This Coach Believes That Pitino Isn’t as Good for UNLV Job
He doesn’t drink, smoke or gamble. An old-school guy in a school’s-out era. Substance over flash. Discipline over cutting some slack. Eyes wide open rather than looking the other way.
That’s what Max Good, the 60-year-old interim coach at Nevada Las Vegas, is all about. He chooses blue collar over high roller. That’s why UNLV’s high-powered boosters, the ones that sit along “Gucci Row” at Thomas & Mack Center, have pushed Rick Pitino to the money line.
Pitino is the GQ symbol for basketball coaches, the author of a best-seller, and the man who returned Kentucky to its rightful place among college basketball’s elite. However, for all the style, motivational masterpieces and Dick Vitale rave reviews, he got no closer than a parquet plank of reviving the Boston Celtic dynasty--which is why he will be blowing into Vegas soon to check out the Runnin’ Rebel coaching situation.
Good would prefer that Pitino change his destination--Bloomington, Ind.; Ann Arbor, Mich.; Tallahassee, Fla. . . . Westwood. He believes UNLV already has its man.
“I know . . . [Pitino] was a great coach at the college level, that he has chutzpah and style,” Good told https://CBSSportsLine.com. “That’s probably what people want here. I think I am what they need.”
Good was a head coach at Eastern Kentucky from 1980-1988, but really made his reputation afterward at Maine Central Institute, a prep basketball powerhouse in Pittsfield, Maine. In 10 seasons, he had a 270-30 record and 87 players who went on to Division I schools, including future NBA first-round draft picks DerMarr Johnson and Erick Barkley. More than those Good numbers are these: 55 of the 60 players who came to Maine Central in need of “improved academics” qualified for scholarships.
In 1999, Good was lured to the bright lights, big city by UNLV Coach Bill Bayno, one of the-young-and-the-restless college coaches who like to play it fast and loose but know when they’re in need of a steady assistant hand. By the time Good was on board, Bayno had played it too loose in looking the other way when UNLV recruit Lamar Odom was receiving “hundred-dollar handshakes” from a booster, leading to a shakedown that resulted in his firing and NCAA probation for the program.
Good was given the reins, and under his iron hand, the Runnin’ Rebels are a harnessed, efficient team that has won seven of nine games. They’re playing with discipline and purpose--and loving it--even though there’s no postseason on the horizon this year.
“I know I can coach,” Good said. “I don’t think anyone knows man defense like me. I don’t think anyone can get players to play harder than I can. I defy anyone to say we have not done an exemplary job. The kids have bought into this mental-toughness thing, and you can’t win without toughness.”
“I know we’ve got the makings of a top-20 program and I mean doing it cleanly too.”
Still, the specter of Pitino looms as large in Las Vegas as those lush hotels and casinos. He even got an endorsement for the job this week from Fresno State Coach Jerry Tarkanian, who put UNLV on the college basketball map--even if it did become a frequent-flier destination of NCAA investigators in the process.
‘You know Tark won here wearing short sleeves,” Good said. “ . . . His teams played hard as hell and that’s how my teams play. I’ve never compromised anything and I won’t now. I was told when I got the job I would get a fair evaluation, we’d play the season, see the outcome and then make a decision.”
A decision that apparently would come down to Good or glitz.
Bowling them over: Play got so rough in
No. 4-ranked Tennessee’s 79-71 victory over South Carolina at Knoxville, Tenn., that Volunteer Coach Jerry Green must have thought that Lou Holtz was running the Gamecock show instead of Eddie Fogler. “That was the closest to a football game I’ve been involved in. They were the most aggressive team I’ve seen in 33 years of coaching.” . . . No. 9 North Carolina has won 10 in a row since football players Ron Curry and Julius Peppers joined the team. . . . Louisiana State, with only five basketball scholarship players available, turned to All-Southeastern Conference tight end Robert Royal in the second half of an 85-69 loss at Auburn. Royal made all of his shots and scored eight points in six minutes.
Get the message: In preparation for No. 10 Virginia, Duke’s players had the word “attack” taped inside each locker before the game. The word “slaughter” apparently was too long but would have been more appropriate, as the No. 2 Blue Devils beat the Cavaliers, 103-61. It was the sixth consecutive game against Virginia in which Duke reached the century mark.
Following the script: Providence Coach Tim Welsh on his team’s 81-68 home-court victory over No. 13 Connecticut: “I told our guys before the game that this is why you come to play in the Big East. You have to leave it all on the floor and they did. This was an old-time Big East war.” Sounds like what was left on the floor--and found by Welsh--was one of those old-time motivational scripts used by Rick Pitino in his two seasons at Providence (1984-86).
On the other hand . . .: First-year Georgia Tech Coach Paul Hewitt couldn’t be accused of getting carried away after his team’s 95-89 overtime victory over No. 6 Wake Forest at Atlanta: “We hung in there, which is the thing we’ve been trying to establish,” Hewitt said.
Deja view: Missouri guard Brian Grawer after the Tigers defeated No. 18 Iowa State, 112-109, in four overtimes at Columbia, Mo.: “I was watching ESPN the other day and I saw a game that was like 116-112 and I saw four overtimes and I was like, man. A couple days later, we’re in one. It’s amazing.”