Las Vegas Sun

March 18, 2024

Menzies completes coaching staff at UNLV

Rob Jeter

Associated Press

Milwaukee head coach Rob Jeter waves a finger as he questions a call during the second half of an NCAA college basketball game against Notre Dame, Tuesday, Nov. 17, 2015, in South Bend, Ind.

UNLV men’s basketball coach Marvin Menzies has rounded out his coaching staff with Rob Jeter and Eric Brown, multiple sources confirmed. Jeter was the coach for 11 years at Milwaukee-Wisconsin, while Brown comes in after 10 seasons as an assistant at Long Beach State.

Combined with assistant Andre LaFleur, a former Providence assistant who has been with Menzies since the introductory news conference two weeks ago, the Rebels staff is filled with experience and a recruiting footprint covering both coasts. LaFleur has a lot of ties on the East Coast, while Brown, who was on USC’s staff during Menzies’ lone season there (2003-04), is known for having strong connections in the West.

And in the middle is Jeter, who was fired in March with one year remaining on his contract after a 20-13 record last season. A longtime assistant under Bo Ryan at UW-Platteville, UWM and Wisconsin, Jeter took over UWM after Bruce Pearl left in 2005 and went 185-170 overall and 1-2 in the NCAA Tournament over his 11 seasons.

Third-year UWM Athletics Director Amanda Braun’s decision to fire Jeter upset many in the Milwaukee community, including current players who spoke out about the difference between Braun’s expectations and the realities of their program. Milwaukee finished fifth the past three years, while Braun has maintained that they should regularly finish in the top three, among other things.

The Panthers’ decision could be a big gain for the Rebels, who should be able to lean heavily on the experience of all three assistants. At his news conference, Menzies said he wanted his assistants to work together as a partnership and that he planned to give equal pay and equal titles to all three of them.

“I’m not a big title guy. I’m a big roll up your sleeves and go to work guy,” Menzies said. “I think that minimizes a lot of the internal jealousies and back-biting and some of the things that happen in different programs across the nation.”

Or right here at UNLV, where last summer’s decision to make all three assistants associate head coaches with two-year contracts led to some of the problems the Rebels faced after Dave Rice was fired. Menzies’ assistants are expected to receive one-year deals, and now that they’re all officially in the fold, they can get to work putting together the rest of a roster with many holes to fill.

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

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