sports.espn.go.com/espn/blog/index?entryID=3723255&name=katz_andyFriends of Bayno hope to see coach return soon
Monday, November 24, 2008 | Print Entry
Posted by Andy Katz
Bill Bayno's close coaching friends are concerned about his health.
Bayno, in his first season at Loyola Marymount, took an abrupt leave of absence Sunday due to the stress and anxiety of coaching. Max Good, who left a head coaching job at Bryant University (R.I.) to be Bayno's assistant, took over for Bayno on an interim basis. Incidentally, this is the second time Good has replaced Bayno; Good also took over for him at UNLV after Bayno was fired in December 2000. Good coached the rest of the 2000-01 season in place of Bayno.
Reached on the bus as LMU was heading to shootaround for Monday's game at Wagner, Good said he's "praying to God that [Bayno] can come back. This was the furthest thing from my mind that this would happen.''
Bayno has been open about his substance-abuse problem. In a story by Las Vegas Review Journal columnist Ed Graney after Bayno's hire in April, Bayno told Graney, "I never drank during the season, but in the offseason it controlled me. 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.''
He told Graney that his last drink came on May 25, 2002. Good said Monday that Bayno isn't drinking again. He said he is clean and that he goes home right after practice with no social life, married to the job and not his substance abuse.
When I saw Bayno in the Spokane, Wash., at the Gonzaga Coaches vs. Cancer BasketBALL and Gala in August, he talked about how good he felt at this time in his life. He said he hadn't drunk in years, mentioning that it had been six years. Throughout the fall, Bayno would text message about how well recruiting was going, too.
Drexel coach Bruiser Flint, who coached with Bayno at UMass under John Calipari, said Sunday that
he has been concerned about Bayno's well-being and doesn't know when or if he'll return. Calipari, reached in San Juan, Puerto Rico, a few hours before Memphis' loss to Xavier in the Puerto Rico Tip-Off Classic final on Sunday, said he was unaware that Bayno had taken a leave of absence. "I don't care where you are in this business, it's very hard on you and your family,'' Calipari said. "It all looks glamorous, but it's not. There is pressure to do so much and you feel that you have to win.''
Good said the Lions' recruiting has been going extremely well. The Lions have two transfers sitting out this season in Seton Hall's Larry Davis and Oregon's Drew Viney. He said the recently signed class of Terrell Vinson, a 6-foot-6 forward out of Maryland; 6-10 Edgar Garibay out of Compton, Calif.; and 6-3 Given Kalipinde out of Virginia can help the Lions climb up fast in the WCC next season.
"I want Billy to be able to see the fruits of his labor,'' Good said.
The Lions, though, are dealing with even more duress.
Redshirt sophomore Terron Sutton is out for the year with a torn ACL, which occurred in October. Tim Diederichs, who suffered a shoulder injury, was out against Notre Dame last week and isn't playing against Wagner. And leading scorer, rebounder and assist person Vernon Teel broke his right foot in the 65-54 loss to Notre Dame. He's out four to six weeks. That leaves the Lions with just eight scholarship players who are healthy and eligible on an LMU team that finished last season 5-25 overall, 2-12 in the WCC.
The Lions (0-4 heading into the Wagner game) still defended the Irish well Friday, holding Notre Dame lead guard Kyle McAlarney scoreless on 0-of-7 shooting.
"Despite all of this, we defended well, got right into [McAlarney's] face,'' said Good, who also said he challenged the team to pick it up in the absence of Bayno -- who didn't coach the Notre Dame game Friday night but wasn't officially on leave until Sunday -- and going forward in what is an odd schedule.
The Lions play on the East Coast against Wagner, then at Arkansas-Little Rock on Saturday and then at Arizona on Dec. 2. That kind of scheduling should show the disparity from the top of the league in Gonzaga, which would never even think to play this type of crazed schedule across the country without television or a high-major opponent, and the bottom in LMU.
Good, who is a fiery, disciplined and determined coach from his time at Maine Central Institute to his days as a UNLV assistant to making Bryant a Division II power before the school's recent move this season up to provisional Division I, sounded exhausted over this latest crisis with Bayno.
"From my mind, this is what has to happen now: We have to step it up,'' Good said. "We have no choice. I just hope Billy can come back.''
Good said LMU has been tremendous in giving Bayno the space he needs to sort through his medical condition, to deal with the stress and anxiety, as Bayno termed in the release, of coming back to head coaching for the first time in eight years. Bayno became sober, healthy and more focused during his time as an assistant coach and scout with the Portland Trail Blazers.
