Bill Bayno savors quiet life

   By Kevin Gleason, March 09, 2003
   Times Herald-Record
   [email protected]
   
   Bill Bayno finally has found a comfortable place. Not technically Yakima, Wash., though he likes it there.
   A comfortable place in life.  You mean, only now has Bayno found a comfort zone? The same Bill Bayno who has made millions coaching basketball? Same guy who at UNLV held one of the most electric jobs in college sports?
   Same guy with two homes in Vegas, who hung with the likes of Michael Jordan and Charles Barkley ("Charles Barkley thought I was nuts'')?  Same guy. Different person.
   Happier, inside and out, fulfilled, prouder. Healthier.
   Meet Bill Bayno, 2003 AV (after Vegas).
   "This,'' Bayno was saying into his cell phone, "is the happiest I've been since I've been out of UNLV.''
   The new Bill Bayno, Goshen native and 1980 John S. Burke Catholic graduate, coaches the Yakima Sun Kings of the CBA. This is minor-league hoops, where players – and coaches – are on a perpetual audition for NBA riches.
   Bayno got to Yakima via a head coaching job in the Philippines. But the journey was far greater than that.
   It began, really, the day in 1995 Bayno was hired to coach the UNLV Runnin' Rebels. Fresh off helping John Calipari turn around UMass, Bayno was 32 years old making $600,000 a year amid insomniac-intense pressure to win.
   He could schmooze recruits and administrators and alumni. He frequented the club scene and, idealists be damned, strip clubs. Bayno was a gossip columnist's dream – young, single, handsome – and wrung every drop of excitement from his part.
   Bill Bayno was the toast of Vegas.
   And that got him in trouble.
   "I'm not saying I was an alcoholic,'' Bayno says, "but I drank too much.''
   Bayno relates alcohol to many of his problems at UNLV. Poor decisions. Clouded judgment. Recruiting mistakes.
   "It took away a lot of my focus and it really had a lot to do with a lot of bad decisions in my life,'' Bayno says. "I probably lived 100 years in 30. I had a lot of fun.''
   But then, "I got to the age where it wasn't worth it anymore.''
   Bayno had his last drink well over a year ago, soon after he was fired from UNLV on Dec. 11, 2000. Bayno was dumped after the NCAA barred UNLV from the '00-01 postseason and put the program on four years probation for the recruitment of Lamar Odom. Bayno says he was unaware of Odom receiving at least $5,400 in cash and improper benefits from UNLV booster David Chapman.
   Bayno got a $400,000 settlement to cover his services for the '00-01 season and final two years on his contract. He was cleared of wrongdoing by the NCAA. Bayno left with a 94-64 record and two NCAA tournament berths in five-plus seasons.
   "I still have fun,'' he says. "I just have fun with Diet Cokes. The fast lane is not appealing to me anymore.''
   Bayno hardly took a post-UNLV rest. He coached another minor league outfit and worked in the NBA at pre-draft camps and as a part-time scout. He spent nine eventful months as coach of Talk 'N Text in the Philippines.
   Bayno won a regular-season title and lost in the finals in two mini-seasons. Not a bad return on Talk 'N Text's investment, a $130,000 tax-free salary and condo to Bayno.
   He gave back $6,000 of it in fines, a Philippines coaching record, for making game-fixing accusations. Bayno says four teams with the same ownership dominated the championships, and the cheating was obvious.
   League commissioner Jun Bernardino replied by reportedly telling Bayno to "focus on coaching your team on the court instead of questioning the wisdom of the league policies and practices.''
   Bayno appreciated his management and enjoyed teaching a coachable team. He remains a consultant with Talk 'N Text.
   But Bayno found an even better fit in Yakima. None of that fanny-kissing recruiting that's unique to college hoops. The CBA's just pure basketball.
   "In college it's 80 percent non-basketball,'' Bayno says. "Recruiting, dealing with their social lives. Many of the kids I had, I was their father, big brother. Coaching was the least of it.''
   Bayno just lost four players. One went to the NBA, another to Italy. Two got hurt. The playoffs begin Tuesday.
   Bayno bobs and weaves through the adversity. He has Yakima at 28-17. During one stretch, director of team operations Rich Austin says, Bayno had Yakima "playing as well as I've ever seen them.'' And Austin has seen Yakima win both of its CBA titles, in 1995 and 2000.
   "He's worked out better than I could have ever imagined,'' Austin says.
   And not just from the coaching side.
   "When we (make appearances), it's usually with kids,'' Austin says. "And he's gone out and done some things on his own.''
   Bayno wants a shot in the bigs like everyone else. But he rests easily knowing an NBA opportunity may never come.
   His work ethic remains as intense as ever. But Bayno has slowed down. Whether in Yakima or three hours away coaching the Portland Trail Blazers, Bill Bayno has found a comfortable place.
   
   Bill Bayno's coaching travels
   2002-present: Head coach, Yakima Sun Kings (CBA)
   2002: Head coach, Talk 'N Text, Philippines professional league
   2001-02: Head coach, Phoenix Eclipse (ABA)
   1995-2000: Head coach, UNLV
   1988-95: Associate coach, University of Massachusetts
   1987-88: Assistant coach, Baptist College (Charleston, S.C.)
   1986-87: Graduate assistant coach, Kansas
   1985-86: Graduate assistant coach, Seton Hall