Rebels’ interim coaching staff successfully holding down fort

Friday, March 5, 2004 | 9:56 a.m.

Spend a few decades in a certain industry or lifestyle, and an abrupt change that might otherwise produce anxiety and tension will lack those dramatic elements to those involved.

At least, that's the way UNLV's interim basketball coaching staff has handled the resignation of Charlie Spoonhour for more than two weeks.

Jay Spoonhour, who was handed the top job on a temporary basis by athletic director Mike Hamrick, became aware of the unique nature of the business at an early age.

"In the fifth grade," he said. "Everyone else was talking about being a fireman or policeman, or whatever else. Or they didn't know. I knew. My dad was in the profession I knew I'd be in."

Dave Rice, a mainstay on the UNLV staff for most of the stretch since his playing days as a Rebel ended in 1991, witnessed his seventh coaching change at the program when the elder Spoonhour stepped down.

"When you come into the gym and you take a look at the players, and how excited they are to still be playing, that's really where you get the motivation," Rice said.

"We've asked them to focus on the task at hand, which is trying to finish off the season in a positive manner, go into Denver and play the best basketball we can, and have a chance to go to the NCAAs. It's fair if we ask them to focus, that we, as coaches, do the same."

UNLV (16-10, 7-6 in the Mountain West Conference) finishes the regular season Saturday afternoon against Brigham Young (19-7, 9-4) at the Thomas & Mack Center.

The league tournament, whose winner gets an automatic berth in the NCAA tournament, begins Thursday in Denver.

The Rebels and Utah Utes, led by Kerry Rupp, share similar situations in that both coaches are temporary, with huge odds against either being rewarded with the permanent post.

Rupp took over for Rick Majerus, who, like Charlie Spoonhour, resigned recently due to health reasons.

At least assistant coaches on both staffs know that they will almost certainly be seeking a new job after this season, instead of being hit with an offseason surprise.

According to Jay Spoonhour and his lieutenants, though, that is inconsequential.

Of immediate concern is prepping their players for another game and then a conference tournament, which leaves little time for sending out feelers to others they know in the business.

Plus, other positions do not open until late March or early April, at the earliest, anyway, so trying to set up a gig somewhere else at this premature stage would be as impossible as it would be uncouth.

"I've always believed, when you coach hard and you're a good person, things work out for you in the end," Rice said. "I think that'll be the case this time, as well."

UNLV has won four of its Past five games to warrant attention, but Rice pointed out that the team's current success couldn't have been achieved without the recruiting efforts of Derek Thomas and Deane Martin, or the foundation laid by Charlie Spoonhour.

"I think that's an important part," Rice said, "that is maybe lost a little bit."

An influential assistant and recruiting coordinator, Thomas left for his first top coaching job, at Western Illinois, after last season. Martin took over the duties of UNLV's recruiting point man when Thomas left.

Wednesday night, from Southern California, Martin had just finished scouting a 6-foot-11 post player for Riverside City College when he said the Rebels' coaching transition has not sidetracked the Rebels' recruiting efforts.

In dire need of a center and power forward, if not two centers, UNLV has two scholarships available for its next class.

Martin said the common theme that he has told the eight or nine players who the program is wooing is that nothing much has changed at UNLV, that the team's needs are still the team's needs.

"The only thing that's changed is, they'll be playing for a different head coach. To some degree, it's not that big of a deal," Martin said. "I tell them that UNLV will get a very good coach and it will still be a very good school to go to, academically and for basketball.

"None of that will change."

Even Vince Booker, in his first season as an assistant coach, is a veteran when it comes to change. A former walk-on from Cheyenne High who wound up starting 49 games for the Rebels, Booker was brought to UNLV by Bill Bayno.

Then Max Good took over at the start of the 2000-01 season, after Bayno was sacked. And then Charlie Spoonhour replaced Good.