From the perspective of a Utah fan first, our goal is the Big 10. However, what got Utah into the Pac12 and now Big12 was that Utah focused on football first. When I was a UofU grad student, many (not all) considered Utah a basketball school. One win away from the Utes winning the NCAA championship. Majerus left Utah and Urban Meyer led us to a BCS bowl, where we beat Pittsburgh. Once you are in a better conference, the money will be there to further upgrade basketball. Ask TCU, who could acquire coaches that would not consider UNLV. This does not mean that you should continue the status quo at UNLV. Assuming you don't make the NCAAs, you could fire Kruger and hire a better coach to energize your fan base, based on whatever your budget will be. I would think that most competent 1 million dollar per year coaches would outperform KK. 2 million dollar per year coaches would probably make the NCAAs most years with the NIL, profit sharing, location, facilities, fan base, and resource advantages that UNLV has over most other schools.
