TCU has a chance to gain an exciting coach

Unsolicited advice for Texas Christian University honchos: Phone the Richardson Ranch up in the Arkansas hills. Ask for Nolan. Talk awhile.

You need a basketball coach to replace the departing Billy Tubbs ... why not pick up a rock and throw it through the biggest window in college basketball?

The gamble would be this: Did a 60-year-old hard-head learn a valuable lesson last week? That life doesn't have to be all about black and white? That all successful African-American coaches have found an in-between? I don't know those answers. There is even one report still circulating in Arkansas that Richardson plans to sue the university, using a high-octane civil-rights attorney out of Little Rock. If so, he can forget ever working again at a major-college program.

But what if Nolan could come to Fort Worth and tone it down a tad? Not go mellow on us -- that wouldn't be Nolan. But at least eliminate the constant whining about race, race, race, and just recruit and coach and still be his proud self?

Then you'd have something good. Really, really good.RANDY GALLOWAY

Fort Worth Star-Telegram