Nevada Basketball: Wolf Pack hires Hufnagel and Dupree to the coaching staff

The Nevada Wolf Pack and head basketball coach Eric Musselman have hired two new assistants to his coaching staff on Friday as the school announced the hiring of Ronald Dupree and Yann Hufnagel to the staff. Musselman made the hires with the thought of brining in people with he has had previous relationships with and who he was comfortable with as well.

Dupree joins the staff after spending the last two years at LSU as the Director of Student Athlete Development under head coach Johnny Jones. Dupree, who played in the NBA for six seasons and also played in the NBDL, was on the LSU staff when Musselman was in Baton Rouge in the 2014-15 season.

This will be Dupree's first full time assistant coaching position in the college ranks. Musselman said that Dupree's "ability to work with small forwards, power forwards and big men is extremely vital."

The Nevada head coach also went on to say about Dupree's hiring that "anytime you can add a former NBA player to your staff, it's going to help our guys who want to aspire to the next level."

The hiring of Yann Hufnagel by Musselman and Nevada is without a doubt controversial hire to say the very least. Hufnagel, who was an assistant at Harvard and Vanderbilt, was an assistant at the University of California at Berkeley before being terminated due to being accused of sexually harassing a female beat reporter for the Cal basketball team.

In a redacted report that was released by the school, the female reporter (whose name and publication she works for has not been made to the public) said that in 2014 and 2015 Hufnagel texted to her sexual innuendos repeatedly and in one incident, Hufnagel drove the reporter home, closed the garage door behind her and talked about oral sex. The woman also stated in the report that Hufnagel sent harassing messages every two weeks and that 90 percent of messages sent was via text.

Hufnagel, who was placed on paid leave by the school until he was terminated, at first appealed the decision to overturn the school's decision to fire him but has part of the appeal, he had to turn over the hundreds of texts that showed the relationship between him and the reporter but changed his mind and decided to resign.

"The toxic environment at UC Berkeley has made it impossible for Mr. Hufnagel to rejoin the basketball team he loves, even if he is vindicated in full, as the facts would show," Hufnagel's lawyer, Mary McNamara said. "He needs to look out for the student-athletes he coached, as well as his own future. Earlier this morning and after much consideration, he decided it was time to move on."

Musselman was comfortable with the Hufnagel hire as the two met at a basketball camp back in 2010.

"I've known Yann for nearly a decade and he's always been a guy who has unbelievable work ethic and high character," he said to the Reno Gazette-Journal.

Musselman said he deeply vetted Hufnagel and believes that he did nothing wrong in the matter of the sexual harassment charge that was levied against him by the female reporter at Cal.

"We talked about it and we're ready to move forward," Musselman said.

With the recruiting period starting on Thursday, it was important for the Wolf Pack to have a full staff available to begin the first cycle of the recruiting season.

That being said, I do have an issue with the Wolf Pack's hiring of Hufnagel who was accused of sexual harassment of a female reporter. Even though Hufnagel was not charged of any crimes or wrongdoing, him being hired has to make a person wonder, "does winning matter above all else?"