Wednesday, April 1, 1998 | 8:59 a.m.
UNLV is close to naming a replacement for Lady Rebels basketball head coach LaDonna McClain, who resigned under pressure on Feb. 2.
The search committee charged with finding a new head coach has submitted its list of finalists to director of athletics Charles Cavagnaro and an announcement is due within a week.
The SUN has learned that three of the leading candidates for the UNLV position are Stephen F. Austin head coach Royce Chadwick, Western Illinois head coach Regina Miller and Sunny Smallwood, the top assistant coach at the University of Washington.
Cavagnaro would neither confirm nor deny that any of the three were among the finalists to replace McClain, who posted a 7-40 record during her UNLV tenure.
"I think that it wouldn't really be proper for me to comment on that until the process is over," Cavagnaro said Tuesday afternoon. "I can say that we are moving down the road and I am excited about the prospect of it."
Cavagnaro added that he hoped to have a new head coach named "within the week."
Steve Corraro, the director of basketball operations under McClain, and McClain's predecessor, Jim Bolla, are not among the finalists for the head coaching position, according to a source close to the search committee. Corraro was named interim head coach when McClain stepped down and coached the Lady Rebels for the final seven games of the season.
Based solely on past performance, Chadwick would appear to be the leading contender to become the sixth head coach in the 24-year history of the Lady Rebels program. The 40-year-old Chadwick has a 102-21 record in four seasons at Stephen F. Austin and a 330-109 overall mark in 14 years as a head coach.
The Ladyjacks were 25-4 this season under Chadwick, won the Southland Conference regular-season championship and conference tournament and advanced to the NCAA Tournament. All four of Chadwick's teams have qualified for postseason play.
Miller, a member of Old Dominion's 1984 NCAA Final Four team, has been the head coach at Western Illinois for seven seasons. The Westerwinds were 8-18 this season after winning the Mid-Continent Conference regular-season championship and conference tournament and qualifying for the NCAA Tournament two years ago.
Smallwood, 36, became an assistant coach in charge of recruiting at Washington in 1993 after serving as an assistant at Washington State for three years. Her only head coaching experience came during a seven-year stint at Boise High School in Idaho.
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