Final Four Memories
This morning, my friend and former Albuquerque Journal colleague Chris Tomasson direct messaged me with a reminder that today is the 37th anniversary of North Carolina State’s unforgettable victory over Houston at the Pit. Why not, wrote Chris, now the Minnesota Vikings beat writer for the St. Paul Pioneer Press, tweet out some memories? Great idea. But why not blog some memories instead? That Final Four week was a week like no other in my memory for the Journal sports staff. Dennis Latta, our sports editor, made sure everyone was involved. I was a bit disappointed when Dennis did not schedule me to cover that Saturday’s semifinals between Houston-Louisville and NC State-Georgia. But he did assign me to do a sidebar on Sunday’s Coaches All-American all-star game. My subject was Kentucky guard Dirk Minniefield, who happened to be a cousin of former Lobo Darryl Minniefield. During the week, I’d done a story about an appearance by then-UNM coach Gary Colson at an NCAA Coaches