On The Trail
Insider
Marvin Menzies scrambles to rebuild UNLV after coaching change
Securing Menzies as head coach was three months in the making -- and one month later, it’s still unclear how long it will take the Rebels to truly dig out from the holes in the roster.
Goodluck Okonoboh originally left the team in November with plans to transfer, but he decided to turn pro on April 10. Daquan Cook was dismissed by Simon in early February. Dwayne Morgan, Jordan Cornish and Ben Carter all announced their transfers. And despite winning just 18 games, the Rebels saw five players turn pro: Okonoboh, Stephen Zimmerman, Patrick McCaw, Derrick Jones and Chris Obekpa.
Throw in the graduations of Ike Nwamu and Jerome Seagears, and there were just two players remaining.
The freshmen
Rice had put together a top-20 recruiting class in the 2016 class, with ESPN 100 point guard Jaylen Fisher and four-star forward Justin Jackson, along with Christian Vital and Carlos Johnson. Vital was the first to depart, reopening his recruitment on March 15 (he ended up at Connecticut). Johnson decommitted hours after Beard left for Texas Tech, and he’s considering Boise State, Oregon State and Washington. Had Fisher and Jackson stayed, UNLV would have still had two anchors in the lineup. Once assistant coach Ryan Miller took a spot at TCU, though, Fisher decommitted and ended up following Miller to the Horned Frogs. Jackson never officially decommitted, but he has recently visited Maryland, Oregon and Connecticut.
Menzies’ task
“Finding the players is not the problem, it’s selecting the best of what I’m finding,” Menzies said recently on Andy Katz and Seth Greenberg’s ESPN podcast. “And that’s a lot of film, that’s a lot of gathering intel from guys, so that’s really been the real quest. It’s not filling the roster, it’s filling it with the right people. And that’s where we’re at right now.”
Guard Jalen Poyser and forward Tyrell Greenwere the only holdovers still on the roster. Menzies essentially had 11 scholarships to give out once he took over the program -- but only five official visits for potential recruits to take.
Fortunately, he filled one spot very quickly. One of the first calls Menzies made was to sophomore forward Dwayne Morgan, who had decided one month earlier to pack up and transfer back east. Hours after Menzies accepted the job, sources told ESPN that Morgan was considering a return to the desert -- and he made the final choice on April 20. With one more returnee in tow, Menzies began to rebuild the recruiting class.
Of course, UNLV isn’t going to get a top-20 recruiting class this late in the process. Only a handful of ESPN 100 prospects remain, and there aren’t even too many high-major-caliber players still on the board.
“You’ve gotta be creative when you’re faced with something that’s not traditional,” Menzies said on the podcast. “You’ve gotta find a way to get to the end game. For us, it was signing guys.”
First up was Kris Clyburn, a junior college prospect who played the past season under Billy Gillispie at Ranger College (Texas). Clyburn can score and should be able to contribute immediately for UNLV.
Menzies then dipped into the high school ranks, getting one of the best big men still available: 6-foot-11 Cheickna Dembele, who had plenty of high-major interest. Dembele has upside and brings size and some touch on the offensive end.
Over the past two weeks, Menzies has added three more players: point guard Jaylan Ballou (he didn’t sign, but has reportedly committed) and two Chicago natives, Ben Coupet and Zion Morgan.
So now there’s eight on the roster, but Menzies and his staff (a solid recruiting trio of Andre LaFleur, Rob Jeter and Eric Brown) aren’t done yet. They missed out on Coppin State graduate transfer Christian Kessee and 6-foot-11 high school senior Jordy Tshimanga. Left-handed guard Tyrell Gumbs-Frater is still a target, as is athletic guard Reginald Todd, who once committed to Menzies at New Mexico State.
When Beard was on board, UNLV pursued nearly every available transfer, and Menzies is still on some of them -- even though the options are dwindling.
Menzies mentioned on the podcast that planting seeds in the 2017 class is just as important as filling out the roster for next season, and that’s for a couple reasons. For one, programs need to layer classes or they risk having a mass exodus and facing an extreme rebuild in a couple of years. As for the second, you don’t want to reach for a player this late in the process just to fill out a scholarship spot. UNLV is in a unique position, given its lack of bodies, but taking a player just to do it runs the risk of misevaluating and having kid transferring next spring.
Fortunately for Menzies, his staff has good relationships throughout the country. LaFleur comes from Providence and is strong in New England and on the East Coast. Jeter, formerly the head coach at Milwaukee, has helped UNLV become active very quickly in Chicago and the Midwest. Brown hails from Long Beach State and can help Menzies along the West Coast.
The 2017 class features several high-level prospects that either play for the Las Vegas Prospects AAU program or attend Findlay Prep (Nevada) or Bishop Gorman (Nevada). Building relationships with those programs is imperative for Menzies, and he’s clearly doing that, with offers out to Charles O'Bannon Jr., Oshae Brissett and Donnie Tillman. They’ve also offered ESPN 100 prospect Brian Bowenand four-star prospects Andre Rafus, C.J. Roberts, Terrence Lewis and D.J. Heath.
UNLV won’t win 20 games next season or have an influx of five-star prospects that it has seen the past few years, but Menzies is rebuilding the program from the ground up, and for some coaches, a clean slate isn’t the worst thing in the world.
“If it was somewhere else, it could be a lot tougher,” Menzies said on the podcast. “Thank God it’s Vegas.”
Insider
Marvin Menzies scrambles to rebuild UNLV after coaching change
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Jeff BorzelloESPN Staff Writer
Securing Menzies as head coach was three months in the making -- and one month later, it’s still unclear how long it will take the Rebels to truly dig out from the holes in the roster.
Goodluck Okonoboh originally left the team in November with plans to transfer, but he decided to turn pro on April 10. Daquan Cook was dismissed by Simon in early February. Dwayne Morgan, Jordan Cornish and Ben Carter all announced their transfers. And despite winning just 18 games, the Rebels saw five players turn pro: Okonoboh, Stephen Zimmerman, Patrick McCaw, Derrick Jones and Chris Obekpa.
Throw in the graduations of Ike Nwamu and Jerome Seagears, and there were just two players remaining.
The freshmen
Rice had put together a top-20 recruiting class in the 2016 class, with ESPN 100 point guard Jaylen Fisher and four-star forward Justin Jackson, along with Christian Vital and Carlos Johnson. Vital was the first to depart, reopening his recruitment on March 15 (he ended up at Connecticut). Johnson decommitted hours after Beard left for Texas Tech, and he’s considering Boise State, Oregon State and Washington. Had Fisher and Jackson stayed, UNLV would have still had two anchors in the lineup. Once assistant coach Ryan Miller took a spot at TCU, though, Fisher decommitted and ended up following Miller to the Horned Frogs. Jackson never officially decommitted, but he has recently visited Maryland, Oregon and Connecticut.
Menzies’ task
“Finding the players is not the problem, it’s selecting the best of what I’m finding,” Menzies said recently on Andy Katz and Seth Greenberg’s ESPN podcast. “And that’s a lot of film, that’s a lot of gathering intel from guys, so that’s really been the real quest. It’s not filling the roster, it’s filling it with the right people. And that’s where we’re at right now.”
Guard Jalen Poyser and forward Tyrell Greenwere the only holdovers still on the roster. Menzies essentially had 11 scholarships to give out once he took over the program -- but only five official visits for potential recruits to take.
Fortunately, he filled one spot very quickly. One of the first calls Menzies made was to sophomore forward Dwayne Morgan, who had decided one month earlier to pack up and transfer back east. Hours after Menzies accepted the job, sources told ESPN that Morgan was considering a return to the desert -- and he made the final choice on April 20. With one more returnee in tow, Menzies began to rebuild the recruiting class.
Of course, UNLV isn’t going to get a top-20 recruiting class this late in the process. Only a handful of ESPN 100 prospects remain, and there aren’t even too many high-major-caliber players still on the board.
“You’ve gotta be creative when you’re faced with something that’s not traditional,” Menzies said on the podcast. “You’ve gotta find a way to get to the end game. For us, it was signing guys.”
First up was Kris Clyburn, a junior college prospect who played the past season under Billy Gillispie at Ranger College (Texas). Clyburn can score and should be able to contribute immediately for UNLV.
Menzies then dipped into the high school ranks, getting one of the best big men still available: 6-foot-11 Cheickna Dembele, who had plenty of high-major interest. Dembele has upside and brings size and some touch on the offensive end.
Over the past two weeks, Menzies has added three more players: point guard Jaylan Ballou (he didn’t sign, but has reportedly committed) and two Chicago natives, Ben Coupet and Zion Morgan.
So now there’s eight on the roster, but Menzies and his staff (a solid recruiting trio of Andre LaFleur, Rob Jeter and Eric Brown) aren’t done yet. They missed out on Coppin State graduate transfer Christian Kessee and 6-foot-11 high school senior Jordy Tshimanga. Left-handed guard Tyrell Gumbs-Frater is still a target, as is athletic guard Reginald Todd, who once committed to Menzies at New Mexico State.
When Beard was on board, UNLV pursued nearly every available transfer, and Menzies is still on some of them -- even though the options are dwindling.
Menzies mentioned on the podcast that planting seeds in the 2017 class is just as important as filling out the roster for next season, and that’s for a couple reasons. For one, programs need to layer classes or they risk having a mass exodus and facing an extreme rebuild in a couple of years. As for the second, you don’t want to reach for a player this late in the process just to fill out a scholarship spot. UNLV is in a unique position, given its lack of bodies, but taking a player just to do it runs the risk of misevaluating and having kid transferring next spring.
Fortunately for Menzies, his staff has good relationships throughout the country. LaFleur comes from Providence and is strong in New England and on the East Coast. Jeter, formerly the head coach at Milwaukee, has helped UNLV become active very quickly in Chicago and the Midwest. Brown hails from Long Beach State and can help Menzies along the West Coast.
The 2017 class features several high-level prospects that either play for the Las Vegas Prospects AAU program or attend Findlay Prep (Nevada) or Bishop Gorman (Nevada). Building relationships with those programs is imperative for Menzies, and he’s clearly doing that, with offers out to Charles O'Bannon Jr., Oshae Brissett and Donnie Tillman. They’ve also offered ESPN 100 prospect Brian Bowenand four-star prospects Andre Rafus, C.J. Roberts, Terrence Lewis and D.J. Heath.
UNLV won’t win 20 games next season or have an influx of five-star prospects that it has seen the past few years, but Menzies is rebuilding the program from the ground up, and for some coaches, a clean slate isn’t the worst thing in the world.
“If it was somewhere else, it could be a lot tougher,” Menzies said on the podcast. “Thank God it’s Vegas.”
