ALBUQUERQUE -- Michael Cooper led New Mexico to a conference title and the NCAA tournament 21 years ago. Tony Benford recruited many of the Lobos who helped New Mexico win 102 games the past four years.
Now, both Benford and Cooper have become the first two candidates to openly begin pursuing the head coaching job at New Mexico.Benford, a native of Hobbs, N.M., and former assistant at New Mexico to Dave Bliss, will meet with UNM athletic director Rudy Davalos during the Final Four in St. Petersburg this weekend.
Cooper, the former Los Angeles Lakers guard and star on the 1978 New Mexico team that won the Western Athletic Conference, said he had submitted his resume to UNM.
"I'm really after this, I want them to know," said Cooper, a member of five NBA championship teams with the Lakers. "I would be a good candidate, if not the solution.
"This is where I belong. . . . I am a Lobo to the core of my heart," he said.
Benford, in a telephone interview Wednesday from Tempe, Ariz., said he too will pursue the job left vacant by Bliss' departure to Baylor.
Benford, 35, was an assistant to Bliss and the Lobos' chief recruiter for six years. He joined the staff of his cousin, Rob Evans, soon after Evans was named head coach at Arizona State last April.
"It's not like I don't know the job," Benford said. "I know the expectations and the pressure that goes with the job. I know the players. I recruited most of them. There is no learning curve."
Davalos left Wednesday for the Final Four and was not available for comment. But on Tuesday, he said he would not rule out hiring someone who is currently an assistant coach, and would consider Benford.
Cooper, 42, said his connections at both the professional and collegiate levels would help him recruit.
"My name carries a lot of weight," he said.