Would Fresno State's Rodney Terry leave for this basketball program?
Fresno State men’s basketball coach Rodney Terry might be looking to leave.
Or at the least, considering one other job.
The El Paso Times reported that Terry was one of seven candidates to interview for the UTEP vacancy, citing an anonymous source familiar with the search.
When reached Wednesday, Terry declined comment other than to say all of his focus was on Thursday’s Mountain West Tournament opener when Fresno State plays San Diego State from Las Vegas (tipoff is 2:30 p.m.).
Terry, 49, has directed quite the turnaround at Fresno State, transforming a once penalty-plagued, sanction-riddled program into a consistent winner within the Mountain West.
The Bulldogs have gone 126-107 overall in Terry’s seven seasons, including 20-plus wins in four of the past five seasons.
In 2016, Fresno State reached the NCAA Tournament for the first time in 15 years and won the Mountain West title.
Yet despite the recent surge of success, Fresno State has struggled to fill the Save Mart Center.
And that might be one reason Terry would consider making somewhat of a lateral move (Terry is also a Texas native, though his hometown of Angelton is on the other side of the Lone Star state and a 12-hour drive).
Fresno State’s attendance issues have become quite a concern.
This season’s average home attendance was 6,032 people – by far the lowest mark since the Bulldogs started playing games at the Save Mart Center in 2003.
In its heyday, based on attendance at the $100 million-plus arena, Fresno State averaged 11,713 during the 2006-07 season.
That’s a 48.5 percent drop in 11 years.
This season’s average attendance, which ranked seventh in the 11-team Mountain West, was even a 8.4 percent dip from a year ago.
Terry, who received an extension in 2016, is signed through 2021.
UTEP is searching for a coach after Tim Floyd abruptly retired in the middle of this past season, and the school decided not to retain interim coach Phil Johnson.
Floyd had been with the Miners since the 2010-11 season and earned an annual salary of $600,000.
Other candidates the El Paso Times reported to have interviewed for the UTEP vacancy are:
Florida Gulf Coast coach Joe Dooley, East Tennessee State coach Steve Forbes, Jacksonville State coach Ray Harper, Weber State Randy Rahe, Milwaukee Bucks assistant Greg Foster and Texas Tech assistant Chris Ogden.
This story was originally published March 7, 2018 at 8:19 PM with the headline "Would Fresno State's Rodney Terry leave for this basketball program?."