Wednesday, March 3, 2004 | 10:07 a.m.
Dean Juipe's column appears Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday. His boxing notebook appears Thursday. Reach him at [email protected] or (702) 259-4084.
I guess I'm a magnet for such things.
E-mails have been coming in -- lots of them, in fact -- addressing the search for a new UNLV men's basketball coach, and more than one has tried to light a fire under me by appealing to my sense of duty as a community spokesman or some such thing.
Here's a sampling:
"Don't let them do it."
"You've got to speak up."
"You're the only one who might be able to stop them."
The "them" is always UNLV, and, more specifically, athletic director Mike Hamrick.
And the subject is the seemingly inevitable decision by Hamrick to hire Lon Kruger as the next coach of the Rebels.
Hamrick hasn't done any such thing as yet, of course. But there's a feeling he has already made up his mind and that Kruger will get the job when the contractual issues have been ironed out.
Hamrick is not talking and nor is Kruger for the most part, although each has indicated an interest in the other. Between those innuendos and the known facts -- that Kruger has been here, has interviewed and has some people in his corner -- is the implied belief that he's all but assured of being offered the job and that he'll take it.
The drawbacks of such a decision are obvious, even if Kruger isn't as bland as some e-mail writers describe him.
For starters, Kruger is something of a vagabond coach in that he has never willingly stayed anywhere for more than five seasons. He has also been fired from his past two jobs, albeit both in the NBA, one as the head coach of the Atlanta Hawks and the other as an assistant to Don Chaney with the New York Knicks.
In addition, his recruiting base as a collegiate coach was the Midwest -- specifically, I'm told, the Chicago area -- and that may not help him a bit in trying to lure players west to UNLV.
He has also been out of coaching at the college level for four years, which brings up the possibility that he has lost contact with the high-school coaches, scouts and bird dogs who can lead you to prized recruits.
But I think the biggest complaint from onlookers such as myself who don't know Kruger personally yet have some misgivings about him taking over the Rebels is this: Yes, he may be a fairly well known commodity amid the basketball labyrinth, but he's hardly the big name or big catch that many of us were hoping to see get the job.
He's not only not Rick Pitino, he's not Bob Huggins.
Maybe he's nothing more than a younger version of Charlie Spoonhour.
Kruger is 51 and living in the Phoenix area as he awaits his next move. The Knicks fired him (and Chaney) in December and the Hawks fired him a year ago after a three-year run in which his teams went a cumulative 69-122.
Prior to that Kruger coached four seasons at Texas Pan American (going 52-59), four seasons at Kansas State (81-46), five seasons at Florida (88-68) and four seasons at Illinois (81-48)
Those are good records overall and there's no questioning that he has had his share of success.
But is he the right man for UNLV?
There's a feeling that Hamrick -- who is certainly giving this item his complete attention, given how it will reflect on him -- has the best intentions, but that he may have misjudged the community or perhaps failed to properly survey it. He may be thinking to himself that Kruger qualifies as the high-profile coach the city and school wants, without realizing that Kruger means very little not only to the bulk of the general populace but to the area's fervent basketball fans.
If he goes ahead and hires Kruger and the reaction is muted, UNLV will have missed a golden opportunity. It will have settled for less than what was commonly expected.
If the deal is all but done and is just awaiting school president Carol Harter's signature, so be it. But if Hamrick has a moment to catch himself and to back off in an attempt to gain perspective, he may find it a worthwhile pause.
Even before they've seen the guy, there are a lot of people in town who feel UNLV can do better than Lon Kruger. They also wonder why a deal with Kruger seems preordained at such an early date, and why interested candidates such as George Karl seemingly have been given the cold shoulder.
Let's put it this way: Kruger may already have made his reservations for Las Vegas, but Las Vegas continues to have its reservations about him.
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