Las Vegas Sun

March 28, 2024

Rebels basketball:

UNLV associate head coach Schroyer leaving to take over at UT Martin

Heath Schroyer spent the past 3 seasons on coach Dave Rice’s staff after previous head-coaching stints at Wyoming and Portland State

UNLV vs. Utah State - Jan. 22 2014

Sam Morris / Las Vegas Sun

UNLV associate head coach Heath Schroyer yells to his team during their game against Utah State Wednesday, Jan. 22, 2014 at the Thomas & Mack Center. UNLV won 62-42.

UNLV associate head coach Heath Schroyer will be the next head basketball coach at UT Martin, multiple sources confirmed to the Sun today. Schroyer will be introduced at a press conference on Thursday.

Schroyer spent the past three seasons as an assistant on coach Dave Rice’s staff at UNLV, and he was credited with some of the biggest recruiting victories during that time. A Maryland native, Schroyer used his ties to the East Coast to sign several players, including incoming freshman Dwayne Morgan, sophomore Daquan Cook and junior transfer Roscoe Smith, among others.

Before UNLV, Schroyer was the head coach at Wyoming from 2007 to 2011, when he was fired near the end of the season. Other recent stops include Portland State, where he was the head coach from 2002-05, and Fresno State, where Schroyer was an assistant from 2005-07.

At UT Martin, he's reuniting with Athletic Director Julio Freire, who ran the Rebel Athletic Fund for several years under former UNLV Athletic Director Jim Livengood. Schroyer’s deal at UT Martin is reportedly for six years, giving him some job security at a program that has had very little success. He’s replacing coach James Jones, who was fired after five seasons with a 37-117 overall record.

Jones had spent the previous six seasons as an assistant under Bret Campbell, who resigned in 2009 after an internal audit revealed he cashed or deposited checks from a summer camp into his personal account. That year Campbell was named the Ohio Valley Conference Coach of the Year after leading the Skyhawks to their first and only OVC regular-season title.

The move leaves assistant Stacey Augmon as the lone original member of Rice's coaching staff. Former associate head coach Justin Hutson left after two years to return to San Diego State, and Rice replaced him with Findlay Prep coach Todd Simon.

Rice has already stated that he plans to add a position to the staff, most likely a special assistant to the head coach job for a veteran coach. If he still wants to add that position, that spot would be in addition Schroyer’s vacancy, which would likely be filled with another recruiter.

One name that keeps coming up for the staff is 72-year-old Max Good, the former UNLV interim coach who was recently fired at Loyola Marymount. And with Good could potentially come Elijah Stewart, a three-star shooting guard out of Los Angeles. However, Stewart signed a letter of intent to Loyola Marymount so the school would have to release him from that contract.

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

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