Spoon full of stability

Friday, Nov. 22, 2002 | 10:15 a.m.

On the eve of his debut as a basketball coach, Charlie Spoonhour fidgeted when a Rocky Comfort (Mo.) High school board member inquired about what to expect in the game.

"I do know," the new coach said, "that we'll be able to guard people, that we'll be in control of the game."

Rocky Comfort lost, 82-78. Harry Lett made the night uncomfortable for Spoonhour by scoring 40 points, and Spoonhour was grateful the town didn't have a newspaper that could have documented the event or his quotes.

"The game was completely wild," said Spoonhour, whose first annual salary was $4,250. "They also had a kid named Short who was kind of tall, 6-feet-5. My center was 6-feet, and I had a 5-9 power forward. They got us pretty good."

Five or six nights a week, Spoonhour traveled 13 miles to Exeter to talk shop with close friend and mentor Tommy Hewgley. Exeter fans told Hewgley that he was being too friendly with Spoonhour, but Hewgley paid them no heed. The next season, Spoonhour thought he was in line to win the league.

"I kind of thought we were pretty good," Spoonhour said. "Then Hewgley went 35-0, beating us three times."

Forty years later, Spoonhour has a much better idea of what he wants his players to accomplish on a basketball court. In his career, his teams have become noted for their solid defense, and he is known for getting every ounce of ability out of his players.

Up front, he has a keen sense of humor. Behind the scenes, he has a Midwestern, no-nonsense style. "His way or the highway," UNLV star forward Dalron Johnson said.

"And I'm not going to go downtown," Spoonhour said, "and be standing on my head every night."

That is more than could be said for at least one leader of a previous UNLV basketball regime. A year later, many are convinced that the hiring of Spoonhour to replace Bill Bayno was one of the smartest moves in Charles Cavagnaro's mostly nondescript reign as Rebels athletic director.

The eras of Rollie Massimino and Bayno proved to be errors, and a once-proud program had been sullied. As he prepared for the start of his second season as UNLV coach on Sunday, when the Rebels play host to Portland State, there is little question that Spoonhour has stabilized the program.

At least 33 donors, at a minimum of $10,000 apiece, have supported UNLV hoops by creating the "Basketball Club" to enhance athletic-department funding.

"He's taken this town by storm," said athletic director John Robinson. "The town got caught up in (the prospect of hiring) Rick Pitino, or, you know, anybody famous. Then it's, 'So, who's Charlie Spoonhour?' Now, there isn't a dissent anywhere. He knows the decisions that have to be made.

"There's a lot of experience involved in what kind of kid to go after and what kind of program to have. You have to trust the coach to set that direction. It's so fragile. Basketball is really fragile in that regard, as we've seen here. I think everyone feels great about him."

It helped that the Rebels won in Spoonhour's first season. Halfway through 2001-02, UNLV was 8-7. Then something clicked, and the Rebels won 13 of their last 17 games, finishing 21-11.

Spoonhour, 63, is so straight-forward that he admitted he can't quite tell what happened to turn last season around.

"I really don't know," he said after a recent practice. "I wish I could tell you. I think the main thing is, the guys got comfortable ... they had some ability, and we got lucky. Part of it is always good fortune."

According to Johnson, the repetition of playing with each other in Spoonhour's system and shelving their own egos combined to ignite the Rebels in the second half.

Bayno's frenetic style has been replaced by Spoonhour's methodical approach that, above all, stresses tough, water-torture defense.

"Bayno was more up-paced, everything was quick ... it looked like everyone was scattered all around, running, as opposed to coach Spoonhour," Johnson said. "He came in and really slowed it down a lot. We focused more on the half-court, running our sets, and little ins and outs to our sets. Everything is precise.

"He pretty much leaves the running game to us, up to the players making good decisions in the open court."

A 6-10 forward from Los Angeles who is the lone fourth-year senior on the team, Johnson is in a unique position to have watched the transformation of the program. With just a win or two in the NCAA Tournament, he said it will begin to establish itself again as a force.

He expects it to happen soon, and he believes the combination of himself and senior point guard Marcus Banks could spark such glory this season.

Johnson and his teammates were especially intrigued at the team's banquet last week, when former Arkansas coach Nolan Richardson, a Spoonhour confidant for more than 25 years, told them about their coach's longtime ability to beat supposedly more-talented foes.

"At Southwest Missouri, he didn't have the most talented team in the conference but they managed to win a majority of their games, and win in nice fashion," Johnson said. "So, yeah, I think, in this particular case, he is the right coach for the situation."

Because his father, Claude T. Spoonhour, taught him about work ethic and loyalty following his regular 12-hour shifts as a meat cutter. There were no demeaning jobs, Claude said, but some people demean the jobs they have.

"Whatever you're doing," Claude told his son, "do the very best you can ... as long as you're taking a check from someone, be loyal to them."

Because his mother, Erma, gave him confidence to play sports.

Because in more than 17 years as a Division-I coach, a Spoonhour team has never spent a second on probation or been the target of even a minor NCAA investigation into the slightest of infraction allegations.

Because he remembers how he started his career, in 1961, down by the Arkansas border, near the town of Branson that Andy Williams has made famous.

"It's embarrassing, when I think back, how little I knew," Spoonhour said. "When things would go bad, I would just yell louder and louder. Stuff would happen I wouldn't have much of an answer for. I do see positive things now. Now, I see guys do good stuff and I'll mention it to them.

"At the start, I was probably more critical and I probably didn't have as much reason to be."

Spoonhour's coach at the University of the Ozarks was a protege of the legendary Hank Iba, whom Spoonhour still refers to as Mr. Iba. That is the source of Spoonhour's defensive demands, especially the 2-2-1 zone press.

The source of his ire Thursday was his own team, which was sloppy and lacked attention at Cox Pavilion. Spoonhour seethed more than he has since practice started a month ago.

"Guys will do what you demand them to do," Spoonhour said. "If your tolerance level of mistakes is pretty easy-going, guys will make mistakes."

More than a few mistakes already seem to have been fixed by Spoonhour.

"He has a kind of quiet confidence," Robinson said. "He creates an atmosphere that makes you feel like, 'Wow, we're going to be OK.' He's done a marvelous job. Suddenly, it's fun again. That's the thing I think everyone is really smiling about."