Thursday, April 5, 2012

CSU would be a logical next stop for Menzies

Personally, I was a bit surprised when Marvin Menzies' name was linked to Tim Miles old job at Colorado State. I thought perhaps Menzies was another year or two away from moving up the coaching ladder but getting to the NCAA's twice in three years will no doubt get him noticed.

Reports are out that Colorado State AD Jack Graham likely reached out to Menzies in New Orleans last weekend. The school hired JMI Sports for 75,000 to help conduct its coaching search.

Colorado State is good job with more resources.  The school paid another search firm $250000 to help hire football coach Jim McElwain.  McElwain signed at CSU for $1.5 million.

Miles made $500,000 last year while Menzies was in the $300,000 range last year. When his contract was extended prior to last season, receiving more money was simply not an option according to NMSU officials. Even if NMSU were able to come up with additional money, could the school near the half-million mark?

Doubtful.

Southern Miss head man Larry Eustachy, New Mexico assistant Craig Neal, and Weber State coach Randy Rahe, a man with CSU ties are also believed to be candidates for the position. Menzies has not interviewed but the CSU AD expects to name a coach in the next week.

Tough economic times at NMSU make it possible to believe Menzies is looking forward to the next stage of his career. NMSU coaches are expected to raise a required amount of money fundraising. In a conversation with Menzies early last season, he said he probably spends about 20 hours per week at certain periods throughout the year fundraising. He's good at it. But while it may not be unheard of at other schools, larger programs likely don't put such demands on the head coach.

Menzies has done about as well as a coach at NMSU can be expected. Put his team in contention for the WAC every year and get to the NCAA once every two or three years. I believe he likes it at NMSU  but there are stiff challenges here facing any coach. CSU would make sense.

15 comments:

Anonymous said...

I like coach Menzies and wish him well. He is a good recruiter, or has hired good recruiters in his assistant coaches, which is essentially the same thing. The kids who are here now are fairly good ball players, decent students for the most part, and good citizens. Menzies is a good guy, cares about his charges.

That said, I think coach Menzies needs to stay a few more years to hone his coach craft a bit before running off to a tougher conference as I am not convinced he has the real time game coaching thing down yet. I've watched him not respond when the game was getting away from his team; not make adjustments to what the opposition was doing; not anticipate what the other team would do coming back for the second half; and not use his timeouts when they were needed.

The reality of the two tourney invites is the first was done with the upperclassman that were left over from Theus' time with the Aggies. That team was loaded, but couldn't win outright the regular season WAC title under Coach Menzies guidance. This year's team had the best top 8 players in the conference and also couldn't win the regular season WAC title. Both Aggie NCAA tourney teams got bounced in the first round of the NCAAs. Nice to get there to be sure, but one and done is just one and done.

I believe coach Menzies is getting better as a coach. Is he good enough to take a job at CSU and win in Fort Collins? Will they give him five or six years to get it figured out? I look at the coach who just got booted from Nebraska. He was the UTEP coach for about two years before that who got the bug of going to a bigger school with a better budget after taking the Miners to the NCAAs. I remember him saying, "It's Nebraska..." like that meant something, like there was some kind of basketball tradition there. So what happened to him? He's out on his can now and looking for a job because he couldn't win at Lincoln. Am I comparing a job in the Mountain West to one in the Big 12, I am not. I am saying that the mountain west is a pretty good step up in competition from the WAC.

I hope Coach Menzies chooses wisely if he is offered the gig in Colorado.

big joe said...

please let menzie get the job at csu please so we can get a real coach here. Someone who will earn that 500 thousand dollars a year.

Anonymous said...

i have seen menzies contract with his bonus he receives he makes 500,000 plus 1000 a month for house free cars and golf memberships. look it up it is public record.

Anonymous said...

I think each of the other coaches mentioned in your story are much stronger candidates. Menzies seems like a likeable guy, but he has been largely unimpressive since coming to NMSU. I'd love for him to go, but it appears to be a long shot at best. It's easy to look good in the weak WAC, but he'd be in way over his head in the much more competitive MWC.

Anonymous said...

I read that Miles earned $750,000 at CSU.

I hope this isn't an instance of Menzies using this, ahem, courtship as leverage for a raise in his NMSU's salary. The institution continues to raise student-fees in order to pay sky-rocketing coaches' salaries.

I'm a-okay with Menzies departing for green pastures. He was never able to connect with the community and it's now time for the AD to bring in a young Hispanic coach who'll make some sort connection with our community other than cashing paychecks.

Anonymous said...

If he goes, NMSU should promote Tony Delk to head coach.

Unlike, Theus & Menzies who only coached under Rick Pitino. Tony Delk played and coached under Pitino, he has won a national title, played in the NBA and known as a tenacious defender his entire career. And he's also a pretty good recruiter!

Tony Delk is a diamond in the rough and will take our program to a new level not seen here since Neil McCarthy!!

Hire Tony Delk!!

Jefe

Anonymous said...

If Menzies does leave we should hire a coach for his qualifications and not his race. Maybe Menzies didn't have a strong connection with the community, but name one that has/does. The university needs to do much more in public affairs within the local community. Obviously the football/basketball games attendence or lack there of show that the community doesn't support the programs either so both are at fault.

Jefe your comment regarding Tony Delk is a nice gesture, but not a logical one. He doesn't have D-1 head coaching expericence and he's only been an assistant here one year. You can't hire someone because of their name either. We have to be smart about this folks.

Lastly Big Joe.....are you serious???? Earn their money? We went 26-10 this year and we won the WAC tourney. How is that not earning your pay?

JH

Anonymous said...

jason quit bs everyone menzie made 500,000 with bonus money i have seen his contract. quit making it sound like poor menzie. he couldnt coach a drunk bum to drink booze.

Anonymous said...

I think Delk has proven himself on the court. As a coach? Not yet.

Anonymous said...

I read that there are a couple of financial supporters who are willing to fork over money to keep Menzies. Maybe we can get a grass roots effort started to collect money to counter their offer and help Menzies move to Colorado. I predict Boston will move mountains to keep Menzies here. He's unable to admit that until Menzies leaves NMSU, Pan Am will continue to be empty. Nice guy, lucky breaks, good staff, bad coach.

Anonymous said...

Anon 11:38,

Get over it. Menzies has taken us to the dance 2 of the last 3 years. Not too many coaches in smaller conferences can say that. We are lucky to have him at this point. I've been a harsh critic of him, but he definitely elevated himself this year. I hope we can keep him.

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