EL PASO, Texas (KTSM) — Life as a mid-major in college basketball has its challenges, especially after having success. Sources telling KTSM 9 News’ Colin Deaver that SMU’s search firm has circled UTEP’s Joe Golding as a potential candidate for their men’s basketball head coaching vacancy.
Per sources, Golding has not yet been contacted by SMU. According to the Denton Record-Chronicle’s Brett Vito, North Texas is confident their head coach, Grant McCasland, will remain with the Mean Green. McCasland has been rumored as a candidate for the position.
In Golding’s first season at UTEP, he led the Miners to their first 20-win season since 2014-15. They also won their first postseason tournament game since 2009, in addition to their first win in the Conference USA Tournament since 2017. Golding previously coached at Abilene Christian for 10 years, where he led the program to a win over Texas in the 2021 NCAA Tournament before being hired by UTEP in April of 2021.
Golding’s buyout at UTEP is currently $1.5M, and he currently makes $700K per year. Tim Jankovich, who retired earlier this week, made $2M at SMU this past season.
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