Welcome Back My Friends

[Pistol Pete 1]

Welcome back, my friends
To the show that never ends
We're so glad you could attend
Come inside! Come inside

Come inside, the show's about to start
Guaranteed to blow your head apart
Rest assured you'll get your money's worth
The greatest show in Heaven, Hell, or Earth
You've got to see the show, it's a dynamo
You've got to see the show, it's rock and roll

I was at the original California Jam circa 1974 when EL&P was hot and so were the Rebels. I don’t remember much (it was the 70’s).

I guess everybody got what they wanted. CMM is gone and apparently so are the only players worth keeping. I looked at the Menzies era the same way I viewed Spoonhour, he was brought in to restore stability and in time would pave the way for another coach once we reached a Power 5 Conference. We are not the great basketball destination for coaches that we invision ourselves to be and we just unceremoniously fired probably the only 2 coaches in the country that actually wanted to be here. That is not a great way to endear ourselves to the coaching community.

I will be rooting for DRF to come out of the search with a great hire even though I doubt it will be the big name splash hire that will put butts in the seats right away everybody is hoping for.
Time will tell.

But hey, Any Coach we hire is better than Menzies, right?

Welcome back, my friends
To the show that never ends
We’re so glad you could attend
Come inside! Come inside!!

 

[Pistol Pete 1]

Oh, did I forget about Kruger? Remember the coach that sooooo many wanted out of here because his ceiling wasn’t high enough for the mighty UNLV? 3 tourney appearances in 4 years I think but that wasn’t good enough for the brilliant UNLV fans and administration. He loved Vegas, wanted to stay in Vegas but we wouldn’t pony up the money for him!

What coach would want to come here for anything other than more money or to use us as a stepping stone?

 

[j. spilotro]

Welcome back, my friends
To the show that never ends
We're so glad you could attend
Come inside! Come inside

Come inside, the show's about to start
Guaranteed to blow your head apart
Rest assured you'll get your money's worth
The greatest show in Heaven, Hell, or Earth
You've got to see the show, it's a dynamo
You've got to see the show, it's rock and roll

I was at the original California Jam circa 1974 when EL&P was hot and so were the Rebels. I don’t remember much (it was the 70’s).

I guess everybody got what they wanted. CMM is gone and apparently so are the only players worth keeping. I looked at the Menzies era the same way I viewed Spoonhour, he was brought in to restore stability and in time would pave the way for another coach once we reached a Power 5 Conference. We are not the great basketball destination for coaches that we invision ourselves to be and we just unceremoniously fired probably the only 2 coaches in the country that actually wanted to be here. That is not a great way to endear ourselves to the coaching community.

I will be rooting for DRF to come out of the search with a great hire even though I doubt it will be the big name splash hire that will put butts in the seats right away everybody is hoping for.
Time will tell.

But hey, Any Coach we hire is better than Menzies, right?

Welcome back, my friends
To the show that never ends
We’re so glad you could attend
Come inside! Come inside!!

Stabilization would have been great instead of torpedoing us. Butts in seats, less than ever. Excitement, lower than ever. Apathy, all time high. Would have loved stability. He had to be shown the door. With zero shooters incoming for a team that couldn’t shoot, we’d have seen more of the same with the schedule, play and results, imo. It was crystal clear to me. DRF had to do it. Can’t keep hemorrhaging money, goodwill and fans.

Now if she doesn’t get this next part right, well, we can call it one job well done and one job screwed up.

 

[j. spilotro]

Oh, did I forget about Kruger? Remember the coach that sooooo many wanted out of here because his ceiling wasn’t high enough for the mighty UNLV? 3 tourney appearances in 4 years I think but that wasn’t good enough for the brilliant UNLV fans and administration. He loved Vegas, wanted to stay in Vegas but we wouldn’t pony up the money for him!

What coach would want to come here for anything other than more money or to use us as a stepping stone?

Stepping stone or career revitalizer, as Kruger used it. Can’t blame him. He had a rough time in Atlanta, built us up, became attractive again and bolted for money we weren’t going to compete with or willing to compete with. You can blame the fans that weren’t happy with him if you want, but besides this last go round with Menzies where the fan displeasure showed with empty red seats, fan displeasure didn’t cause Kruger’s departure. But you CAN blame the dissatisfied fans if it makes you feel better. The boosters weren’t happy, they didn’t put up the cash to keep him and even if they did, OU offers more and a bidding war isn’t something UNLV is going to win with OU.

It’s going to be very difficult to find a coach who would be successful and wouldn’t use this as a stepping stone. Very hard. But that’s a bridge you cross. Menzies intended on using it as a stepping stone as well, but the results were absolutely horrendous so he will be stepping to who knows where.

 

[Pistol Pete 1]

Hey Joe! I am not making a case about anything other than all things related to UNLV basketball coaching decisions at UNLV are a Show, it’s a dynamo, guaranteed to blow your head apart!

 

[j. spilotro]

Hey Joe! I am not making a case about anything other than all things related to UNLV basketball coaching decisions at UNLV are a Show, it’s a dynamo, guaranteed to blow your head apart!

Pretty much.

 

[Rebel1986]

UNLV can win a bidding war against most schools if the right boosters really want the coach, but if it is a coach that will be paid directly from UNLV funds, we will lose most bidding wars.

 

[JTthe2nd]

We can still come out of this ok. Better than ok if we get a solid coach and he's allowed to build up some stability. I still think a solid coach with our recruiting advantages over the rest of the MWC would result in us being a dominant team in the conference(not Tark-Rebel dominant, but maybe Fisher-Aztec dominant). If Kruger had had even the slightest inclination to play the recruiting game he would've had us 1st or 2nd in the MWC outright and getting at large NCAA bids every year.

First, accept the fact we aren't going to make the splash, big name hire.

Second, accept another fact that we aren't likely going to catch lightening in a bottle like we did in hiring a young, hungry, immensely talented coach like Tark again.

Chris Jans has 159-45 (.779) record in JC over 6 years and a 79-23(.774) record in D1 over 3 years. He would've still been coaching at Bowling Green instead of New Mexico St. if not for an incident involving drunken behavior. Might not be great bringing him to a temptation-filled Sin City but he wins wherever he goes. However we just canned a predecessor of his...

I still like Leon Rice. He's got the Gonzaga lineage and is Mark Few's most successful former assistant coach. He wins without a whole lot of talent or great facilities. With UNLV's advantages he can recruit at another level and instead of just being in the top half of the MWC as he's taken Boise St. to, he can have us camped out among the top 2-3 teams in the conference.

Mike Rhoades seems like a solid coach who could do well in the MWC. His D3 record is great but his D1 is harder to evaluate because Rice(the school) is so horrible and he's just been at VCU for 2 years.

Hate to bring the guy up but yeah, Steve Alford. He's coached for 28 years(!), 24 in D1. In his 24 years of D1 he's taken his teams to the postseason(NCAA, NIT, no CBI) 18 times. In the MWC he went 155-52(.749) and that's when it was a much tougher conference. He's a jerk but hire him for 4-5 years. Get the program back on it's feet in much better financial ground, then when he jumps for a P5 program we can go for a proven, promising, younger coach. Think of him as an evil yet more successful version of Spoonhour.

 

[Rebel1986]

I have already looked at Chris Jans and believe he is miles above Menzies. They lost in the NCAA tournament by 1 to a 4 or 5 seed.

 

[MonsterJam]

Stabilization would have been great instead of torpedoing us. Butts in seats, less than ever. Excitement, lower than ever. Apathy, all time high. Would have loved stability. He had to be shown the door. With zero shooters incoming for a team that couldn’t shoot, we’d have seen more of the same with the schedule, play and results, imo. It was crystal clear to me. DRF had to do it. Can’t keep hemorrhaging money, goodwill and fans.

Now if she doesn’t get this next part right, well, we can call it one job well done and one job screwed up.

This.

But one must admit that the "job that can be screwed up" is anything but easy. Hoping and praying that DRF scores on both accounts.