Otzelberger Arrives at UNLV With 5-Year Contract and Faces Tough Challenge to Transition Once-Great College Basketball Program to National Prominence

By ALAN SNEL

LVSportsBiz.com

 

Amid all the talk about college basketball players getting paid and the ghost of Rick Pitino visiting Thomas & Mack Center to coach a once-proud big-time college hoops program there was an earnest, clean-cut 41-year-old basketball coach being introduced by a gushing athletic director as UNLV’s new basketball coach Thursday afternoon.

 

There was also some good-ol’ fashion Las Vegas pizzazz as UNLV athletics enlisted a helicopter to deliver T.J. Otzelberger to the doorstep of UNLV’s 17,000-seat arena, where former coach Marvin Menzies coached his last game exactly 14 days ago when San Diego State defeated UNLV, 63-55, in the Mountain West Conference’s quarterfinals.

 

The very next day on March 15, UNLV Athletic Director Desiree Reed-Francois fired Menzies who had a .500 record during his three UNLV seasons.

 

Less than two weeks later, Reed-Francois introduced Otzelberger as UNLV’s new basketball coach in a high-profile attempt to revive a sagging college basketball program and put butts in the seats at Thomas & Mack in a highly-competitive Las Vegas sports market that is quickly rendering UNLV hoops more and more irrelevant and insignificant.

 

 

 

The Vegas Golden Knights now rule this town — and Reed-Francois is putting a piece of her career on the line with her selection of the former South Dakota State Jackrabbits coach who lost his last two games as South Dakota State’s head hoops man — a 79-76 loss to a weak eighth-seeded Western Illinois team in the Summit League tournament March 9 and a 79-73 loss to Texas in the NIT March 19. Here’s the five-year deal’s numbers for Otzelberger:

 

But at Thomas & Mack’s Strip View Pavilion, there were only smiles, hope and Otzelberger saying all the right things about re-recruiting UNLV basketball players contemplating leaving for another college team, playing an up-tempo offensive style and looking to plant roots in a city that’s as different as you can get from 22,000-resident Brookings, South Dakota. (And there were lots of red, too — after a red helicopter dropped off Otzelberger, who was wearing a red tie, Reed-Francois in a red dress introduced UNLV’s new coach and the coach introduced his wife, Alison, also in a red dress. The couple has three small kids.) Here’s Reed-Francois on picking Otzelberger.

UNLV was ready for this day. Mike Newcomb, Thomas & Mack Center’s executive director, said he got an FAA permit plus insurance for the helicopter delivery of the new basketball coach. And get this — the arena already has a new burger ready to go in honor of Otzelberger, Newcomb told LVSportsBiz.com after the introduction press conference.

 

There was lots of upbeat words Thursday. But the fact is Otzelberger faces a stiff challenge.

 

He may have been a solid 70-33 at South Dakota State, which made two NCAA tournaments and an NIT appearance the last three years. But he’s inheriting a UNLV team that was 11-21, 20-13 and 17-14 the past three seasons. UNLV basketball is officially in the Mountain West, but the Rebs are a unique basketball program because it’s a non-Power 5 conference team with a national championship on its resume with 17,000 seats to fill.

 

At one time, UNLV basketball was interwoven into Las Vegas’ identity. But no more. The Golden Knights now occupy that niche. And new teams like the soccer Lights FC and WNBA Aces have taken healthy bites out of the Southern Nevada sports market. UNLV also coped with the embarrassing fiasco in 2016 when Chris Beard was hired as coach only to bolt to Texas Tech after 19 days. Beard, on Thursday night, celebrated his Texas Tech team wiping out a 30-win Michigan team and heading for an Elite 8 showdown with perennial powerhouse Gonzaga. UNLV? It’s not even in the best team in its own state, as Nevada, Reno toyed with UNLV this season.

 

UNLV’s big arena is half-full on most game nights and Las Vegas’ new sports landscape is peppered with competitors in a market of 2.2 million people with a tourism-based economy that can be fragile and broken when the national economy takes a dip and disposable income dries up. Here’s more Reed-Francois on Otzelberger, who was on her short list to replace Menzies.

 

Reed-Francois said it’s up to UNLV’s basketball team to win back the trust of a fan base that is growing more disinterested in the Runnin’ Rebels.

 

And Otzelberger said it’s his goal to make UNLV the flagship hoops program of the Mountain West Conference while competing for MWC titles, NCAA tourney berths and even a national championship.

 

Otzelberger said he has made contact with UNLV’s current players and plans to re-recruit them in hopes they stay. The UNLV roster includes its top players such as Shakur Juiston, Joel Ntambwe and Amauri Hardy who have mentioned they’re considering transferring.

 

Otzelberger is known for his team’s high-scoring offenses and for his recruiting skills. Before serving as South Dakota State’s head coach from 2016-2019, he was an assistant coach at Iowa State in 2015-16 and associate head coach at Washington from 2013-15. The Milwaukee, Wisconsin native was also an associate head coach and assistant coach at Iowa State from 2006-12.

 

*

 

Follow LVSportsBiz.com on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram.