Alford feels heat from Lobos’ flop

New Mexico basketball coach Steve Alford isn't handling his team's collapse well.

On Monday's Mountain West Conference teleconference, Alford vaguely insinuated that San Diego Union-Tribune reporter Mark Zeigler conspired with Albuquerque (N.M.) Journal writer Mark Smith to question him about keeping his team on the road for nearly a week.

Smith later told Alford the writers hadn't spoken about the Lobos' travel issues.

"I thought he was a friend of yours," Alford said several times, sounding sarcastic. He called Smith "a piece of work."

Could've been worse. Alford could've called Smith a piece of something else.

Most people don't care about tiffs between coaches and the media, but this one should matter to Lobos fans. It's about a coach feeling frustrated after he had the MWC title in his hand only to suffer losses at Colorado State and Texas Christian.

Alford should be taken to task for not taking his team back to Albuquerque after its Feb. 21 loss at Colorado State. He instead flew from Denver to Dallas/Fort Worth, Texas.

Alford said weather conditions prevented the Lobos from returning to Albuquerque, which is interesting because Smith made it back home. The NBA-like travel appeared to tire the Lobos, whose loss to TCU allowed UNLV and San Diego State to catch New Mexico for first place.

That led to Monday's teleconference spat, which the Mountain West deleted from the replay. The conference also removed San Diego State coach Steve Fisher's criticism last season of Wyoming for firing coach Heath Schroyer, now a UNLV assistant.

A good thing for the MWC its teleconferences don't include the media. Oh, wait ...

■ DON'T DO IT AGAIN (WINK, WINK) -- It's like the kid in school who beats up the bully and the teachers and principal pretend to be mad about it.

NASCAR tweeted it would not penalize Brad Keselowski for taking to Twitter during Monday night's/Tuesday morning's Daytona 500, but it didn't want drivers putting anyone in harm's way.

Interestingly, NASCAR's prior tweet was how it made seven of Twitter's top 10 trending topics.

Yes, the NASCAR suits are thrilled with the attention they have received, and Keselowski played a part in that, tripling his followers to more than 200,000. He tweeted photos from his car of Juan Pablo Montoya's fiery crash into a safety vehicle as well as his thoughts during the resulting two-hour delay, noting he probably offered the "first tweet from a car on the track in Daytona 500 history."

■ AND THE WINNER ISN'T -- Roberto De Vicenzo famously lost the 1968 Masters after signing an incorrect scorecard. He then uttered, "What a stupid I am."

Runner Scott Downard can relate. He finished first in Sunday's Cowtown Marathon in Fort Worth by more than six minutes but failed to register for the race. Downard used the racing bib of a friend who couldn't make the event.

The Fort Worth Star- Telegram reported Downard took the news well and said he would compete in next year's run. The paper didn't quote him saying, "What a stupid I am."

COMPILED BY MARK ANDERSON LAS VEGAS REVIEW-JOURNAL