Sources: Nebraska asks to talk with UTEP's Sadler

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Basketball season will be here before we know it, so something needs to be done asap.

Nebraska officials won't move on prospective candidates until Monday at the earliest, but multiple sources told ESPN.com Friday that the Huskers have asked for permission to speak with UTEP coach Doc Sadler, as well as South Alabama's John Pelphrey, as previously reported.

Both requests were made Thursday.

But the list is hardly limited to these two. Sources confirmed that Nebraska is interested in talking to George Washington coach Karl Hobbs and wanted to discuss the opening with Nevada's Mark Fox. On Saturday, however, Fox told Nebraska that he does not want to be a candidate for its coaching job and will stay at Nevada.

"The University of Nebraska is an outstanding university in a terrific conference, and Steve Pederson is an impressive athletic leader. But the University of Nevada is also a special place, and I am very happy as Nevada's head coach," Fox said in a statement.

Sources said Nebraska officials were expecting to learn about Hobbs' buyout on Monday. The number fluctuates depending on whom you talk to and Nebraska wants a definitive answer before going forward with a Hobbs request.

Sources told ESPN.com that the pool could expand beyond these four and that no one has been ruled out as of yet -- and that includes Kent State's Jim Christian, who once worked at Pitt when Nebraska athletic director Steve Pederson and assistant athletic director Marc Boehm were with the Panthers.

The Huskers are looking to replace Barry Collier, who left to become the athletic director at his alma mater Butler earlier this week.

ESPN.com has learned that if Sadler were approached for the job that he would accept. Like Fox, Sadler has been a huge hit in his first two seasons. Fox led Nevada to two straight NCAA Tournament appearances after being bumped up to replace his boss Trent Johnson, who went to Stanford. Sadler was moved up to succeed Billy Gillispie and promptly led the Miners to a 2005 NCAA tournament berth. UTEP just missed a bid last March with a 21-9 overall record, including an 11-3 mark in Conference USA. The Miners lost to Michigan in the first round of the NIT.

Pelphrey guided South Alabama to the NCAA Tournament in March with a 24-6 record before losing to Florida in the first round. The Jaguars were 10-18 the previous season.

Hobbs led GW to a 27-3 record, losing to Duke in the second round of the NCAA tournament. GW went 16-0 in the Atlantic 10.

Sources said Nebraska wants to put more of an identity on this hire. Collier was viewed as a stellar tactician, but the Huskers may want to think "out of the box'' with this hire, much like when Pederson tabbed Northern Arizona's Ben Howland to coach at Pitt. Howland turned around the Panthers and is now thriving at UCLA, leading the Bruins to the national title game.

Howland won't influence the search, but he is expected to be a sounding board for the Huskers. So, too, is Pitt's Jamie Dixon, who was hired by Boehm and Pederson, as well.

But the Nebraska hierarchy is going at this alone and not looking to officially use an outside source (i.e. search committee) other than to make some travel arrangements so they don't originate from the Nebraska office.

Sadler might make the most sense since he can recruit Texas and the junior college scene quite well. He was a successful head coach at Westark Community College (Ark.).

Pelphrey is from the Rick Pitino-Billy Donovan family tree and doesn't have Midwest basketball ties. But pulling Pelphrey to the Midwest wouldn't be a reach considering someone like Travis Ford went from Eastern Kentucky to UMass, not exactly the same recruiting base.

Hobbs hasn't left his Northeast-Mid-Atlantic stronghold after playing and coaching at UConn and growing up in the Boston area. Still, Hobbs could be an "out of the box" hire in that he would bring to the Big 12 a high-energy style and persona. He doesn't coach a style as frenetic as Mike Anderson, who went from UAB to Missouri, but he might want to increase the pace if he were to land in Lincoln. It's unclear if Hobbs would have interest in the job.

South Alabama is trying to convince Pelphrey to stay put.

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Sadler signs six-year contract with Cornhuskers

LINCOLN, Neb. -- Nebraska is pinning its hopes for a move up in Big 12 men's basketball on Texas-El Paso's Doc Sadler.

Sadler was introduced as the Cornhuskers' head coach at a Tuesday news conference, exactly one week after Barry Collier resigned to become athletics director at Butler University.

Sadler, 46, takes over a program that hasn't won a conference championship since sharing the Big Seven title in 1949-50 and is winless in six NCAA Tournament appearances. The Cornhuskers haven't been to the national tournament since 1998.

"The state of Nebraska deserves us to be in the NCAA tournament, and we want it to happen not next year, not two years from now. We want it to happen now," Sadler said.

In six years under Collier, the Huskers were 89-91, never finished higher than sixth in the Big 12 and made two NIT appearances.

Sadler is the sixth new coach in the Big 12 for the upcoming season, a number that includes Jeff Capel at Oklahoma and Sean Sutton at Oklahoma State. New coaches also are in place at Iowa State, Kansas State and Missouri.

Sadler coached UTEP for two seasons and had a 48-18 record with two postseason tournament appearances.

Sadler said he was drawn to Nebraska's reputation for having 233 Academic All-Americans and 22 national championships in all sports.

"I was told that if you could ever get the opportunity to coach at the University of Nebraska, you better do everything you can," Sadler said. "I had a great job. I don't know if people realize that. UTEP is a great basketball job. Great fans, everything. Great tradition. But this is Nebraska, man. This is Nebraska."

Sadler signed a six-year contract that, not including incentives, pays him $700,000 annually, athletics director Steve Pederson said. Sadler's contract at UTEP paid him a base salary of $300,000 a year.

Pederson and associate athletics director Marc Boehm met with Sadler in Los Angeles last week and again in Denver over the weekend before offering the job.

Pederson said Sadler's work ethic as a recruiter and coach stand out.

"He's got a great recruiting reputation, but what everybody said is that he's just a grinder," Pederson said. "You get in there and you work and you work and you work. If everybody else goes to bed at midnight, you go to bed at 2 a.m. You can see that so clearly with him."

Sadler promised an uptempo style that emphasizes creativity rather than set plays.

"We're going to play baseline to baseline," he said. "We're going to get it up and down. I'm going to ask so much of these guys on (defense). But to do that, I'm going to tell them they can go as fast as they want on the other end."

Senior point guard Charles Richardson Jr. said the six returning players who are on campus have embraced Sadler's plan to play at breakneck speed.

"When I heard that, a light went on in my head," Richardson said. "First thing I thought was that I've got to get in shape because I have to be prepared to play 40 minutes and run up and down 94 feet."

Last season UTEP was 21-10 and lost to Michigan in the first round of the NIT.

Sadler's first UTEP team went 27-8, won the Western Athletic Conference tournament championship and reached the NCAA tournament, where it lost to Utah in the first round.

Sadler's immediate task at Nebraska was made more difficult with Monday's announcement that the team's best player, center Aleks Maric, was leaving the program. Maric, who received honorable mention for the All-Big 12 team, averaged 10.9 points and 8.1 rebounds as a sophomore. He said he would transfer or play professionally in Europe.

Maric's departure leaves Nebraska with 10 scholarship players and no true centers.

Sadler said he would try to contact Maric and ask whether he would reconsider.

Sadler pointed out that he recruits wherever he can find the best players.

"I've had players from Brazil, Puerto Rico, New York, California," he said. "Because of Nebraska's name, it's going to be easier to get into people's houses in different areas."

Sadler joined UTEP as an assistant coach in 2003-04, helping Billy Gillespie engineer an NCAA record-tying turnaround by going from six wins the previous year to 24 and UTEP's first NCAA tournament berth since 1992.

Sadler was promoted to head coach when Gillespie left for Texas A&M.

Before going to UTEP, Sadler was a head coach in the junior college ranks at Arkansas-Fort Smith, where he posted a 120-39 record in five seasons. His players had a 95 percent graduation rate.

Sadler previously was an assistant at Arkansas (1982-85), Lamar (1985-86), Houston (1986), Chicago State (1987-88), Arkansas-Fort Smith (1988-91, 1997-98), Texas Tech (1991-94) and Arizona State (1994-97).

In 14 years in Division I coaching, Sadler has coached 19 players who made it to the NBA.

Nebraska also contacted Nevada's Mark Fox, but he announced Saturday that he had withdrawn from consideration. Nevada rewarded Fox with a $100,000 raise, to $500,000 annually.

Media outlets also reported that Nebraska had contact with Karl Hobbs of George Washington, John Pelphrey of South Alabama and Randy Bennett of St. Mary's (Calif.).