Tuesday, March 25, 2014

Menzies says not interested in Wash. St. job, but he could leave without penalty of buyout

Marvin Menzies has been linked to head coaching jobs elsewhere the past three seasons.
Most recently, Menzies was listed in a Spokesman-Review Journal article as one of three possible candidates for the vacant Washington State job.
If Menzies were to leave New Mexico State for WSU or anywhere else, he is free to do so without the penalty of a buyout clause as long as he leaves after July 1.
Menzies said Tuesday there had been no conversations regarding Washington State or any other school at this point.
“Right now I’m 100 percent coming back,” Menzies said. “I don’t know why I wouldn’t. I have three more years.”
Menzies and the school agreed to a three-year contract extension in July of 2012. His current deal runs through the 2017 season.
The extension included a section that required a buyout equal to his $286,110 base salary should Menzies leave Las Cruces before July 1 of this year. The contract also included a retention bonus of $30,303.04 that Menzies collected on Oct. 15 of each year through the contract.
“We created extra value for (Menzies) and expected him to also support the program for the time he is here,” NMSU athletics director McKinley Boston said.
Menzies contract also called for the head coach to alert Boston if there was “such opportunity or interest before any discussions or interviews, other than initial contacts.”
Boston said Monday Menzies had not informed him of any potential interviews with Washington State. Washington State was the coordinating school at the West Region in Spokane, Wash., last week, where the Aggies nearly upset San Diego State in the NCAA Tournament.
“My goal is to grow New Mexico State on build on what we have established and take it to the next level,” Menzies said.
Menzies has reached the NCAA Tournament four times in his seven seasons at NMSU, including the past three years. Last week’s loss capped a 26-10 season that resulted in approximately $140,303 of bonuses for the season that included meeting academic and performance standards, as well as meeting media obligations.
Washington State fired Ken Bone, who started for $650,000 in 2009-10 before moving up to $850,000 last season. Washington State athletics director Bill Moos said a hire will be made within the next two weeks.
Menzies interviewed for the Colorado State job two years ago and he was linked to the Texas Tech opening last offseason.
After compiling a 152-89 at NMSU in seven seasons, Menzies will likely remain a candidate for schools with a vacancy.
“I think that with his market value, there will always be people who will give him a hard look,” Boston said.

14 comments:

Anonymous said...

Jason, Thanks for the quick response, seeing that appear on the internet (because whats on the internet is always true) scared the bajeebies out of the Aggie faithful. Coach has the table set in terms of talent and recruits for the next 3 to 4 years. He'd be crazy to leave this group for any job, but that's what they said about Alford. I just saw Jonathan Wilkins appear as the 40th rated center in this years recruiting class, wow. He now appears as an Aggie on all the recruiting websites. You provided that name to us a couple of weeks ago along with a couple of other guys. I know the ink isn't dry yet on the STELLAR work you did on this years Aggies, but what else is brewing in Aggie-land for next season.

Anonymous said...

Fingers crossed we can keep him!

Anonymous said...

If the big bucks do lure him a away.
Paul Weir should be the next Head coach. Awesome recruiter and a good X & O's guy!

Anonymous said...

That's great news that Coach Menzies is planning to stay with NMSU. The comment that "I do't know why I wouldn't come back" might sound odd, but look at the players on the team PLUS the incoming recruits. Get ready folks, we are gonna miss K Aronis and R Dixon, they were super Aggies and terrific people and greatly helped get the Aggies the WAC and NCAA tourney but man the guys coming in look solid. I know the season just ended but when you factor in Tanveer, Jonathan Wilkins, Matt Taylor, Jaylyn Paynee and Pascal Siakam, wow Coach Menzies would have to be out of his mind to leave. Great days ahead Aggie faithful!

Unknown said...

Shaka Smart comes to mind. Has he left VCU yet? No. He makes good money, has a decent program going, and has nowhere near the expectations/stress that a coach at a BCS school has. The world these days does not have patience for coaches who have rough starts and sometimes it is better to stay and continue to build. Theus left and didn't last long with the Kings. Even Brad Stevens comes to mind, he is about to have as many losses in one season with the Celtics as he did in all his years at Butler. Will they be patient with him? Barbee and Sadler of UTEP left for BCS schools and they didn't last long either. I think Menzies can continue to build a solid program that can be competitive against other good mid majors. I know everyone talks about going to other conferences and how other teams that left have it better than us. Prior to the NCAA Tourney, out of all the schools that have left the WAC only LA Tech had a better RPI than us. We have a solid program here and it will continue to improve as long as Menzies stays.

Jesus

Anonymous said...

Paul Weir is the future of NMSU I believe. Menzies will get a big pay day somewhere else in the near future and that's great. Weir is backbone of program IMO. He brings in the talent. Menzies has yet to prove to be a great game coach anyhow. Reggie was great because he brought in big talent. It's about getting high major athletes to Las Cruces. That's the challenge. Not sure how much MM has to do with that. He'll tell you the same. With that being said I hope he stays a couple more seasons.

Anonymous said...

Jesus,
Great analysis. You put the small world of Las Cruces into the big world perspective of College basketball. As Coach Menzies continues to bring in talent like he has we will attract even more talent. I believe he will be an Aggie until a program close to his heart and not his wallet comes calling. Until then we can enjoy watching the program grow.

Anonymous said...

Bigger question is, when will NMSU fans buy-in and start filling up the PanAm? Remember the loud Mccarthy days of old school Panamaniacs?
Thats the last piece of the puzzle here. Not the coach.

Anonymous said...

Absolutely, going to watch the Aggies play is OUR job. We have an exciting team, potentially 3 pro prospects, a pretty damn good chance that we will win every game, even against very good teams that we bring in. WE need to get out there and support the team. UNM no doubt gets energy from the full crowds attending the games, that definitely is the advantage our brother up north has over us. Attendance boosts the teams performance and equally as important is boosts our budget to potentially do more. I for one hate to see plastic covering our seats, but it almost makes sense why it is being done. Hey we don't like it, lets show up and make them remove the plastic. Students have to attend the games, I hate to say this but put the books away for 2 hours and get down there with your big heads (poster heads, not engineering students) and raise AGGIE-HELL. C'mon we got to do our part to raise the roof. The pit fills it up, but when the Pan_Am is rocking, it blows the Pit away. So to make a short story long, there you go. Anon 3:29 great blog!

Anonymous said...

Washington State University's AD reported to the schools Board of Regents on Friday, March 28th that he extended an offer and went on to explain he could not divulge the name because that person had to make arrangements with his current employer (thus giving credible rise to the theory the candidate is a currently employed coach with an NCAA team).

The two names that fit the above paragraph's parameters are Georgia's Mark Fox and NMSU's Marvin Menzies.

With Menzies' west coast affiliations, we are hopeful that WSU extends an offer to him and that they provide him the facilities to compete in such a high-profile conference.

It certainly seems that the coach has done a great job but the community is not interested. Perhaps he'd be smart to make the move and test his abilities to coach against some of the smarter minds in NCAA basketball (Steve Alford, Johnny Dawkins, Mike Montgomery if he stays with Cal, Lorenzo Romar, Mark Endfield, and Sean Miller). I would think any coach would welcome the opportunity to coach in one of the great conferences against some of the most fiercely competitive coaches in the game today. Who wouldn't welcome that coaching challenge, rather than staying in a league that grows yearly with for-profit schools and those with hyphenated names?

Anonymous said...

Nevermind. As I typed the above comment, reports confirmed that Ernie Kent accepted the WSU job.

Is Cal now a viable option for Menzies since Mike Montgomery's announced retirement today? Doubtful as it sounds like Montgomery has left the job with the condition his current associate head coach be named successor.

Jason Groves said...

No worries. But I believe the coach with a current job was referring to Boise State's Leon Rice, who Washington State wanted before reverting back to Kent

Anonymous said...

Hey anon 5:08, stop trying to find a job for our coach!
Jason, do you see Menzies entertaining offers with the Bhullars, the young players currently in the program and the red shirts and (gray?) shirts currently in waiting. Certainly it would be hard to turn down a basketball powerhouse but the 2nd tier PAC 12 schools seem like graveyards for up and coming coaches

Aggie007 said...

Just want to add: If he, just like any of you, were offered $800K+ after making somewhere around $320K here at NM State, would be c-r-a-z-y not to take it. The $460K+ raise would be reason enough to take on the new challenge and move on from NM State. I know we all want him to stay and continue building the NM State program, but put yourself in his shoes. It would be irresponsible for him and to his family to not accept the new challenge ... and $460K+ that came along with it. I don't care who his players are. Players come and go.