Columnist Dean Juipe: Spoonhour will weigh his options

Dean Juipe

Friday, March 21, 2003 | 10:15 a.m.

Dean Juipe's column appears Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday. His boxing notebook appears Thursday. Reach him at juipe@lasvegassun.com or (702) 259-4084.

Having written earlier in the week that Charlie Spoonhour was giving thought to quitting as UNLV's head basketball coach, I was inundated with questions and comments on the subject.

To those who asked how likely I thought it was that he actually would step down, for a couple of days I routinely responded "maybe 50-50."

Now I've altered my reply. Now I'm saying it's "at least 50-50."

The reason for the revision: UNLV's embarrassing loss to Hawaii Wednesday night at the Thomas & Mack Center not only closes the Rebels' season on a sour note, it compounds the frustration of Saturday's loss to Colorado State and the disappointment of not making the NCAA tournament. The Rebels dragged to the finish line and looked terrible at a very inopportune time, and Spoonhour has to be as dejected as the team's fans.

What he has said for public consumption is that he'll take a few days and consider his future.

What he hasn't said is that he'll definitely return as head coach, even though he has time left on his contract. (You may have noticed he didn't issue an emphatic denial to the basic premise of my earlier column.)

So he is, at the very least, contemplating retirement at the age of 63.

What has surprised me is the degree of dissatisfaction with Spoonhour that has been expressed in the past few days, or since my Monday column on the subject. I don't think I realized the depth of the anti-Spoonhour contingent until the chat-room floodgates opened and a torrent of commentary and opinion appeared.

Obviously, these sites attract extremists and the overall tenor of the views they bandy about has to be seen with a wary eye. But it's startling nonetheless when a number of people who describe themselves as hardcore UNLV fans use these communication devices to post remarks and sentiments that are so critical of a coach who seemed popular a short time ago.

Clearly, there are those who would like to see him go.

And he may just accommodate them.

It's said he was leaning toward quitting after the Rebels lost to Southern Cal last month, but that he bounced back in recent weeks and appeared committed to the team and recruiting. (It turns out that at least a couple members of the media knew that Spoonhour was thinking of quitting back then, but they kept that information from the public -- and their colleagues -- as part of their overall effort to "protect" the coach and their sources. I have no such ties and worked on the story for a week before being comfortable enough with it to have it in print.)

But if, in fact, Spoonhour was feeling rejuvenated two weeks ago, he might very well be back in the doldrums after the events of the past week. His team suffered an obvious letdown against CSU and then looked flat-out awful against Hawaii, raising questions about his ability to motivate and coach.

With the Rebels only marginally improved since he took over as coach two years ago and faced with what might be termed mounting criticism, it can safely be said that Spoonhour's honeymoon with Las Vegas is over.

If he does choose to return and fulfill his contract, he's going to be feeling a need to produce and a heat that he hadn't previously encountered.