Coach calls foul over use of ‘thug’
Fan’s insult halts Lobos game; has it become a racist term?
Was this a case of political correctness run amok? Or is “thug” a racially charged word that should be off limits in the sports arena?
Fresno State men’s basketball coach Rodney Terry wasn’t about to let such an insult directed at his team by a University of New Mexico fan pass without a response — even in the heat of competition when opposing fans hurling insults and heckling is commonplace.
He says he doesn’t have “thugs” in his program.
Terry, a black coach with a predominantly black team, did not say whether he felt the word was racially charged, but his immediate and emotional reaction made it clear the uttered word touched a nerve during Wednesday night’s game against the Lobos at the Pit.
“I’ve got a team where I think we do everything the right way, both on and off the court the right way,” Terry told the Journal after the game, a 78-73 Lobos victory. “We’ve got a class group. We do things the right way . ... We don’t have thugs. I’ve got good guys in our program. We graduate guys. We don’t have thugs. I’m never
FRESNO, Calif. — Getting there was no picnic, but the University of New Mexico women’s basketball team thoroughly enjoyed its visit to Fresno State’s Save Mart Center on Thursday night.
Cherise Beynon scored a game-high 20 points with nine rebounds and six assists to spark the Lobos to a stunning 80-54 victory over the Bulldogs in a Mountain West Conference opener. It was UNM’s first road win of the season and its first in Fresno since 1999.
Alex Lapeyrolerie chipped in 19 points off the bench, and Richelle van der Keijl added 16 points for UNM (5-6, 1-0), which never trailed in the contest. The Lobos shot 49 percent from the field and outrebounded the Bulldogs
(7-5, 0-1) by a 49-29 margin.
The 80 points scored by New Mexico were the second most allowed by
Fresno State this season
(then-No. 13 Washington scored 85). The Bulldogs came in averaging 57.2 points allowed per game.
“We made shots,” Lobo coach Mike Bradbury said in a postgame phone interview, “but the biggest thing was we were able to push the pace. That meant getting stops and getting rebounds, and we did both of those things really well.”
The win eased some of the pain of UNM’s 14-hour trip to Fresno on Wednesday. It included six hours of flight delays, which caused the cancellation of a scheduled Lobo practice at the Save Mart Center.
“Brutal,” Bradbury said. “Worst trip ever, but at least it ended on a high note.”