Supported by great boss, Tubbs set to turn things at Lamar

Lamar coach Billy Tubbs is awfully playful for age 69 -- or however old he is. During an interview last week with SportsLine.com, he wouldn't give his age, but not because he's uncooperative or a jerk. He's neither.

Tubbs apparently is as young as he feels, and judging from that phone call, he feels pretty young. In a 30-minute conversation, Tubbs let on he occasionally will play 54 holes of golf one day and run 3 miles the next, and he carried on a running joke about the wonderful relationship he has with his athletics director at Lamar.

A monster recruiting class could make Billy Tubbs' Lamar team an NCAA Cinderella.(Getty Images)

"Best AD I ever had," he said of Lamar athletics director Billy Tubbs.

Judging from his most recent recruiting class, Tubbs' age -- whatever it is -- is working for him. According to Hoop Scoop recruiting analyst Clark Francis, Lamar's newcomer list for the 2004-05 season is ranked third in the country, just behind Memphis and Kentucky, and just ahead of Oklahoma State, Florida, Kansas and UCLA.

No wonder Tubbs is so playful.

"I might just coach forever," he cackled.

Actually, Tubbs might not stay as long as his first stint at Lamar, which he coached from 1977-80. That prediction comes from here, not from Tubbs, though he did say he will bequeath the program to an assistant once he returns Lamar to basketball relevance.

The way he's recruiting, that'll be sooner than later.

"As soon as we restore this," Tubbs said, "there will be a staff member from within promoted."

Tubbs wouldn't name him, but it's recruiting ace Steve Roccaforte, a 1989 Lamar alum and ex-Memphis assistant. Roccaforte organized Lamar's recruiting efforts, young assistants Brandon Aldrich and Kenyon Spears provided additional energy, and Tubbs sealed the deal in living rooms and coaches' offices all over the southern United States.

Result? A whopper of a class, a nine-player group in the first year since the NCAA stopped limiting schools to five signees in a year. Lamar's class is anchored by four junior-college transfers, including stud 6-foot-7 wing Alan Daniels of Tulsa.

Tubbs dreams of Candyland coming to Beaumont, Texas.

"If we win the national championship next year, I'm through," he said. "Then again, with this group, I could probably win it again (in 2006). No, seriously, I think (retirement) is a possibility if we got to the Sweet 16 next year, but then again, if I felt we might advance farther the next year, I'd probably stick around.

"I'm probably going to stick around as long as Eddie Sutton and John Chaney. I may coach forever."

He's not going to win the national championship, but Tubbs' resume has earned him the right to dream. Based on winning percentage or NCAA Tournament appearances, he has been the most successful coach at Lamar and Oklahoma (1981-94), and from 1995-2002, he became TCU's winningest coach since the Depression.

Although Tubbs prefers other comparisons -- like Gonzaga, Creighton, Southern Illinois and Tulsa -- don't be surprised if Lamar becomes this season's UTEP. The Miners went 6-24 in coach Billy Gillispie's debut in 2002-03, but a monster recruiting class led by junior collegians enabled UTEP go 24-8 and reach the 2004 NCAA Tournament.

Last year, Tubbs' first season after he replaced Mike Deane, Lamar went 11-18. However, a monster recruiting class led by junior collegians has the Cardinals poised to leap up the Southland Conference ladder.

Tubbs didn't expect to be here. Two months into retirement after the 2001-02 season, Lamar asked Tubbs, a 1958 graduate, to become athletics director. The basketball program, a leading source of revenue for the school and the pride of Beaumont, was floundering. Deane had led the Cardinals to a surprise appearance in the 2000 NCAA Tournament, their first since 1983, but Lamar went just 52-62 in his four seasons.

"It was a major rebuilding job," Deane said of the task awaiting him in 2000.

After Lamar went 13-14 in 2002-03, Tubbs said, school president James Simmons asked him to take over the program. Tubbs says replacing Deane wasn't on his mental radar when he became Lamar's athletics director.

"Absolutely not. I didn't want to replace Mike," he said. "I didn't feel like I had to coach again, and I really enjoyed being just athletics director. I came back as AD as a service to Lamar, (but) the president asked me to step in and be the basketball coach. I'd a lot rather that Mike Deane had success.

"It's really immaterial to me who's running the program as long as it thrives. We just had 10 or so years where we were mediocre, and that's not what Lamar basketball is all about."

Deane, the former Marquette coach about to start his second season at Wagner, said he wasn't surprised to be replaced by Tubbs.

"I knew when Coach Tubbs came on campus that if we were not successful, whether he wanted to coach or not, that would be bandied about by people close to the program," Deane said. "My contract was going to be honored. I was going to be reassigned.

"But we're very fortunate to be at Wagner, and I don't have any bad feelings."

Indeed, when Tubbs won his 600th career game early last season, Deane sent a congratulatory note.

Tubbs could add another 20 or so victories this season to his current total of 606. Lamar's schedule will help, with Tubbs bringing in a handful of beatable teams to fatten a non-conference schedule that will include Tulsa, Houston and Rice.

Lamar could have gone on the road to play some of the region's top teams. But why?

"We're not doing the 'big buyer' games. We want to be the buyer, not the team that's bought," Tubbs said, seriously, before spitting out the punch line.

"Our athletics director said we'd never have to be a sacrificial lamb."