With the last thread currently contemplating beef stew and chowder, I figured this report from Vegas was a big enough development to start a new thread:

Quote: Cincinnati’s Cronin in Las Vegas to check out UNLV hoops job
By Taylor Bern (contact)
Wednesday, March 23, 2016 | 12:01 a.m.

Shortly after 10 p.m. Tuesday, NetJets flight No. 953 landed at Atlantic Aviation on Tropicana Avenue, a quick drive from the Thomas & Mack Center. The flight's cargo included the top candidate to be UNLV’s next men’s basketball coach, Cincinnati’s Mick Cronin.

Two black Cadillac Escalades whisked away the 44-year old coach, UNLV Athletics Director Tina Kunzer-Murphy and a few other UNLV administrators and boosters, thus commencing the Cronin courting in Las Vegas. The Rebels plan to offer a contract that would pay reportedly as much as $3 million per season, although even Cronin’s current $1.8 million base package from the Bearcats would be by far the most UNLV has paid a coach.

Cronin just finished his 10th season at Cincinnati, his alma mater, and the Bearcats were bounced at the buzzer in the first round of this year’s NCAA Tournament. UNLV President Len Jessup was reportedly at the game, and he was among the group that greeted Cronin on Tuesday evening.

Cronin has led the Bearcats to the past six NCAA Tournaments, plus shared the American Athletic Conference regular season title in 2014 and top three finishes the last three years. Since a Sweet Sixteen run in 2012, however, Cincinnati is 3-8 in conference tournament and NCAA Tournament games.

UNLV has been in a protracted search for its next coach ever since asking Dave Rice to leave on Jan. 10, although realistically many conversations with coaches couldn’t fully take place until those teams’ seasons ended in March. Rumored targets Brad Underwood and Jamie Dixon recently took new jobs at Oklahoma State and TCU, respectively, and after discussing Cronin’s name with boosters on Saturday, Kunzer-Murphy has worked to get necessary support and funds to persuade Cronin to leave home.

Rice was making $700,000 annually on the extension he signed in 2014. The university still owed him close to $1 million for the remaining base salary while showing Rice the door, and the program is also on the hook for at least $365,620 in base salary next season for assistant coaches Stacey Augmon and Ryan Miller, who agreed to two-year deals last offseason. Interim coach Todd Simon left to take over at Southern Utah.

In 2014, Cronin signed a seven-year extension — his fourth extension at Cincinnati — that paid him $1.8 million annually with incentives that could push it to around $2.2 million. His buyout is $1 million. For weeks, sources have suggested that UNLV would have upwards of $2.5 million to pay a coach, but now there’s possibly more, for the right guy. Cronin has a .643 winning percentage over 13 years as a head coach, and the belief is that Cincinnati's best counter would be a commitment to better facilities and more funds for the basketball program.

One source said that the Board of Regents, which must ultimately approve the contract, has not yet seen any potential deal. With Cronin in town that could change very soon, and more than a week ago UNLV officials asked to have March 30 cleared for a special session that they hoped would approve the 12th coach in UNLV history.

Cronin started at Cincinnati in 1996 as a video coordinator for Bob Huggins and became a full-time assistant coach the following year. After four seasons under Huggins, Cronin became the associate head coach and recruiting coordinator at Louisville under Rick Pitino.

Two years later came his first head-coaching job at Murray State, where Cronin won one regular-season Ohio Valley Conference championship and earned two auto-bids to the NCAA Tournament in three seasons. That led Cronin back to Cincinnati, where he took over a program still recovering from Huggins’ resignation.

This isn’t the same kind of reclamation project, though the cupboard could be just as bare as rumors swirl around players prepared to depart if they’re dissatisfied with UNLV’s hire. If Cronin turns UNLV down, attention turns possibly to Arkansas-Little Rock’s Chris Beard, South Carolina’s Frank Martin or New Mexico State’s Marvin Menzies.

Well, Bohn better have someone good lined up. Based on the past, I don't have a whole lot of confidence that he'll make a particularly good hire.

(03-23-2016 05:08 AM)Brian_Johnson Wrote:  Well, Bohn better have someone good lined up. Based on the past, I don't have a whole lot of confidence that he'll make a particularly good hire.

His last basketball hire has turned around Colorado for what it's worth. That program was a dumpster fire for a long time

I guess so... but his botching of CBJ is fresh in my mind as well.

(03-23-2016 06:14 AM)Brian_Johnson Wrote:  I guess so... but his botching of CBJ is fresh in my mind as well.

I wouldn't hold Jones against anyone, he was on a full whore public job tour.

If Mick goes, fine, but UNLV is a crappy job for career potential. He could do better, IMO. I don't think Vegas is a place where I would want to raise a daughter either.

I've always regarded Vegas as a place I'd like to visit one day, but you couldn't pay me enough to live there.

(03-23-2016 06:20 AM)Kenyon#4 Wrote:  

(03-23-2016 06:14 AM)Brian_Johnson Wrote:  I guess so... but his botching of CBJ is fresh in my mind as well.

I wouldn't hold Jones against anyone, he was on a full whore public job tour.

If Mick goes, fine, but UNLV is a crappy job for career potential. He could do better, IMO. I don't think Vegas is a place where I would want to raise a daughter either.

No he wasn't. The whole Colorado fiasco was all Bohn. It certainly wasn't Jones who secretly had the media show up and all that crap.

I don't blame Cronin or any coach for leaving UC. The whole setup starting at the very top is a complete joke. The fact that he is willing to leave UC for UNLV should tell everyone how bad it really is behind the scenes.

Bohn got humiliated by the Jones fiasco when they were on campus. He got canned for lots of good reasons.

This problem may start with the guy who is hiring goons like Bohn.

Who wants to work with a guy like Bohn that doesn't respect you, trashing Mick to boosters calling him Mickey? Wish Bohn would go.

I don't have time to post it all but it's worth a look at Chad Brendal's twitter feed from last night. Doesn't paint a pretty picture about the support given to the basketball program since Mick arrived.

(03-23-2016 06:24 AM)Coopdaddy67 Wrote:  I've always regarded Vegas as a place I'd like to visit one day, but you couldn't pay me enough to live there.

Been there, saw it, have no desire to go back.

wow I was right about that NetJets plane?

Where's all this Bohn hate coming from all of a sudden?

(03-23-2016 07:40 AM)BeerCat Wrote:  Where's all this Bohn hate coming from all of a sudden?

It's been floating around for the past two years. The Mick fans have always felt like Bohn has some personal vendetta against their guy. As I posted yesterday, as involved as Dr. Ono is in the athletic program I highly doubt Bohn has been so openly hostile/neglectful against Cronin without it catching leadership's eye (Ono or the BOT).

My own personal experience with this is when a middle manager has it out for an employee it usually coming from directions upstream.

I've never really heard about this. Interesting.

(03-23-2016 07:40 AM)BeerCat Wrote:  Where's all this Bohn hate coming from all of a sudden?

I think the mick side has felt the football program has gotten the investment while the basketball program hasn't and they've done a good job pushing this view among people close to the program who really like mick. I get where mick is coming from but I am sure the athletic department has reasons for how things have gone too. Not ready to throw Bohn under the bus

(03-23-2016 07:53 AM)bearcatmark Wrote:  

(03-23-2016 07:40 AM)BeerCat Wrote:  Where's all this Bohn hate coming from all of a sudden?

I think the mick side has felt the football program has gotten the investment while the basketball program hasn't and they've done a good job pushing this view among people close to the program who really like mick. I get where mick is coming from but I am sure the athletic department has reasons for how things have gone too. Not ready to throw Bohn under the bus

Collateral damage of realignment, resources being used to increase invite chances. I get why Mick would feel slighted, I really do, but the reality of realignment is that football drives the bus.

(03-23-2016 07:40 AM)BeerCat Wrote:  Where's all this Bohn hate coming from all of a sudden?

People have to blame someone.

(03-23-2016 07:56 AM)Kenyon#4 Wrote:  

(03-23-2016 07:53 AM)bearcatmark Wrote:  

(03-23-2016 07:40 AM)BeerCat Wrote:  Where's all this Bohn hate coming from all of a sudden?

I think the mick side has felt the football program has gotten the investment while the basketball program hasn't and they've done a good job pushing this view among people close to the program who really like mick. I get where mick is coming from but I am sure the athletic department has reasons for how things have gone too. Not ready to throw Bohn under the bus

Collateral damage of realignment, resources being used to increase invite chances. I get why Mick would feel slighted, I really do, but the reality of realignment is that football drives the bus.

^^^^

THIS. College football and the need to get into P5 is driving the bus. With UC's limited resources basketball has to wait unfortunately.

Basketball may have gotten us into the BE, but it will not get us into P5

(03-23-2016 07:53 AM)bearcatmark Wrote:  

(03-23-2016 07:40 AM)BeerCat Wrote:  Where's all this Bohn hate coming from all of a sudden?

I think the mick side has felt the football program has gotten the investment while the basketball program hasn't and they've done a good job pushing this view among people close to the program who really like mick. I get where mick is coming from but I am sure the athletic department has reasons for how things have gone too. Not ready to throw Bohn under the bus

Am I wrong or is there a renovation of 5/3rd Arena planned? Again, if that is stalled/uncertain and just not public yet then I totally understand Mick being pissed.

I think Mick is smart enough to understand that football HAD to be upgraded for any shot at a P5 invite which would benefit him greatly were it to occur.