Saturday, April 02, 2005
Copyright © Las Vegas Review-Journal

JOE HAWK: Head coaching no longer an act for Theus

Former New Mexico State basketball coach Lou Henson, left, congratulates Louisville assistant coach Reggie Theus on his hiring as the Aggies' head coach. Photo by THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

ST. LOUIS

This time, the players are a little older, although not necessarily more skilled.

This time, there won't be a girl to integrate into the team, although if there was and she could shoot, rebound or pass better than some of the returnees it might be worth making a case for.

This time, the setting won't be a fictional high school in Indiana but a real college campus in basketball-rabid New Mexico.

This time, there will be no retakes when the scenes don't play out perfectly.

This time, coach Bill Fuller -- oops, Reggie Theus -- is writing the script and directing the action, not just reading lines prepared for him.

Seven years removed from his days playing the hip bachelor coach of the NBC Saturday morning, teen coming-of-age sitcom "Hang Time" -- think "Saved By the Bell" as "Saved By the Ball" -- Theus, 47, is getting the opportunity to walk a basketball sideline for real.

Finally.

While it isn't the position the former UNLV standout long has coveted -- leading his once-basketball proud alma mater -- it's a career breakthrough. And he's embracing his new role as New Mexico State coach with all the excitement and energy of a college coach who has ... oh, say, reached the Final Four?

Wait, that's Theus, too.

Before leaving next week for Las Cruces, N.M., and the start of his head-coaching career, Theus is wrapping up a two-year run as an assistant to Louisville coach Rick Pitino, culminating with this weekend's appearance by the fourth-ranked Cardinals in the NCAA Tournament's Final Four.

Louisville meets top-ranked Illinois in the first of two national semifinal games today at the Edward Jones Dome. Second-ranked North Carolina and No. 15 Michigan State play in the second game. The winners meet Monday for the championship.

"If anybody was to tell me, `Hey, Reggie, move from California to Louisville for 20 months, go to the Final Four and get a head-coaching job,' I would've laughed," says Theus, who then laughs.

Leaning back on a folding chair inside the Cardinals' locker room, his arms crossed, his smile as boyishly mischievous as it was when he starred at UNLV from 1976-78, Theus talks enthusiastically of his new assignment -- pointing out, at every opportunity, how the assignment he is just completing helped get him there.

"I've learned a tremendous amount about leadership," Theus said of his brief time at Louisville. "Coach Pitino is, without a doubt, the greatest leader I've ever been around. He leads by example, which is a great attribute.

"He works hard, he works his staff hard, he works his players hard. But there's so much sincerity in the way he does things. But that's really who he is. It's not him trying to be somebody else. That's what's worked for him. He has a masterful blueprint for success."

Which Theus is none to bashful to admit he has lifted for his own use with the Aggies, who went a miserable 6-24 this past season. He has, what he calls, "two notebooks-full of (Pitino's) system."

"It's good. It's good stuff," says Theus, who also has 13 years of NBA playing experience to call upon.

True to his word, which he stated Monday upon his official hiring at New Mexico State, Theus is helping to see the Cardinals -- 33-4 and winners of 13 straight -- through this national championship weekend. When he speaks of the Louisville players, it's of their high "basketball IQ."

That, he concedes, is something he is going to have to work hard on developing at New Mexico State. First, though, Theus says he must re-establish a "work ethic and attitude" conducive to winning. The Aggies, with veteran head coach Lou Henson having retired due to medical problems, didn't respond this season to the teachings of interim coach Tony Stubblefield.

"Work ethic and attitude ... those are the things we have to get back," Theus says. "Once you get them back, you have a foundation to build on."

In time -- "maybe three years," he said -- Theus might approach UNLV about revisiting a series with New Mexico State that was tightly contested when both schools were part of the Big West Conference. Now, UNLV is in the Mountain West and New Mexico State is a member of the Sun Belt, and the schools haven't played each other since the early 1990s.

Asked, then, whether he might consider playing resurgent Louisville in the near future, Theus' graying hair almost fades another shade before our very eyes.

"How about this, only if it's home-and-home?" he asks. "To play at Freedom Hall and see Coach Pitino walking the sideline would probably be terrifying to me."

Something tells us Reggie Theus, first year head coach-to-be, has enough terrifying moments in front of him as it is. Coaching the real New Mexico State Aggies won't be like coaching the fictional Deerfield High Tornadeos.

Whether Theus knows it or not, he's gone from the light comedy of "Hang Time" to the high drama of "Hang In There."

Joe Hawk's column is published Sunday, Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday. He can be reached at 387-2912 or jhawk@reviewjournal.com.