Less than a year removed from one of the more memorable moments in the history of New Mexico State men’s basketball, we stand on the precipice of what could be (and should be) a hard reboot for a program in disarray.
The Aggies stole the national spotlight March 17, stunning No. 5 seed UConn in the opening round of the NCAA Tournament. They nearly parlayed that into a Sweet 16 appearance, pushing Arkansas to the limit before their ballyhooed exit.
On Friday, they stole the spotlight again, this time with the shocking news the school was suspending the team’s operations pending allegations of hazing among the players. Saturday’s game at California Baptist was canceled and there’s no indication the Aggies will be on the court again any time soon.
Common sense tells us this wasn’t the standard, “Go fetch my coffee and carry my bags, kid,” kind of hazing. A police report was said to have been filed, indicating there’s something far worse going on.
At least one player has already pulled the ejection handle. Freshman guard Shahar Lazar announced on Twitter he was entering the transfer portal, writing: “Having served several years in the Israeli military, I was raised on the values of excellence, discipline, respect, reliability and accountability. However, in retrospect, I don’t believe the program that I originally committed to currently aligns with my beliefs and core values.”
Ouch.
As the details of what led to NMSU’s bombshell decision inevitably come out, it’s sure to paint a picture of chaos within a program that, for years, has served as the gold standard of the state’s love affair with basketball. NMSU had supplanted its upstate rival in Albuquerque as the dominant program, one that routinely shone on the national stage with trips to the big dance and celebratory net-cutting ceremonies for winning WAC titles.
The wins produced the usual pitfalls. Bigger schools made a habit of luring coaches away with promises of more money and greater opportunity. Reggie Theus bolted for the NBA, Marvin Menzies for the bright lights of Las Vegas, Nev., Paul Weir to the Lobos and Chris Jans to the SEC.
Athletic director Mario Moccia took a chance on Greg Heiar, a junior college coach who had never sat in the big chair of a Division I program. To say it’s been an abject failure would be an understatement, one that might well cost Moccia his job and put the program into an uncontrollable spin for the rest of the season.
How did it get to this point? The blame is on Heiar but it starts with Moccia. The AD handed the keys to the kingdom to a man who, in no time at all, has skippered the Aggies into last place of a conference it routinely dominates.
Attendance at home games is cratering, the annual rivalry with UNM is on hold and (cough, cough) one of his players, Mike Peake, shot and killed a UNM student during a November road trip to Albuquerque — just weeks after a brawl during a Lobos-Aggies football game in Las Cruces said to involve a number of student-athletes triggered the entire thing.
Four basketball players were disciplined in connection with the shooting, three of whom were still on the active roster.
In a matter of months, NMSU has become the very definition of a renegade program, its glaring lack of leadership becoming the focal point. Video of Heiar stumbling his way through a conversation with a state police officer the morning of Peake’s shooting hints of a man who is in over his head, one who is either woefully ignorant of his players’ actions or complicit in them.
It’s unclear if these latest findings are worthy of a self-imposed death penalty for the rest of the season, but the fact the school was willing to pull the plug and suspend the coaches before the details came out is an indication of how ugly things are about to become.
Will Webber is the sports editor at The New Mexican. Email him at wwebber@sfnew
The Santa Fe New Mexican observes its 175th anniversary with a series highlighting some of the major stories and figures that have appeared in the paper's pages through its history.
