After we recently announced the All-Time Ultimate Hoops Mt. Rushmore, LC Comine and Joe Neuenfeldt decided to dive into the UH Las Vegas history and select a Mt. Rushmore specific to Vegas.

Here is Part 2. Read Part 1 here.

Who belongs on the Mt. Rushmore of UH Vegas?  With UH Nation voting on the Mt. Rushmore for all the positions across UH, I have decided to look at our region and come up with our own Mt. Rushmore. 

Criteria for this second spot: Which person has done the most for Ultimate Hoops Las Vegas?

Joe’s selection:  L.C. Comine

This one is another slam dunk in my view. LC joined Ultimate Hoops in the summer of 2012. As a player, he immediately loved the league and toughed it out on free agent teams for about a year, which included four straight first round playoff losses.

From there, he has gone on to win an Ultimate Hoops championship of some type 21 different times, the most in UH history.  LC and I, present and past UH Vegas Coordinator, have differing views when it comes to the League Coordinator being apart of the best team in every league.

But just because we disagree doesn't mean I'm right and he's wrong. Also, LC started putting together some great teams well before he became Coordinator.

If I can reminisce briefly back to my UH Minnesota days, free agents never did that. Most guys start as a free agent, get their butts kicked around while they fight with each other, fight for playing time and then finish the season with barely enough guys to field a team. And then most of them are gone after one season. Two at the most.

Very versatile and talented players like Noe Mendez would get snatched up by contending teams. But that almost never happened. We had a bit of a unique situation in Vegas where LC started playing when the league was still relatively new, and where people came and went all the time.

LC took advantage of that fact, joined some established teams where he could show the great teammate that he is, and then started some great franchises. I can't fault the guy for that. Even if I do like to call him a trophy chaser.

LC is not my choice for Mt. Rushmore because of his basketball play. But I will say this: how easy is it for players like Chase, Jordan Cannon, David Ware, JYD, the McFarland Brothers or Will Holvoet to find good teams? Every team would take superstar players like these. It's much tougher for middle of pack players to find a good squad, let alone a contender.

To me, that makes LC's 21 titles even more impressive. Second place in titles: Ryan Jansen and McKinsey Golfin. Two first ballot Hall of Famers as players. 

The last thing I have to say about LC as a player is that he's a great shooter, Sammy Sosa hop and all. And it pisses me off that he's now a better three point shooter than I am. That was not the case when I left in 2015. 

Most people have no idea what goes into being an Ultimate Hoops Coordinator. As the original UH Vegas Coordinator, I do, so I would like to describe the duties of it to give a better understanding of what LC's current life is. 

First and foremost, the best part of the job by far are the relationships you develop with the players. You cannot make all of them happy when it comes to scheduling, refs or whatever. But most Ultimate Hoops players are very grateful to the Coordinator, especially when the Coordinator displays great effort towards the league. 

A typical day as a Coordinator starts and ends with a number of different text messages or emails from a wide variety of people. Scheduling issues, staff issues, possible incidents that need to be addressed. It's pretty much an on call job. Keeping the players happy is the biggest priority. And in order to do that, you need to have a good staff (side note: LC's current staff is great).

But it's not as simple as hiring people and they automatically know the job and will take it from there. They have to be trained quickly and they're working for UH part time. So they don't really want to be there because it doesn't help them pay their bills.

Also, you like to hire players in the league because you know they will show up. But honestly, they don't really want to work because they're there to play basketball. And then you have the refs; by far the most challenging of your staff. You run the league but they don't really want to deal with you or hear anything negative you have to say.

So most of the time you get with their boss that assigns them to games and deal with conflicts that way. Except that often comes well after the conflict has happened.

For example, a no show for a game, an incident between ref and player, or a dude who refs an entire game barely making it past half court. It's a hassle and it's damage control. And remember, a Coordinator should almost always be pro player if they have to take a side.

I will be the first to admit that I would never want to be a ref. But they are also compensated the best per hour of all UH staff. And their behavior does not always reflect that. 

Now comes the part I will confess to hating more than every other part of being an Ultimate Hoops Coordinator; the corporate part. As Coordinator, you report to the Member Services Department Head at whatever club you are at. For the most part, he/she knows very little about Ultimate Hoops as they have many other elements to their job. And if that person is smart, they will stay out of your way and let you run a good league.

But it is very rare that that happens. Most important to them is their department's bottom line. So they want these league fees paid as quickly as possible when the season begins. And last time I checked, there are different fees based on when you sign up. The MSDH does not like the idea of charging the same early sign up fee to everyone, regardless of extenuating circumstances.

After the money part of it, it is a guarantee you will be dealing with the MSDH for every incident that a player or staff member was involved in. Without getting into specifics, just know that the Coordinator is fighting for the players and staff while reassuring our boss that we can handle and resolve the incident without further issue.

And then the rest. Clocking in and out issues. Staying up to date on the online trainings. The interviewing of possible staff and the mandatory memorization of the Life Time mission statement. There are a lot of corporate elements that have nothing to do with basketball or running a basketball league. And as the Coordinator, you do not get credit or recognition for the players who are only members so they can play Ultimate Hoops. Ultimate Hoops is under the membership realm of the company. And the Coordinator reports and answers to them.  The last part of the job is the hours. The most important thing a Coordinator can do is get the stats and scores loaded the night of the game.

The next morning is never good enough. I have no sympathy for any Coordinator who has failed to do so as that is the one thing guys want to check out when they get home. But it means you're always up late. You basically work everyday, even if you're not paid for it. You work tons of evenings. You're always thinking of ways to provide new quality content. And then you get up the next morning to a bunch of messages and you do it all again. It's quite thankless.

All of that is what it takes to run a successful Ultimate Hoops League. And many of the players have witnessed the League when it is not successful. It's almost not worth playing in. 

When I was League Coordinator, I did not have leagues almost every night of the week. LC does. He is currently running Ultimate Hoops Las Vegas at its absolute height in every way. The different divisions, the talent, National Tourney, etc. I will always look back fondly on my days as Coordinator and the Leagues I ran.

But this is on a different level. Yet LC is managing all of it. He has an incredible relationship with all of the players and staff. That only happens when you've earned it. And the best may be yet to come.

With a third club being built and LC at the UH helm, who knows how big this can become. 

L.C’s selection:  Joe Neuenfeldt

This is an absolute no brainer. 

Not a lot of the current players know the story about Joe.  He started his UH career in Minnesota and eventually he made his way out to Las Vegas and started UH in Summerlin in the Summer of 2011.  This was a new market for UH and Joe built it by himself.  His hard work, dedication, and passion for UH is one of the big reasons why we have 8 leagues today and have the biggest market now in the country.  

However what made Joe so good was his media.  If you don’t believe me go to you tube right now and type in his name and re live some of his pre game or post game interviews with some of the greats in UH Vegas.  Also Joe wrote some of the best articles in the history of UH. 

Whether it was the Big John article or the famous Stefan article or his article about free throw shooting or just a random article about how bogus the PPV formula is.  Bottom line Joe had an opinion and he wasn’t afraid to share it.  He is without question one of the brightest basketball minds in all of our leagues and I am very happy he is back in some capacity with us again.  

Also keep in mind Joe was a good basketball player too.  He was a very skilled shooter and a very underrated defender.  He had a very high IQ and if anyone ever had the privilege of playing with him we all know how competitive he can be and vocal.  Joe was best known for his 6 seasons with the franchise Superdry and we all can remember the Cinderella run in Joe’s final season in 2015 when Superdry made the title game but came up just a bit short in a loss to Back in the Day. 

It was a playoff run for the ages and the interviews were just as legendary especially the ones with Donnie Burton.  It was such good stuff. Everything I do as a coordinator or media associate I take from the Joe Neuenfeldt playbook. When he was running things I remember the electricity we had in the gym and the pure hype we had each week.  My goal was to bring that back and get the engagement among players and teams once again. 

Joe is UH VEGAS and is the reason why we have grown these leagues.  Don’t ever let anyone tell you different.  Its a shame he never got to do what I have gotten to do the last few months because if he did it would have been 100% off the charts incredible.

One thing I want to stress is Joe’s  content will never be duplicated and no one will ever be able to live up to the standard of Joe Neuenfeldt as he is the benchmark and is the true GOAT of Ultimate Hoops Las Vegas. 

I hope someday we will be able to go to the vault of UH and re release some of his legendary articles so we can share with some of the newer UH Vegas players because they are some of the best reads you will have in your lifetime. 

#THANKSJOE