Albuquerque is a basketball town. With no major sports teams in the area, almost everyone pulls for the University of New Mexico teams. We bleed Lobo red. The football team has improved in the last decade but still hasn't won a bowl game in my lifetime. We are very forgiving for lousy football, or volleyball, or tennis, or golf, or soccer, although each of those sports has had their share of success. Basketball is a different beast.

Both the men's & women's Lobo basketball teams started out with an awful 0-3 start to conference play. I chalk this up to the record snow fall around New Year's (biggest snow in fifty years). While the girls rebounded to post a current 9-4 record, good for third place in the conference, the men have sunk lower and lower. The team has a McDonald's All-American, a Juco All-American, a quality three point specialist, and all the position players needed to make a run, but they have floundered to a 4-10 conference record and sit second to last in the league.

This week, the hammer dropped, and the coach was fired effective immediately after the season is over. Welcome to lame duck Lobo basketball. Coach Ritchie McKay has been the Lobos coach for the last five years, and he had one glorious year in 2005. Mainly because he had one glorious player. He recruited Danny Granger, who was disgruntled with his former school and became a Lobo. During his senior season, the Lobos rose to a 26-7 record, a Mountain West Tournament championship, and a first round tournament loss in the NCAA tournament. Granger became a first round NBA draft pick and now plays regularly for the Indiana Pacers.

For a town as fanatical as they are about Lobo basketball, you would think UNM would have had some success in the big tournament, but the Lobos have never made the coveted Sweet 16, let alone the Final Four. The closest they ever came was when the Charles Smith-led Lobos came within a final shot of beating Louisville. For all you bettors out there, the Lobos almost always come up short in the big games. It's tradition!

There have been very few big games for the Lobos this year. After becoming the losing team against Texas Tech for Bob Knight's record breaking win (UNM missed a shot at the buzzer to win), things have gone from bad to worse. Never a great road team, the Lobos could barely win at home this year. Even when they beat a mediocre Wyoming team at home, a fight broke out and one of our players got suspended. It's been U-G-L-Y, and we ain't got no alibi.

McKay becomes the fall guy, but let's not shed a tear. He made half a million dollars a year and had three years left on his contract. For one glorious year, he received a few million smackers. He recruited talent, but he never proved to be a quality coach. I'm not sure how that works, but apparently, it occurs on a regular basis.

The new cry is 'Who will be the coach?' and everyone from Nolan Richardson (from Arkansas fame) to local favorite Micheal Cooper are already vying for the job. The new coach will probably make around one million a year. The philosophy seems to be spend more to make a winning team. Basketball may be a world-wide sport now, but the mentality is still very much American. Shoot 'til you miss.

I won't miss Coach McKay. Much like I didn't miss Coach Bliss, who went on to basketball infamy when he tried to cover up a murder of one of his players at Baylor. Yikes! It's an nasty business, this college basketball. But it's also painful rooting for a losing team of your alma mater. I bleed Lobo red, and the wounds have not healed in many a year.

So as everyone gears up for March Madness this year, just remember that some of us had our hearts broken before the month even started. Last night, the team vowed to win one for the coach for a road game in Utah, and the Lobos lost in triple overtime. Game over, man. Game over.

Oh yeah, just wait 'til next year!

Chris Jungle still has hope for the Lady Lobos.