New Mexico hoping to redeem shaky season

Steve Addy

Wednesday, March 6, 2002 | 10:26 a.m.

New Mexico has come to Las Vegas for a quickee divorce. The Lobos intend to liberate themselves from a season of headaches, infighting and frustration.

Starting against UNLV on Thursday night, if New Mexico can beat three opponents in the Mountain West tournament at the Thomas & Mack Center, it will put an unexpected happy ending on a conflicted 16-12 regular season.

An automatic NCAA tournament bid can do wonders to erase bad memories and ease pressure on an embattled coach. That's the kind of tonic the Lobos and coach Fran Fraschilla need, not only to redeem this season, but the foreseeable future of the program.

"With all of the adversity we've been through, there's nothing that can happen to us in the tournament that we haven't been prepared for," Fraschilla said.

Though the Lobos ended the regular season with losses at San Diego State and UNLV, there's reason for optimism this weekend, mainly because the players don't seem to have quit. They lost at second-place Utah 66-65 on Feb. 18, then beat league champ Wyoming 74-65 on Feb. 25 at home.

"The travails we've been through have strengthened us," Fraschilla said. "Our chemistry is the best it's been for a month. What I like about our team is they've been through everything, but they're holding their heads high."

Most of the problems surrounded the stormy relationship between Fraschilla and junior point guard Marlon Parmer, who clashed over on- and off-court matters. Parmer quit Jan. 22, saying he could no longer handle Fraschilla's negativity. He also said Fraschilla was "outcoached" in an 81-51 home loss to Utah.

While Fraschilla called Parmer's allegations "a bunch of baloney coming from a selfish kid with a selfish father," the public dissing match drew attention to the fact that over three seasons, nine players have left Fraschilla's program on unhappy terms.

Losing by 30 at The Pit didn't help. Fans in Albuquerque aren't accustomed to their beloved Lobos losing at home, whether by three or 30, but Fraschilla is 42-16 at The Pit since taking over in 1999. That 72.4 winning percentage hasn't endeared him to locals who saw the Lobos win 90 percent at home from 1992-99.

The season took an even stranger turn Feb. 9 at Air Force when starting center Pat Dennehy stormed off the court in the final minutes of a 47-44 loss. He went straight to the locker room and didn't return. Fraschilla called him "a young guy dealing with a medical situation."

"He doesn't handle stress as well as he will as he continues to mature," Fraschilla said.

The Lobos are 4-7 since Parmer left -- replacement Senque Carey doesn't have Parmer's point guard skills -- and 2-5 since the Dennehy incident, losing all five on the road. But three of the losses were by six points or fewer.

"We have actually played pretty well. But in this league, the road is unforgiving," Fraschilla said. "We aren't a great team, but we still feel confident in what we can accomplish. After the (loss Saturday at UNLV), we were ready to play them again 20 minutes later."

Rebels coach Charlie Spoonhour said, "I've known Fran forever, and his guys will come out and play harder than the devil."