RICKAROO - The New Mexico Sports Place

 I was not then and am not now a Boston Celtics fan, but I always liked Tommy Heinsohn in spite of that. I particularly liked his Fred Flintstone-like delivery as a TV analyst after his playing and coaching days were over. A Heinsohn memory, in the wake of his recent death:  In a game years ago (obviously), Heinsohn was headed toward the basket on a breakaway. Walt Hazzard, the former UCLA Bruin point guard — I don’t remember which NBA team he was playing for at the time — basically tackled Heinsohn to prevent the layup. The two sprawled together under the basket.  Tommy came up hot and landed a picture-perfect right hand to Hazzard’s jaw. I don’t remember for sure, it being so long ago, but I don’t think either player got ejected. It was a different game back then. Afterward, Heinsohn complained to the media about Hazzard’s aggressive play. “Talk about unsportsmanlike,” he said. How sportsmanlike he thought his right hand to the jaw was, he didn’t say. Hazzard had little...

 I can’t say I knew Billy Tubbs, the irascible, inimitable college basketball coach who won 641 games at Lamar, Oklahoma, TCU and Lamar again, who died on Sunday at age 85. But I remember him well. Very well. Among the memories: In January 1997, Tubbs brought his TCU Horned Frogs to the Pit to play New Mexico, at the time a Western Athletic Conference rival. He refused to use Albuquerque’s mile-high altitude as an excuse for a loss that night. In fact, he refused to acknowledge the altitude. “The game was played indoors,” he explained.  Oh, OK.  The following summer, TCU transfer power forward Damion Walker signed with New Mexico. Tubbs was furious, believing UNM had contacted Walker before his release from his scholarship at TCU — a violation, if true, of NCAA rules. Lobos coach Dave Bliss denied any such impropriety. That January, at the end of a UNM blowout with the Lobos approaching the century mark, Tubbs called two timeouts in the final minutes. Both teams had their...