Cincinnati’s Cronin in Las Vegas to check out UNLV hoops job

By Taylor Bern

Wednesday, March 23, 2016 | 12:01 a.m.

Shortly after 10 p.m. Tuesday, NetJets flight No. 953 landed at Atlantic Aviation on Tropicana Avenue, a quick drive from the Thomas & Mack Center. The flight's cargo included the top candidate to be UNLV’s next men’s basketball coach, Cincinnati’s Mick Cronin.

Two black Cadillac Escalades whisked away the 44-year old coach, UNLV Athletics Director Tina Kunzer-Murphy and a few other UNLV administrators and boosters, thus commencing the Cronin courting in Las Vegas. The Rebels plan to offer a contract that would pay reportedly as much as $3 million per season, although even Cronin’s current $1.8 million base package from the Bearcats would be by far the most UNLV has paid a coach.

Cronin just finished his 10th season at Cincinnati, his alma mater, and the Bearcats were bounced at the buzzer in the first round of this year’s NCAA Tournament. UNLV President Len Jessup was reportedly at the game, and he was among the group that greeted Cronin on Tuesday evening.

Cronin has led the Bearcats to the past six NCAA Tournaments, plus shared the American Athletic Conference regular season title in 2014 and top three finishes the last three years. Since a Sweet Sixteen run in 2012, however, Cincinnati is 3-8 in conference tournament and NCAA Tournament games.

UNLV has been in a protracted search for its next coach ever since asking Dave Rice to leave on Jan. 10, although realistically many conversations with coaches couldn’t fully take place until those teams’ seasons ended in March. Rumored targets Brad Underwood and Jamie Dixon recently took new jobs at Oklahoma State and TCU, respectively, and after discussing Cronin’s name with boosters on Saturday, Kunzer-Murphy has worked to get necessary support and funds to persuade Cronin to leave home.

Rice was making $700,000 annually on the extension he signed in 2014. The university still owed him close to $1 million for the remaining base salary while showing Rice the door, and the program is also on the hook for at least $365,620 in base salary next season for assistant coaches Stacey Augmon and Ryan Miller, who agreed to two-year deals last offseason. Interim coach Todd Simon left to take over at Southern Utah.

In 2014, Cronin signed a seven-year extension — his fourth extension at Cincinnati — that paid him $1.8 million annually with incentives that could push it to around $2.2 million. His buyout is $1 million. For weeks, sources have suggested that UNLV would have upwards of $2.5 million to pay a coach, but now there’s possibly more, for the right guy. Cronin has a .643 winning percentage over 13 years as a head coach, and the belief is that Cincinnati's best counter would be a commitment to better facilities and more funds for the basketball program.

One source said that the Board of Regents, which must ultimately approve the contract, has not yet seen any potential deal. With Cronin in town that could change very soon, and more than a week ago UNLV officials asked to have March 30 cleared for a special session that they hoped would approve the 12th coach in UNLV history.

Cronin started at Cincinnati in 1996 as a video coordinator for Bob Huggins and became a full-time assistant coach the following year. After four seasons under Huggins, Cronin became the associate head coach and recruiting coordinator at Louisville under Rick Pitino.

Two years later came his first head-coaching job at Murray State, where Cronin won one regular-season Ohio Valley Conference championship and earned two auto-bids to the NCAA Tournament in three seasons. That led Cronin back to Cincinnati, where he took over a program still recovering from Huggins’ resignation.

This isn’t the same kind of reclamation project, though the cupboard could be just as bare as rumors swirl around players prepared to depart if they’re dissatisfied with UNLV’s hire. If Cronin turns UNLV down, attention turns possibly to Arkansas-Little Rock’s Chris Beard, South Carolina’s Frank Martin or New Mexico State’s Marvin Menzies.

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