Casper, Wyo. ? Wyoming coach Steve McClain is no longer a candidate for the opening at Iowa State.

“We’re driving home to Wyoming,” McClain told the Casper Star-Tribune Sunday. “It’s over.”

Several reports indicated Chattanooga coach Jeff Lebo had emerged as front-runner to replace Larry Eustachy, who resigned from the Big 12 Conference school under a cloud May 5.

McClain said the lure of returning to coach Division One basketball in his native state drove his decision to look into the Cyclones’ opening.

“But I guess going home isn’t always best,” he said.

McClain grew up in Orient, Iowa, and his name immediately surfaced as a candidate after Eustachy was pressured out.

Wyoming athletic director Lee Moon said McClain’s contract, which was restructured and lengthened in November 2001, was a major factor in McClain’s decision to stay with the Cowboys.

“The bottom line on this deal is we built a package that’s pretty damn good,” Moon said.

McClain signed a contract through 2008-09 that pays him nearly $600,000 annually if all incentives are met. There is also a buyout clause that requires any school him to pay UW $300,000.

According to media reports, Iowa State was willing to offer up to $800,000 annually for up to six years.

The parting of ways capped a hectic week for the McClains, who had originally planned to visit his hometown to attend his niece’s wedding Saturday.

But the week began with Eustachy resigning because reports surfaced of his drinking with college students in Missouri and Kansas during Cyclones’ road trips.

Moon said he and McClain each spoke with a representative from an Iowa State search firm but that McClain had not visited with Cyclones officials.

Moon also said Iowa State athletic director Bruce Van De Velde told him he would call if ISU wanted to officially interview McClain.

According to Moon, the call never came.

“There’s nothing that says he turned it down and there’s nothing that says it was ever offered,” Moon said.

Creighton’s Dana Altman and Fresno State’s Ray Lopes were also candidates but withdrew from consideration Friday. Others mentioned as possible candidates were Cyclones assistant Wayne Morgan and Utah State coach Stew Morrill.

McClain, 40, has a 100-52 record in five seasons at Wyoming and has won two Mountain West Conference titles. Four times he has led the Cowboys to the postseason.

The Cowboys, 21-11 this past season, tied for third in the league and reached the second round of the NIT before losing to North Carolina.

McClain, a graduate of Chadron State and former TCU assistant, won a national junior-college title as head coach of Hutchinson in 1994.