Lamar Places Rebuilding in Newell’s Hands

He has been the little boy with the slingshot who pesters the big guys. The giant-slayer.

And as far as giants go, they don’t get much bigger than Notre Dame. Thud went the Irish in 1986. But we’re getting ahead of ourselves . . .

Mike Newell’s first head coaching job was at Arkansas-Little Rock, which, before he took over, was to basketball what San Diego State is to agriculture.

Now, Newell is the basketball coach at Lamar University in Beaumont, Tex., and he is attempting to restore some respectability to a struggling program. The Cardinals (5-3), who were 7-21 last season, play Drexel at 6 tonight at the San Diego Sports Arena in the first game of the Texaco Star Classic.

Newell is a secret no longer. He is no longer the quiet kid in class waiting to be noticed. He is recognized by several in the coaching community--Oklahoma’s Billy Tubbs and SDSU’s Jim Brandenburg among them--as an up-and-coming coach.

“It seems like I’ve been coaching a bunch of years,” Newell said. “I told someone the other day, it seems like I’ve been a head coach for 17 years and I’m 50 years old.”

Newell is 39, and he is in his seventh year as a head coach. A relatively short career, though, has been stuffed with some pretty big accomplishments.

Entering this year, his first at Lamar, his career record was 133-60, and his .689 winning percentage ranked 19th among active NCAA Division I coaches. He led Arkansas-Little Rock to five consecutive 20-victory seasons and five consecutive postseason tournament appearances.

Then, there was the Notre Dame game. When the Trojans stunned then-No. 10 Notre Dame in the 1986 NCAA tournament, 90-83, Newell’s name suddenly became a familiar one in college basketball.

“Five years ago, people in Little Rock didn’t even know they had a Division I team,” Newell said. “They thought they were in the NAIA.

“You’ve got to earn the respect of your city first, and then the state, the region and nationally. What the Notre Dame win did for us was jumped us (over) the city, state, region and nation.”

The Trojans didn’t stop there. Although they were defeated in the next round by North Carolina State, they took the Wolfpack into double overtime before losing, 80-66. Then, in 1987, they made the semifinals of the National Invitational Tournament.

Newell’s first five Arkansas-Little Rock teams won 113 games, one more than John Wooden won in his first five years as a college basketball coach.

At Arkansas-Little Rock, the team played in an old gym that was used as a barn during the state fair. At Lamar, where he accepted a job April 5, he was given a few more tools.

“They were willing to make a financial commitment,” Newell said. “Financially, you’re not going to do any better anywhere in the country.”

Newell’s base salary is $100,000. Add to that an annuity he receives if he fulfills length-of-service obligations, plus a healthy expense account, shoe contract, television and radio show and a basketball camp and, as Newell said, “it’s a hell of a package.”

The facilities aren’t bad, either. A new athletic study hall, a players’ lounge with a big screen television hooked up to a satellite dish, a film room that is also hooked up to the satellite dish . . .

“They want a top-30 program here,” Newell said.

They want Lamar to return to its glory days, when Tubbs and Pat Foster--during a nine-year span--combined to average 21.9 victories a year, win six conference championships, participate in four NCAA tournaments and four NIT tournaments.

So far, Newell and Lamar are fitting together nicely.

“He’s doing a real good job with them,” said Tubbs, the Oklahoma coach. “I think he’s going to get the program back at least to where it was.”

It’s interesting that Tubbs’ shadow is hanging over Newell at Lamar, because it was Tubbs, a Lamar alumnus and ex-coach, who gave Newell his first break. Newell was coach at San Jacinto (Tex.) Junior College when Tubbs hired him as an Oklahoma assistant in 1980. Newell stayed there through 1984 before accepting the Arkansas-Little Rock job. And last spring, it was Tubbs who, after turning down Lamar’s offer, recommended Newell.

Newell and Tubbs continue to stay in touch, and their families are close as well.

“I’m always on him,” Tubbs said, cackling. “I pose as a distinguished alum whom he better answer to. . . . I’m just like any other alum. I’ll back him as long as he is winning.”

Newell laughs. He recalls a telephone call from Tubbs during the recruiting season two months ago. Newell said it came on the only day he was in the office.

“Unfortunately, I answered the phone,” Newell said.

Tubbs’ end of the conversation started like this:

“What in the hell are you doing home? You’re supposed to be out recruiting so you can get my alma mater back (in shape).”

Newell said he got another phone call when Lamar started this season 4-1.

“As long as you win four out of every five, the president is not going to get any letters from me,” Tubbs told Newell.

Lamar is now 5-3, but at least the fans are eating well. Newell prefers an up-tempo pace, and a local radio station is running a promotion in which fans get a free pizza each time Lamar reaches 95 points at home. In three home games this season, the Cardinals have scored 95, 95, and 114.

* TEXACO STAR CLASSIC

Tournament at a glance: C4

Where are the marquee names? C12