McCarthy Gets $835,000 in Out-of-Court Settlement

Former New Mexico State coach Neil McCarthy settled his lawsuit against the university for $835,000 on Tuesday.

The Las Cruces, N.M., school agreed to pay McCarthy in exchange for his agreement to dismiss his lawsuit, filed in October 1997 over a 1996 contract. The lawsuit was scheduled to go to trial Feb. 1.

McCarthy, pleased with the settlement, contended that a deal is a deal and all he wanted was the reasonable value of the contract.

New Mexico State President William Conroy said that removing McCarthy as coach was the right thing to do, but that “it is sometimes difficult and expensive to do the right thing.”

The settlement is about 25% of what the former coach sought, Conroy said.

Conroy said the university was confident it could have won in court, but “putting an end to this lawsuit was also the right thing to do.”

State District Judge Robert Robles in December ruled the contract between McCarthy and former university president J. Michael Orenduff was valid.

The school had declared the contract void after Orenduff was ousted as president. McCarthy then was removed as Aggie coach and reassigned to an assistant athletic director job days later and fired last August.

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Gabe Muoneke, Texas’ leading scorer, was suspended for one game by Longhorn Coach Rick Barnes for throwing punches in Monday night’s 76-67 loss to No. 19 Kansas.

Muoneke was not charged with any fouls for fighting, but television replays showed Muoneke punching Kansas’ Nick Bradford in the first half and T.J. Pugh in the second half.

“If I had known it happened during the game, I would have taken him out,” Barnes said.

It is Muoneke’s second punching incident this season. Barnes made Muoneke write a letter of apology to Wisconsin guard Hennssy Auriantal after Muoneke punched him in the stomach during a game in December.

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Conference USA has publicly criticized an official for a call he made in the final seconds of Cincinnati’s loss to North Carolina Charlotte last week, but the league office said the result will not be overturned.

With 17.5 seconds left in Charlotte’s 62-60 victory, official Tom O’Neill blew his whistle on a missed one-and-one free throw situation. Cincinnati rebounded the miss, then Melvin Levett made a three-point basket, but the officials ruled the play dead.

Conference Commissioner Mike Slive issued a statement saying it was apparent that the ball was live after the missed free-throw attempt by Charlotte, and that Cincinnati should have been allowed to continue to play after the rebound.

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Fred Primus, a freshman guard with Pittsburgh, was dropped from the roster after being arrested on grand theft charges. Primus, a 6-foot-3 guard, played in 14 of 16 games and averaged 4.4 points a game. . . . Tyrone Grant, the leading rebounder for No. 8 St. John’s, will be sidelined indefinitely after an MRI revealed a broken bone in his right wrist. Grant was averaging 11.5 points and 8.9 rebounds.