AGGIES ARISE : More Discipline Means More Wins at New Mexico State

Perhaps you’re beginning to wonder if college basketball coaches aren’t much more than cheerleaders in expensive sport coats.

Perhaps you find it odd that the good ones all have a 7-footer under the basket, a couple of shooters who could give tips to Jerry West and a guy who can dribble circles around Curly Neal, and that the bad ones have teams whose best statistics are their grade-point averages.

Apparently, you have not heard of Neil McCarthy.

The coach at New Mexico State has been on the job for just 19 games now, but already he has become a folk hero in this dusty town an hour’s drive from El Paso.

Last season, the sagging Aggies were 7-20 overall and finished ninth, second to last, in the Pacific Coast Athletic Assn. They were picked to finish about there again this season by both the conference coaches and media. So much for the polls.

New Mexico State is 14-4 overall and 8-1 in the conference, hot on the heels of Nevada Las Vegas, the nation’s ninth-ranked team.

Used to be, you had to drive to El Paso or Albuquerque to see the Aggies lose. In 16 years of play in the usually sold-out, 13,222-seat Pan American Center, New Mexico State has won 210 games and lost just 55. But the Aggies suffered 11 of those home defeats last year.

The Aggies are 10-2 at home this season.

So how did McCarthy do it?

You’ve figured it out? He brought in a couple of ex-convicts and some guys who can jump over the backboard but haven’t seen a classroom since they handed in term papers that someone else wrote? And they all drive Mercedes?

Sorry.

McCarthy did bring in five new players, three lightly regarded junior college transfers and a couple of freshmen nobody else wanted. Some of them have played pretty well, too.

Forward Pierre Smith and guard Kenny Travis, both transfers, and freshman center Steve McGlothlin have started every game, displacing Orlando Febres, Elston Jones and Wendell Wright, all starters last season.

But McCarthy didn’t revive this program with just a bit of new talent. He did it by stressing defense--team offense--and, above all, personal integrity reinforced with a heavy dose of discipline.

Last season, New Mexico State’s opponents averaged 76 points a game. This season, the Aggies, yielding just 60 points a game, rank second in the conference in scoring defense. They are also No. 2 in in defensive field-goal percentage, having held opponents to .431 shooting.

Last season, the Aggies had 157 steals. They have 146 already this season. They attempted 247 three-pointers last season. They’ve attempted just 72 under McCarthy.

As a result, New Mexico State is off to its best start in 16 years and attendance is up more than 2,500 a game.

So how did he do it?

The 44-year-old coach with prematurely white hair and a George Hamilton tan politely exchanges small talk with admirers who approach his restaurant table. He is charming, and each visitor walks away feeling like the coach’s special friend.

Neil McCarthy is no newcomer to success. He developed his coaching philosophies during 10 years at Weber State in Ogden, Utah, where his teams averaged 20 wins a season, made the NCAA tournament four times and the NIT once and were ranked in the top 20 for six seasons.

When he decided to leave, saying that he wanted to prove to himself that he could take a struggling program and build a powerhouse, he brought along his formula for success.

It sounds pretty simple.

“From day one, in the first meeting, we stress the one word team ,” McCarthy said. “It’s certainly nothing new, but that takes on many facets.”

After playing for former coach Weldon Drew, the Aggies, who didn’t even eat team meals together last season, apparently thought that teamwork meant you passed the ball once for every two shots you took.

But, as they soon found out, McCarthy’s emphasis on teamwork is multifaceted, and a lot of it doesn’t have anything to with behind-the-back dribbles or breakaway dunks.

“We’re talking about playing together on the court, getting along in the locker room and maintaining your conditioning, sure, but it also encompasses a lot more, like acting like a good citizen off the court,” McCarthy said.

He also thinks that sleeping all day and practicing in the afternoon doesn’t make sense for his players. He figures that since they’re already in college, they might as well get an education. Heck, even graduate.

So, McCarthy set up 16 hours a week of study halls, with tutors. Every player must attend during breaks between classes. His assistants also check each player’s attendance, and if an athlete misses a class or a study hall, he must run three miles at 5:30 a.m.

“There was some grumbling and mumbling at first, but after the first month of school, I don’t recall having to run a player,” McCarthy said. “And, on a more positive note, every player in our program has a 2.0 (grade-point average) or better. Last year, only three could say that.”

Finally, he plans to keep all players on scholarship for a full year after their eligibility has expired so that they can concentrate on getting a degree. The money for that will come out of his recruiting budget.

McCarthy also instituted random drug-testing for the first time at New Mexico State.

“You’re here to help the kids, but at a certain point, sometimes you have to make a change,” he said. “I’m no Attila the Hun . . . I don’t fire kids left and right, but we have drug testing here and we expect our players to pass.

“If a player fails it the first time, we call him in and talk with him. Then we call his parents and he’d better pass it the next time. I’ve never had a nonrenewal that I haven’t walked the last mile with, though.

“I think young men want discipline in their lives. They don’t want to be hammered, but they want to know that the coaches care enough to put some guidelines up there and help them be successful. I really believe that.”

So the Aggies are going to class during the day. And they’ve been giving some clinics on defense at night.

At the conference media day before the season, McCarthy dropped a few jaws when he announced that Gilbert Wilburn, the league scoring leader last season, was not among his top eight players.

“If Gilbert doesn’t want to play defense, he doesn’t want to play for me,” McCarthy said.

Wilburn picked up the local paper in the morning and got the hint. According to McCarthy, he has done exactly what has been asked of him ever since.

“I really didn’t know that much about Coach McCarthy except that he had a winning record at Weber State,” said Wilburn, a former Banning High School star who averaged 24 points a game last season after transferring from Wichita State.

“I knew I would have to adjust my game somewhat to fit into his system. Last year, I was called upon to score a lot, but this season that’s not the case.”

That, of course, is relative. Wilburn is averaging 19 points a game, but he’s expending a great deal more energy on the other end of the floor than he ever did before.

“You see that defense he was playing?” Cal State Fullerton guard Kevin Henderson asked after the Titans’ second overtime loss to the Aggies this season. “Wow, the difference a year makes.”

Wilburn, not surprisingly, doesn’t think there’s that big a difference.

“The biggest change between last year and this year is that we’re winning, and that’s the result of us playing harder and more together,” he said. “I guess our defensive play might be the biggest difference. We’re really determined not to let the other team score. This year, we take a lot more pride in how we play defense.”

Wilburn used to fire shortly after crossing the center line. Now he’s using his considerable talents for higher-percentage shots.

The player who most typifies the power of the McCarthy mystique, however, is Travis, a transfer from Fresno City College who was passed over by a lot of schools, among them PCAA rival Fresno State. He carried a talented-but-out-of-control tag.

McCarthy hasn’t had much trouble harnessing the 6-foot 2-inch guard’s athletic ability. Travis is averaging 16 points, 5 rebounds, 2 steals and has been the PCAA player of the week twice in the last three weeks. He has scored 50 points in his last two games.

“I don’t think I’m an undisciplined player,” Travis said. “It’s been easy for me to play in Coach McCarthy’s system. Coach believes in working for the good shot, but he always tells us to take the fast break when it’s there. I had no trouble adjusting.”

Well, maybe just a little trouble.

McCarthy said: “Sure, I heard a lot of disparaging remarks about Travis, but I was in a situation where I had to go out and get some talent.

“We’ve had our eyeball-to-eyeball talks . . . just like I’ve had with Gilbert and a lot of players. But Gilbert and Kenny have tried to do what we want them to. They’ve really tried to adjust to the team concept.

“Gilbert has had to change his game around a lot. I don’t know if he was even asked to play defense last year, but he’s become a vastly improved all-around player. And he’s given us leadership. And Kenny has been able to use his individual ability within the team concept.”

“Hell, I’m sitting here with this record and I gotta think they got a bad rap somewhere.”

The veteran Weber State coach is talking to an applicant for an assistant coaching job and early in the interview asks the young man if he likes to fish. “No,” the young man says. A little later, the coach wonders if he likes hunting. “No.” Over dinner, he asks the young man if he likes playing cards. “Not really.” So does he enjoy going out for a few drinks at night? “Not that much.” Finally, the coach asks: “What the hell do you do for fun?” The young man smiles. “I like to watch basketball. I like to read about basketball. I like to talk about basketball. And when I’m not doing any of those three, I like to coach basketball.” Guess who got the job that night? The basketball coach’s weekly television show began with a shot of an open coffin, the tuxedo-clad corpse illuminated by a single candle. Slowly, the “corpse” sat up, his face illuminated by the glow of the candle. The corpse-coach smiled and said, “New Mexico State basketball rises again.”

Somehow, it’s hard to picture Bob Knight or Dean Smith doing that kind of gag. Even Jim Valvano would think twice before subjecting himself to something like that.

But McCarthy gets great joy from basketball and he’s not averse to a little nonsense. Obviously. In later weeks, he appeared--in full costume--as the Lone Ranger, Goldilocks and Rocky.

“I think it’s kind of a neat show,” McCarthy said. “They’ve made a human prop out of me.”

They’re just about ready to make him a saint around here and it’s fairly understandable. How many veteran coaches would be willing to leave an established program to come to a place like this?

After eight years at Weber State, though, McCarthy decided it was time for a change. At the same time, however, Southern Illinois Edwardsville dropped it’s basketball program and his son, Aaron, wanted to come play for dad. McCarthy stayed for two more years, and the Wildcats were 20-8 in Aaron’s senior season.

McCarthy figured there was nothing left to accomplish in Ogden and went looking for a crumbling program to rebuild. It came down to a choice between Hawaii and New Mexico State.

McCarthy apparently figured he wouldn’t look good in floral prints and chose New Mexico State. Could there be another reason?

“I was looking for a school that was down to see if I could revive it,” McCarthy said. “Both schools were at the bottom of their leagues and both offered good contracts.

“After checking out both schools thoroughly, I found that New Mexico State had a lot more to offer. The facility is great. The fans are among the best in country. And the climate’s great here. You can wear shorts all year.”

Still, lying by his pool behind his new three-bedroom town house nestled against the 11th green at Picacho Hills Golf Course, McCarthy looks like an ad for Hawaiian Holidays. The only thing missing is the mai tai.

Reading in the sun is his only recreation these days and he doesn’t get much time to do that. He figures that hard work, not luck, has gotten the Aggies this far and half a revival was not what he had in mind when he took the job.

He doesn’t mind the popularity, but he thinks it may be a case of premature adulation.

“Our tallest guy (McGlothlin) is 6-8 and there’s a big drop-off after that with two 6-5 forwards and the guards at 6-2,” McCarthy said. “We’re very small, but we have good--not great--quickness and the kids play hard and make an interesting combination.

“I’m an experienced coach and I realize we’re only a little past halfway through,” he said. “The people here are very excited and they feel the big revival is in full gear and I whole-heartedly concur--up to this point in time. We’ve done remarkably well so far, but the road ahead is filled with detours, bumps, mountains, and there’s probably some water in there, too.

“We’re going to have to play with a great deal of efficiency to duplicate this record. It’s going to get tougher and tougher. Before, we were just the ragamuffins of the league and people didn’t expect much. Now, it’s a different type of pressure because people are saying, ‘Hey, they’re for real.’ ”

Hey, they’re for real.