Bill Bayno has been the University of Nevada, Las Vegas men's basketball coach for three years, and this is the second year in a row you've chosen him best local coach. Not bad, since Bayno -- and probably any other UNLV basketball coach from now until, say, Armageddon -- has had to labor in the shadow of the long-departed but, in some quarters, still-beloved Jerry Tarkanian. It's been an up-and-down kind of season for Bayno, but he and his team pulled it all together magnificently with a WAC championship and a trip to the NCAA tournament, just in time to remind us all how fun Rebel basketball can be. UNLV football coach Jeff Horton was your second-place pick.
Our Pick:
DWAINE KNIGHT
Dwaine Knight became coach of the University of Nevada, Las Vegas golf team in 1987 and in the years since has taken a previously obscure program into the stratosphere. The team currently is ranked first in the country and is enjoying its hottest streak ever, all with a roster that, on paper, shouldn't be as powerful as it is. Last year, Knight turned down a chance to become the University of Texas golf coach because, the coach explained, he hadn't fulfilled his goals for the UNLV program -- this despite the fact that his teams have racked up nine consecutive NCAA tournament appearances. Even if we can only wonder about what those unfulfilled goals might be, we're thrilled Knight has decided to stick around.
