‘Big Dog’ Can Hunt : McCarthy Preys on the Big West in a Small Town

About half an hour before a recent tipoff, Neil McCarthy wheeled his car into the parking lot at the Pan American Center, adjusted his coat and tie and ran a hand through his silver hair.

The New Mexico State basketball coach slipped past spectators into the 13,000-seat arena, where his team was warming up on the court below, and broke into one of the few grins he displayed all evening while shaking hands with boosters.

In this university town 50 miles north of El Paso, the chain-smoking, private McCarthy is truly “the Big Dog,” as he once described himself.

He rode into the Mesilla Valley nine years ago, having won 200 games and six conference titles in 10 seasons at Weber State, and promised to win more.

The former Army boxing champion from Vallejo, Calif., has done just that.

The Aggies went from 7-20 to 18-12 in 1985-86, his first season. Three seasons later, they were 21-11 and haven’t won fewer than 23 games in a season since. New Mexico State has appeared in the last four NCAA tournaments and McCarthy, who has won more games than any coach in school history, has an outside shot at his 400th victory this season.

With their best junior college recruiting class, the Aggies are 12-1 overall and 4-0 in the Big West and scored one of their biggest victories Monday night. For the first time in 11 years of playing Nevada Las Vegas, New Mexico State beat the Runnin’ Rebels at Las Vegas, 95-91, in overtime.

McCarthy is rewarded handsomely. His contract, enhanced by boosters, a shoe deal and radio and television shows, is valued at more than $250,000 a year. His picture is on the cover of the Aggie media guide, his name on the lips of seemingly every shop owner in town. The Aggies have their own weekly basketball magazine.

Yet, outside this town of 80,000, the introspective, sometimes ornery coach remains a relative unknown, seen nationwide only on a handful of late-night games on cable television.

“He’s put this town on the map,” said George Zinno, a local produce wholesaler and basketball booster. “I just don’t think enough people know him. He’s kind of a loner.”

A night owl, McCarthy lives quietly in a condo on a golf course in the foothills overlooking the Rio Grande River, plotting strategies and watching old game videos.

“It’ll be mid-July and he’ll call at 10 p.m. and want to talk about Santa Barbara or Irvine,” assistant Coach Gar Foreman said.

McCarthy has guarded his private life since his first wife died of a ruptured brain aneurysm in 1975. He was an assistant at Weber State then and had three children.

“I was depressed for a good year and a half after she died,” McCar thy said.

His second wife, Vivian, learned that she had breast cancer 18 months ago. She had a double mastectomy. McCarthy has taken her illness hard, becoming reclusive, friends say.

“I feel very positive she will get through this fight with cancer,” McCarthy said. “But the only time I don’t think about it is when I’m on the basketball court.”

Because he is private, McCarthy has been accused of being cold-hearted and eccentric, cantankerous and egotistical, more concerned with winning than getting players to graduate. He is rarely seen on campus, unless there are practices or games.

McCarthy scoffs at those labels.

“I’m cordial, “ he said. “But I’m not your best friend the first month I meet you.”

As for the Aggies’ graduation rate, which has been a source of controversy from time to time in New Mexico newspapers, McCarthy points out that three players from last year’s 26-8 team have earned degrees. According to statistics published by the NCAA, 56% of all basketball players who began the season at New Mexico State in 1985-86 have degrees, second only to UC Santa Barbara among the 10 Big West teams.

McCarthy, according to university staff, allows players to return and finish work toward their degrees under scholarship after their eligibility has expired.

But the bottom line is winning and McCarthy has made no bones about that. In 1990, he threatened to take another job, then talked the university into taking money from other athletic programs and improving the salaries of his assistant coaches and strengthening his recruiting budget.

“I felt that (the university) made a commitment to having a winning basketball program and we’ve delivered,” McCarthy said.

There’s no doubting his success and what it means to this community. Attendance has doubled from the 6,500 the Aggies averaged before he arrived.

His success with a preponderance of junior college transfers is even more striking.

“Neil is one of the best basketball coaches in the country,” San Jose State Coach Stan Morrison said. “He’s always getting new players in and he never stumbles.”

The Aggies like to run, yet McCarthy emphasizes defense.

“Most of us coming from JC were all offensive stars,” said guard Ron Coleman, a transfer from Westark Community College in Ft. Smith, Ark. “We didn’t play much defense. But here, whatever defense you are lacking, you’ll get. If you stay with it, you’ll be improved come tournament time.”

Morrison said McCarthy has set a trend that will continue in the Big West. When the season started, 44 players in the conference were junior college transfers, most in at least a decade. Eight of those were at New Mexico State.

“I would pay money to see one of his practices, the way he gets those kids to play together,” Morrison said. “He does not get enough credit for what he does.”

Television has played a role in recruiting success, drawing JC kids from urban centers to the Southwest. McCarthy schedules four or five national cable TV games a year.

Senior forward James Dockery, a transfer from Wabash Valley College in Mt. Carmel, Ill., liked what he saw.

“I saw them enough times on TV to be familiar with this place,” he said. “It was a big part of why I came here. I saw the way they played, running up and down the court, and I liked it.”

The New Mexico State trip is not a one Big West coaches, particularly those in urban centers, like to make. The Aggies are 114-21 under McCarthy in the Pan Am Center. Their hope is that McCarthy will leave soon for a better job.

Not too likely, the Big Dog said, lighting another cigarette as he sat in a big swivel chair behind an even bigger desk in his campus office. McCarthy points out that he has turned down offers from Hawaii, Colorado and an interview at Miami.

“The longer you stay here, the more you get attached to it,” he said, taking a puff. “I prefer small towns. It would take a very, very good job for me to leave here.”