John McMullen is entering his second season in Las Cruces, and continues his career on the bench with head coach Marvin Menzies after the pair worked together for eight years at Santa Monica College. After spending 25 seasons and winning 528 games as head coach at SMC, McMullen is now the assistant to the head coach with the Aggies in his second year.
In 2007-08, McMullen helped guide the Aggies to their first regular season WAC title. NMSU earned a share of the title following a 12-4 league record.
Nationally, the Aggies ranked in the top 25 in three statistical team categories including rebounding margin. NMSU was second in the country, only trailing North Carolina, with an advantage of 8.9 rebounds per game. The high-powered Aggie offense also ranked No. 17 in scoring offense (79.8 points per game) and No. 24 in field goal percentage (47.6).
McMullen was responsible for instructing the Aggie centers, which included Hatila Passos and Martin Iti. Passos owns the NMSU single-season record for highest field goal percentage (.641) with his performance in 2007-08. Iti concluded his career ranked 10th at NMSU for single-season blocked shots (42).
The Aggies (21-14) played in their second consecutive WAC Tournament title game missing the NCAA Tournament after falling in triple overtime to Boise State in one of the most exciting conference championship games of the season.
In addition, NMSU posted the 23rd 20-plus win season in the program’s history, which was a challenge when the schedule included games at Duke, Louisville and against Texas and West Virginia.
In 2005, McMullen was inducted into the California Community College Basketball Coaches Association Hall of Fame. He is the most successful coach in SMC history with a career record of 528-240, which he compiled from 1978-2004. McMullen earned win No. 500, Nov. 16, 2002, with a victory over Santa Barbara and he recorded 20-plus win seasons 16 times at SMC.
McMullen led SMC to the state championship round on five occasions while the Corsairs only missed the playoffs once during his tenure. He was a five-time conference coach of the year in the Western State and Southern California Conferences and guided his squad to seven-conference championships.
Menzies was an assistant under McMullen at SMC from 1991-94, 1995-96 and the associate head coach from 1997-99 after Menzies served as head coach from 1994-95.
McMullen was also an assistant coach at Brigham Young from 1975-78 following his time as head coach at Camarillo High School in Camarillo, Calif., from 1968-75.
He earned his bachelor’s degree from Cal State Northridge in 1962 and a master’s degree in 1975 from California Lutheran College. McMullen and his wife, Cathy, reside in Las Cruces, and he has two sons, Andy and Brian, from a previous marriage.
