Silver Spoon

Dalron Johnson contemplated a transfer.

Marcus Banks said he had been released from his letter of intent and was exploring his options.

It was March 2001. The coaching search that Nevada Las Vegas was conducting in the wake of Bill Bayno’s in-season firing seemed fruitless, especially after UNLV officials had been spurned by Rick Pitino and could not secure an interview with a very interested Ben Howland.

So when UNLV announced that it was bringing 61-year-old Charlie Spoonhour out of retirement to right the Runnin’ Rebels’ ship, Johnson and Banks cringed.

“I had no clue of who Coach Spoonhour was,” said Johnson, a senior forward who signed with UNLV out of Verbum Dei High but thought of moving closer to home to play at UCLA for his final two years. “You hear good and you hear bad.

“Some said he was a good coach and made players better. Others were like, ‘He’s not going to complement your team, your style of play. He’s going to slow it up and you’re going to get 50, 60 points a game. He’s going to limit your offensive awareness.’

“That hasn’t been true. It goes to show that you can’t always listen to what people tell you and react off that. Sometimes you’ve got to find out for yourself.’”

“Spoonball,” once equated with slow-down, humdrum basketball, has been reinvigorated in Las Vegas. And in a town where Jerry Tarkanian’s legacy looms as large as a certain Wizard’s does in Westwood, the down-home style of Spoonhour has produced results as well as healing for a fractured community.

UNLV advanced to the championship game of the Mountain West Conference tournament last spring and beat Arizona State in the National Invitation Tournament before an 11-2 start this season, the third and final year of NCAA sanctions that limit UNLV to 11 scholarships.

But a recent skid in which the Rebels lost four of five had fans clamoring for the likes of Pitino and Howland again. A 90-57 victory over Colorado State on Monday settled things a bit before today’s nonconference game with USC.

“I think there’s a really good solid base [of fans],” said Spoonhour, who is signed through 2005 at a reported $400,000 a year. “I think we’ve picked up some people but I think with a lot of people, it’s going to be more of wait and see how we’re going to get this thing done.”

The high expectations of UNLV supporters, who still pine for the glory days of the late 1980s and early 1990s, when the Rebels went to three Final Fours and won the 1990 national championship, are akin to the frustrations felt at UCLA.

“I know Tark left a great legacy of wins and losses, there’s no question of that,” said Spoonhour, who will be 64 in June. “But he also left a legacy of playing hard and I think that’s something that has to be important to us.”

Since Tarkanian was forced out in 1992, six coaches have been suffocated by the shadow he cast.

Rollie Massimino was bounced after two seasons. Tim Grgurich, Tarkanian’s assistant, lasted seven games. Interim coaches Howie Landa and Cle Edwards preceded Bayno, who was let go after the NCAA dropped the hammer in December 2000 for violations stemming from the recruitment of Lamar Odom.

His interim replacement, Max Good, wanted the job but was not a serious candidate when the school hired Spoonhour, who promptly put a Howdy Doody face on a school with an outlaw image. He also maintained his friendship with Tarkanian, who has attended UNLV games this season.

Spoonhour also benefited from retaining Dave Rice as director of operations. Rice played at UNLV from 1989 to ‘91, was a graduate assistant on Tarkanian’s final team in 1992 and had been a Rebel assistant since 1994.

Rice’s presence helped convince Banks, a Las Vegas native who initially committed to UNLV out of high school before attending junior college, to stay the course.

“I got out of my letter for about a week,” said Banks, a senior point guard who is the Rebels’ top NBA prospect. “I wanted to see what my options were and where I could go -- Kentucky, North Carolina, Iowa, Tennessee, St. John’s -- all the top programs.

“But I was going to be loyal and stay home, try to turn the program around, which we have. Now we’re competitive.”

Said Johnson: “As long as Coach Spoonhour’s here, I think the program’s in good hands.”