UNLV moves quickly to hire New Mexico State's Marvin Menzies
One day after new UNLV coach Chris Beard bolted for Texas Tech, Rebels athletic director Tina Kunzer-Murphy moved quickly to identify a replacement.
She hired the coach Beard initially beat out for the job less than three weeks ago.
New Mexico State coach Marvin Menzies will be UNLV's next coach pending approval of the Nevada Board of Regents next week. Menzies worked as an assistant under Steve Fisher, former UNLV coach Lon Kruger and Rick Pitino before becoming head coach of the Aggies nine years ago.
In his past five years at New Mexico State, Menzies has presided over the Aggies' most successful era since their heyday in the early 90s. He has won 23 or more games each season, captured a pair of WAC regular season titles and made the NCAA tournament four times.
The one hole in Menzies' resume is a lack of signature victories. New Mexico State did not win an NCAA tournament game during his tenure, nor did the Aggies defeat a power-conference opponent. They did have a pair of near-misses in the opening round of the NCAA tournament, however, against both Michigan State and San Diego State.
It had to be awkward for UNLV to come back to Menzies after passing on him during the initial search, but the Rebels had little choice but to act quickly. Transfers, defections and early departures for the NBA draft gutted their roster and incoming recruiting class and both the spring signing period and spring evaluation period started already this week.
The first priority for Menzies will undoubtedly be trying to entice back Patrick McKaw, Ben Carter and some of the incoming recruits who have sought a release from their letter of intents. He'll also need to hire a staff as soon as possible so they can get out on the recruiting trail.
When Kunzer-Murphy spoke at Beard's introductory news conference last week, she declared that he was the right coach to bring the Rebels back to prominence after three straight seasons without an NCAA tournament bid.
Now she can only hope Menzies is capable of the same.
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Jeff Eisenberg is the editor of The Dagger on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at daggerblog@yahoo.com or follow him on Twitter!
