If there’s one thing that Max Good learned a long, long time ago, it’s that good players make good coaches, and not the other way around.

Good, who showed everyone around here just how good a coach he was during his great run at Bryant University, is leading a team that is 0-15. The prospects for a win aren’t exactly rosy either.

Good is the interim head coach at Loyola-Marymount in Los Angeles. He stepped in for Bill Bayno when he left team after three games after being “diagnosed with a serious medical condition, in part, related to the stress and anxiety of head coaching,” according to a statement released by the school. Before one of those early season games, Good said Bayno tapped him on the leg. “Billy said ‘I don’t know if we can win a game.’ The stress he held inside was substantial,” he said.

Ever since, Good has been calling the plays and trying to run the same things he ran so well at Bryant and, before that, UNLV, Maine Central Institute and Eastern Kentucky. But when his team lost three starters to injury, he had to hold walk-on tryouts again. Most games he uses seven players. Among the seven healthy scholarship players remaining, three are freshmen and two were previously walk-ons. One, a 6-foot-6 sophomore named Brad Sweezy, has become the Lions’ backup center.

“I can’t ask any more from these kids. They’ve been great,” said Good. “They are uplifting to me. We’ve had our moments, but it’s hard. Kids who we didn’t think would play very much at all are playing 30 minutes a game.”

There is a chance that Bayno’s condition won’t improve enough for him to return this season. He may not ever return, in fact. If so, Good will be the leading candidate to get the job.

Whoever leads the program next year will be in good shape. Good says that not only will the injured players return, but Bayno did a great job recruiting with two high-level transfers (including Larry Davis from Seton Hall) and three very good recruits led by forward Terrell Vinson and center Edgar Garibay. Vinson, a Baltimore kid, chose LMU over the likes of Georgetown and Memphis.

“Our talent will improve by three levels,” said Good. “We’ll go from three good players to 12 next year. I hope and pray Billy is back with us.”

Bonnies are back

The good-news story in the Atlantic 10 this season has to be St. Bonaventure. Coached by Attleboro’s Mark Schmidt, the Bonnies have a pulse again. That’s major news for a program that’s been stuck in the bottom of the conference ever since Jim Baron left to come to Rhode Island.

The Bonnies are 9-4 and haven’t played this well on the road in four decades. The Bonnies won 90-82 in double-overtime at Bucknell and then beat Central Arkansas by 10 last week. That makes them 5-0 on the road this season, their longest winning streak away from home since 1967-68, when all-time great Bob Lanier led the team to a similar streak. Bonaventure finished 23-2 that season.

That’s not about to happen but with Schmidt pumping talent into the program, the Bonnies will be a tough out again up in always cold and snowy Olean, N.Y. Junior college additions Jonathan Hall and Ray Blackburn have been huge and freshman Andrew Nicholson has surprised.

Double dribbles

There’s probably no such thing as a critical game when you own the panache and security of someone like Rick Pitino, but the coach is facing a huge game today when hated Kentucky comes to Freedom Hall. The Cardinals are the lone Big East team that has not lived up to its preseason hype, and the rabid fans in Louisville can’t quite understand it. An early season loss to Western Kentucky raised eyebrows, but a home loss to UNLV on New Year’s Eve got the fandom downright peeved. Losing to UK at home? Rick P. does not want to go there. … PC recruit Duke Mondy, of Grand Rapids, Mich., has scored 26 or more points in three of his four games. Kyle Wright, a JUCO recruit from Hartford, is averaging 17 points and has hit 39 threes in 14 games for Monroe College in the Bronx, N.Y. … South Kingstown native and Florida signee Erik Murphy, who plays prep hoop for St. Mark’s, will play at St. Andrews in Barrington at 3:30 p.m. Wednesday.

kmcnamar@projo.com