Reggie Theus brings star power to Cal State Northridge

Reggie Theus played in the NBA for more than a decade, covered the league as a broadcaster and coached the Sacramento Kings.

So postseason drama at Staples Center draws his attention.

“I’ve been a Lakers fan since I was a kid,” said Theus, who starred at Inglewood High in the mid-1970s, “and I know a lot of guys on the Clippers.”

But Theus has no time to be immersed in the playoffs.

For the last three weeks, Cal State Northridge’s new coach has been busy on campus or on the road recruiting, laying the groundwork to turn around a program.

Theus, 55, has already done it once: He transformed lowly New Mexico State into an NCAA tournament team in two years.

Now, after a short stint with the Kings, a few years as an NBA assistant and a season coaching the Lakers’ entry in the NBA Development League, Theus brings a major name to a mid-major university looking to raise its national profile.

Northridge, of the Big West Conference, plays in a modest 1,600-seat, flat-roofed gymnasium dubbed “the Matadome,” a play off the school’s nickname, the Matadors.

Theus does not seem bothered by the absence of glitz.

“It’s taken me four years,” he said, “to get back to where I think my heart really is.”

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Rick Pitino needed persuading.

When Theus called and inquired about an open position on Pitino’s Louisville basketball staff nearly a decade ago, the coach at first barely considered the possibility.

“I had no intention of hiring someone I didn’t know,” Pitino said in a phone interview.

Pitino’s reasoning: It was highly unlikely that a pampered former NBA All-Star known as “Rush Street Reggie” during his years playing for the Chicago Bulls could be counted on to be at the office at 6:30 a.m., to “grind it out and do what college coaches do.”

But during several meetings with Pitino, Theus made his case.

He recounted a youth spent working alongside his father as a janitor, and taking over the business as a teen after his father unexpectedly died. He spoke of basketball skills honed with sweat, not swagger, under former Nevada Las Vegas coach Jerry Tarkanian. And he pointed to his work as an AAU coach and a year spent as a volunteer assistant at Division II Cal State Los Angeles.

“To grind it out,” he said, “is what I’ve always done.”

Theus got the job, thrived as a recruiter during a two-year apprenticeship under Pitino and helped Louisville reach the 2005 Final Four.

He took what he learned to Las Cruces, N.M., guiding a New Mexico State program that finished 6-24 the season before he arrived to a 25-9 record in 2006-07.

Now, he takes over a Northridge program that finished 14-17 last season and has made two NCAA tournament appearances in 23 years at the Division I level.

Pitino, who recently won his second national title, has no doubt about where Theus and the Matadors are headed. “In a couple years,” he said, “he’ll have them in the hunt for an NCAA bid.”

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Theus interviewed for an opening at DePaul in 2010 and was a finalist at UNLV in 2011. But he longed to coach college basketball near home, where he and his wife, Elaine, have raised three children in View Park.

USC’s coaching job turned over twice in the last four years and Theus met with university administrators both times.

In 2009, after Tim Floyd resigned, Theus interviewed with former athletic director Mike Garrett, but USC hired Kevin O’Neill. When O’Neill was fired in January, Theus said he subsequently had a “great” conversation with Athletic Director Pat Haden.

“I tried to illustrate, in the best way that I could, what I would bring to that program with my relationships in L.A,” Theus said.

But Haden chose Andy Enfield, who had guided Florida Gulf Coast to the Sweet 16.

Meantime, new Northridge Athletic Director Brandon Martin pursued Theus. Martin, a former Trojans basketball player, was a USC senior associate athletic director in 2009 and had been involved in the school’s coaching search.

On March 19, Northridge announced that it would not renew the contract of its 17-year coach, Bobby Braswell. Martin had played for Braswell at Reseda Cleveland High.

“I love Coach Braswell,” Martin said a few weeks later. “That was a very difficult conversation.”

But Martin has big plans. New university President Dianne Harrison had given him “a charge to elevate this program.”

Theus — “a game-changing hire,” Martin said — brings a pedigree.

As a sophomore guard, he helped lead UNLV to the 1977 Final Four. Nearly 30 years later, he helped land players that contributed to Louisville’s 2005 Final Four run.

At 6 feet 7, Theus cuts a handsome, charismatic figure. “If he walks into your house and meets your mom,” former New Mexico State player Trei Steward said, “your mom might fall in love with him.”

Players have ribbed Theus about circa-1980s beefcake photos found on the Internet, but perception is not always reality. For example, Theus is an avid target and wild-game archer, an interest he picked up during his NBA-playing days in Sacramento.

“I’d rather be outside, sleeping in a tent in a sleeping bag, than anywhere in the city,” he said.

Elaine, who met Reggie when they were 15, said her husband is often mistakenly perceived.

“They think he’s in the nightclub,” she said, laughing and shaking her head, “and he’s in a tree, on a stand, for seven hours,” during hunting trips.

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Theus retired from the NBA after the 1990-91 season after 13 years in the league, as one of only seven players who had scored more than 19,000 points and handed out more than 6,000 assists.

“I didn’t just walk off the court into the coaching business,” he said.

He played one on television, though.

For three seasons in the mid-1990s, Theus starred as Coach Bill Fuller in “Hang Time,” a Saturday-morning situation comedy about an Indiana high school basketball team.

When Theus decided to make a real foray into coaching in 2002, he called the highly respected Dave Yanai, who coached at Cal State Dominguez Hills for nearly two decades and was then at Cal State L.A. Yanai took on Theus as a volunteer assistant, anticipating that because of broadcasting and other commitments he would work one or two days a week.

“But he was showing up every day,” Yanai said.

After the season, Theus called Louisville, not expecting a response from Pitino. Instead, he became part of Pitino’s storied coaching tree.

“He was everything I hoped,” Pitino said. “A great teacher, a tireless recruiter.”

At New Mexico State, Theus infused the program with a fast-paced, high-pressure defensive scheme and attracted transfers to fortify the roster. Students wore T-shirts emblazoned with “Reggie Nation.”

“Practices were intense,” Steward said. “There was not a lot of joking around.”

One night, the team was gathered at Theus’ home, ostensibly to watch film. Instead, the video coordinator popped in an episode of “Hang Time.”

“Hilarious,” Steward recalled.

“You can have fun and show players another side of you,” Theus said, “but when you get on the court, it’s business.”

Much of the fun ended for Theus after he was hired to coach the Sacramento Kings. Theus guided the struggling team to a 38-44 record his first season but was fired after a 6-18 start in 2008.

“I was dead man walking before I even took the job,” he said. “I wish I had known that.”

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Less than a week after he was announced as Northridge’s coach, Theus sat three rows from the court at the Georgia Dome and watched Pitino and Louisville defeat Michigan in the NCAA championship game.

He visualized coaching on a similar stage.

No one, however, is penciling in Northridge for the Final Four any time soon.

“Improvement is my expectation,” Martin said. “A new energy, a new excitement, a new elevation of players.”

Theus said Northridge has already moved to improve the locker room and other facilities and that he cannot wait to replenish a roster that had five scholarships available.

One will not go to Reggie Theus Jr., a 6-6 senior at Fairfax High who recently signed a letter of intent to play at South Carolina. He will honor a commitment that was made before his father was hired at Northridge.

But Theus will be surrounded by family and friends when Northridge plays at home and at other Southern California venues.

The Matadors will be the “hardest playing team” in the Big West Conference, he said, and eventually more.

“It’s going to be fun,” he said. “I’m looking forward to the challenge.”

gary.klein@latimes.com

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