NMSU players want Bopp to be their next head coach
Taylor, Harris tweet their support for young assistant coach
LAS CRUCES — New Mexico State players have taken to Twitter to show their support for Aggie assistant coach Jesse Bopp to get the NMSU head coaching position.
Matt Taylor, who will graduate this spring from NMSU, and A.J. Harris have both shown their support for Bopp, who helped NMSU to a 28-5 record, a Western Athletic tournament championship and a NCAA Tournament bid.
“We want Jesse Bopp as our head coach, I wouldn’t like anyone else but the staff we have. That’s truly what my team wants @boppaggiehoops,” Harris, who sat out last season as a transfer from Ohio State, tweeted on Tuesday following Weir’s departure to New Mexico.
Taylor was a big supporter of Weir getting the head coaching job last spring and Tweeted on Tuesday: “KEEP IT IN THE FAMILY!!! #BoppUpNext#BringOnBopp.”
Most of the team has retweeted Harris’ and Taylor’s tweets.
Bopp led NMSU’s defense to be ranked in the top 25 this season, his only one so far in Las Cruces. NMSU held opponents to a 29.4 percent 3-point field goal percentage, fifth best in the nation.
NMSU atheltic director Mario Moccia said Bopp would be considered for the position, as well as other members of Weir’s New
Mexico State coaching staff .
Bopp, 33, would be a young, energetic head coach like Weir was. Bopp has worked under Billy Donovan at Florida and Shaka Smart at VCU. Prior to NMSU, he was part of Matt McCall’s staff at Tennessee-Chattanooga in 2015-16, helping the Mocs to a Southern Conference title and a NCAA Tournament bid. McCall is now the head coach at UMass.
“When you are successful, win 28 games and go to the NCAA Tournament, I think you would be foolish if you didn’t look at the pieces that helped you get there,” Moccia said on Wednesday. “It wasn’t just Paul Weir and nobody else. Much like I said a year ago, Jesse Bopp will certainly receive consideration. He obviously has a tremendous track record with Billy Donovan and Shaka Smart. Certainly, he will receive consideration. But much like Paul last year, just because he’s the incumbent, I have certainly yet to make up my mind. We have yet to officially kick off this process. I obviously have some people that I am very interested in talking to, but it’s a wide-open search.
“Last year, it was kind of unique. It was not a surprise and not a secret that the players supported Paul Weir tremendously,” Moccia said. “And that’s great and I got the players’ feedback. I think it’s critically important that immediately, you sit down with the players and you have a conversation with them. Whether they agree with you or not, you’re sitting right in front on them. I also told them my door is open for them 24-7 and here’s my cell number.”
Bopp played collegiate ball at Plymouth State, a Division III school in Plymouth, N.H., and captained the team his senior year. He graduated in 2007 from PSU with a degree in interdisciplinary studies and earned his master’s degree in sport leadership at VCU in 2010.
Moccia said the other finalists last year before Weir got the job could be considered again. Reportedly they were Arizona associate head coach Joe Pasternack, Oklahoma associate head coach, and former NMSU assistant coach, Chris Crutchfield and Baylor assistant coach Jerome Tang. However, Pasternack was named the head coach at California-Santa Barbara this month.
Other possible candidates could include Tony Stubblefield, Oregon assistant and former NMSU assistant (and interim head coach in 2004-05); TCU (and former UNM) assistant Ryan Miller, and Casey Owens, Las Cruces native and NMSU alum who finished his first season as assistant with the Los Angeles Lakers.