When Reggie Theus took the head basketball coaching job at New Mexico State two years ago, Riley Wallace noted the change in the Western Athletic Conference right away.

"I told him, 'Well, I'm no longer the best looking (coach) in the league,' " Wallace cracked.

Jokes aside, Theus' departure for the Sacramento Kings leaves the WAC short more than just a camera-friendly face.

Theus brought the WAC a coaching look it hadn't had — young, hip and polished — and a flamboyance it had needed since the exit of his mentor, Jerry Tarkanian.

Nattily-attired and self-assured, the 49-year-old Theus looked like he jumped onto the Aggies' sidelines right off a GQ cover. And, as a 25-9 season and WAC Tournament Championship this year underlined, he could actually coach some, too.

His players called him "Hollywood" and it wasn't just because of his role in the NBC program "Hang Time." Theus' presence was such that he could step into an arena and everybody noticed. They talked about his ties and his passion for the game. A lot of the other WAC coaches you couldn't remember anything about five minutes after the game ended. Assuming you noticed them in the first place.

"He has a profile about him," Wallace said. Media loved Theus because it wasn't in his nature to hide behind cliches. You asked him a question, you usually got an answer. After 13 years in the NBA and several more in the broadcast booth, talking was as natural as shooting or passing the ball. And he mastered them all in a 19,000-point, 6,000-assist pro career.

Whether it was grabbing a microphone from courtside and firing up the crowd or rushing onto the floor, Theus made things interesting in the WAC. Not always by the book, but that was part of the excitement.

In Las Cruces, N.M. he was hotter than the annual chili festival lifting a forlorn 6-24 program to 16-14 and 25-9. The faithful, young and old, took to him immediately, making "Reggie Nation" T-shirts de rigueur in the Pan American Center. Fans in Reno had other slogans with which to welcome him.

Nobody who knew basketball or Theus expected NMSU to be more than a resume builder on the way to something bigger. But with the WAC's elder statesman, Wallace, gone and Theus now making his move, the conference is losing a lot of its panache.

Reach Ferd Lewis at flewis@honoluluadvertiser.com or 525-8044.