The Mountain West Conference has been around for two decades now, with several of its original members still making up the league.

Eric Musselman is the sixth men’s basketball head coach to go straight from the mid-major conference into a high-major/Power Five job, leaving Nevada to take over at Arkansas.

Here is a look at the previous five:

Ritchie McKay - Colorado State —> Oregon State (2000)

In two years at Colorado State, McKay went 37-23 (.617) overall. His first season actually came the year before the MWC was formed and the Rams were still in the WAC. In his lone season in the MWC, McKay went 8-6 in conference play and tied for fourth.

That was enough for Oregon State to hire him in 2000, but his tenure with the Beavers lasted just two years. He won 10 and 12 games those two seasons and went 4-14 in Pac-10 play before returning to the MWC as New Mexico’s head coach. McKay is now in his second stint as Liberty’s head coach, with a six-year run as Virginia’s associate head coach in between.

This season, he led the Flames to their first ever NCAA Tournament win as they upset No. 5 seed Mississippi State in the first round.

Jeff Bzdelik - Air Force —> Colorado (2007)

A former NBA head coach, Bzdelik returned to the college game after being fired by the Nuggets and had immediate success at Air Force. The Falcons went 24-7 and made the NCAA Tournament in his first year and then went 26-9, reaching the NIT semifinals, in Year 2.

Winning 75.8 percent of his games helped Bzdelik springboard himself into the Colorado job. However, he failed to have a winning season in three years. The Buffaloes finished last in the Big 12 twice and then were one game under .500 his final year, finishing eighth.

Bzdelik finally left the state of Colorado in 2010 to take the Wake Forest job and, despite inheriting a team coming off back-to-back NCAA Tournament appearances, he went 8-24 with one ACC victory. He managed to finish one game above .500 in his fourth year, but then he resigned and returned to the NBA as an assistant.

Lon Kruger - UNLV —> Oklahoma (2011)

This is not like the other coaches on this list because Kruger had enjoyed previous success at a high level - taking Kansas State to the Elite Eight, Florida to the Final Four and Illinois to the NCAA Tournament - before becoming UNLV’s head coach.

The Runnin’ Rebels were his way of getting back into the college game after a failed stint as an NBA head coach with the Atlanta Hawks. He won nearly 70 percent of his games at UNLV, including a 30-win season and trip to the Sweet 16 in 2006-07, before leaving for Oklahoma.

With the Sooners, Kruger has reached the NCAA Tournament six times in eight years and reached the Sweet 16 in 2015 and Final Four in 2016.

Tim Miles - Colorado State —> Nebraska (2012)

Working his way up through the ranks - NAIA, Division II, low-major - Miles took the Colorado State job in 2007 and promptly won just seven games and went winless in MWC play. He steadily built the Rams into a solid program, though, reaching the CBI in Year 3, NIT in Year 4 and NCAA Tournament in Year 5.

That caught the attention of Nebraska, which hired him in 2013. Miles got the Cornhuskers into the big dance in just his second season, but failed to maintain a consistent level of success and was fired this offseason with a 116-114 record at Nebraska.

Steve Alford - New Mexico —> UCLA (2013)

Alford actually left a high-major program - Iowa - to take the job at New Mexico, where he spent six seasons. During his time with the Lobos, he reached the NIT three times and NCAA Tournament three times, compiling an impressive 155-52 (.749) overall record.

That landed him the UCLA job in 2013 and he took the Bruins to the Sweet 16 in three of his first four seasons, including a 31-5 season in 2016-17. Alford was back in the 2018 NCAA Tournament as one of the last four in, getting eliminated in the First Four round, but was fired following a 7-6 start to last season that was capped by a 15-point loss to Liberty.

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