In This Family, Blood Is Thicker Than Kentucky Blue

Who do you root for when it is your brother vs. your school?

Or, to put it another way, which is thicker: Blood or Blue?

Merion Haskins doesn’t even hesitate.

“You know blood is thicker,” he said with a laugh. “There’s no question.”

So, when the school for which Merion Haskins played college basketball - Kentucky - faces the team coached by his brother Clem - Minnesota - Merion Haskins’ support will lie firmly with the Golden Gophers.

“When the bracket came out, I looked at it and saw this possibility,” said Merion Haskins, a Kentucky forward from 1973 to 1977 and now a manager for the Philip Morris Tobacco Co. “I said ‘Uh-oh. Uh-oh.’

“I wanted to see both teams go as far as they could go. I picked them where they are in my bracket. But, now, I have to make a choice. I want to see my brother win it.”

Razorbacks take long way home

Things went from bad to worse for Arkansas’ basketball team. The Razorbacks lost their last game of the season in the NIT, and then got lost on the way back to Arkansas.

The pilot of the charter plane flying the team home from New York mistakenly landed at the wrong airport.

The Boeing 727 touched down at a small airport in Springdale, Ark., some 12 miles north of where it was supposed to land.

“Everybody in the plane knew we were at the wrong airport except the pilot,” Rick Schaeffer, the Arkansas sports information director, said. “But everybody was pretty calm. That’s all you could do.”

Eventually, the 137 weary passengers - basketball players, cheerleaders, boosters, the school band and alumni - carried their luggage across the runway, regrouped on buses and headed back to the Fayetteville airport, where the plane was supposed to land and where they had parked their vehicles.

FSU’s Collins leads East stars

A hectic 24 hours for Florida State’s James Collins ended Friday night as he got 20 points and six assists, earning most valuable player honors as the East defeated the West 105-94 in the annual NABC All-Star game at Indianapolis.

Collins hustled to the game after scoring 20 points in Florida State’s 82-73 loss to Michigan in the NIT title game.

Coaching update

Bill Herrion of Drexel turned down the job as basketball coach at Rutgers on Friday, less than 24 hours after being offered the position.

Several coaches have expressed interest in the job, including Pat Kennedy of Florida State and Tim Welsh of Iona.

Indiana State hired former Bob Knight assistant Royce Waltman as its basketball coach, hoping he can duplicate his success at two small-college programs in Indiana.

Waltman’s University of Indianapolis team finished the season ranked No. 3 in NCAA Division II. He had similar success at DePauw.