All not Bliss-ful in Albuquerque

Steve Carp

Tuesday, Dec. 9, 1997 | 11:17 a.m.

Albuquerque has had better days on its sports scene.

It was Black Saturday in the Land of Enchantment. New Mexico's football team wound up getting thumped 41-13 by Colorado State in the WAC championship at Sam Boyd Stadium and the No. 8 Lobos basketball team was thrashed 69-58 by No. 15 UCLA in the Wooden Classic at the Anaheim Pond.

Dennis Franchione's football team was looking at an uphill battle prior to taking the field against the Rams. But who would have thought that Dave Bliss' basketball squad would struggle against a UCLA team that was without two of its starters, Kris Johnson and Jelani McCoy?

Twenty-three turnovers later, Bliss got his answer. UCLA's Steve Lavin switched J.R. Henderson from forward to center and he outplayed Kenny Thomas. The Bruins' overall quickness bothered the Lobos and the UNM backcourt of David Gibson and Royce Olney struggled against Toby Bailey and Baron Davis.

"Their quickness was definitely a factor," Gibson said. "But we shot ourselves in the foot by not running our stuff."

But for Henderson to outplay Thomas was a shock. Henderson had 24 points and seven rebounds while a frustrated Thomas was held to nine points and six boards.

The loss dropped New Mexico out of the top 10. But Bliss is more concerned about regrouping for tonight's game at New Mexico State, a team the Lobos struggled to beat at The Pit last month.

"We'll now go and pick up the pieces," Bliss said. "This game will benefit us. We needed to find out the things we didn't do well and go from there. We think we have a pretty good basketball team. We just didn't play well."

Tark drops jewelry

When Fresno State recently played Arkansas, something was missing from Jerry Tarkanian's ensemble.

The former UNLV coach wasn't wearing his 1990 championship ring or his 1991 ring.

In an attempt to show loyalty to his alma mater and current employer, Tark decided to leave the UNLV jewelry at home.

"I'm a Fresno guy now," he told the Fresno Bee. "Until I'm retired, I won't wear them."

The 67-year-old coach has a tough game tonight as the 3-1 Bulldogs travel to Philadelphia to meet Temple in a battle of top-20 teams. Tark and Owls coach John Chaney are longtime friends and met five times when Tark was at UNLV, with the Rebels winning four of the meetings.

Revenge is sweet

There was plenty of motivation for WAC schools and their opponents the last couple of weeks as it was payback time.

Utah, which got beat at home last year by Wake Forest, turned the tables on the Demon Deacons in Winston-Salem, N.C., Saturday with a 62-53 win. And Michigan, which lost to UNLV two years ago at the Thomas & Mack Center, settled the score by whipping the Rebels, 83-59.

Then there was a personal payback from Colorado State's Jameel Mahmoud, who had transferred from Nevada-Reno and came back to his old school to beat it with a 3-pointer. Mahmoud's bomb with five seconds gave the Rams a 63-60 win at Lawlor Events Center. Mahmoud scored 20 points in the Nov. 29 win.

Hoop du jour

* WAC LEADERS: It's not surprising to see a Texas Christian player atop the scoring race. Given TCU is averaging 119 points a game, you would expect Mike Jones to be at head of the class. And he is, averaging 29.2 points. Jones also leads the WAC in steals with 22. But the surprise is the second-place scorer. Former Chaparral star Jarmica Reese is averaging 26.4 for Air Force and has helped the Falcons get off to a 4-1 start. TCU has three of the WAC's top five scorers, including the No. 3 and No. 4 gunners, Lee Nailon at 24.5 and Malcolm Johnson at 22.3. Hawaii's Alika Smith rounds out the top five at 21.3. UNLV's Tyrone Nesby is seventh at 19.6. ... Fresno State's Tremaine Fowlkes leads the WAC in rebounding with 12 per game. UNLV's Kaspars Kambala is fourth at 10.6. ... Former Western star Prince Fowler leads the WAC and TCU in assists with a 7.5 average.

* KEON'S MISSED: It's obvious UNLV can use senior center Keon Clark. But nowhere is it more evident than in the WAC team stats. UNLV is dead last in blocked shots with nine in its first five games. Clark blocked 112 last year. The Rebels are next to last in scoring defense, allowing 78.8 points a game. Only San Jose State at 79 allows more. Clark's presence in the middle would help in that area too. ... San Jose State is winless at 0-5 and senior F Thomas Lowery quit the team last week. The Spartans' best chance at a win may come Wednesday when they host Sacramento State at the SJSU Event Center. After Sac. State, San Jose meets St. Mary's, Colorado State, Montana and Northern Arizona, all tough games.