UNLV has been searching for a basketball coach who can lead the Rebels to some modicum of their glory days since Jerry Tarkanian resigned in 1992, two seasons after leading them to their only national championship.

At this point, UNLV fans would probably settle for consistency.

Josh Pastner is the Rebels’ 16th coach, interim coaches included, since Tarkanian’s departure.

Here’s a look at the uneven history:

Rollie Massimino (1992-1994)

The former national championship-winning coach from Villanova was hired to restore order to the rogue program, but he lasted just two seasons before it was discovered he and school president Robert Maxson had entered into a secret deal to boost the coach’s pay and hide the true amount from the Board of Regents. Massimino finished 36-21 with a National Invitation Tournament appearance.

Tim Grgurich (1994-1995)

Grgurich, a longtime Tarkanian assistant who had gone to Seattle as an NBA assistant coach for two seasons, returned to take over as head coach of the Rebels. He lasted just seven games before resigning due to feeling overwhelmed by the job, largely citing unresolved feelings about the treatment of Tarkanian. He finished 2-5.

Howie Landa (1995)

Landa, another Tarkanian assistant who was serving on Grgurich’s staff, filled in for seven games as acting coach while Grgurich took a break to assess his future. Landa went 5-2.

Cleveland Edwards (1995)

Edwards, an assistant coach from the national championship team, finished the final 14 games as interim head coach during the 1994-95 season that was the program’s first losing campaign in 34 years and first at the Division I level. He went 5-9.

Bill Bayno (1995-2000)

UNLV decided to try to find an emerging young assistant to help rejuvenate the energy for Rebels basketball and tabbed Bayno from John Calipari’s staff at Massachusetts. Bayno made two NCAA Tournament appearances and earned two NIT bids in his five full seasons, but was fired early in the 2000-2001 campaign when the program was sanctioned for recruiting violations related to Lamar Odom. Bayno went 94-64.

Max Good (2000-2001)

Good, a successful prep school coach in New England, joined Bayno’s staff in 1999 and closed out the 2000-01 season as the interim coach. UNLV went 13-9, but did not promote him to full-time coach after the season. Good took over for Bayno on an interim basis at Loyola Marymount nearly a decade later and held the job for five seasons.

Charlie Spoonhour (2001-2004)

After a high-profile attempt to lure Rick Pitino, UNLV turned to an affable veteran known for running a clean program to try to navigate a couple of seasons played under NCAA sanctions. Spoonhour, who had retired after racking up more than 300 wins and eight NCAA Tournament appearances between stints at Southwest Missouri State and Saint Louis, led the Rebels to the NIT in each of his seasons in Las Vegas. He posted a 54-31 record.

Jay Spoonhour (2004)

Spoonhour’s son Jay took over down the stretch of the 2003-04 season after his father resigned due to health issues. The interim coach went 6-4, including an NIT loss.

Lon Kruger (2004-2011)

Kruger, a famed college coach, was looking to rebuild his reputation after a disappointing foray into the NBA, and he did so at UNLV. He became the second-winningest coach in school history with a 161-71 record in seven seasons, making six postseason appearances. Kruger led the team to the Sweet 16 and a 30-win campaign in 2007. He took the Oklahoma job in 2011 at a time when some around the UNLV program were starting to get anxious for even more success.

Dave Rice (2011-2016)

Rice, a member of the 1990 national championship team and longtime UNLV assistant under several coaches, returned to the school to replace Kruger. It was a controversial tenure. Rice won 51 games in his first two seasons, the most by any coach in UNLV history. He had his teams in the top 25 for 27 weeks and racked up 10 victories against ranked opponents, including two top-five teams. Rice also recruited two first-round picks and seven NBA players overall, but that accumulation of talent allowed expectations to soar. He went 98-54 and made two NCAA Tournaments, but was fired during the 2015-16 season.

Todd Simon (2016)

Simon, a former Findlay Prep coach who was credited with scoring some of Rice’s biggest recruits, was named interim coach to close out the 2015-16 season. He went 9-8 and was not promoted to the job full time. He’s now the head coach at Bowling Green.

Chris Beard (2016)

The Rebels turned the program over to rising star Chris Beard, who was coming off a sensational first year at Arkansas-Little Rock. He took the job March 27, but was caught up in the bureaucratic process employed by Nevada at the time when the Texas Tech job opened up. Beard announced April 15 he would instead take over in Lubbock without coaching a game at UNLV. Beard, now the Ole Miss coach, has become one of the most successful coaches in the country.

Marvin Menzies (2016-2019)

A scramble to fill the job after Beard’s departure led to New Mexico State’s Marvin Menzies, a former UNLV assistant under Kruger. Menzies faced a difficult challenge of trying to piece together a roster and finished his first season 11-21. He won 20 games in his second season, but was fired after three campaigns with no postseason appearances and a 48-48 record.

T.J. Otzelberger (2019-2021)

UNLV again went searching for a Beard-like candidate and landed on Otzelberger, who had a great deal of success at South Dakota State. His first season was cut short by the COVID pandemic, which also affected recruiting going into his second season. He finished 29-30 in two seasons before being hired at Iowa State, where he has built the Cyclones into a perennial power.

Kevin Kruger (2021-2025)

Kruger, the son of Lon and a member of the program’s last Sweet 16 team, was promoted from his position as an assistant coach when Otzelberger left for Iowa State. His teams showed a great deal of promise, but often faltered down the stretch in games and struggled to win in the conference tournament despite some promising recruiting classes. Kruger engineered a run to the NIT quarterfinals in 2024, his only postseason appearance. He was fired after going 76-55 in four seasons.

Josh Pastner (2025)

Pastner, a member of the 1997 national championship team at Arizona and a former assistant under Lute Olson and John Calipari, was hired after spending the last two seasons working in the media. He won the Atlantic Coast Conference coach of the year award in 2017, but couldn’t replicate his early success at Georgia Tech and was fired in 2023. Pastner is 276-187 in a career that included three years at Memphis, and has made five NCAA Tournaments and an NIT championship game.

Contact Adam Hill at [email protected]. Follow @AdamHillLVRJ on X.