After winning regents’ vote, Marvin Menzies puts end to UNLV’s circus

Memo to the person who hired protesters dressed as circus performers to stand outside the Board of Regents meeting Friday morning: You should have saved your money.

“I’m a little tired,” said one of those paid to protest in support of UNLV athletic director Tina Kunzer-Murphy being relieved of her duties. “I worked Circus Circus last night.”

Talk about one final nail of buffoonery in a coaching search coffin now officially, thankfully, mercifully, closed.

If he wins games as quickly as he did the news conference, Marvin Menzies will have spun some magic as UNLV’s new basketball coach, a position solidified when the regents voted 12-1 in favor of approving his five-year contract.

His personality is infectious, and yet his challenge to rebuild UNLV overly daunting.

“It’s going to be an amazing, amazing journey,” Menzies said. “I have to get everybody to just give me a chance to get this thing rolling, and I guarantee you, you will get my heart, my soul, my family, my friends, supporters from all across the globe pulling for us.”

There is a reason Menzies, who arrives after a nine-year run as coach at New Mexico State, is considered one the best recruiters nationally.

He knows how to work a room and push the correct buttons. This became evident upon his arrival from the regents meeting to the Mendenhall Center, where he spoke first about embracing the future and not dwelling on the past four months, when UNLV’s search for a coach became wackier than your average soap opera storyline.

This, too, is important when you consider the massive overhaul of a roster Menzies and his soon-to-be-completed staff now face: He, more than anyone not named Stacey Augmon, wanted the job.

Menzies was one of the first to contact Kunzer-Murphy about the position when the Rebels fired Dave Rice in early January. UNLV, after Mick Cronin predictably used the job as leverage to remain at Cincinnati, then made Menzies a finalist along with We-Hardly-Knew-Ya Chris Beard.

The Rebels then turned first to Menzies when Beard ran faster than any of his teams in bolting for Texas Tech.

I have written more than once about the historic significance of Menzies becoming the first permanent black head coach for UNLV men’s basketball, a point that was steered in a different direction by some regents when it came to the contract signed by Beard and a less financially rewarding one given to Menzies.

The truth: It’s not a black and white thing. It’s a negotiating thing.

UNLV has the responsibility to broker the best possible deal for itself, and Menzies and his attorney had the same opportunity. In the end, he signed the deal. He agreed to its terms.

Did the Rebels have some leverage over him, knowing how deeply he wanted the job? Of course. That’s part of the process. That’s how most coaching searches work. One side is always going to have certain advantages.

This deal has nothing to do with the one for Beard. You negotiate each one separately.

“Listen, I don’t know what (Beard’s) contract was,” Menzies said. “I didn’t care what his contract was. I still don’t care what his contract was. There are other people who will fight that fight, I’m sure, and have those larger (discussions on) social issues and the political dynamics that exist in Nevada. I understand that. I’m happy to be here. I doubled my pay (from New Mexico State). What, am I supposed to say I wanted to triple it and then I would have been content? No, I don’t think so.

“I’m sitting in the seat I wanted to sit in for a long, long time.”

You can’t overstate the importance of that. He said all the right things about the kind of players he wants, about education and community service and recruiting those who arrive with a hunger to lift UNLV back to a level of national prominence and not with the one-and-done attitude of merely getting through a season before chasing NBA dreams.

Most important, he brought a positive and uplifting vibe to a process that has been ridiculed nationally. He got those listening and watching excited about UNLV basketball for the first time in what seems like an eternity.

The paid protesters outside the regents meeting fell flat with their intended goal, and those regents voting inside properly followed their job description and approved a contract.

And then Marvin Menzies won a news conference at a time when UNLV desperately needed someone to put a happy face on this entire fiasco.

“I can’t think of one reason we can’t (win big) here,” Menzies said. “Obviously, it’s going to be a little bit of a challenge in the early stages, but we’re good to go. I just have to get to work. There is nothing I can do about the past. I wasn’t here. The future is where all opportunities lie. I welcome challenges. I will embrace every one we have.”

Right now, that’s going to take a mighty big hug.

Ed Graney can be reached at egraney@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-4618. He can be a heard on “Seat and Ed” on Fox Sports 1340 from 2 p.m. to 4 p.m. Monday through Friday. On Twitter: @edgraney