Standing at crossroads, next few weeks are critical for UNLV basketball

By Taylor Bern

Saturday, March 12, 2016 | 2 a.m.

The season’s end is the start of the next era for UNLV basketball. How the program handles the next month will determine what that future looks like for the next five years and beyond.

There’s a lot to figure out with the Rebels’ potential roster, and it starts with hiring UNLV’s 12th full-time coach, a process that started two months ago when Dave Rice was fired 16 games into his fifth season. UNLV President Len Jessup and Athletics Director Tina Kunzer-Murphy have been having various conversations to that end, and now it really picks up steam as both the Rebels and other programs with possible candidates finish their seasons.

“We’re hoping by the end of this month we’ll have a coach,” Kunzer-Murphy said. “… We’ve been talking to a lot of people; a lot of head coaches, a few associate coaches, some NBA guys. We’ve talked to a lot of different people and kind of whittling it down.”

The selection committee tasked with that decision is Kunzer-Murphy, whose contract expires at the end of the year, Jessup and an unnamed third person. However, the Board of Regents is in charge of approving the final hire, so they are consulted on contract matters during the search, because if they’re ultimately not going to approve the contract there’s no sense in getting too far into negotiations with a particular candidate.

Some of the potential outside candidates that have already had some discussions include Pitt coach Jamie Dixon, former UCLA coach Steve Lavin and Louisville coach Rick Pitino. There’s also Arizona associate head coach Joe Pasternack and New Mexico State coach Marvin Menzies, and which level of coach UNLV can ultimately hire depends largely on what it will pay.

Rice, a first-time head coach, made $700,000 annually. Last March, first-year UNR coach Eric Musselman, who previously coached in the NBA and came directly from LSU’s coaching staff, received a five-year deal worth $400,000 annually before potential bonuses.

If UNLV remains in that neighborhood the pool of candidates is much smaller than if program boosters step in and step up with their checkbooks.

“We’ve been working with some folks trying to figure that out, how much the university and some of our strong supporters in the community (would pay),” Kunzer-Murphy said. “… We’ll do our due diligence to make sure that it fits within the parameters of what we can do here at UNLV.”

While many want to see the program clean house and start over with a big-name hire, others believe only a Rebel can lead this program. Associate head coach Stacey Augmon, one of the best players in program history, has been publicly campaigning for the job for a month and has the support of former teammates like Larry Johnson and Greg Anthony.

Interim coach Todd Simon is also interested in the job, but said that he didn’t want to speak up during the season and cause any more distractions for a roster already dealing with a plethora of them.

“It’s not necessarily my mentality I guess to do that,” Simon said after Thursday’s season-ending 95-82 loss to Fresno State. “I prefer to (avoid) the spotlight rather than be in the spotlight, so my mentality is just a little bit different. Hopefully we did the community proud and showed that we can get the most out of our guys.”

If the Rebels go with an internal candidate or a guy like Lavin, who currently works for Fox Sports, there’s no reason for the process to take another three weeks. Of course, it’s possible they could use that time reaching out to national candidates only to find themselves empty-handed as other jobs across the country open up. Based on the excitement she’s already encountered, though, Kunzer-Murphy thinks UNLV will have several qualified candidates to pick from.

“It’s because people love this job and they know that they can win at UNLV and UNLV is a proven winner, which is really exciting to think about the passion these coaches have for this job,” Kunzer-Murphy said.

While the coaching search moves forward, the Rebels are also mindful of the fact that they have nine scholarship players and four committed recruits who could choose to go in various different directions. Some could transfer while at least three — freshmen Stephen Zimmerman Jr. and Derrick Jones Jr. and sophomore Pat McCaw — are expected to explore their pro potential.

The good news there is that thanks to a new rule, collegiate players now have the ability to participate in the NBA combine and workout for one NBA team and still return to school. They also have up to 10 days after the combine to make that decision of whether or not to return, with this year’s deadline coming on May 25 compared to mid-April in recent years.

So while a drawn-out coaching search doesn’t guarantee a roster exodus, for many reasons it would behoove the Rebels to get this done and enter their new era sooner than later.

The clock is ticking.

Taylor Bern can be reached at 948-7844 or [email protected]. Follow Taylor on Twitter at twitter.com/taylorbern.