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Graydon Prescott 0:17
Hey everybody, and welcome to another episode of sports prep live. Sports prep live, where we unbox the bike and talk excellent in athletics.

Ladies and gentlemen, welcome back to another episode of sports prep live. I'm your host, Greg and Prescott. Today is the day following a very, very important story here at UNLV, and one that we actually we need to take a deep dive into. So today's focus, I'm just going to cut to the chase. UNLV has made some changes in the coaching department, or plans to make some changes in the coaching department with regard to the basketball team coach. Kevin Kruger has been the head coach of UNLV men's basketball program for the past four seasons, starting in the 2021 season, and just this past Saturday, the athletic director released a statement, issuing that UNLV has parted ways with Coach Krueger and ad Eric Harper is the name of UNLV is athletic director. So I got KB here, and we're going to have a conversation about what, what are our thoughts, what we think may have went wrong, what should UNLV be looking to do in the future? And it's a very, I guess you could say an unexpected changing at the the head of the snake, but absolutely, but there are also, there is an argument to be made that this is something that should be happening.

K.B. 2:05
Yes, there were some extenuating circumstances. Yeah, so

Graydon Prescott 2:08
we have a very interesting conversation today, a more serious, UNLV specific one. A lot of times we like to have fun with the with women's basketball or men's college basketball, NBA, whatever. But today, we actually have UNLV that is our main focus on the show. And it's always great to have UNLV news. It just kind of sucks that the news is unfortunately letting go of the the head coach of the program. So always great to have you. KB, and yeah, it looks like we got a lot to talk about today. So let's start with why coach Krueger, right, may have been fired. Now, from my point of view, let's see they had. They had a pretty decent first season. They didn't make a lot of noise 18 and 1418. And 14 season. Then year two, they go seven and 11 in conference play. They do. They make no noise in the Mountain West tournament. When 19 and 13 that year, yeah. So second season kind of disappointing overall. Then their third year, 21 and 13, I believe, was the record, yes, but they had a sequence from January to March where they won 10 out of 11, yeah, 10 out of 11, yeah. But unfortunately, they had they they fell short in the Mountain West tournament. Now they did get invited to the national Invitational Tournament, or the NRT, yeah, which is basically for the best teams that did not qualify for the NCAA tournament. They won two games in the NIT and then they lost to Seton Hall. But the 2024 season was pretty good. They had a good year in conference play, except for the tournament, when they lost unexpectedly. So they lost in the conference tournament. And then fast forward to this season. I don't know if I can fully blame quote coach Krueger for this year, there was a lot they lost. Yeah, they lost a starter before the season could even get started. He only played 23 minutes the whole year. Yeah. Rob Whaley, DJ got hurt down the stretch, he got hurt February 15. Hasn't played a game since right. Right finished with 18 and 15 record and got eliminated in the Mountain West tournament in the quarterfinals against Utah State 70 to 58 so there were a lot of injuries for UNLV basketball team this year, they finished 18 and 15, not great in conference play, and those four years accumulated to a 76 and 55 record, if you did the math for Coach 58% Yeah, winning first coach 58% which is actually the best of. The past three UNLV coaches, Coach right before coach Cougar was 50% and Marvin minsey, yeah, he was at 500 and his predecessor, 49% went

K.B. 5:11
on to Iowa State. Yep. 49% TJ, autoworker, yes.

Graydon Prescott 5:15
So progress from the previous two coaches, but no NCAA tournament appearance, not good enough. No no trips to even the semifinals in the Mountain West. And really just mediocre is probably the best George used to describe how UNLV basketball has been performing as of late under the

K.B. 5:40
stewardship, yeah, because they do have some some really talented players. Oh, absolutely. And, you know, the reporting is that Coach Kruger is decent at recruiting, not the best, but decent. Brought in some transfers, obviously, got hometown basketball hero and DJ, who was just a problem. He is an incredible basketball player, and I feel bad for him, because I don't think that his vision of coming into the UNLV program might have been, you know, what they experienced in that, that stretch last year, 10 of 11, a really solid back court. I mean, he's leading score. It's a tough year in terms of the injuries, you know, for this to have happened with with Coach Krueger. Yeah, like you mentioned, Rob Whaley was out. He only played 23 minutes. He was a projected starter. 23 minutes went out in the second game of preseason. He didn't even make it into the season. Yeah, and he was out for the season with a back injury. And then, of course, you mentioned DJ. Thomas injured his shoulder on February 15. He was out for the rest of the season. They thought maybe he'd be able to come back, but that just wasn't to be the case. The injury seemed like it was a little bit more serious than they initially anticipated. And then they lost senior guard Julian rushwayne. He suffered a knee injury in the final game of regular season, so he was out for the Mountain West tournament. And then, you know, kind of next man up they had, Jalen Bedford, he makes the starting lineup as a consequence of everything that's going on with the team, and then gets a serious cut above his eye in a game against the Air Force, and so he misses a large chunk of that game. Now, they did manage to win that game, but, I mean, they were just compromised. I mean, you know, from top of the roster down through, you know, some of the the role players, so it's tough to go out, or tough to be fired under their circumstances. And I would imagine, you know, Kevin is probably thinking about, wait a minute, you know, I just didn't get a chance to put my best foot forward here through all these injuries. And I expected they probably would have made a little bit of a run had these injuries not taken place. But this is a culmination. Yeah, this isn't just about this year, correct? No, he's not coach. Cougar was not Eric Harper's guy. He was brought in from the previous ad. I think her name was Desiree Reed, Francois or Francois, however, it's pronounced F, A, R, a, n, C, O, i, s, but she's no longer here. Eric Harper came in, and so he had Coach Kruger already in place. Coach Krueger played here under his father. In 2006 2007 season, he had a respectable 13.5 points game, 5.1 assists. I think that year they went 30 and 730. And seven, yeah, made the sweet 16. So I get why they may have thought, hey, let's, let's bring him on, because his dad, Lon, had some success here as the head coach, but I am as a a person who's connected to family members that are playing basketball high school level. I'm just not a big fan of the nepotism that happens in sports. And simply because your father or mother or brother or sister or uncle or aunt or whatever was able to do something does not necessarily mean you're going to have the same level of success. And I get bringing him in. He was an assistant coach, I think, at Oklahoma for three years or so before they brought him in. And I do believe his dad was also dad was being utilized as a consultant here.

Graydon Prescott 9:43
Yeah, the coach at Oklahoma and correct he called him, or Kevin, called lawn and unofficial consultants for the UNLV basket. During the time that Kevin was the head coach ad 80 Harper released a statement. I. Um, with regards to, yeah, let's get to that. In the statement says quote, I would like to express my sincere gratitude for Coach Kruger for his hard work, commitment and dedication over the past four years as head coach of the Running Rebels. While there have been noticeable achievements during his tenure, there have also been challenges. We have significant aspirations for our men's basketball program, both within Mountain West and on the national level. With the goal of competing in the NCAA Tournament, our expectation is to be contending and winning championships after evaluating the program as a whole. I believe it is necessary to achieve these goals. I believe a change is necessary to achieve these Sure, sure end quote. So that's what 8080 Eric Harper had to say with regards to the changes that are that are being made at the helm of the basketball program. UNLV has a very confusing history as a basketball program, a lot of coaches

K.B. 11:03
since the days of Larry Johnson,

Graydon Prescott 11:08
1973 they hire a guy. A lot of people at UNLV may know absolutely head coach Jerry Tarkine, yes, sir. And immediately all legends UNLV program, their basketball program, turns around. They start competing. They start to get very good, and then by the late 1980s and early 1990s they are a national powerhouse. Absolutely. 1990 obviously their glory year, they win the national championship, but they also made it to the Final Four in 1987 or 1990 and 1991 and then, I said, a very quick turnaround. 1977 they also made the final four. Jerry tarkanians collegiate coaching record was 706 and 198

K.B. 12:01
outstanding. Yeah, for

Graydon Prescott 12:04
for reference, his record 706 and one and 198 is a winning percentage of 78% that

K.B. 12:14
is unbelievable. 78% that's unbelievable. I mean, that's right up there with some of the blue chip programs in the country, yeah, you know, the Dukes and the Kentucky's and the Kansas and you name it. So, yep, that's, that's hard to live up to 20% higher. And I don't think that was the expectation. No, it couldn't have been, but it wasn't this.

Graydon Prescott 12:33
Yeah. Then after, after coach Tarkanian left, UNLV, basically went into a rebuilding period between 1993 and 2003 sure they were not really contending. They were having some trouble making it to the NCAA tournament. And then they hire LON KRUGER, who is the father of coach Kevin, or former head coach Kevin Kruger, and they had some success. Sure under lawn he was not bad. Winning percentage with him at the helm was 69% that is good. That is very good. It's a very good winning percentage. The record was 161 and 71

K.B. 13:09
I think he got to the NCAA tournament four or five times. Yeah, he got there

Graydon Prescott 13:13
five times, four of which were in his final five years as the head coach. And that did include a sweet 16 appearance, right? And sweet 16, you got to win three games in the tournament to get there. So very impressive, or two games to get to the Sweet 16. But still, it's impressive. Still, yes,

K.B. 13:32
we would take that now, yeah, yeah, absolutely.

Graydon Prescott 13:34
That was in 2007 with their former coach, Kevin Krueger. He was a starting point guard on that team 16 after 2011 they bounced around a few coaches. They're on their fourth coach

K.B. 13:51
now, within years. Yes,

Graydon Prescott 13:55
that's obviously, that's a lot, that's a lot burger that's following Marvin Menzies. Marvin Menzies, that's following Kevin Kruger. And now we're going to be on our fourth coach in 10 years here at UNLV. So they're they're in a frustrating period because of the success that they had in the past. There's not a ton of programs that I can really think of off the top of my head that went from powerhouse to

K.B. 14:25
really the nadir out of contention. Yeah, of college basketball, that

Graydon Prescott 14:29
doesn't happen a lot in men's basketball, I guess you could say Indiana, but Indiana is making it to the NCAA tournament every year. They have five championships, and that's

K.B. 14:41
another school that has an expectation of success. And so if you don't figure it out, I don't know what their time horizon is, but if you don't figure it out in a relatively short period of time, you're going to get bounced. And you know now, you take a school that you're familiar with, University of Iowa, they also bounce. Announced their head coach in the last week or so, Fran McCaffery. Now he's been there for 15 seasons. So what is the difference? The difference is they haven't had that level of success where the expectation was set. They don't have that national championship. You know that they can kind of look over their shoulder and see in the not too distant past. And I believe, you know, a couple of those guys from that national championship team, they go to events. They a couple of them live here in town, so it's always there. You don't have that at the University of Iowa. So he managed to last 15 seasons what really a lot of people would call kind of subpar outcomes as well. I am encouraged that whether it's the boosters, whether it's Andy Harper, whether it's President Whitfield, I know in one of the articles that we read through, Heather Brown, who was on the Board of Regents, someone is looking for accountability, and I think it starts there. And this is a program. This is a pretty good sized city, yeah, there are corporations with their headquarters here. There is the entertainment capital, not only of the United States, but really one of the entertainment capitals of the world. There's an professional hockey team here. There's a professional football team here. There's professional baseball, there's professional NBA that looks like it's going to be knocking on the door in the next two to three years. There is no reason that a school like UNLV, with the history, the rich history that it has in college basketball, men's college basketball, should not be in contention for a national championship, and it was high time that someone held someone accountable for those outcomes. It's a new day and age. I think a lot of coaches are getting fired because they just haven't been able to get acclimated to this new day of n, i L, that's a challenging landscape. I get that, but you have to take that into to into consideration. Now you may need a person, whether whether it's on your staff or in your school, that is a director of n i L, if you will, that makes sure that you can contend for some of the top high school players coming out. I mean, for BYU, for Christ's sake, just landed, AJ to banza, and you know, reports of anywhere from five to $7 million that's the new landscape that,

Graydon Prescott 17:21
here's the thing you have to first be able to afford to land. That is true. That is true. UNLV ran a 26,000,020 $7 million deficit and the 2024

K.B. 17:33
but here, I think this is all tied together, right? We and there's a number of reasons, and that is going to change because of this new contract that they got, you know, with the Mountain West. So that is going to change. There will be some money coming into the coffers. However, winning does help, yeah, and one, you know, one thing leads to another. This is a cycle, and it's either going to start with the money or it's going to start with the winning. Maybe the easiest thing to do is to start winning the winning Absolutely. And if you're winning, you're getting boosters excited. You're getting alumni excited. It's easy to go out and have those sponsorship conversations with companies that could, you know, pour a million dollars into the program, or 500,000 or 250,000 it all adds up. There's a lot of money here in Las Vegas. I know they all want to see the program here do well. A lot of the folks have been here for a generation or so, so they remember, you know, the Larry Johnson's and the Stacey augments and the Greg Anthonys and the coach, tart Tark, is still a legend here, streets named after him, yeah. So I think the city wants to see that success again. Schools named after him, for that matter, absolutely. And they want more than just, hey, we want that too. Coming from, you know, a coaching administration like you've got to put up or shut up. And I actually applaud them, because four years is a long time to show me something. You don't have to win a national championship in four years, but you got to show me something. You got to show me some progress. And I would say that that that goes for, you know, benefiting the players as well those players, there's some talented players there, so you've got to be able to pull out of them the best you've got to have the best development team around them. You've got to have the best defensive team around them. I am not kidding. I watch a lot of college basketball. UNLV men's basketball team is solid. This is a team that could contend. I'm not sure if it's the leadership, I'm not sure if there's some sort of disconnect, I'm not sure if it's the injuries, obviously, that played a part. But this was a solid basketball team where this is a solid basketball team. Now they have some seniors. They're going to lose some people. They're bringing in some new people, some Hometown Heroes, but I think they need to be stretching their their recruiting arm much further than Las Vegas. There's some great players here in Las Vegas, but you got to go beyond Nevada, because for all intents and purposes, Las Vegas, when it comes to basketball, is. In Nevada. Yeah, you're not really going anywhere else. You're not recruiting out of Reno. You're not recruiting out of Carson City. This is where it's popping. And it is a finite size in terms of a city, so you got to make sure you're looking across the national landscape to bring in talent to this program, honestly, not

Graydon Prescott 20:18
just the national landscape. I mean, it may be international. Arguably the third best player on, for my money, the best team in the country is where Cameroon, Nigeria, somewhere. You gotta look worldwide, absolutely. I mean, the best basketball players in the world, a lot of them are not from the United States, absolutely, so they brought in Kruger because supposedly, he was a great recruiter. I think it actually has a lot more to do with the fact that his dad had some success. I do too.

K.B. 20:50
I do too, whether that's fair or unfair, that's the impression. Now

Graydon Prescott 20:54
he did have a good season as the point guard in 2007 they made it to Sweet 16.

K.B. 21:00
Yeah, he transferred in, yes, yes. He

Graydon Prescott 21:05
was a graduate transfer. He took advantage of the new rules that, you know, for most people, they're not so new anymore, but then they were new transfers. Had to wait a year to play. Now they can just transfer and play immediately, right? That's a new that was a new rule in 2007 so he was the first player at UNLV to actually take advantage. He started playing immediately. He came in to play under his dad, and they made it to the Sweet 16. But the graduate transfer, yeah. Graduate transfer, yes and but other than that, he didn't have a ton of success as or Yeah, as a player at Arizona State. He had a good year at UNLV, playing under his dad, and his dad was very successful, 69% win percentage as a coach. It's very, very good. So he gets the job at UNLV, and he's

K.B. 21:56
young, yeah, like, like, so I think he's like 41 now, yeah, so four years ago, he's in his 30s. That's a young coach. You've got to have some sort of pedigree in terms of your own work,

Graydon Prescott 22:09
and I think, I think they shouldn't have okay. So he was an assistant coach under his dad at Oklahoma for a couple of years, yes, but I think you need a coach. You know, V needs to look for a coach who has either, and I think also

K.B. 22:25
under TJ oxelberger for a little bit, because he was promoted from so

Graydon Prescott 22:30
they need, yeah, UNLV needs a coach that has been, has has experience under a certified, good coach, right? Or has led a program and had some success. What Duke did when they hired Mike krzewski, yes. Mike Krzyzewski was an assistant under Bobby Knight. For two years. He was an assistant under Bobby Yes. And then what most people don't know Mike krzewski for five seasons, was the coach at army, and they turned the program around, and he was very good at army. And then in 1980 they hire him, and for the next 42 years, Duke is the best Sure, sure they need. And it was a controversial hire to get. Mike trzeski. He wasn't a he was relatively young, but he was a seasoned head coach, and he had experience under a legend. UNLV needs to look for somebody who has experience under a great coach, or is already a season, or is already a good coach, you can't go looking for somebody that has ties to the program played here, or at

K.B. 23:28
least, that can't be the primary

Graydon Prescott 23:31
concern. Yeah, it can't be. You need somebody who you know is going to be able to win new games or help you win games

K.B. 23:38
and that way. And that can come from a number of places. There are great high school coaches out there that could be considered in top tier programs. There are great assistant coaches at the collegiate level in some of those top blue chip programs that I'm sure would entertain a head coaching job in a good mid tier division one school that could be top tier if they get their stuff together. And then, of course, there is the NBA. Whether the assistant coaches, you know, in the NBA, I'm sure there's a number of assistant coaches in the NBA that would love an opportunity to be a head coach at a school like UNLV, when there's so much popping around the city, this is a great get as a head coaching job, and it needs to be treated as such. There are any number of avenues that this administration can go down to bring in a good coach, but the primary concern should not be, when did you attend UNLV, right? If that happens, that's great. If you if you get that and a great coach along the way, that's great and no nepotism. Being a good player does not mean you're going to be a great coach. We need to stop with that narrative. Being a great coach is an entirely different skill set. There are incredible basketball players who would make horrible. Coaches, and there are great basketball coaches who were as basketball players. Steve Kerr, you know, right, right? And no disrespect to Steve Kerr, he is a great basketball coach, but he wasn't the engine of the bulls. He wasn't the engine of the Spurs. I

Graydon Prescott 25:15
think Michael Jordan would make a pretty terrible coach, but he's

K.B. 25:18
got it. He's got it where it matters. He's got the gray matter, and he has done an amazing job, because he did have that tutelage under a Phil Jackson, that tutelage under a great pop of absolutely right? So, like, it doesn't have to be, Hey, did they wear the red and the red and white? You know, in their their formative basketball years, or in their collegiate basketball years, the first thing you need to do is look for an excellent candidate. And if that person just so happens to have played for UNLV, great, but if they did not, that should not be a disqualifier by any stretch of the imagination. And I believe that's the tack that ad Harper is going to take. I think he's serious about bringing in someone here who can really help turn this program

Graydon Prescott 26:03
around. Yeah, because this for years, this was a basketball school, and they've kind of went away from that with the failures in the program as of late. So I think it's time, definitely time, to make some major changes in the coaching staff, and it's very unlikely that the only change that's going to be made is the head coach. It is unlikely assistant coaches are going to go with Yeah, because

K.B. 26:31
you know, you have to think at the end of the day, a head coach is the shot caller. He is responsible for the direction of the team, but he does have a lot of troops behind him helping lead the team to whatever success they're having. You know, you've got that offensive coach, you've got that defensive coach, you've got your development coach, you know, all you've got your physical training coach. So if, if the program, as an administration, was doing well, and maybe the coach was just kind of, you know, not doing what it the the program expected, but the people behind him were doing their job, then the program would still be having that sort of success. It might not be top tier success, but they may be making the NCAA tournament. They may be in that that final 32 or that sweet 16, or maybe, heaven forbid, they get a top elite eight bid. But I would imagine that the next coach that comes in here is going to look at everyone across the board with a jaundiced eye and say, Okay, if you stay, I need to know why, based on the success or lack thereof that the team has had over the last four years. And maybe there are some people, because I think there are some good coaches there. I know that based on seeing his son play coach Cooper, I think he knows what he's doing because, because his son can ball, yeah, and so I believe that's one that that knows what he's doing when it comes to coaching the game of basketball, whatever role he has with the team, but I think everybody else is going to, and not everybody, I don't know all the coaches, but I think each of them is going to have to sit down and answer that question of, okay, going forward with a new coach, tell me what you bring to the table, because the new coach is definitely going to ask that question. And a lot of times the new coaches bring in a little bit of their own administration, right? They bring people with him from from wherever they come. So I don't think it's going to be easy for anybody that's currently in the administration to hang on to that. Again, I don't know all the coaches, but I do know Coach Cooper knows what the heck he's doing. He's a great coach, and you can tell it, as evidenced by his kid who's smart, high IQ, great basketball acumen, physically gifted. I mean, he just plays the right way, plays defense. I'm a huge cam Cooper fan, and this kid is only a sophomore, and he's a problem, and I think he's a product of what he's learned from his daddy. Yeah. Well,

Graydon Prescott 28:59
that, there you have it. Those are the updates on UNLV basketball program. And hopefully next week we have even more information. This is this is relatively recent, so we have limited knowledge as to what is going on. But as more information comes out next week, we're going to try to keep you guys updated. Thank you, everybody for tuning into this episode of sports prep live. It's been a good one lot to unpack here and a very important week for the UNLV basketball program. I'm great and Prescott, appreciate you KB for coming on, and we'll catch you all next week right back here on Sports prep live. Thank you everybody. Thank you for tuning in to this episode of sports prep live. I'm Graydon Prescott, and don't forget to catch all of our episodes on Apple Spotify or wherever you get your podcast, and be sure to follow us on Instagram or Twitter at sports prep live. Thank you.