WAC commissioner acts on officiating comments

Steve Carp

Tuesday, Feb. 10, 1998 | 11:58 a.m.

For at least one coach, it may have come too late. But WAC commissioner Karl Benson reminded his 16 bench bosses as well as their bosses, the athletic directors, that derogatory comments about officiating will not be tolerated.

During a Tuesday conference call, Benson reiterated to the coaches and A.D.'s what he told the media last week -- that there is not an officiating crisis in the WAC. However, some of the coaches begged to differ, most notably Texas-El Paso's Don Haskins.

The Hall of Fame coach had made some remarks criticizing the officiating following the Miners' loss to Wyoming. During Tuesday's call, he blasted supervisor of officials Bobby Dibler, accusing the WAC of calling games tighter in El Paso because Dibler happens to live there.

The Bear had statistics to back up his allegations. He claims that from 1987-92, UTEP was a plus-95 at home from the foul line and a plus-27 on the road. From 1992-98, the Miners had shot only eight more free throws at home than their opponents while on the road, the other team took 247 more shots.

Dibler, who was on the conference call, did not reply to Haskins' charges. The argument apparently didn't hold water with Benson. All it did was get Haskins in more hot water as Benson suspended The Bear for Thursday's UTEP-Air Force game at Colorado Springs.

Haskins will be back on the bench for Saturday's game against UNLV at the Thomas & Mack Center.

"Coach Haskins has been suspended for violation of the conference code," Benson said. "He made some postgame remarks after the Wyoming game that violated the code and he had already been reprimanded for bumping an official two weeks prior."

New Mexico's Dave Bliss also may face sanctions for remarks he made to the Albuquerque Tribune Monday. He called Benson "the worst commissioner in America" for his response to the Feb. 1 Utah-New Mexico game, where the Utes' Andre Miller was fouled in the final minute and no call was made.

Benson last week told the Albuquerque Journal that the refs blew the play and a foul should have been called on the Lobos' Royce Olney. That set off a firestorm at UNM, with athletic director Rudy Davalos and president Dr. Richard Peck blasting Benson for his comments.

Benson said he has worked things out with the New Mexico administration and he has moved on, with the exception of probably reprimanding Bliss. That should happen today.

Shields reprimanded

Bliss did a little reprimanding of his own Monday following an incident early Sunday morning in downtown Albuquerque involving Clayton Shields, the Lobos' leading scorer.

Shields, along with redshirt teammates Roland Hannah and Damion Walker, UNM recruit John Robinson and former UNM football player Kevin Ned were stopped by police for suspicion of firing a gun on a downtown street.

Ned and Shields were holding weapons and Ned allegedly fired a shot from a .22-caliber handgun. Shields, who was in possession of a 9mm Glock, did not discharge his weapon.

Though the five were removed from the Jeep Cherokee and temporarily handcuffed while the vehicle was searched, no arrests were made and no one was injured.

Bliss said even though Shields committed no crime other than using poor judgement, he put the 6-foot-8 senior on notice that any more incidents will result in dismissal from the team.

"Right now, I've placed him on probation with the intention that he gives us the weapon to keep for him until he leaves school," Bliss said.

Shields said in a prepared statement he made a mistake.

Hoop du jour

* TITLE SPONSOR FOR TOURNEY: Qwest Communications of Denver has signed on as title sponsor of the WAC men's and women's basketball tournament, to be held March 3-7 at the Thomas & Mack Center. The three-year agreement is worth $250,000 annually to the conference.

* MAJERUS MUSCLE: Not that he needs to worry about defending himself, but Utah's Rick Majerus is taking nothing to chance when his fifth-ranked Utes travel to Laramie Thursday for what figures to be an emotionally charged game against Wyoming. Majerus will be accompanied by a Utah state trooper to the Arena-Auditorium as an added precaution. In the first game Jan. 17, Majerus and Wyoming coach Larry Shyatt nearly came to blows after Shyatt, upset over the physical play at the Huntsman Center, allegedly threatened to have his players deliberately injure Majerus' guys. Shyatt claims his comment was misconstrued but Majerus isn't buying it. WAC commissioner Karl Benson will attend the rematch at the Double-A Thursday.

Rating the WAC

SUN basketball writer Steve Carp's weekly WAC basketball rankings: