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Bayno's dismissal was overdue
Bill Bayno's firing was mildly surprising, considering that nobody thought his job was in jeopardy when the NCAA first announced its investigation into the UNLV program earlier this year. Yet it's another pebble on a growing pile of problems. Clearly, Bayno hadn't set the world on fire the last couple of seasons as a recruiter (his main calling card), and he was miserable when it came to in-game coaching decisions and preparing his team. Consider: Despite having such future NBA players as Keon Clark, Tyrone Nesby and Shawn Marion on his UNLV rosters, Bayno never got the Rebels past the first round of the NCAA tournament. Nor did it help that this year's Rebels are 3-4 with consecutive losses to Oklahoma State and in-state rival Nevada, even though Bayno had a week to prepare his team for both games. Bayno's strangest quote came over the weekend, when he claimed UNLV's 3-4 record was due to the terrible difficulties of attracting top players to Vegas. "[The slow start] speaks to how hard it is to recruit here," he told the Las Vegas Review-Journal, whining that he only had one top-100 recruit on his roster ( Kaspars Kambala ). Huh? Jerry Tarkanian never had any problems bringing in recruits, nor did Bayno in his first few seasons, and if Bayno had done so poorly stocking this year's team, who's to blame for that? Why, Bill Bayno, of course. The quote makes even less sense considering that before the season Bayno had called these Rebels the most talented outfit in his six years in Vegas. Put all the problems together -- the shadiness, the poor recruiting, the ill-prepared teams -- and Bayno's firing makes a lot more sense. Sports Illustrated senior writer Grant Wahl covers college basketball for the magazine and is a frequent contributor to CNNSI.com. Click here to send a question to his Mailbag.
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