Ex-Laker Cooper Eyes New Mexico Vacancy

Former Laker Michael Cooper wants to become New Mexico’s next basketball coach.

Cooper, a member of five NBA championship teams with the Lakers after starring at New Mexico, dropped off a resume at the school Wednesday and said he will aggressively pursue the vacancy left by Dave Bliss, who resigned Tuesday to coach at Baylor.

“I’m really after this, I want them to know,” said Cooper, who was in Albuquerque visiting his three children. “I would be a good candidate, if not the solution.

“This is where I belong. . . . I am a Lobo to the core of my heart.”

He is not a graduate, however, and his lack of a college degree and head coaching experience may hurt his effort.

“It’s hard to sell your players on how important it is to have a college degree if your coach doesn’t” have one, said Linda Estes, a member of the New Mexico athletics department advisory committee.

Estes said she wants the head coach to have a degree but said she has “positive feelings” for Cooper.

Cooper, who said he needs about 10 hours to complete his degree in recreation, has talked with academic advisors about earning his degree this summer.

*

A woman who claims to have written a school paper for a former Minnesota player says Coach Clem Haskins told her the player “needed a lot of help.”

She also said that when she said she wouldn’t continue to write papers for athletes, she was told she would not continue to work as an athletic department tutor.

The St. Paul Pioneer Press reported that Alexandra Goulding, a graduate student, wrote one paper for ex-Gopher Courtney James.

When Goulding told Haskins she wouldn’t do it again, Haskins responded that James needed the help with his classwork.

The next day, Goulding said, academic counselor Alonzo Newby told her she would not be offered a contract to continue working as an athletic department tutor.

*

California (21-11) and Clemson (20-14) play for the National Invitation Tournament title tonight at New York. . . . Ricky Stokes, an assistant at Texas, was hired as Virginia Tech’s men’s coach. . . . Jim O’Brien of Ohio State and Jim Calhoun of Connecticut were among six coaches selected as finalists for the Claire Bee Award, given by the Basketball Hall of Fame and Chip Hilton Sports to the Division I coach who has made the most significant positive contributions during the year. Other finalists are John Chaney of Temple, Dick Bennett of Wisconsin, Mike Montgomery of Stanford and John Kresse of College of Charleston. . . . North Carolina junior guard Ed Cota said he will stay in school for another season. . . . Alicia Brown, 19, of Riverside will take one three-point shot worth $2 million in the Gillette 3-Point Challenge during the Final Four on Saturday at St. Petersburg, Fla.