Bradbury relishes opportunity at UNM
New women’s basketball coach embraces expectations
Mike Bradbury knows precious little about the state of New Mexico.
The University of New Mexico’s newly hired women’s basketball coach admitted as much during his introductory news conference Thursday at the Pit.
Bradbury said he’s spent exactly three days in the state — all this week.
“I’m being educated on green and red chile,” he said.
But the 46-year-old Kentucky native is very familiar with UNM women’s basketball. That knowledge made him want to bring his family to the Land of Enchantment.
“The opportunity here is tremendous,” Bradbury said. “… Coaches all over the country know about this program and are envious. (Coaching here) is what you want to do. I know expectations are high, but with the facilities and fan support this program has, I think those expectations are right on.”
Bradbury comes to New Mexico after a successful six-year stint at Wright State, where his teams went 128-73 with five 20-win seasons and five postseason appearances. His success there and previously at Morehead State (50-44 in three seasons) helped win over UNM athletic director Paul Krebs.
“Wright State and Morehead State are very difficult places to win,” said Krebs, who knows the Midwest athletic landscape from his time as an associate AD at Ohio State and athletic director at Bowling Green. “Those schools have been among the have-nots in their conferences, and when you look at what they did before and after (Bradbury) was there, his success is
even more impressive.”
Bradbury’s hiring is still pending until UNM’s human resources department gives its final approval. In the interim he has signed a letter of agreement on a five-year deal with a base salary of $250,000 for year one that increases to $275,000 thereafter. The guaranteed contract will include a buyout if terminated and incentive clauses both for performance (conference championships, NCAA appearances, etc.) and ticket revenue plateaus, Krebs said.
There is a $250,000 salary pool to divide among three assistant coaches, but Bradbury said he has not yet determined which assistants he will hire. UNM retained assistant coach Amy Beggin to serve as interim coach when Yvonne Sanchez was fired on March 18. Both Krebs and deputy athletic director Janice Ruggiero have said they hope UNM’s new coach will strongly consider hiring Beggin.
“Amy is a real possibility,” Bradbury said, “A lot of who I hire has to do with what happens at Wright State. We’ll see how things play out in the next few weeks.”
Bradbury met with UNM’s returning players for the first time prior to Thursday’s press conference. He gave them brief descriptions of the dribbledrive offense and up-tempo style that made Wright State the Horizon League’s top-scoring offense.
“I’m hoping we can do it to an extent next year,” Bradbury said. “Can we get our full-fledged chaos going right away? I don’t know. A lot will depend on the players and how they adapt to it.”
UNM’s returning players stood quietly during Bradbury’s press conference, but Beggin said the atmosphere was different in their initial meeting with the coach.
“He made a really good first impression,” Beggin said. “Good ideas, good energy. Our players came away very excited. It’s going to be a completely different style of basketball than what they’re used to, but I think they’re excited about it.”
Bradbury promised his Lobos will play fan-friendly basketball.
“The simplest way to put it is we’re gonna play fast,” he said. “It’s entertaining for the fans, it helps with recruiting and it’s a fun way to play. It’s what we do.”
As for recruiting, Bradbury said he plans to reach out to players who were on the radar of UNM’s previous staff. Bradbury has been noted as a strong recruiter at his previous stops, including when he was an assistant coach at Cincinnati and Xavier.
“The biggest thing we’ve got to be able to do is take care of (recruiting) our region,” he said. “The Southwest is a big region for me to learn, but we will take care our region.”
Krebs emphasized more than once Thursday that Bradbury’s strong desire to work at UNM helped him become the program’s sixth women’s basketball coach. Krebs said UNM officials talked to numerous candidates and formally interviewed five before making a “unanimous” decision to hire Bradbury.
For his part, Bradbury said he respects the work former coaches Don Flanagan and Sanchez did in building UNM’s program.
“What made me a big fan is what I know about basketball,” Bradbury said. “With what Coach Flanagan did and the fan support here, this program should be at a high level. It will be at that level.”