Marvin Menzies is now coaching a program with a far more profound sense of history in a town whose annual expectations for UNLV basketball exist somewhere between unrealistic and foolish.
UNLV Basketball
With less than two weeks before the Rebels open their second season under Tony Sanchez, it remains undecided who will assume the starter’s role at the most critical position when Jackson State visits Sam Boyd Stadium on Sept. 1.
The preparation now is for three exhibition games in a popular cruise-ship stop. But the work that probably will define how UNLV fares under first-year coach Marvin Menzies began in earnest last month.
When everyone else was running from UNLV’s basketball program like frightened guests from a T-Rex at a fictional park, Jalen Poyser didn’t budge.
It was one of those double-take moments Saturday afternoon, the kind you blink twice at while scrolling a Twitter feed without any warning of the brick wall ahead: Former Iowa State player and current New Orleans Pelican Bryce Dejean-Jones has died, the Dallas County coroner’s office confirms.
Regents should have zero influence when it comes to those a university hires to run athletic programs, and that includes voting to approve the contracts offered coaches.
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.
I’m not sure on whose name the Ferris wheel will ultimately stop as UNLV’s next basketball coach, but the circus ride needs to be followed by a thorough, honest evaluation of the search process and those who directed the program to this point.
Most believe UNLV basketball coach Chris Beard will take the Texas Tech job. Why wouldn’t he? Why shouldn’t he? No one could have seen this coming.
UNLV officially has its coach and you couldn’t have hoped for a better opening message from him, one about building and winning and sustaining a level of success all the right ways, that the goal is not to get things done quickly but rather correctly.
In a town where there is no patience for its basketball program struggling in the least, a large dose is needed now as Chris Beard is set to officially assume control of UNLV on Friday.
Chris Beard’s head coaching stops include time at community colleges in Seminole State and Fort Scott, a level that demands coaches travel to places far and wide and often unknown to discover players.
Cincinnati basketball coach Mick Cronin wasn’t the best fit for UNLV, certainly not in terms of personality and style of play for the money being offered. But that doesn’t mean the best fit isn’t still out there.
It appears UNLV is in the process of offering Lon Kruger-type money to its leading candidate, Cincinnati coach Mick Cronin. Problem: It’s not Lon Kruger.
UNLV needs to stop worrying about winning the news conference and hire someone who can win the conference.
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