Miller mess is needless distraction

Two paragraphs. Forty-six words. That’s how it ended after 10 seasons for Miller as UNLV women’s basketball coach on Friday, in a terse statement from the athletic department that offered no comment, no explanation, no anything for why Hamrick decided to bounce her from the position with a year left on her contract.

Which means this is far from over and that attorneys already are involved.

Which means this could get ugly.

Hamrick as UNLV’s athletic director has the right to dismiss any coach he wishes, and you can’t be certain whether any legal action Miller might take to contest her firing will wash out more compelling evidence or grimy innuendo.

It’s a risky move if she wants to be a college head coach again. Disgruntled employees usually are not favorites of hiring ADs. She better have some juice to move forward on this. Some believe she does.

But why would Hamrick publicize such a move in the midst of the Mountain West Conference Tournament being hosted in Las Vegas? Why take the slightest bit of interest away from his men’s team that is one win from a second straight tournament title and appears a lock for another NCAA berth?

Hamrick wouldn’t comment, of course. He goes Marcel Marceau on most coaching matters anyway, so you know he’s going to clam up when attorneys arrive. But if he doesn’t have control over when such announcements are made, who does?

Rocky the equipment manager? Mary the security guard at the Thomas & Mack Center? Maybe the mascot Hey Reb runs athletics, or at least the marketing department, which would explain a lot.

What would have been the harm of waiting a few days, when the conference tournament had concluded? Why are league visitors reading about this today and not exclusively about the men’s 61-55 semifinal victory against Utah and their championship game against Brigham Young today?

It’s not as if Miller was offering up her salary of nearly $190,000 for next season.

The small picture is whether she should have been allowed to finish her contract after inheriting a program that won a combined 12 games the three years prior to her arrival and one she then led to eight straight winning seasons before going 22-37 the last two. Take a side. It really doesn’t matter because of the big picture.

Until the football program no longer is the mess of a two-win team every year, until its house is in order far more than the present state, a move like this or any similar ones means nothing.

It’s a truth a few will argue and yet be mistaken, but women’s basketball in the financial state of countless programs nationally contributes little. This isn’t Storrs, Conn., or Knoxville, Tenn. It never will be.

Miller’s teams own UNLV’s top two all-time home attendance games for women’s basketball: 4,713 and 4,626. And that’s when the Rebels were winning 23 games in a season and word is they papered crowds with free tickets even then. Think about that. They never have drawn five grand for a game. For this season’s Senior Night, there reportedly weren’t more than 200 bodies watching, despite what they announced.

There’s a chance Hamrick could find someone who could quickly again make UNLV more than a conference afterthought on the women’s side. Beth Burns at San Diego State is a terrific coach and today has the Aztecs in a league tournament final three years after returning to the school to inherit a dreadful program. It can be done.

Then what?

Football is the key here — the program that is circling the wagons to the point it has tighter media restrictions at spring practices, which is so laughable, it’s pathetic. Who wants much access anyway? Until they prove capable of generating anything positive on Saturdays in the fall, Mike Sanford and his staff should be sending limos to the homes of media to come and cover their team.

Stricter media policies? Can they even say it with a straight face?

Fire Miller. Reward her with a final year for eight winning seasons over a decade. Whatever. Olympic sports at UNLV have their place, but their long-term success always is reliant on football not being so awful.

It’s a bigger deal than whether changing your women’s basketball coach is justified or not, no matter how bad your timing is announcing it.

If you can call two paragraphs and 46 words an announcement.

Ed Graney’s column is published Sunday, Wednesday, Thursday and Saturday. He can be reached at 383-4618 or egraney@reviewjournal.com.