Smatresk won’t rush selection of UNLV athletic director

Neal Smatresk is a scientist who worked in Hawaii from 2004 to 2007, which means he is a selfless, intelligent, determined, logical sort of guy who likes the Haka dance. My kind of university president.

He comes off just un-presidential enough to make you believe the Board of Regents didn't err Aug. 6 when it voted unanimously to name him acting president at UNLV. There is no conceit to Smatresk's vision. Men of science tend to be free of bias and creative and patient and rational and rarely jump to conclusions on any matter.

A good thing. Smatresk can use all those traits when deciding who best should lead UNLV athletics.

It's going to take awhile.

The Rebels are in need of a new athletic director now that Mike Hamrick is returning to the same position at Marshall, his alma mater.

Jerry Koloskie will run the department until a permanent replacement is found, and you can bet the associate athletic director wants the gig on a full-time basis. So do other local community leaders.

''I know how squirrelly A.D. searches can be, but I'm looking forward to seeing the pool (of candidates) we get,'' Smatresk said. ''I have run a lot of different searches. We'll go after the best people we can find and the best we can afford. Right now I couldn't hazard a guess as to how much we could pay a new A.D. That's a critical part of it.''

From the beginning I have sat on the side of the fence that recommends a local hire. Someone who doesn't need a stethoscope to sense the pulse of this community when it comes to athletics and fundraising for them. Someone who won't take a year or two or longer to truly gain the respect and trust of those being asked to write the biggest checks.

Smatresk points to his time at Hawaii when asked about a local hire as opposed to a national one. He talks about a place much like Nevada, a small state with one major city and no major league sports, where tourism revenue is critical and people are incredibly passionate about local sports.

''The comments there were about being special and different and getting an A.D. that really understood Hawaii,'' he said. ''Could be true. Maybe not. I've heard the same here from a lot of people, that you don't need anyone national and should just get a person who really knows Las Vegas and understands the community and can go out and be effective.

''Maybe that's the best kind of person. I could see that. I could also see that there is someone out there who hits on all cylinders and is really great working in the community.

''I'm not sure having been in Las Vegas is the prime attribute for this position. I think being good and understanding where you live and working well with people in this region is critical. If that's best done by someone local, so be it. If it's best done by someone who isn't local, again, so be it.''

He is 58 and coached youth baseball in Texas for 14 years, ran track in high school and swam some in college. He seems to understand collegiate athletics, a good thing when you consider how many presidents nationally don't.

He asks questions. He is genuinely interested in the opinions of others about this search. He is smart enough to know how useless and expensive national search firms are in such a process and will instead form a committee comprised of elected members and others appointed by him.

He will ask that committee to present him a list of all ''acceptable candidates,'' but not to rank them in any specific order. It is a search Smatresk said likely won't officially begin until the conclusion of football season and won't close until late in the spring semester, because there isn't a worst time imaginable to look for an A.D. than now. You don't start these things when football is about to kick off.

He has budgets to worry about first, revenue streams to predict. Smatresk will take his time on this. Scientists usually do.

He didn't convince me to budge on my opinion about the department needing a local to run it, but if I walked into his office wondering if the new president was capable of making a successful hire, I walked out knowing he is.

''The perfect A.D. would be someone who runs clean programs, graduates students, is a terrific community friend and fundraiser and hires winning coaches,'' Smatresk said. ''There you go. And by the way, that's everybody's perfect A.D.''

UNLV doesn't need the perfect one.

It needs Neal Smatresk to find the right one.

Las Vegas Review-Journal sports columnist Ed Graney can be reached at egraney@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-4618. He also can be heard weeknights from 11 p.m. to 1 a.m. on ''The Sports Scribes'' on KDWN (720 AM).