Assistant coach gets WKU offer

Hsu has already been integral in recruiting

He hasn’t yet settled down in Albuquerque, but Marc Hsu is already being tempted by another Division I basketball program suddenly in need of filling its staff.

Hsu, who followed new University of New Mexico men’s basketball coach Paul Weir to Albuquerque to be an assistant after spending the past season at New Mexico State University, has been offered a job at Western Kentucky University with a substantial pay increase, though sources who confirmed the offer to the Journal did not say exactly what that amount is.

As of Saturday, Hsu (pronounced SHOO), who declined to comment, had not accepted the job.

While the Journal has a stillpending Inspection of Public Records Act request for all contracts for the Lobos basketball coaching staff that has not yet been fulfilled, the school’s salary database indicates Hsu is earning a base annual salary of $150,000.

It is unclear if there are other incentives in his contract increasing the compensation, which is a common practice in athletics. Former men’s basketball coach Craig Neal, for instance, earned $950,000 per year, but UNM’s database showed his salary as just $300,000.

In the past week, Western Kentucky assistant Shammond Williams resigned, and second-year head coach Rick Stansbury has as many as three staff openings.

Whether the cash-strapped Lobos can afford to match the WKU offer, or if they will even try, is not known. Weir, an assistant coach for the Canadian junior national team playing today in Egypt in the FIBA U19 World Cup championship game, said he wouldn’t comment until he returns to Albuquerque on Tuesday. It is also unclear how, if at all, the uncertainty with an interim athletic director will affect a decision on asking for more money.

Hsu has played a key role in recruiting all five signed players for UNM this offseason.