Chaotic pace follows Richardson to Mexico

Nolan Richardson looked like one of those guys who help direct jets onto the tarmac before takeoff. Confident in his guidance, positive in his approach, dressed entirely in blue.

The only thing missing was a pair of earmuffs and a few of those hand batons they wave back and forth. No worries. Had the Puerto Rico basketball team been a Southwest flight Wednesday afternoon, it would have been grounded before any real noise dispensed.

World rankings insist this was a big upset in the FIBA Americas Championship at the Thomas & Mack Center: Mexico 100, Puerto Rico 89. World rankings don't take into account how teams coached by Richardson are known to drive opponents beyond the maximum levels of fatigue. World rankings tend to be like FIBA referees. Laughable.

Mexican federation officials believe Richardson is the one who can lead their national team to its first Olympic Games since 1972, who can apply his chaotic style to a group of players who always have thought of running as that thing you do from the arena to the bus in a rainstorm.

"It has always been a team to stand around and shoot 3-pointers and slow the game down," said former UNLV wing Romel Beck, eligible to play for Mexico because he was born there. "I guess this is a new era."

It's a new language: Cuarenta minutos de infierno.

It's the same concept: Forty minutes of hell.

It was more like this Wednesday: Forty minutes of heck.

But it was quick enough to beat a Puerto Rico team with two NBA players, one -- Carlos Arroyo -- who was so awful, he was benched over the game's final several minutes with the outcome not yet decided.

They say Richardson has lost 20 pounds since his final days at Arkansas went bad, yet it looks as if he dropped 50. He was fired in 2002, eight years after delivering the Razorbacks a national title.

But what excess he might have shed around the waistline, Richardson seems to have regained in his passion for teaching the idea of pushing a ball down the other guy's throat and then giving up layups for the enjoyment of regaining possession.

He doesn't tell you coaching Mexico always has been a dream merely for the predictable sound bite. It's true. He was born and raised in El Paso, the first black student and only black player at Bowie High when schools were integrated in 1955.

He played at Bowie, later coached there, went 180-90 in 10 years without having a player taller than 5 feet 11 inches. Then his career took off, and the game became faster at each of his stops.

"I've never tried to match my offense against yours, to come down and run my little plays and set my picks and then it's your turn," Richardson said. "That's a chess match. I don't want to play you in chess. I want you to play like me, because I know I play that way better.

"Wear and tear. Wear and tear. Wear and tear. That will always be my style. I want the game to be ugly, for you not to have any idea what we're running.

"When we started this process in May, the players thought I was a nut. We had two-a-day practices for eight straight days. I'd say they were at about 30 percent of the shape I wanted. I worked them hard. They found out what this game is about.

"Now, we still haven't done anything. We have a ways to go. But we're hoping to change the attitude about basketball in Mexico."

It's a fun team to watch that gambles on the court more than anyone at local tables. It's not a great team. The center, Horacio Llamas, prefers to shoot 3s more than venture inside and resembles former Arkansas player Oliver Miller in his tubby appearance.

(How do you say lummox in Spanish -- lummicito?)

But it's also a team that should play well to the 24-second shot clock and eight-second advancement of the ball rule in international play, which helped the team ranked 34th open this tournament by beating the one ranked 13th.

It's the kind of slow but obvious progress those federation officials envisioned when they approached the 66-year-old coach whose resume also includes a junior college national championship and three NCAA Final Fours.

"I've been part of the Mexican culture my entire life," Richardson said. "I knew if they called me, I would want to help."

Plus, he gets to wear that nifty blue outfit.

Ed Graney's column is published Wednesday, Thursday, Saturday and Sunday. He can be reached at 383-4618 or egraney@reviewjournal.com.