La Fleur talking on twitter now.

[Rebel1986]

He is making sure what he thinks is seen on twitter now and acting like they did an amazing job and putting the blame on everyone except the coaching.

TWEET: "Since I have time...I will address a couple things...Someone used the word “Doormat.” Not true. Nationally, this once proud program was becoming relevant again because of Marv. I asked 2 Legends, how many MW Championships has UNLV won ever. One said “3” the other said “4”"

The program is becoming relevant again? Based on what, the program wasn't even competitive with lower tier teams with winning records. He is a coach and needed to ask how many MW Championship UNLV ever won? The fact that he needs to ask this type of questions tells me he really didn't worry about the history of UNLV basketball. Basketball has always been the flag ship of the UNLV athletic department, and the coaches acted like playing a very weak schedule and having a winning record was improvement, and the fact the students did well academically should have been more than enough. The fact is doing well academically should be expected not as a bonus.

TWEET: "The answer is 0. The progress that was made was significant. 15 hard working, high character kids were sent a strong message yesterday...#shutupanddribble...smh...@MarvinMenzies taught them that they must EARN IT!!! And believe me, they were earning it."

I never question the fact that the players put everything out there on the court they had, the problem is the coaches never taught them how to play as a team, and how to come out from the opening seconds playing with intensity. Intensity and team play along with poor shooting have always been issues for Menzies teams. These are all items that good coaching would have fixed.

TWEET: "You don’t have a clue. The players coming back would have been a dominant force. Setback 5 years."

We don't have a clue? This teams was badly outclassed by many of the teams they faced, and the only reason they even got the number of wins they did, was because they played an extremely weak schedule. If this same team played the schedule under Rice, they would have had a losing record. The MWC dropped significantly in strength during the 3 seasons Menzies was coach.

If the same fire had been shown while coaching, recruiting, and out in public trying to gain support from Las Vegas, they would have succeeded, but it is easy after they failed to try and blame others and change the goal line for success.

 

[UNLVFansincebirth22]

He is making sure what he thinks is seen on twitter now and acting like they did an amazing job and putting the blame on everyone except the coaching.

TWEET: "Since I have time...I will address a couple things...Someone used the word “Doormat.” Not true. Nationally, this once proud program was becoming relevant again because of Marv. I asked 2 Legends, how many MW Championships has UNLV won ever. One said “3” the other said “4”"

The program is becoming relevant again? Based on what, the program wasn't even competitive with lower tier teams with winning records. He is a coach and needed to ask how many MW Championship UNLV ever won? The fact that he needs to ask this type of questions tells me he really didn't worry about the history of UNLV basketball. Basketball has always been the flag ship of the UNLV athletic department, and the coaches acted like playing a very weak schedule and having a winning record was improvement, and the fact the students did well academically should have been more than enough. The fact is doing well academically should be expected not as a bonus.

TWEET: "The answer is 0. The progress that was made was significant. 15 hard working, high character kids were sent a strong message yesterday...#shutupanddribble...smh...@MarvinMenzies taught them that they must EARN IT!!! And believe me, they were earning it."

I never question the fact that the players put everything out there on the court they had, the problem is the coaches never taught them how to play as a team, and how to come out from the opening seconds playing with intensity. Intensity and team play along with poor shooting have always been issues for Menzies teams. These are all items that good coaching would have fixed.

TWEET: "You don’t have a clue. The players coming back would have been a dominant force. Setback 5 years."

We don't have a clue? This teams was badly outclassed by many of the teams they faced, and the only reason they even got the number of wins they did, was because they played an extremely weak schedule. If this same team played the schedule under Rice, they would have had a losing record. The MWC dropped significantly in strength during the 3 seasons Menzies was coach.

If the same fire had been shown while coaching, recruiting, and out in public trying to gain support from Las Vegas, they would have succeeded, but it is easy after they failed to try and blame others and change the goal line for success.

Not trying to be a di*k. But...I don't get what you are trying to say. Im assuming you are supporting the Menzies firing? Because, I do, too.

Nice guy...but had to go, IMO.

 

[Rebel1986]

I support Menzies going. I am trying to say La Fleur is acting like a little kid trying to blame everyone else and not taking any responsibility for the bad coaching job.

 

[UNLVFansincebirth22]

I support Menzies going. I am trying to say La Fleur is acting like a little kid trying to blame everyone else and not taking any responsibility for the bad coaching job.

Okay, gotcha. Thank you for clarifying

 

[RebelScrub]

That guy was a paid bum too..

Good luck wherever you’re gonna be assistant at sh*t creek university’s

I’m not in the twitter universe so somebody drop my picture onto his link.

 

[Vegas007]

He is a coach and needed to ask how many MW Championship UNLV ever won? The fact that he needs to ask this type of questions tells me he really didn't worry about the history of UNLV basketball.

He was making a point that the program has been irrelevant pretty much the entire time that it has been in the conference. And the sad thing is he is right about that.

It’s why I’m no longer excited when there is a search for a new coach. The list of names since Tarkanian is long, and it tends to be the same pattern.

Step 1: The team hires a coach
Step 2: The results are disappointing
Step 3: The coach gets fired
Step 4: Repeat steps 1, 2, 3 and 4

 

[willlevi]

He was making a point that the program has been irrelevant pretty much the entire time that it has been in the conference. And the sad thing is he is right about that.

It’s why I’m no longer excited when there is a search for a new coach. The list of names since Tarkanian is long, and it tends to be the same pattern.

Step 1: The team hires a coach
Step 2: The results are disappointing
Step 3: The coach gets fired
Step 4: Repeat steps 1, 2, 3 and 4

Have to disagree on that one, the program has 6 NCAA tournament births in the previous 12 years.
Menzies is the only UNLV coach in the MWC era to achieve a losing record with the last losing record being 1994 & 1995 in the Big West.
The 2019 schedule featured the worst SOS since 1995 by a long ways with the team still squeaking by to a 17-14 allowing 72 points per game.
Menzies led UNLV gave up the most average points per game under one coach since Rollie Massimino despite a garbage schedule.

I can't understand how anyone is upset the Menzies was fired, the bigger problem is the payout of $800,000. The team wasn't going to rise greatness, Menzies was only marching to mediocrity being the new measuring point.

https://www.sports-reference.com/cbb/schools/nevada-las-vegas/

 

[MonsterJam]

It’s why I’m no longer excited when there is a search for a new coach. The list of names since Tarkanian is long, and it tends to be the same pattern.

Step 1: The team hires a coach
Step 2: The results are disappointing
Step 3: The coach gets fired
Step 4: Repeat steps 1, 2, 3 and 4

Are you talking about UNLV Football or Basketball? LOL

Actually, this is a real possible scenario that UNLV could find itself in - that Basketball becomes Football and does not compete the way fans expect. To maintain any semblance of fan base, it must wash, rinse and repeat the firing of coaches like Football does.

I hope that this next hire breaks the mold and is the 15-year centerpiece for UNLV resurgence.

 

[j. spilotro]

He was making a point that the program has been irrelevant pretty much the entire time that it has been in the conference. And the sad thing is he is right about that.

It’s why I’m no longer excited when there is a search for a new coach. The list of names since Tarkanian is long, and it tends to be the same pattern.

Step 1: The team hires a coach
Step 2: The results are disappointing
Step 3: The coach gets fired
Step 4: Repeat steps 1, 2, 3 and 4

Would you agree that it’s not the best example to set as a leader of young men?

Would you also agree that it doesn’t help with future employement since every place has somebody who scouts FB and Twitter for stuff?

I absolutely do not blame him for being angry, disappointed, upset, feeling cheated .... he has a right to those feelings. However, same could be said for the other assistants.....

I posted this elsewhere, the short and sweet of it; assistants can have a difficult life. The pay is good, not great, it’s not always stable and it requires you to have your house half packed up. There are relationships, roots, which are especially tough with children. Not knowing your next stop can be difficult, you don’t know if Marv will get a job, take time off, be a head in a place you don’t like, become an assistant. It’s unstable and instability can shake up anyone. So some sympathy should be tossed his way.

But there are probably better ways to handle disappointment.

 

[j. spilotro]

Have to disagree on that one, the program has 6 NCAA tournament births in the previous 12 years.
Menzies is the only UNLV coach in the MWC era to achieve a losing record with the last losing record being 1994 & 1995 in the Big West.
The 2019 schedule featured the worst SOS since 1995 by a long ways with the team still squeaking by to a 17-14 allowing 72 points per game.
Menzies led UNLV gave up the most average points per game under one coach since Rollie Massimino despite a garbage schedule.

I can't understand how anyone is upset the Menzies was fired, the bigger problem is the payout of $800,000. The team wasn't going to rise greatness, Menzies was only marching to mediocrity being the new measuring point.

https://www.sports-reference.com/cbb/schools/nevada-las-vegas/

And a poor (211) shooting outside team that launched a ton of three point shots lost 2 of its 3 best outside shooters and top scorers and absolutely did nothing to replace them by bench or recruiting.

Next year was more of the same or even worse. It’s very easy to anticipate. The only probable improvement was by 320 OOC schedule to grab 10 wins. And add 9 or 10 in MWC play.

It was an awful era full of smokescreens, deceit and camouflage.

 

[Vegas007]

Have to disagree on that one, the program has 6 NCAA tournament births in the previous 12 years.
Menzies is the only UNLV coach in the MWC era to achieve a losing record with the last losing record being 1994 & 1995 in the Big West.
The 2019 schedule featured the worst SOS since 1995 by a long ways with the team still squeaking by to a 17-14 allowing 72 points per game.
Menzies led UNLV gave up the most average points per game under one coach since Rollie Massimino despite a garbage schedule.

I can't understand how anyone is upset the Menzies was fired, the bigger problem is the payout of $800,000. The team wasn't going to rise greatness, Menzies was only marching to mediocrity being the new measuring point.

https://www.sports-reference.com/cbb/schools/nevada-las-vegas/

I don’t think being in the NCAA Tournament by itself makes a team relevant. If you’re lower than a 5 seed you are expected to get knocked out the first weekend and those teams are often happy just to win a game. Rice was able to get a 5 seed once but that was a really weak team for a 5 seed. They were really struggling and I didn’t see how they were going to beat the 4 seeded Syracuse at the time; it felt like a longshot. And they ended up losing the first game anyway.

 

[Vegas007]

Are you talking about UNLV Football or Basketball? LOL

Actually, this is a real possible scenario that UNLV could find itself in - that Basketball becomes Football and does not compete the way fans expect. To maintain any semblance of fan base, it must wash, rinse and repeat the firing of coaches like Football does.

I hope that this next hire breaks the mold and is the 15-year centerpiece for UNLV resurgence.

It just seems like we’re really good at finding a coach that is going to disappoint us. Only exception is Kruger and even he wasn’t great, just okay.

 

[willlevi]

I don’t think being in the NCAA Tournament by itself makes a team relevant. If you’re lower than a 5 seed you are expected to get knocked out the first weekend and those teams are often happy just to win a game. Rice was able to get a 5 seed once but that was a really weak team for a 5 seed. They were really struggling and I didn’t see how they were going to beat the 4 seeded Syracuse at the time; it felt like a longshot. And they ended up losing the first game anyway.

Irrelevant teams don't get choosen as at large teams in the NCAA tournament.

 

[Knight Rebel702]

Would you agree that it’s not the best example to set as a leader of young men?

Would you also agree that it doesn’t help with future employement since every place has somebody who scouts FB and Twitter for stuff?

I absolutely do not blame him for being angry, disappointed, upset, feeling cheated .... he has a right to those feelings. However, same could be said for the other assistants.....

I posted this elsewhere, the short and sweet of it; assistants can have a difficult life. The pay is good, not great, it’s not always stable and it requires you to have your house half packed up. There are relationships, roots, which are especially tough with children. Not knowing your next stop can be difficult, you don’t know if Marv will get a job, take time off, be a head in a place you don’t like, become an assistant. It’s unstable and instability can shake up anyone. So some sympathy should be tossed his way.

But there are probably better ways to handle disappointment.

Seems to be a reoccurring theme around here!

 

[Mark Anderson UNLV]

I support Menzies going. I am trying to say La Fleur is acting like a little kid trying to blame everyone else and not taking any responsibility for the bad coaching job.

If LaFleur did his job he would have recruited better players and they would have won more games. Instead he thinks academics and high quality kids is the key to success. That's what you say when you know your team stinks. Us as fans want wins, high quality wins that matter. Not wins in a lousy conference. Yes a MWC championship would be nice, but I rather go to the dance every year and finish 2nd or 3rd in conference.

 

[Rebel1986]

If education and high quality kids is all that counts, why wouldn't we just higher a bunch of 4.0 students who can't play basketball at all. Keeping a coaching job shouldn't be based on their grades, all students must always get decent grades and pass their classes or the coach should immediately be gone regardless of how the team plays.

 

[khokhol8]

Seems to be a reoccurring theme around here!

View embedded media

I thought Sanford and his staff was okay at coaching but bad at recruiting. They did have a disadvantage when it came to facilities.

Football no longer has that excuse and neither does any UNLV basketball coach. How can you not recruit great talent to come and train where USA basketball likes to train? Where the NBA summer league is? Where entertainment is everywhere? And to a now tier 1 research university?

 

[RRRRebels]

I can't say I'm surpirsed with what he's saying. I hope the coaching community can understand why UNLV was forced to make this move. Had as much, if not more, to do with declining attendance as it did with results on the court.

There have been rumblings in the coaching community since Rice's firing that "UNLV is a coach's graveyard" due to booster meddling and unrealistic expectations. That's why I think we can't sit back and keep hiring on the cheap and hope that we hit the jackpot. We've got to blow the doors off the rest of the MWC with our next hire. The rest of the MWC needs to be looking up at our budget and know there is no way they will EVER catch us!

 

[Vegas007]

Irrelevant teams don't get choosen as at large teams in the NCAA tournament.

Meh, it just looks like we define it differently. Teams that aren’t seeded 4 or higher rarely make noise in the tournament. Even the 5 seeds struggle just to win one game.

I think a lot of the Mountain West teams have been irrelevant over the years. Teams like San Diego State would rarely make it past the first weekend.

It’s one of the reasons I’ve been frustrated about not winning the conference. The team needs to be good enough to dominate this conference. We should be expecting conference championships every year, and thinking it’s not that big of a deal because we want bigger and better things and have a realistic chance to achieve them. We shouldn’t be finishing 2nd or 3rd in the conference and hoping we can Cinderella our way into the Sweet 16.

 

[MauiRebel]

It’s one of the reasons I’ve been frustrated about not winning the conference. The team needs to be good enough to dominate this conference. We should be expecting conference championships every year, and thinking it’s not that big of a deal because we want bigger and better things and have a realistic chance to achieve them. We shouldn’t be finishing 2nd or 3rd in the conference and hoping we can Cinderella our way into the Sweet 16.

I agree. UNLV should be to the Mountain West what Kansas has been to the Big XII or what Gonzaga is to the WCC.