New Mexico’s University Arena is best known for its nickname, The Pit, so given because the street-level entrance leads spectators into the top of the arena, whereupon they gaze down at the court deep below. The Pit was home to one of the most iconic moments in the history of the NCAA Tournament. It happened in 1983, when N.C. State’s alleyoop dunk upset Phi Slamma Jamma’s Houston Cougars at the buzzer in the 1983 final, sending Wolfpack coach Jim Valvano into a delirious dash as he looked for someone to hug.
Anzeige
Alas, it’s not a great look that a program’s greatest basketball moment was claimed by another school’s coach. For all the passion of Lobo Nation, the stark reality is that New Mexico has only played in the NCAA Tournament 15 times in its history and has never gone past the Sweet 16. The Lobos haven’t been in the Big Dance since 2014, and it’s a safe bet they won’t be there this year given that they are currently sporting a 6-14 overall record and a 1-7 mark in the Mountain West Conference.
The program reached yet another low on Friday when the school announced that it was parting ways with fourth-year coach Paul Weir, who will coach the team through the Mountain West Conference tournament. While many programs around the league are thriving, New Mexico once again finds itself in the market for a new head coach. Here’s a look at this program and who might get a shot to lead it.
Job evaluation
The man responsible for finding Weir’s replacement is Eddie Nuñez, who became New Mexico’s athletic director in 2017. Nuñez spent 14 years at LSU prior to coming to Albuquerque, so he knows how a big-time sports program operates. That would presumably mean paying the most important employee a competitive salary, but Weir was making a paltry $775,000. If Nuñez wants to win the press conference, he is probably going to have to put another comma in that figure. UNLV’s T.J. Oetzelberger is believed to be the highest-paid coach in the league at a reported $1.2 million.
Nuñez has pretty good playing credentials, having suited up for Billy Donovan at Florida from 1996-98. Weir, who was previously the head coach at New Mexico State for one season, was hired by Nuñez’s predecessor, Paul Krebs, so this is Nuñez’s chance to get things right. There is a wide expectation that Nuñez will hire someone with head coaching experience. That worked when the university hired Steve Alford from Iowa in 2007. Alford took the Lobos to three NCAA Tournaments and a top-10 ranking before UCLA plucked him away in 2013.
Anzeige
Despite this mixed history, New Mexico is considered to be a very good job. It has terrific weather, top-notch facilities, a rabid fan base, and it plays in a high-quality league. There are plenty of good candidates who would want this job, especially if the school is willing to pay full market value.
New Mexico’s call list
(In alphabetical order)
Travis DeCuire, Montana head coach. The Grizzlies are in eighth place in the Big Sky right now, but DeCuire has quietly done an excellent job during his seven seasons leading his alma mater. He coached the Grizzlies to Big Sky regular season and tournament titles in 2018 and ’19, and last year they finished third in the league. DeCuire isn’t as well-known as the other candidates, but he is a quality coach and wouldn’t be a hire that breaks the bank.
Bryce Drew, Grand Canyon head coach. Drew was fired by Vanderbilt in 2019 after going winless in the SEC. After spending a year broadcasting for ESPN, he resurfaced at GCU this season, where he has the Antelopes in first place in the WAC with a 7-2 record (13-5 overall). Would Lobos fans be excited about having someone with Drew’s head coaching experience? Is he far enough removed from that winless season to get this shot? Then there’s the matter of Drew’s salary at GCU, which insiders believe to be around $1.3 million. If GCU’s main benefactor, Jerry Colangelo, needed to come up with some extra money to keep Drew around, he could probably figure something out. It would be hard enough to move Drew out of his job after one season, much less if it also involved a pay cut.
Frank Martin, South Carolina head coach. There has been increasing chatter the last couple of years that Martin may be looking for an exit from Columbia. New Mexico, however, would be a steep drop in level and salary considering Martin makes around $3 million annually. Martin, who grew up in Miami, could also be waiting to see if the Hurricanes job opens in the next few years. In the case of New Mexico, though, Martin has a very strong personal connection: Nuñez played for Martin at Miami High School. The NCAA hit South Carolina with two years’ probation last week for violations committed by former assistant Lamont Evans, but the program avoided a postseason ban and Martin was not implicated in the case, so that probably wouldn’t be a factor in the decision.
Anzeige
Tim Miles, former Nebraska head coach. Miles’ name is going to come up for a lot of vacancies. There’s no doubt he would be interested in this job, and he has the kind of effusive personality that would play well with New Mexico’s fan base. Miles would also bring lots of Division I head coaching experience. He had a .504 win percentage in seven years at Nebraska. Before that, he spent five years at Colorado State, rebuilding that moribund program and taking it to the 2012 NCAA Tournament, and also spent six years as the head coach at North Dakota State.
Mike Miller, former Memphis assistant. Miller and Nuñez are both former Florida Gators, so they need no introduction. Miller, of course, was a much better player, having led the Gators as a sophomore to the NCAA championship game in 2000, where they lost to Michigan State. Miller then played 17 years in the NBA and worked for Penny Hardaway as an assistant at Memphis from 2018-20. Miller has spent this winter as the head coach at Houston High School in Germantown, Tenn., where he has two sons on the team, and has been exploring the possibility of becoming an NBA agent with Denver Nuggets rookie guard R.J. Hampton as a potential first client. Miller made about $90 million in NBA salary, so money presumably is not an issue for him. If he wants to be a college head coach, working for a fellow Gator might be an intriguing option.
Damon Stoudamire, Pacific head coach. It speaks volumes about how difficult a job Pacific is that Stoudamire is winning plaudits for guiding the Tigers to a 5-7 record in the WCC (8-8 overall) this season, after winning 23 games a year ago. Stoudamire is well-known to fans in the southwest from his days as an All-American point guard at Arizona. He played in the NBA from 1995-2008, and then he spent six seasons as a collegiate assistant and had a brief stint as an assistant with the NBA’s Memphis Grizzlies. Stoudamire currently earns a $625,000 salary, so he would be a reasonably priced replacement, and he comes with an NBA pedigree that recruits tend to like.
Russell Turner, UC-Irvine head coach. Turner makes around $450,000, so New Mexico would be a step up for him on every level. UC-Irvine has won or shared the league’s regular-season title in five of the last seven years, and in 2019 he led the Anteaters to an NCAA Tournament first-round upset over Kansas State. The Anteaters are once again in the hunt for a Big West title, sitting in second place with an 8-4 record (13-8 overall). Prior to taking over in Irvine, Turner spent 10 years as an assistant with Wake Forest and Stanford and six with the Golden State Warriors.
Whom Seth Davis would hire
If you’re going to take a swing, you might as well swing for the fences. There’s no way Nuñez could match what South Carolina is paying Frank Martin, but at this stage of his career, Martin might want to take a swing of his own at trying something new. Martin has the acumen, the resume and the force of personality to set The Pit aflame. If Nuñez can lure his old high school coach to Albuquerque, he’ll win the press conference by a mile.
(Photo of Frank Martin: Jeff Blake / USA Today)