Fort Collins – Colorado State athletic director Paul Kowalczyk rattled off the nearly universal prerequisites for a college basketball coach and Dale Layer, whom he had just fired, met every criterion. Except one.
“I want someone who is a winner and has been, who is successful either as a head coach or an assistant,” Kowalczyk said Monday afternoon after announcing Layer was terminated with a year remaining on his contract.
In seven seasons as CSU coach, Layer was 103-106, had just four winning seasons and one NCAA Tournament appearance.
“We’ll pay what we have to pay and we’ll see a return on our investment,” Kowalczyk said without revealing where he will find the additional resources.
Otherwise, Kowalczyk served up a wish list of sound values, integrity, a commitment to graduating student-athletes and a perfect fit for CSU. He would prefer to complete the search before the Final Four begins at month’s end.
An hour after Kowalczyk’s news conference, Wyoming counterpart Tom Burman announced Steve McClain, the dean of Mountain West coaches with nine seasons, was fired with three years remaining on his contract. Every MWC coach who didn’t make the postseason, except for TCU’s Neil Dougherty, has been let go.
Layer will be paid the estimated $185,000 remaining on his contract. The department is discussing separation for assistants Bill Peterson and Brian Joyce. Assistant Myron Guillory will be retained until a new coach is hired.
McClain will get $380,000, Burman said.
Kowalczyk will not use an outside consultant to make a hire. He said he doesn’t intend to meet with the media again until he introduces the next coach.
“The challenge is how we can change our whole culture of our expectations and how we do business,” said Kowalczyk, in his first year at CSU. “I enjoyed working with Dale. You are not going to find a more quality guy, who has better values. I want someone with those core values, too. I want someone you can trust who is not going to cheat to win, who is not going to create a constant turmoil to get their way.”
Layer left his office prior to the news conference.
“He handled it with dignity and class,” Kowalczyk said. “If it’s someone you don’t like who has been an idiot, it’s easy to have that conversation. It’s much more difficult when it’s someone you like and respect.”
Layer called Aurora Central’s Stephen Franklin, who recently committed to sign with CSU in April, and urged him to keep his commitment, according to Central coach Bob Caton.
In a prepared statement, Layer said: “It’s been an honor and a privilege to serve as head coach at Colorado State. I greatly appreciate the opportunity and will always be a Ram at heart.”
CSU just started spring break and players could not be reached for comment. Instead of a team meeting to break the news, the ex-coaches and AD had to call the players to inform them.
Kowalczyk said he hopes no one will “jump ship.” A big priority is retaining all-MWC forward Jason Smith for his senior year. Smith had said he would return but hadn’t announced whether he would go to the NBA predraft camp. Kowalczyk said his pitch to Smith would be, “We’re in this together. We’re going to have a change and hopefully give him a chance to get in the NCAA Tournament, make him a better player and elevate his draft status.”
Kowalczyk said the new coach will eventually have resources unavailable to Layer.
“There’s a lot of things we need to do to improve the department overall,” Kowalczyk said, referring specifically to the budget and practice facilities. “We need to not fight for practice time. None of that is Dale’s fault. Those are challenges we have.”
Air Force coach Jeff Bzdelik said of his fired colleagues, “Steve and Dale are outstanding coaches and even greater people. I’m saddened by what happened today.”
CSU’s decision, Kowalczyk said, was made on “the body of work” over the past few years. He said he wasn’t going to announce a decision until season’s end, unlike what happened at New Mexico and Utah.
“Ethically it’s best to finish the season,” he said. “Everyone does business a different way. I don’t know anyone is further ahead because most of the people we want to talk to are in the NCAA or NIT.”
Layer is the first CSU men’s basketball coach to get fired since Tony McAndrews in 1987.
Kowalczyk said prior ties to CSU won’t be a deciding factor in the hire.
“We want to see who’s out there, who is interested and who we can interest,” he said.
Coaches with recent CSU ties include former Stew Morrill assistant Randy Rahe, who just won the Big Sky’s NCAA Tournament bid with Weber State, and ex-Layer assistant Buzz Williams, who was 14-17 in his first year at New Orleans and helped recruit players to current Big 12 power Texas A&M. Much-traveled Kansas assistant Tim Jankovich was an assistant on Boyd Grant’s staff in the late 1980s.
Coming from Southern Illinois, Kowalczyk doesn’t lack for coaching ties. Southern Illinois coach Chris Lowery was on every “hot list” even before the Salukis claimed a No. 4 seed in the NCAA Tournament.
Denver Post staff writers Irv Moss and Neil H. Devlin contributed to this report.
Natalie Meisler can be reached at 303-954-1295 or nmeisler@denverpost.com.
