NMSU athletic director Mario Moccia wants to keep coach Paul Weir around — and realizes he needs help to do so
Moccia said school needs to produce “advocates” for coach, his program
TULSA, Okla. — Paul Weir wasn’t having it.
It’s not been his style all season to be reflective.
In fact, as those around him learned this season, the 37-yearold first-year head coach of the New Mexico State Aggies was far more prone to beat himself up in times of struggle than enjoy the unprecedented accomplishments the program achieved in his first 11 months on the job.
Friday in Tulsa, after his team’s 91-73 season-ending loss to Baylor, reporters again tried to pry from Weir’s mind some thoughts on the past year and what the young coach might be thinking about the future.
“Yeah, you know, there’s probably a time and a place for those conversations, but right now I really — I treated this, I think the only fair way to do this as a coach, particularly to Ian (Baker, the Aggies lone senior), was to treat this like it was my senior year, too. We just went pedal to the metal all year long like this was the last year we were ever going to play together.
“At some point we’ll pick up the pieces. But I really don’t want to worry about that (right now).”
His boss, New Mexico State athletic director Mario Moccia, doesn’t have the same luxury.
Worrying about the future, and about keeping Weir in Las Cruces, wasn’t only on his mind Friday in Tulsa, but has been for weeks.
“Money’s tight, obviously,” said Moccia. “But, now that the season is over, I think it’s up to the athletic department to be as creative as we can and do whatever we think we can in order to keep a coach, whether that’s projecting portions of revenue, portions of guarantee games. There’s a lot of potential options out there.”
Weir’s four-year deal pays him a base salary of $250,000 with more than $150,000 available in potential bonuses, though some of those are for such lofty accomplishments as Final Fours and national titles. Weir did earn $10,000 for making the NCAA Tournament, and NMSU says it has not yet determined whether he hit another bonus tied to ticket revenue benchmarks for the past season.
Weir also received an automatic one-year extension through the 2020-21 season on his contract for the WAC tournament win.
Moccia knows Weir is an asset he must protect after a schoolrecord 28 wins, the most in the nation for first-time Division I coaches, a 20-game win streak, beating UNM in Las Cruces for the first time since 2008 and beating a Power 5 team (Arizona State) on the road for the first time since 1994.
His buyout for leaving would be for half of the remaining base salary on his contract.
“When you have a young, energetic, passionate 37-year-old head coach who goes 28-6, he’s going to be a hot commodity,” Moccia said. “It’s incumbent upon us to do everything we can to keep him. We know there may be a day when we can’t keep him. We just hope that day isn’t tomorrow or in the next few weeks.”
Moccia said beyond finances, the athletic department needs to make sure Weir knows there is support outside of athletics, be it from boosters, the NMSU administration or those around the state with influence.
“We need to know that he has advocates for the basketball program,” Moccia said. “... Paul, since I’ve been here, he’s the consummate team player. He knows that finances are limited. He’s not necessarily expecting us to come to him with the two bags with dollar signs on them, but I know that he wants some advocates. He wants somebody to fight for the basketball program. That’s our job to make sure we find those advocates.”