Reggie Theus has Bethune-Cookman chasing a March Madness first

In 2021 when Bethune-Cookman University called him, Reggie Theus was semi-retired. The former NBA All-Star and NBA coach was living in Southern California, golfing three to four days a week and doing the occasional basketball broadcast while volunteering as a Division II coach at Cal State LA. It was a good life. He was content, he thought. Then, opportunity knocked. Bethune-Cookman, a historically Black private university in Daytona Beach, Florida, wanted Theus to come aboard as athletic director even though he had no experience in the role. Theus was intrigued but countered the offer with a condition – if he took the AD job, he’d hire himself as men’s basketball coach, an unprecedented...