayno to address the players in the locker room, which angered some prominent UNLV boosters.

"Everybody knows Max is loyal to me," Bayno said from Minneapolis. "I hope his loyalty didn't hurt his chances of getting the job. That should've helped him, not hurt him, because he would've shown the very same loyalty to (Cavagnaro and president Carol Harter)."

Good said, "There's not enough loyalty in today's world. But I never thought about being loyal to (Bayno). I never worried about it, because I knew there was nothing wrong with it."

After a successful 10-year run at Maine Central Institute, a leading basketball prep school, Bayno hired Good as an assistant before the 1999-00 season.

Good will be paid through June 30, while the assistants -- Dave Rice, Charles Cunningham, Bill Wuczynski and Mark Wade -- will get 60 days' severance pay. Rice has been with the program as a player or assistant since 1989, with only a two-year break (1992-94).

Good has gotten two offers to be a lead assistant -- one at Colorado -- and said he would have no problem going back to being an assistant.

"I didn't come here to be a head coach," he said. "The only reason I wanted this job was for our players -- to bridge the gap with the players and our recruits -- and to keep UNLV out of trouble with the NCAA."