Sober Bayno ready to clean up Loyola Marymount’s act

LOS ANGELES — Bill Bayno stood behind a podium Wednesday afternoon, gazing at hundreds who hope he will awaken a once formidable college basketball program gone terribly astray, and he could not have appeared more at home, more at peace with the demons he exorcised and the future he envisions.

He is 45 and has accepted a challenge the stature of Everest and yet small compared to the obstacles he faced along the journey that delivered him to a small, Jesuit university with breathtaking views.

The former UNLV coach was introduced as the latest to lead the program at Loyola Marymount, which last saw the NCAA Tournament in an Elite Eight loss to the Rebels in 1990 and has one winning season since 1996-97. The Lions haven’t been a nonfactor in the West Coast Conference forever. It just seems that way.

"I’m excited," said Bayno, who signed a five-year deal reportedly worth just over $2 million. "I think we can get really, really good players here. Vegas changed my life. Being there sped up the fact I had to confront my issues."

His last drink came May 25, 2002. It was less than two years following his dismissal at UNLV, which arrived just hours after the NCAA placed the program on four years’ probation and levied other sanctions stemming from the recruitment of Lamar Odom in 1996 and ’97.

Bayno had stopped drinking once before, but the fallout of his more than five-year run at UNLV eventually returned him to that dark alcoholic existence he said his entire family knows at some level. The NCAA cleared him of wrongdoing, and he received a financial settlement from the university, but it was on his watch the troubles were created. He was 32 when hired by the Rebels, young, sometimes dumb and in the wrong city for such a combination.

"I never drank during the season, but in the offseason it controlled me," he said sitting in his office Wednesday. "In the offseason, I walked around in an alcohol-induced fog. I did things (at UNLV) at about 60 percent capacity. I was a happy drunk, but never a casual drinker. If I had one, I had 100.

"But I never thought they should have given me more time. I didn’t deserve it. I made my bed. I blame no one but myself. The one way to really have peace of mind in life is to admit your weaknesses and get help. Part of healing is looking in the mirror."

He is going to recruit good players to LMU because all kids salivate over three letters — NBA — and Bayno the past five years has worked as part of the Portland Trail Blazers coaching staff, the last two on the bench while helping to develop names such as Brandon Roy and LaMarcus Aldridge.

He is going to sign better athletes than some might imagine because he still has a way about him that makes you believe bigger and better programs will have a difficult time beating him in a living room. He isn’t going to catch Gonzaga or Saint Mary’s any time soon, but his passion and enough time makes you think the top of the WCC can eventually expect additional company.

"I want to see what I can do at 100 percent," said Bayno. "I was learning on the go at Vegas. We got kids to play hard and won some conference championships, and I’m proud of that. But at some point, I had to hit bottom. People said it was the worst possible job I could get at 32. Maybe. But I’ll tell you what, had I been in Des Moines, I would have still been drinking."

You root for a guy like this, for one who believes redemption is best achieved through recollection, who confronts rather than runs from those demons, who has seemingly emerged a better man for his failures. Second chances are meant for someone like Bayno.

New offices are coming for him and his LMU staff, which very well could include former UNLV coach Max Good. A new weight room, too. Students and fans on Wednesday wore T-shirts that read, "Just Say Bayno." There is a sense of excitement about the new guy.

"Within five minutes of our first conversation, Billy told me, ‘There are going to be things used against me in recruiting and against you if you hire me, and those are the problems I had at UNLV,’ " said LMU athletic director Bill Husak. "He was very candid. Everyone makes mistakes in life. But if 20 people fail at the same job, the 21st can succeed. It’s about being the right person at an institution at the right time.

"Billy is the right guy for us. This is his time."

Ed Graney’s column is published Sunday, Wednesday, Thursday and Saturday. He can be reached at 383-4618 or egraney@reviewjournal.com.