Just moving on
Being the coach at UNLV is no longer a destination job, Ed Graney says
IF UNLV basketball coach T.J. Otzelberger is leaving for Iowa State, which seemingly everyone but Otzelberger and the two schools involved have admitted, the narrative at UNLV will be a familiar one.
If March is first about the NCAA Tournament, a secondary plot are those annual rumors that swirl around the coaching fraternity. Who’s coming? Who’s going? Who’s going to be the next UNLV coach to be hired by a Big 12 school?
Texas Tech sent two private planes to transport Chris Beard from Las Vegas to Lubbock just because it could. Iowa State, despite existing within a Power Five conference, might lack the means or want-to for such extravagance.
Otzelberger, though, is thought to be the school’s choice to replace the fired Steve Prohm. It would have more to do with Otzelberger’s two stints as an assistant coach in Ames and those relationships he and wife Alison (a former star basketball player at Iowa State) built there than anything that has transpired at UNLV.
He’s 29-30 overall and 20-16 in the Mountain West over two years.
You’re not landing many gigs, much less in the Big 12, off that.
UNLV’S instability
What his departure would mean for UNLV, however, hits at a much broader level. One of continuity. Or
lack of it.
Consider: Should the move by Otzelberger to Iowa State become official — and most everyone in college basketball Tuesday seemed to think it already has — UNLV would need to hire its 14th head coach (including interims) since Jerry Tarkanian’s last season in 1992.
It would also be the sixth head coach (including an interim run of 17 games by Todd Simon) in the past 10 years. Beard only lasted 19 days and never came close to coaching a game. He doesn’t really count.
Six in 10. That’s almost impossible to achieve — and not in a good way.
In the past decade, UNLV lost Lon Kruger to Oklahoma because he’s one of the finest coaches in college history and — there it is again — a Big 12 school predictably came calling with Big 12 money and support.
Dave Rice was fired by UNLV. Marvin Menzies was fired. And now Otzelberger might be gone after just two years.
I understand the allure of any Power
Five job, even if it’s arguably the worst in said conference. UNLV has better facilities than Iowa State, a better arena, better history and tradition, a better chance to annually compete for a league title.
Yet Otzelberger should walk to Ames for the chance. He would likely triple his salary and there is the personal side to all of it.
This was Otzelberger in 2015 when returning to Iowa State as part of Fred Hoiberg’s staff: “It’s a dream come true for my family and I. We are truly passionate about this university and the Ames community … It feels great to be coming home.”
It would be a tough combination — cash and heartstrings — for UNLV athletic director Desiree-reed Francois to beat, although I’m guessing she would or has made an attempt.
But should the odds favor her beginning yet another coaching search, all the usual suspects and perhaps a few new ones would assuredly be named as candidates. There is time to sort through all that if Otzelberger actually departs.
Stay in-house?
Don’t discount this: UNLV is still a good job in many respects. It’s just not the great one most still living in 1990 believe. Still, there could be an advantage to continue moving down a path already in motion. To not repeat the same cycle of change yet again.
The name Kruger is not entirely gone from UNLV. Kevin is a former Rebels point guard who played for and coached under his father. Kevin has also assisted Otzelberger for two years.
Sometimes, the stability you’re searching for is much closer than you think. It’s one thought.
Let’s first see where the smoke leads with Otzelberger and Iowa State. These things aren’t immune to falling apart with 11th hour hiccups. But the fire was raging Tuesday. Ed Graney is a Sigma Delta Chi Award winner for sports column writing and can be reached at egraney@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-4618. He can be heard on “The Press Box,” ESPN Radio 100.9 FM and 1100 AM, from 7 a.m. to 10 a.m. Monday through Friday. Follow @edgraney on Twitter.