UNLV interested in Saint Mary’s coach Randy Bennett

By Mike Grimala (contact)

Sunday, March 21, 2021 | 2 a.m.

As UNLV’s search for a new basketball coach approaches the end of its first week, could athletic director Desiree Reed-Francois be opening up to a new kind of candidate?

Whenever Reed-Francois has been involved in a major coaching hire, she has demonstrated a clear preference for young, up-and-coming coaches, whether it was her part in hiring Justin Fuente to be Virginia Tech’s head football coach, selecting Marcus Arroyo as UNLV’s football coach or tabbing T.J. Otzelberger and Lindy La Rocque to run the men’s and women’s hoops programs, respectively. But with her seat heating up and UNLV in need of a turnaround, Reed-Francois could opt for more of a known quantity this time around.

According to a source, current Saint Mary’s coach Randy Bennett is drawing interest from UNLV and could be a serious candidate for the job.

Saint Mary’s went 14-10 this season and reached the finals of the West Coast Conference tournament before falling to No. 1 Gonzaga. The Gaels then lost in the opening round of the NIT to Western Kentucky.

Bennett is the type of coach Reed-Francois has historically eschewed: 58 years old, 645 games of Division I head coaching experience, 36 years on the sideline in total. Bennett has led Saint Mary’s to a postseason berth (NCAA or NIT) in each of the last 13 seasons, and in his 20 years with the Gaels they have qualified for the NCAA Tournament seven times.

UNLV fans would probably jump at the opportunity to go to seven tourneys over the next 20 years, but first would be the matter of extracting Bennett from his current job. He appears to be happy at Saint Mary’s and has already turned down UNLV once before, when previous AD Tina Kunzer-Murphy approached him following Dave Rice’s dismissal in 2016. After declining that offer, Bennett turned around and inked a 10-year extension with Saint Mary’s that runs through the 2026-27 season.

Since then, Bennett has guided Saint Mary’s to a 121-41 record, including a 58-20 mark in the WCC. The Gaels qualified for the NCAA Tournament in 2016-17 (where they won their first-round matchup) and 2018-19.

Reed-Francois has shown a willingness to go outside her preferred coaching mold before. After she fired Marvin Menzies, she offered the job to Loyola Chicago coach Porter Moser, who declined. Moser was 50 at the time, with 15 years of Division I experience.

Bennett would go outside Reed-Francois’s normal archetype in another way, however. In 2013 the NCAA hit him with a five-game suspension, a four-year probation and a loss of scholarships in 2014-15 and 2015-16 for recruiting violations. Reed-Francois has expressed her desire to steer clear of any type of impropriety and her major hires have reflected that.

Bennett has relied heavily on international recruiting during his time at Saint Mary’s, and his deliberate, slow-tempo offense is a signature style. The Gaels finished No. 348 out of 357 teams in KenPom.com’s adjusted tempo this season, but Bennett has had them in the top 20 in offensive efficiency in five of the last six years.

The details of Bennett’s current contract are not publicly available.

Mike Grimala can be reached at 702-948-7844 or [email protected]. Follow Mike on Twitter at twitter.com/mikegrimala.