Rebels' Richardson suspended by Bayno

It has been a rocky start for Chris Richardson's collegiate career and the road developed another pothole Monday. Coach Bill Bayno suspended the 6-foot-6 freshman forward indefinitely for violating team policy.

When asked what Richardson did to warrant a suspension, Bayno said, "I'm not going to comment." However, Richardson's deteriorating attitude has been of concern to the coaching staff and word is he has not practiced hard recently.

Supposedly, the combination of the two along with his demeanor on the bench prompted Bayno to make his decision. Bayno did say that Richardson still is part of the team and was expected to practice with the Rebels as they prepare for Thursday's game against Wyoming at the Thomas & Mack Center.

Richardson is the third player to be disciplined by Bayno this season. In early December, starting center Kaspars Kambala sat out the Nevada-Reno game for violating team rules. In late December, freshman Matt Siebrandt was also suspended for violating team policy. Siebrandt supposedly is going to red-shirt this year.

Richardson has appeared in 15 of the team's 18 games this season and has averaged 1.9 points and 1.7 rebounds in 7.5 minutes per game. He played 10 minutes in last Thursday's loss at Southern Methodist but did not play in UNLV's 95-88 overtime win at Texas Christian last Saturday.

Richardson had expressed his dissatisfaction publicly earlier this season over his lack of minutes. He was reprimanded privately by Bayno for his comments, in which he referred to Bayno's strategy of dispensing playing time sparingly to freshmen as "retarded" and "stupid."

His best effort this year came early in the season when he scored six points and grabbed five rebounds in 14 minutes against Troy State.

* GREEDY'S OK: You may have caught the verbal exchange during the first half Saturday between Bayno and sophomore guard Greedy Daniels after Bayno yanked Daniels following a rushed 3-point attempt.

Each seemed determined to get his point across to the other. Bayno and Daniels wouldn't say what was said although both said everything was fine, chalking the exchange up to the heat of the battle.

"He's fine," Bayno said of Daniels, refusing to elaborate.

Daniels said: "We don't have any problems. We won the game. That's what's important."

* FINALLY, A RANKED WIN: Beating a ranked team during the regular season for the first time since 1995 was not lost on Bayno after the Rebels defeated 21st-ranked TCU.

"It's good to get a win like that," he said of UNLV's first regular-season victory over a top-25 team since beating 19th-ranked Michigan in late 1995. "But we're not going to dwell on it. We've got two big games this week to prepare for."

In this week's RPI, UNLV fell to 72. The Rebels were 68 before losing to SMU. But the TCU win helped cushion the blow considerably.

* HOOP DU JOUR: The WAC didn't overrule the officials and TCU's Lee Nailon sat out Monday's game at Tulsa after his ejection for swinging at and hitting Mark Dickel in the opening minute of Saturday's game. Commissioner Karl Benson said Monday afternoon: "TCU asked us to review the tapes of the game. We did look and we concur with the call that was made." ...

UNLV helped SMU's Jeryl Sasser garner WAC Mountain Player of the Week honors after Sasser lit the Rebels up for 26 points and 15 rebounds last Thursday. UTEP's Brandon Wolfram was the Pacific Division's player of the week.

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