Tina Kunzer-Murphy spearheads search for UNLV basketball coach amid cloudy future

Behind the major ongoing question of who will become UNLV’s next basketball coach has lurked another that is just as vital to the future of not only that program but also the Rebels’ entire athletic department.

Who’s going to make the actual hire?

Athletic director Tina Kunzer-Murphy is putting in the groundwork for the search for the coach who will succeed Dave Rice, who was fired Jan. 10, seeking out all the information she can on any potential candidate.

“Our men’s basketball coach, probably the most important hire I’ll ever do,” Kunzer-Murphy said. “As big a hire in the state of Nevada is going to be who we name as men’s basketball coach.”

After the initial part of the search is completed, she will serve as part of a three-person panel that includes university president Len Jessup and a member Kunzer-Murphy would not name. She said she anticipated presenting a list of three to five finalists.

When it comes down to which of the three gets the final say, Kunzer-Murphy said it would be a collaborative effort. That’s all fine and good unless they don’t all agree.

“I can tell you this, the president is the president for a reason,” Kunzer-Murphy said. “He’s in charge. I feel very confident that he and I will arrive at the same conclusion.”

Complicating the search is Kunzer-Murphy’s own future. Her contract is up at the end of the year, and she said she would decide probably in November whether to return.

A basketball coach interested in the vacancy might wonder, though, who ultimately will be his boss.

“I’m going to tell him I’m his boss and that the president’s my boss,” Kunzer-Murphy said.

No matter how the decision plays out and what ultimately happens with Kunzer-Murphy’s future, this much is clear: Kunzer-Murphy, 63, will have her fingerprints on the process.

She said she relies on three main tenets when arriving at decisions — whether it benefits the athletes, the athletic department and the university.

“Every decision that’s made, those are kind of the common threads that go through it, and I never vary from it,” Kunzer-Murphy said. “There are a lot of different things that you look at, but those are the common threads. The other thing I tell you is I don’t make decisions in a vacuum, but I do make decisions, and that’s part of this job.”

Darryl Seibel, the deputy athletic director for external relations, echoed her comment.

“She’s very clear on what her true north is,” Seibel said. “I think every major decision she makes is grounded there.”

Kunzer-Murphy relies on Seibel and a number of those close to her when reaching decisions, among them former athletic director Brad Rothermel and longtime sports information director for football Mark Wallington, as well as coaches and current and past university presidents.

One of her key advisers was Rich Abajian, Findlay Toyota general manager and supporter of UNLV athletics. He died of an apparent heart attack Feb. 9, but was interviewed for this story in January.

“Tina has had to make some unpopular decisions, and she’s put those ahead of her own job,” Abajian said at the time. “I think she comes at it more being about the university than keeping her own job.

“She and I talk maybe once a week. She runs things by me, and I tell her pretty much unadulterated. She may not go with it, but she listens.”

Having a hand in choosing the next basketball coach is far from Kunzer-Murphy’s first major decision since becoming UNLV’s interim athletic director in July 2013 and its full-time AD six months later.

BOBBY HAUCK

This was the easiest of her decisions. UNLV had just gone 7-6 in 2013 and participated in the Heart of Dallas Bowl, the football program’s first postseason game in 13 years. Hauck had one year left on his contract, so Kunzer-Murphy gave him a new three-year deal.

It really wasn’t a choice, and just because the Rebels went 2-11 the following season and Hauck resigned before he could be fired didn’t change the decision that had to be made at the time.

“It was the right thing to do at the time, and everybody agreed,” Kunzer-Murphy said. “It was well thought out at the time, and really hoping the success would continue, the start of the climb for Rebel football would happen, and it didn’t happen. You have to make decisions based on what’s right for the program, and I look back and know that was the right thing to do.”

After Hauck left, Kunzer-Murphy had to look for his replacement. She focused on Tony Sanchez at Bishop Gorman High School, hiring him in December 2014. After Sanchez went 3-9 in his first season, he went on to assemble one of the Mountain West’s top recruiting classes.

“We were able to go out and get a coach I think was a surprise to a lot of people and has just done a remarkable j0b,” Kunzer-Murphy said.

TIM CHAMBERS

This was similar to the Hauck deal in that in 2014 Chambers won a share of the regular-season Mountain West baseball championship and a trip to the regional for the first time in nine years.

Kunzer-Murphy awarded Chambers with a five-year deal, but he didn’t come close to reaching the end of the contract. Chambers couldn’t finish the season because of back problems, and an arrest and charge of driving under the influence in October led to his resignation two months later.

The question wasn’t whether Kunzer-Murphy should have given Chambers a new contract, but whether she should have made it five years.

“We wanted him to be our coach for as long as he wanted to be the coach,” Kunzer-Murphy said. “He’s one of our own (in Las Vegas), and I think when you have a coach like that in baseball, you look at some of the real successful coaches. They’re there forever. We really wanted that for Tim. At the time, he wanted that, and it didn’t work out.”

DAVE RICE

After Rice flirted with South Florida in 2014, Kunzer-Murphy extended his contract by two seasons through 2018-19.

“Coach Rice was promised by a previous president for a contract extension,” Kunzer-Murphy said. “So once I came in, that was something that was a constant conversation. I felt the university made a commitment to our coach, and so we needed to honor that. It just happened it was a different president and a different AD.

“I can tell you this, every day we were supportive of what’s in the best interest of men’s basketball. We tried to make it better, and when you make decisions like that and you honor previous commitments, I think it’s really important.”

When the Rebels failed to make the NCAA Tournament the following year, Kunzer-Murphy had another choice to make and decided to bring back Rice for this season.

“We weren’t ready” to let Rice go, Kunzer-Murphy said. “Len had just come on. We talked about where the program was and what our expectations were, and had several meetings with Dave and felt that he knew exactly what he needed to do for us to move forward.

“We had all of these recruits that we wanted to come to UNLV and stay here, so when you looked at the whole picture, we needed to have some stability. And so I made decisions based on having stability in our program.”

Then, of course, she fired Rice in January and now faces a coaching hire that will define her time as UNLV’s athletic director.

Lots of people own lots of opinions, and Kunzer-Murphy is well aware of the eyes that are on her.

“We’re going to hire somebody who is going to change the culture of men’s basketball,” she said. “Not to put the blame on anybody. The blame is right here on me. We’re going to move forward.”

Contact Mark Anderson at manderson@reviewjournal.com or 702-387-2914. Follow him on Twitter: @markanderson65.