RICKAROO - The New Mexico Sports Place

Let me start, first of all, by wishing everyone a happy holiday season and a happy and prosperous new year. Let me follow that, though, by saying that in my very humble opinion whoever invented the term “politically correct” was an idiot. (If that offends anyone, I’m deeply sorry). What I think is what I think and what I believe is what I believe, and anyone who dismisses my thoughts and beliefs as politically correct is merely saying those thoughts and beliefs run counter to his/her thoughts and beliefs. The PC thing is simply a label and a weapon — and a stupid one. As for the flip side, people who proudly label themselves as politically incorrect, like HBO’s Bill Maher, are really saying “I’m better and smarter than the rest of you.” Pure arrogance. With this in mind, let me proceed with my No Class lumps of coal: Sunday, Cleveland Browns quarterback Baker Mayfield saw fit to once again taunt former Browns head coach and current Cincinnati Bengals assistant Hue Jackso...

A while back, someone decided the plus-minus category that long has been a part of hockey statistics should be applied to basketball as well. I don’t closely follow hockey, but I’ve always assumed plus-minus is of value there, where it originated. In basketball, in my humble opinion, plus-minus is as useful as a fork in a soup kitchen. The concept is so simple that, on its face, it would seem to make sense. It measures how a team does when a particular player is in the game. A plus number means a team outscored the opposition when that player was on the court; a minus number means the opposite.  In practice, plus-minus simply doesn’t compute.  Example: the New Mexico Lobos’ 82-70 victory over Central Arkansas on Sunday afternoon at Dreamstyle Arena in Albuquerque. The final statistics show UNM senior guard Anthony Mathis with a team-best plus-16. They show Lobos junior forward/post Carlton Bragg with a team-worst minus-4.  Those numbers are virtually meanin...

As Mike Locksley became the likely candidate to become Maryland’s next head football coach, stories in the media invariably mentioned the off-the-field behavioral problems he experienced while the head coach at the University of New Mexico (2009-11).  Fair? Of course. What one has said and done in the past never goes away, especially in the Internet/social media era. (Just ask Kevin Hart). That’s all behind him, Locksley said, and Maryland believes. He was introduced on Thursday as the  Terrapins’ new coach.  As one who covered Locksley’s tenure at New Mexico, first as a columnist, then as a beat writer, I believe as well that the off-the-field issues that dogged him in Albuquerque will not reoccur in College Park. It’s on-the-field issues that concern me. Regarding the off-the-field stuff — an office manager’s sex-discrimination complaint, a physical altercation with a wide receivers coach, alleged intimidation of a UNM student newspaper reporter at a sports b...