Smatresk AD hires

Ben Bading · October 23, 2015

So Neal took over as president of UNLV in August of 2009. Just before that in July Mike Hamrick had left UNLV for Marshall. When Neal took over long time UNLV employee Jerry Koloskie was the interim AD. Neal looked at a number of candidates and finally Jim Livengood was hired in December of 2009. So the UNLV program was without a permanent AD for about 4 months after Neal took over as president. Jim Livengood was from Arizona and was known for running the program with a profit and also for bringing in large amounts of donations. He was also known for hiring UT retread John Mackovic after letting long time coach Dick Tomey go. He was also the AD when the Lute Olsen "leave of absence", "no wait I am back", "we are letting go of the guy that stepped in for me while I was on my leave of absence/2011 coach in waiting" (Kevin O'Neil), "wait now I am retiring", "my assistant will take over" (Russ Pennell) fiasco happened. He did however hire the current Arizona coach Sean Miller.

After being hired at UNLV in December of 2009 three and a half years later Jim Livengood suddenly resigned from UNLV in May of 2013 and while Neal and Jim both say things were good between them and Neal said he needed Jim to "stay around in some capacity" to help him get things done there are others that think that Livengood left because of clashes with Neal.

http://tucson.com/sports/greg-hansen-livengood-lost-battle-to-unlv-president/article_67e8cd0f-1bc6-5412-a86d-733e0126cc82.html

http://lasvegassun.com/news/2013/may/09/jim-livengoods-retirement-doesnt-seem-right/

He was replace on an interim basis by Neal with Tina Kunzer-Murphy.

https://www.unlv.edu/news/release/unlv-announces-tina-kunzer-murphy-interim-athletic-director

She was then hired full time.

http://lasvegassun.com/news/2013/dec/06/tina-kunzer-murphy-named-unlv-athletic-director/

Neal left 3 or so months after she was hired and since that time she has extended Dave Rice (questionable) and hired a high school coach for UNLV football.

http://vegasseven.com/2015/01/21/faithful-rebel-tina-kunzer-murphy/

So lets not go overboard here on the prowess of Neal to make great Ad hires or for the ADs that Neal hires to make great coaching decisions.

P.S. one should really look into the "fundraising" prowess of Neal as well and discover how much credit (or how little credit actually) he should get for the UNLV Capital Campaign. Here is a hint it was planned long before Neal was at UNLV and it was underway long before Neal was at UNLV in any capacity and if the campaign had not been extended for a year it would have ended before Neal ever became president of UNLV and Neal was president of UNLV for less than a year of the entire campaign including the extended year.

http://campaign.unlv.edu/faqs.html

So it was started in 2002 and went public in 2005 ended in 2009 after being extended for a year. Neal was not president of UNLV until August 6th, 2009 so he was president for about 4 months of the eight year campaign. That is much different than being responsible for it. And he was not at UNLV in any capacity until 2007 and that was in an academic roll not related to fundraising.

So perhaps we should all temper out expectations a little bit about Neal and fundraising and athletics hires especially ADs and the coaching hires of those ADs.

untbowler · October 23, 2015

So Neal took over as president of UNLV in August of 2009. Just before that in July Mike Hamrick had left UNLV for Marshall. When Neal took over long time UNLV employee Jerry Koloskie was the interim AD. Neal looked at a number of candidates and finally Jim Livengood was hired in December of 2009. So the UNLV program was without a permanent AD for about 4 months after Neal took over as president. Jim Livengood was from Arizona and was known for running the program with a profit and also for bringing in large amounts of donations. He was also known for hiring UT retread John Mackovic after letting long time coach Dick Tomey go. He was also the AD when the Lute Olsen "leave of absence", "no wait I am back", "we are letting go of the guy that stepped in for me while I was on my leave of absence/2011 coach in waiting" (Kevin O'Neil), "wait now I am retiring", "my assistant will take over" (Russ Pennell) fiasco happened. He did however hire the current Arizona coach Sean Miller.
After being hired at UNLV in December of 2009 three and a half years later Jim Livengood suddenly resigned from UNLV in May of 2013 and while Neal and Jim both say things were good between them and Neal said he needed Jim to "stay around in some capacity" to help him get things done there are others that think that Livengood left because of clashes with Neal.
http://tucson.com/sports/greg-hansen-livengood-lost-battle-to-unlv-president/article_67e8cd0f-1bc6-5412-a86d-733e0126cc82.html
http://lasvegassun.com/news/2013/may/09/jim-livengoods-retirement-doesnt-seem-right/
He was replace on an interim basis by Neal with Tina Kunzer-Murphy.
https://www.unlv.edu/news/release/unlv-announces-tina-kunzer-murphy-interim-athletic-director
She was then hired full time.
http://lasvegassun.com/news/2013/dec/06/tina-kunzer-murphy-named-unlv-athletic-director/
Neal left 3 or so months after she was hired and since that time she has extended Dave Rice (questionable) and hired a high school coach for UNLV football.
http://vegasseven.com/2015/01/21/faithful-rebel-tina-kunzer-murphy/
So lets not go overboard here on the prowess of Neal to make great Ad hires or for the ADs that Neal hires to make great coaching decisions.
P.S. one should really look into the "fundraising" prowess of Neal as well and discover how much credit (or how little credit actually) he should get for the UNLV Capital Campaign. Here is a hint it was planned long before Neal was at UNLV and it was underway long before Neal was at UNLV in any capacity and if the campaign had not been extended for a year it would have ended before Neal ever became president of UNLV and Neal was president of UNLV for less than a year of the entire campaign including the extended year.
http://campaign.unlv.edu/faqs.html
So it was started in 2002 and went public in 2005 ended in 2009 after being extended for a year. Neal was not president of UNLV until August 6th, 2009 so he was president for about 4 months of the eight year campaign. That is much different than being responsible for it. And he was not at UNLV in any capacity until 2007 and that was in an academic roll not related to fundraising.
So perhaps we should all temper out expectations a little bit about Neal and fundraising and athletics hires especially ADs and the coaching hires of those ADs.

sounds like the President actually fits into the culture of UNT, promise big and deliver small. Just permeates from the Chancellor all the way down

southsideguy · October 23, 2015

oh great now you guys want to fire the president of the university. Debbie Downers

VideoEagle · October 23, 2015

oh great now you guys want to fire the president of the university. Debbie Downers

And the Governor for not replaced the BOR.

Green P1 · October 23, 2015

I can't wait until Lydia Bading shows up!

Ben Bading · October 23, 2015

Lydia will not be showing up. She is fat, unattractive and has a very timid disposition.

FirefightnRick · October 23, 2015

Have no idea where anyone has criticized Smatresk's AD's he's hired.....but

Here's good report in the Las Vegas paper regarding UNLV's AD Jim Livengood's retirement and questions surrounding his stepping down.

Livengood 68 at the time and under Smatresk's tenure, hired current men's basketball coach Jim Rice for a 3 year contract, then extended him after winning 26 games his first year. I wished we could get an ounce of that kind of responsibil hiring and demand for accountability around here from our AD.

http://m.lasvegassun.com/news/2013/may/08/sources-unlv-ad-jim-livengood-stepping-down/

The 11th full-time athletic director in UNLV history, Livengood came to Las Vegas in 2009 after more than 15 years at Arizona. All told, he hired nine coaches, including men’s basketball coach Dave Rice, who, with a staff making about a combined $1 million, has won 51 games over the past two years.

And what did readers of the paper think of Livengood's performance?

HOW WOULD YOU RATE JIM LIVENGOOD’S LEGACY AS THE UNLV ATHLETIC DIRECTOR?
RESPONSE			VOTES
	Excellent	36.9%	253
	Good	33.6%	230
	Average	14.9%	102
	Poor	14.6%	100
	Total Votes		685

Note: This is not a scientific poll. The results reflect only the opinions of those who chose to participate. Results may be cached for page and site performance.

Rick

Edited October 23, 2015 by FirefightnRick

Ben Bading · October 23, 2015

A good report in the Las Vegas paper regarding UNLV's AD Jim Livengood's retirement and questions surrounding his stepping down.
Livengood 68 at the time, hired current men's basketball coach Jim Rice for a 3 year contract, then extended him after winning 26 games his first year. I wished we could get an ounce of that kind of responsibil hiring and demand for accountability around here from our AD.
http://m.lasvegassun.com/news/2013/may/08/sources-unlv-ad-jim-livengood-stepping-down/

Rick

It is Dave Rice.

And you missed this part of the article as well.

One of the last major things Livengood will likely be remembered for is moving the Sept. 7 home football game against Arizona to University of Phoenix Stadium in Glendale, Ariz. That deal’s expected to be finished any day and would net UNLV a windfall “way north” of the $750,000 it received to travel to West Virginia in 2010, he said.

So Livengood sold off a UNLV home game with a P5 opponent for cash and it happened to be his former employer as well. And there is also the fact that the Neal hire of Tina Kunzer-Murphy extended Dave Rice yet again a year later for another two years and his wins are declining. So again there is a FULL story to tell on the ADs that Neal was responsible for hiring at UNLV.

And I think that Livengood could probably sympathize with RV about coming into a program full of piss and vinegar and ready to make things happen (like raising $90 million) only to realize that your new job was not quite where you had been employed previously. IE RV being allowed to say he would raise $90 million for athletics at a time when UNT had a total endowment for the entire university of $37 million and change.

This post is not about "firing" anyone it is about getting one's expectations in line with reality and looking at the entire picture of past performance before thinking that making a change will absolutely result in a positive outcome and getting so set on that expectation that when it does not work out you demand that everyone gets fired. If one demands accountability from everyone then one should look at the performance of ALL involved not just those that you wish to get rid of especially if you are going to gloss over of inflate the performance of those that will be choosing the replacement.

Ben

Edited October 23, 2015 by Ben Bading

Ben Gooding · October 23, 2015

Lydia will not be showing up. She is fat, unattractive and has a very timid disposition.

I'm assuming you are describing your own wife, yeah?

Ben Bading · October 23, 2015

I can't wait until Lydia Bading shows up!

Lydia will not be showing up. She is fat, unattractive and has a very timid disposition.

I'm assuming you are describing your own wife, yeah?

.

Ben Gooding · October 23, 2015

ok?

Tyler Maryak · October 23, 2015

So Neal took over as president of UNLV in August of 2009. Just before that in July Mike Hamrick had left UNLV for Marshall. When Neal took over long time UNLV employee Jerry Koloskie was the interim AD. Neal looked at a number of candidates and finally Jim Livengood was hired in December of 2009. So the UNLV program was without a permanent AD for about 4 months after Neal took over as president. Jim Livengood was from Arizona and was known for running the program with a profit and also for bringing in large amounts of donations. He was also known for hiring UT retread John Mackovic after letting long time coach Dick Tomey go. He was also the AD when the Lute Olsen "leave of absence", "no wait I am back", "we are letting go of the guy that stepped in for me while I was on my leave of absence/2011 coach in waiting" (Kevin O'Neil), "wait now I am retiring", "my assistant will take over" (Russ Pennell) fiasco happened. He did however hire the current Arizona coach Sean Miller.
After being hired at UNLV in December of 2009 three and a half years later Jim Livengood suddenly resigned from UNLV in May of 2013 and while Neal and Jim both say things were good between them and Neal said he needed Jim to "stay around in some capacity" to help him get things done there are others that think that Livengood left because of clashes with Neal.
http://tucson.com/sports/greg-hansen-livengood-lost-battle-to-unlv-president/article_67e8cd0f-1bc6-5412-a86d-733e0126cc82.html
http://lasvegassun.com/news/2013/may/09/jim-livengoods-retirement-doesnt-seem-right/
He was replace on an interim basis by Neal with Tina Kunzer-Murphy.
https://www.unlv.edu/news/release/unlv-announces-tina-kunzer-murphy-interim-athletic-director
She was then hired full time.
http://lasvegassun.com/news/2013/dec/06/tina-kunzer-murphy-named-unlv-athletic-director/
Neal left 3 or so months after she was hired and since that time she has extended Dave Rice (questionable) and hired a high school coach for UNLV football.
http://vegasseven.com/2015/01/21/faithful-rebel-tina-kunzer-murphy/
So lets not go overboard here on the prowess of Neal to make great Ad hires or for the ADs that Neal hires to make great coaching decisions.
P.S. one should really look into the "fundraising" prowess of Neal as well and discover how much credit (or how little credit actually) he should get for the UNLV Capital Campaign. Here is a hint it was planned long before Neal was at UNLV and it was underway long before Neal was at UNLV in any capacity and if the campaign had not been extended for a year it would have ended before Neal ever became president of UNLV and Neal was president of UNLV for less than a year of the entire campaign including the extended year.
http://campaign.unlv.edu/faqs.html
So it was started in 2002 and went public in 2005 ended in 2009 after being extended for a year. Neal was not president of UNLV until August 6th, 2009 so he was president for about 4 months of the eight year campaign. That is much different than being responsible for it. And he was not at UNLV in any capacity until 2007 and that was in an academic roll not related to fundraising.
So perhaps we should all temper out expectations a little bit about Neal and fundraising and athletics hires especially ADs and the coaching hires of those ADs.

research and facts make me sad...

This renews my anxiety about the future growth of the university as a whole.

Ben Bading · October 23, 2015

okey dokey?

Christopher Walker · October 23, 2015

I'm assuming you are describing your own wife, yeah?

What the hell is going on? It's too early for this...

FirefightnRick · October 23, 2015

It is Dave Rice.
And you missed this part of the article as well.
One of the last major things Livengood will likely be remembered for is moving the Sept. 7 home football game against Arizona to University of Phoenix Stadium in Glendale, Ariz. That deal’s expected to be finished any day and would net UNLV a windfall “way north” of the $750,000 it received to travel to West Virginia in 2010, he said.
So Livengood sold off a UNLV home game with a P5 opponent for cash and it happened to be his former employer as well. And there is also the fact that the Neal hire of Tina Kunzer-Murphy extended Dave Rice yet again a year later for another two years and his wins are declining. So again there is a FULL story to tell on the ADs that Neal was responsible for hiring at UNLV.
And I think that Livengood could probably sympathize with RV about coming into a program full of piss and vinegar and ready to make things happen (like raising $90 million) only to realize that your new job was not quite where you had been employed previously. IE RV being allowed to say he would raise $90 million for athletics at a time when UNT had a total endowment for the entire university of $37 million and change.
This post is not about "firing" anyone it is about getting one's expectations in line with reality and looking at the entire picture of past performance before thinking that making a change will absolutely result in a positive outcome and getting so set on that expectation that when it does not work out you demand that everyone gets fired. If one demands accountability from everyone then one should look at the performance of ALL involved not just those that you wish to get rid of especially if you are going to gloss over of inflate the performance of those that will be choosing the replacement.
Ben

None of that bothers me...thats all pennies compared to the money we have wasted over the years here.

And the Rice hiring was worlds apart compared to any thing we have done here.

Imagine.....requiring a coach to prove himself with a three year deal before being extended? Oh My God!!!!!!.....that would ever happen here. NEVER!

Rick

Edited October 23, 2015 by FirefightnRick

xyresic · October 23, 2015

Another Ben, wonderful!

Using some facts should be fun:

David Rice has 89 wins and 47 losses since taking over. They are well known for basketball, but wouldn't we take that winning percentage here in a heartbeat? He seems to be recruiting big time talent to the program with a few first round draft picks. His 2014 recruiting class had three 5 star commits according to ESPN and was ranked 11th in the country. His performance has been a bit of a dip from Kruger who went on to lead OU to the sweet 16 in 14-15. Not sure why extending that is a bad idea, his last season was average but the talent seems to be there.

For perspective Johnny Jones was 84 and 46 in his last four seasons here, nice performance but the MWC is tougher than the Sun-Belt.

Seems to be a similar situation to what UNT experienced: Good to great coach leaves for a big P5 program and a new coach coach is hired. I think it would be hard to argue that their results haven't been much better than ours.

The "high school coach" I am not as familiar with but he had 5 losses in 6 seasons at a powerhouse school in the area, and 6 straight state championships. He could be Dodge Part Deux, but I think it is a bit early to call it one way or another. They have won 2 games this season including beating Nevada and have been competitive in their last two.

Ben Gooding · October 23, 2015

What the hell is going on? It's too early for this...

A regular that posts on here created an alias "Ben Bading." That is what is going on, haha. Stay tune to see a Lydia Bading, surely.

Censored by Laurie · October 23, 2015

oh...what a banner day.

MeanGreenD · October 23, 2015

A regular that posts on here created an alias "Ben Bading." That is what is going on, haha. Stay tune to see a Lydia Bading, surely.

How do you know it's a regular? This "Ben Bading" makes their first post about Dr. Smatresk and that he shouldn't really be trusted to hire a new AD, or help with a coaching search, and that we should "temper our expectations". It appears obvious to me this parody account is run by someone who has a strong preference for Jimmy John's sandwiches

KRAM1 · October 23, 2015

oh...what a banner day.

I see what you did there......

Hey, here's an idea....these same banner guys...anonymous of course....should set up a banner to fly over the Super Pit for the first home basketball game.

Quoner · October 23, 2015

How do you know it's a regular? This "Ben Bading" makes their first post about Dr. Smatresk and that he shouldn't really be trusted to hire a new AD, or help with a coaching search, and that we should "temper our expectations". It appears obvious to me this parody account is run by someone who has a strong preference for Jimmy John's sandwiches

Top guesses: #7 on wheat loyalist, reincarnation 567 of checkfacts or a spurned lover.

MeanGreenTexan · October 23, 2015

Top guesses: #7 on wheat loyalist, reincarnation 567 of checkfacts or a spurned lover.

Formatting & tone sounds an awful lot like TodgeRodge.

Ben Bading · October 23, 2015

None of that bothers me...thats all pennies compared to the money's shave wasted over the years.
And the Rice hiring was worlds apart compared to any thing we have done here.
Imagine.....requiring a coach to prove himself with a three year deal before being extended? Oh My God!!!!!!.....that would ever happen here. NEVER!

Rick

This is not a thread about the mistakes or the merits of RV there are dozens of those threads. This is a thread about understanding the full picture and having expectations that are more in line with reality. This is not to say that UNT cannot be successful in athletics, but it is to say that firing an AD and hiring a new one will not be a magic elixir to get that done and the person that would be doing the hiring has not to date shown that they have the formula for the magic elixir to make that happen.

It is like the brock berglund saga. There are still a few fools that steadfastly cling to the idea that a now proven moron and spare would have been a savior for the UNT football program. They do this in spite of the fact that two different coaches and OCs at Kansas and (Gill and his OC and Weiss and his OC) saw no reason to hand berglund the reigns. This in spite of the fact that Gill at Liberty either told berglund "no thanks" or "you will have to earn it" and of course "earning it" was not in the berglund vernacular. Then a coach and OC at the Fighting Artichokes Community College decided to start someone other than brock and now a coach and OC at a D1-AA Northern Colorado program have seen fit to let brock ride the pine. So four different head coaches and four different OCs at three different programs at all levels exclusive of Mac and Chico have seen fit to let brock ride the pine. Yet there are still those that believe he was destined for greatness here at UNT. Same thing with dajon williams. He showed he makes poor decisions in his personal life by not wrapping his rascal with a jimmy hat and not understanding that nine months from "fun" that equals "fun baby" also happens to be right when the first game of the season takes place. This combined with being called out for being lazy in the off season puts the coaching staff in a terrible position. Yet many on this forum still think it would have been a good idea to name him a starter even though he would not have been there for the first game of the season and thus you would have been going into the first two games of last year with a QB new to the college game. and then he tops it off with more stupidity like tweeting that he may just "take his talents to "the league"". As if Arena II much less the NFL is looking to pick up a QB that has had a couple of dozen snaps in a college game and played pretty meh. Then when he leaves and goes to a D1-AA program they are not even looking at him as a QB and so far it looks as though he is not doing anything for them and might not even be on the team. Yet he would have been a savior here at UNT.

Again people get so worked up and excited for things that they pretty much ignore all realities and then when their expectations are not met they go crazy and demand immediate firings with no considerations for anything else. And repeat.