WSU notes: Lew Hill, former Wichita State basketball player, took at second look at UTRGV and took the challenge

Lew Hill turned down a chance to look into the coaching job at the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley.

The school, formerly known as Texas-Pan American, doesn’t make a good first impression with basketball.

It’s never played in the NCAA Tournament as an NCAA Division I school. It plays in a 2,500-seat fieldhouse built in 1969. Since 1999-2000, it recorded two winning seasons while cycling through five coaches. Hill, who played at Wichita State from 1985-88, spent the past 12 seasons as an assistant to Lon Kruger at UNLV and Oklahoma.

He didn’t need a bad situation.

“When you’re taking your first job, you want to make sure that they want to win,” Hill said. “This job has had coaches in and out so much. Coaches in and out — are they serious about winning?”

UTRGV athletic director Chris King pitched the job again to Kruger, who coached Pan Am from 1982-86 before taking over at Kansas State. Kruger convinced Hill to listen to King.

“I changed my mind,” Hill said.

On April 6, UTRGV introduced Hill, 51, as its coach. In 2017-18, he will coach in 8,500-seat Bert Ogden Arena, a city-owned facility that will serve as the home of the NBA Development League Rio Grande Valley Vipers.

“That helps tremendously,” Hill said. “A brand-new arena is what young kids want to see. I’m selling a vision, right now, my vision on where this thing could be. You can create your own legacy here.”

Hill is taking over a challenging rebuild, even with additional resources from the administration. The school added academic support staff for his program and Hill recently hired a special assistant to the head coach, an administrative position. He will need to help with fund-raising efforts to buy Ipads, upgrade video capabilities and spruce up the locker room.

The Vaqueros are 13-31 in three seasons as a member of the Western Athletic Conference. Hill inherits eight returning players from last season’s 8-22 team, led by WAC Freshman of the Year Antonio Green, who averaged 11.6 points. Hill spent his early days on the job traveling to Idaho, Chicago, Indianapolis, Texas and Oklahoma to recruit.

“We’re at the bottom,” he said. “When you’re able to build something from the ground up, it’s really tremendous. It’s like it’s your own. It’s your own identity.”

Hill can draw on plenty of experience from a career that started as junior varsity coach and varsity assistant at East in 1989-90. He coached at six NCAA Division I schools, the last five seasons at Oklahoma. His team will draw much from Kruger’s influence.

“Patience,” Hill said. “I was with him for two rebuilding programs. I watched how he handled the kids and how he was very positive.”

He played for Eddie Fogler at Wichita State and wants to use some of Fogler’s half-court trapping strategies that he remembers fondly. On offense, UTRGV will play a lot like the Sooners. On defense, Hill wants to press full-court for most of the game. Kruger’s UNLV teams pressed, an approach he changed at OU.

“I call it attacking you with discipline,” he said. “I don’t want you to be able to relax at all. So I’ve got to get my team to be able to play fast, but with discipline.”

New team for Tuliamuk-Bolton — Aliphine Tuliamuk-Bolton celebrated becoming a United States citizen on Friday with a Twitter message.

“It’s with great honor & pride that I announce my American citizenship! I look forward to being part of #teamUSA.” she wrote.

That makes her eligible to compete in the United States Olympic Trials in July in Eugene, Ore., in the 10,000 meters. She owns the No. 6 time in the world in the event, 31 minutes, 54.20 seconds.

In 2013, Tuliamuk-Bolton, a native of Kenya, ran the fifth-fastest 10,000 meters in NCAA history with a time of 32 minutes, 7.20 seconds.

Kellyn Taylor, another former Shocker, may also run in the 10,000, in which she finished 10th in the 2012 Olympic Trials. She ran a 32: 29.88 in the 10,000 in 2015 and finished sixth in the marathon in February’s Olympic Trials.

Big day on the beach — Former WSU volleyball player Emily Stockman teamed with Amanda Dowdy for the first time in a FIVB World Tour event in the Fortaleza Open in Brazil. On Friday, they upset top-seeded Agatha Bednarczuk and Barbara Seixas of Brazil, the defending FIVB World Champions 21-17, 18-21, 15-13.

“We determined not to be embarrassed, play our game and see what happens,” Stockman said in a news release. “It’s tremendous motivation for our new team to keep pursuing our goal of being regulars on the FIVB World Tour.”

Stockman and Dowdy lost in Saturday’s semifinal match.

Worth noting — Rain canceled Saturday’s softball game at Indiana State. WSU (31-18, 16-5 MVC) won the first two games of the series on Friday to extend its winning streak to 10 games. The Shockers play host to Missouri State at 6 p.m. Tuesday at Wilkins Stadium before wrapping up the regular season against Southern Illinois next weekend at home. … WSU leads the Missouri Valley Conference outdoor track and field form chart, as calculated by WSU coaches two weeks before the conference meet. The WSU men are predicted to finish with 207.5 points ahead of Southern Illinois’ 141.5. The WSU women are on track for 163.5 points to Missouri State’s 129.5. … WSU golfers Bryce Schroeder, Taryn Torgerson and Meghan Jack earned MVC Scholar-Athlete honors.

This story was originally published April 30, 2016 at 4:03 PM with the headline "WSU notes: Lew Hill, former Wichita State basketball player, took at second look at UTRGV and took the challenge."