Christopher Hanewinckel-USA TODAY Sports
The New Mexico Lobos have had a pretty wild offseason so far. Their former coach, Steve Alford, left the school for “greener pastures”, then got caught up in a scandal in which his vetting process brought some less than flattering things out for the public to see. Since New Mexico also had to vet Alford, people assumed that the Lobos knew about his indiscretions the whole time — which, possibly wrongly, makes the university also look poor.
Then the school hired Craig Neal. The move is actually a pretty solid hire in the eyes of most of the people who follow college hoops are concerned. Heck, even since he has taken over Neal has done a great job to stabilize the program as best he can while trying to push past the Alford leaving the program debacle.
Since Neal has come in, he has got his son, Cullen Neal, to come to the program with him. Cullen is a pretty high-rated prospect that can help the Lobos out immediately when he joins the team. Still, not everything in the offseason has been so swell as family situations go.
Neal’s wife, Janet Neal, has been accused of “battery” by her son’s high school assistant principle. Mother Neal has already claimed that these allegations are untrue and that she will battle whatever charges may be thrown at her in court if need be.
While the allegations may be false or can prove to be more troublesome down the road does not really matter. It has already given Neal’s start that star-crossed feel to it. Although, end the end of the day, if Neal helps bring in more top-notch recruits, has his team play above-expectations during the upcoming season and helps further the program as one of the better ones in the nation this little mishap will all but be forgotten in a few months.
To say the New Mexico offseason — or more accurately Neal’s — hasn’t had a dull moment would be one of the biggest understatements of the year.
Joe is a Senior Writer for Rant Sports. Follow him on Twitter @JosephNardone
