Coach's Q&A: Reggie Theus

New Mexico State coach turning around Aggies

June 6, 2007

By Steve Brauntuch

Special to CSTV.com

	Steve Brauntuch Steve Brauntuch is a researcher for CSTV and contributor to CSTV.com. E-mail here!

        ---   Column Archive   --- COACHES Q&A 8/22: Frank Solich 8/15: Sean Miller 8/08: Jerry Moore 8/01: Jeff Capel 7/25: Tim Floyd 7/18: Sylvester Croom 7/11: Paul Johnson 7/3: Kelvin Sampson 6/27: Dave Wannstedt 6/20: Chris Lowery 6/13: Chris Petersen 6/6: Reggie Theus 5/28: Wayne Graham 5/23: Rich Brooks 5/16: A Volunteer Family 5/9: Rich Rodriguez 5/2: Tommy Amaker 4/25: Tim Corbin 4/18: John Beilein option value="javascript:void(0);"> SOCCER 8/23: Short Commute, Big Jump

He was a star on the court at UNLV, in the NBA and even in Italy. Now, he's a star on the sidelines in Las Cruces. Two years ago, Reggie Theus took over a New Mexico State team with zero buzz and very little talent. Just 24 months later, the Aggies are the most improved team in Division I basketball. Theus is 41-25 in two seasons with NMSU, and last year, he led the Aggies to their first NCAA Tournament appearance since 1999.

But with success comes attention, and NBA teams are already calling to talk to Theus about their openings.  He has reportedly interviewed with both the Charlotte Bobcats and Sacramento Kings within the last two months, and while he just restructured his contract with New Mexico State to make him one of the highest paid WAC coaches, the Aggies may not be able to keep him around for long. For now, though, Theus remains in Las Cruces, and he spoke about his blueprint for success, his mentor Rick Pitino, and his former life manning the sidelines on Saturday mornings.

SB: Are you surprised by the scope of the turnaround you have had at New Mexico State in such a short time span?

RT: I guess I'd have to say yes. You know, I don't know if I'm surprised. I didn't expect it to be on this scale.  The turnaround...I'm just one of those people who thinks that if you work hard and do the right things and work harder than the other guy, good things will happen. Obviously, I had no idea it was going to be this type of turnaround, being the best two-year turnaround in all of Division I basketball.

SB: When you took the New Mexico State job, what was the first step you took in trying to turn the program around?

RT: Well, the first thing...I had a conversation with Coach [Rick] Pitino because I remember when he took over at Kentucky, and he had a couple of teams that he had to take over in his career. I said, well what is the main thing? He said, Reggie, the first thing, because you're walking into a situation where the team won only six games, the first thing you have to do is change the environment. You have to start with the attitude. You have to change the attitude of your team, and along with that comes the program, and along with that comes the city.  When I got here, I realized that really, the city of Las Cruces ...there was a little bit of apathy. They had gotten used to being the third wheel in the region. And that bothered me a lot, so not only did I have to change the attitude of my program, I had to really work on getting the confidence and respect back in the community.

SB: Do you think you have benefited over the past two years from modest expectations around the program?

RT: You know, this is a big basketball region, and it's got great history. And I think that people didn't expect us to do quite as well as we did my first year. I think they were quite pleased that we were a better-than-.500 team with a winning record.  And I think people thought that we would be better the following year, but I'm not sure they really thought that we were going to be quite as good as we were. And at the same time, they all knew that the potential level was great, because they knew what I had sitting out. People here knew that I had four pretty high-major players sitting out waiting to play the following year. So the expectations were not quite as high, but the anticipation was high.

SB: Outside of the region, New Mexico State doesn't have the same kind of name recognition even as some other WAC programs. Has that been a challenge for you in your recruiting efforts?

RT: Well, our street credibility is growing pretty quick. Our street credibility is getting stronger all the time. I think people are on notice that New Mexico State is a program that is seriously on the rise and in most cases has arrived. And we're just working hard to get better all the time.

SB: What did you learn from Rick Pitino during your time at Louisville that has helped you become a better basketball coach?

RT: I just think he's a great leader. You know, he has an enormous work ethic. So I got a chance to see how one of the absolute top programs in the country was run.  And I got a chance to see a hall of fame coach at his best - going to the Final Four, and all the things that happened over the course of the season... just being a part of that was enormous in terms of my growth and understanding what to do.  But I've said this before - I had 30 years of basketball knowledge in a paper bag, and Coach Pitino showed me the blueprint of how to make it all work and put it all together.

SB: Of all the coaches you played for and worked with in your career, which one do you think you learned the most from?

RT: I've learned something from all of them. I saw it done wrong many times, and I learned something from those guys also. The constant, though, and obviously coach Pitino, coach [Jerry] Tarkanian, Jerry Sloan, Mike Fratello, Cotton Fitzsimmons...they're all very similar in a lot of ways in their approach and the way they did things. Their personalities are different, which makes for little differences in their programs, but their mechanisms on the floor were all basically the same. So I just kind of look at basketball as it's basketball.  It's 94 feet. It hasn't changed. Athletes have changed, but the game hasn't really changed. The ideology of the game is the same, and I think I'm privy to a great era of basketball. You know, my era of basketball...I think people will regard it as the best in the history of basketball. So I think the knowledge that I've gained from the way that we played, you know, and the type of games that we played really has helped me. And also the style - having an opportunity being an inner-city kid - playing for Jerry Tarkanian, you know, we averaged 110 points per game. We broke, I think, seven or eight NCAA records when I was in college, and we did this with no 3-point line. And then, of course, my pro career, and then I had an opportunity to work for coach Pitino, who is a genius in what he does and his work ethic and his style. He has an absolute identity and a style of play. So all of those things have really shaped me. And from the negative side, I've watched on quite a few occasions the guys that didn't do it correctly were pretty much the same kind of guys also.  You know, they had personality flaws, they had enormous egos, and sometimes it has nothing to do with the work ethic - you just want to work smart.  And a lot of them didn't work smart.

SB: You retired at a very early age from the NBA. At age 34 in 1991, you were averaging 18 points per game in your final season with the Nets. Did you have any second thoughts about leaving the game so young?

RT: Yeah, that was a very tough battle for me. I did not know what to do. I was sort of stuck. I was caught, rather, in a tough situation. I was playing for the New Jersey Nets, and at that time...they weren't that good.  The management wasn't that good, and it was in the days when New Jersey was really horrible. And so that was the last team I was playing for, so obviously, I was 34 years old, I was playing the most minutes on the team, I was leading the team in scoring. Statistically, my numbers were as good as when I was 25-years-old. But at that time, my contract was up, and they wouldn't give me a two-year guaranteed contract. That's all I wanted was a two-year guaranteed contract.  We weren't even talking about an enormous amount of money...and they didn't want to do it. Now it's a little bit different, but in those days, at 34, that was considered pretty old.

I had an Italian team come in and offer me four years guaranteed for more money than I was making in the NBA, which was really difficult because I was rounding out 19,000 points and staring 20,000 in the face with one more year of basketball. And at 34, you know, I had a conversation with Willis Reed at the time, and he just said Reggie, you've had a great career. You're 34-years-old. Where are you going to make that kind of money? Even if we win an NBA championship, you can't spend the ring. That's not going to be able to carry you and your family for a very long time. So the sad part is that I couldn't get a two-year guaranteed contract, so I was forced in so many ways to take the money. See you have to remember, at 34-years-old, and I only have a one year contract, you don't know what's going to happen the following year. So I took the security and went over to Europe and played, and I had a great year. I was averaging almost 30 points per game and led that league in assists. It was crazy because European basketball...they make you responsible for the win. If you don't win, it's your responsibility. So in essence...I went over to Italy and had to play harder than I had played my entire NBA career. And I told those guys, I didn't come over here to have to play harder and have more responsibility than I've ever had in my entire career. Actually, what I told them is, "I'm not Michael Jordan, so if you want me to average more points and get more assists, you better hire Michael Jordan."

SB: You left UNLV after your junior year.

RT: Yeah, I actually thought about it as a sophomore, but I decided not to. That was the year after we went to the Final Four, and the following year, I just decided it was time.

SB: As someone who left school early, do you think the age limit is good for college basketball?

RT: Yeah, I do. I really do. The reason I do is because I think we have a great college game, and I think the college game is enormous.  And some ways, we have to protect it. You know, football has an age limit. And I also think that kids should be able to leave when they want. But I also think that the college game is such a great game that you know, in some ways, you have to preserve it the best you can. And having an age limit on it certainly is not hurting the NBA. It will help college to a degree. But in a strange sort of way, the superstars leaving and going to the NBA in some ways has helped parity in college basketball. So now you have mid-major schools that can compete with high-major schools because of the superstars of college basketball leaving and going to the NBA so early.

SB: You coach in a conference that might benefit from the expansion of the NCAA Tournament beyond 65 teams.  What are your thoughts on expanding the field?

RT: You know, not that I'm an expert on it, but I think 65 is a lot.  I don't think that it's necessary to expand beyond that. I'm not against it or anything like that either. [The WAC] historically gets two teams into the NCAAs, which I think is fair. The problem that I have is some of the differences in the power conferences getting seven or eight teams in as opposed to a team that comes in 2^nd in a pretty good conference. That's the area. The RPI is not perfect, either. There's just some flaws in it, and I don't think that there's a perfect solution. When you start to look at teams that deserve to go from an RPI standpoint, you can't take away from a team in the WAC when the last two or three teams in our conferences have really bad RPIs, and every time we play them, we lose numbers. Whereas in the other conferences, you can be in 3^rd or 4^th place and the bottom of your conference has a higher RPI than the RPIs of our conference, so therefore, everybody thinks that you're a better team in the eyes of the committees. And I think that's unfair.

SB: Is becoming an NBA head coach a career goal for you?

RT: Well, I mean, it's always been a goal. I had two things in mind when I started coaching, and although some of that has changed... now that I'm in it, I see that everything doesn't start and end with UNLV. I had two goals - to be in the NBA or to coach my alma mater. And the great thing about where I'm at in my life and where I'm at now that I've had some success at another place is because I spent so many years in the NBA, I'll be very happy if I'm not there. And even though I've wanted to coach my alma mater since I started - one of the reasons I actually started coaching - I'm really very happy here at New Mexico State. And I think that it's more important to go where people really appreciate you and really show that they want you there.

SB: Which was more challenging for you - your first season coaching at New Mexico State or your first season coaching the Deering Tornadoes on the NBC show Hangtime?

RT: I love that. That's great. Well, some of the challenges were the same. And it was quite interesting... I reflected on that a little bit, because a couple of the scripts were the same in terms of attitude, in terms of talent and different things. But in the end, the message was the same, and that is that you can win if you outwork your opponent.

SB: Have you forgiven Dick Butkus for replacing you on Hangtime in season four?

RT: No, no. We were a very strong, very exciting inner city school. When Dick Butkus came along, they became a mediocre, suburban school, and I can't handle that.