UTEP Looking for a new coach?

[Buckethead]

Did anybody else see in the DMN that Doc Sadler appears to be taking the Nebraska job. Seems pretty late to be hiring/looking for a new coach. I thought he was a pretty good coach. Hate to see anybody in CUSA move on. I guess the big bucks from a bcs school will always be the carrot that draws the coachs from our conference. I know if you can make a lot more money some place else you got to go. Still hate to see it happen through.

[MrMustang1965]

From ESPN.com: http://sports.espn.go.com/ncb/news/story?id=2543273

UTEP athletic director Bob Stull will conduct a one-man search in the hopes of landing a head coach to replace Doc Sadler by the time school starts Aug. 21.

Sadler accepted the Nebraska head coaching job, replacing Barry Collier, on Monday. A news conference to announce him was set for Tuesday in Lincoln, Neb.

Stull said he expects a wide pool of candidates but also understands that he must act quickly with school about to start and a host of newcomers arriving.

UTEP is adding nine new players for this season, four high school seniors and five junior college transfers. The high school seniors could try to get out of their national letter of intent commitments before school starts, even if it meant the risk of sitting out the year.

UTEP just picked up a commitment from Dale Vanwright, a 6-6 forward from Houston originally pegged for Colorado. Vanwright couldn't get into school in Boulder, so he was heading to El Paso to play for Sadler and new assistant Tony Benford.

Stull will speak with Benford, who arrived in El Paso in July after accepting an assistant's job at Utah State. Benford is from Hobbs, N.M., and played at Texas Tech. He coached at New Mexico and Arizona State but was looking for a new gig when ASU fired Rob Evans. But Benford will go with Sadler to Nebraska if he can't get the UTEP head coaching job.

Stull, who will also talk to UTEP assistant Randall Dickey, has had tremendous success in picking coaches. The Miners' former football coach, Stull picked Mike Price to coach the football team and tabbed Billy Gillispie to take over the troubled Miners' basketball program when Jason Rabedeaux had to abruptly resign over personal issues four years ago. Gillispie led the Miners in his second season to the NCAA Tournament.

Sadler then replaced Gillispie when Gillispie went to Texas A&M. In Sadler's first year after moving up from assistant to head coach he went to the NCAA Tournament. He fell short this past season, ending up in the NIT.

The list of candidates will likely include regional names like Bob Marlin of Sam Houston State, possibly Scott Sutton of Oral Roberts, Randall's brother, James Dickey, an assistant at Oklahoma State and a former head coach at Texas Tech, Texas assistant Rodney Terry, Alvin Brooks, a former UTEP assistant now at Texas A&M, former UTEP assistant James Holland, now an assistant at Alabama, and even former Arkansas coach Nolan Richardson, although he wasn't interested when Stull was replacing Rabedeaux.


But the most pressing quandary for Stull is quickly finding a coach who fits, considering the new coach would have almost an entirely new team to coach with so many newcomers. That's why Benford and Randall Dickey would likely have a legitimate shot at the job.

Andy Katz is a senior writer for ESPN.com.

[WildBillPony]

If they expect to have a coach that won't bolt every couple of years, they had better go after Nolan. Any issues he may have had at Arkansas won't matter at UTEP, he is a native El Pasoan and a Texas Western alum. UTEP would be a stepping stone for just about anyone else. It's all about money

[PonyPride]

Sources: UTEP to hire Memphis assistant BarbeeBy Andy Katz
ESPN.com


Less than a week after Doc Sadler abruptly left UTEP to be the head coach at Nebraska, the Miners will hire Memphis assistant Tony Barbee to replace him, sources close to the search told ESPN.com Sunday.

Barbee was chosen over a host of candidates because of his familiarity with Conference USA and successful pedigree under Memphis coach John Calipari as an assistant and as a player for Calipari at UMass (1989-93), a source said.

Memphis is the dominant program in the newly formed Conference USA that added UTEP as a member a year ago. This is a major statement by UTEP to pluck an assistant from a rival school to lead the Miners. Barbee has been known as one of the top recruiting assistants in the country as the Tigers consistently pull in top-50 recruits.

Barbee, 35, will be the Miners' third coach in five years after Billy Gillispie and Sadler each had two-year stints. Gillispie succeeded Jason Rabedeaux four years ago when Rabedeaux suddenly resigned prior to the 2002-03 season. Gillispie then turned the Miners around from one of the worst teams in the WAC to an NCAA Tournament team in just one season. Sadler replaced Gillispie after he left following the NCAA tourney season two years ago for Texas A&M where he then led the Aggies to a similar turnaround, leading them to the NCAAs in his second season. Sadler guided the Miners to the NCAA Tournament in his first season and just missed this past season, ending up in the NIT.

UTEP athletic director Bob Stull, who once coached football at UMass where Calipari coached and Barbee played, interviewed a slew of candidates in the past four days. He interviewed UTEP assistants Tony Benford and Randall Dickey Thursday and then on Friday in Dallas interviewed Texas A&M assistant Alvin Brooks, Sam Houston State coach Bob Marlin, Kansas assistant Tim Jankovich, LSU assistant Butch Pierre and Texas assistant Rodney Terry. Barbee was the last to interview on Saturday in Dallas. Stull was supposed to talk to former Arkansas coach Nolan Richardson Sunday morning but it's unclear whether that interview actually took place.

Stull had to make a quick hire with school starting at UTEP on Aug. 21. The Miners have nine newcomers and keeping them could have been an issue with a slow search process. Hiring Barbee is significant in another way at UTEP in diversifying the program. He is African-American, the first African-American head men's basketball coach. It was under former coach and Hall of Famer Don Haskins that then-Texas Western started an all-African-American starting five to win the 1966 NCAA title.

Andy Katz is a senior writer at ESPN.com.