The Port Arthur News
BEAUMONT —
BEAUMONT – After leading Lamar to three conference basketball titles
and two NCAA Tournament appearances, Lamar University’s Billy Tubbs was named
the head coach for the decade of the 1970s as released by the Southland
Conference on Monday.
In addition to Tubbs being named the coach of the decade, former Cardinal stars Luke Adams
(1969-71) and Clarence Kea (1976-80) were selected to the Southland Conference
1970s All-Decade Men’s Basketball Team. The 20-man team consists of 12 NBA
draft picks, including three first-round selections, 10 conference players of
the year and four three-time first-team all-conference selections.
Tubbs coached the Cardinals from 1976-80 before becoming the head coach at
Oklahoma. During the two years in the NCAA tournament, Lamar picked up
wins over No. 17 ranked Detroit, No. 17 Weber State and No. 5 Oregon State, with the latter earning the Cardinals a trip to the Sweet 16 in 1980.
As the head coach at Lamar, Tubbs
posted a 75-46 overall recorded with a 31-9 mark in conference play. His teams won 30 consecutive home games of a streak that would eventually stretch to 80 straight wins in Beaumont. He would
later return to coach at Lamar from 2004-06.
Tubbs played two years at Lamar under Jack Martin, who last week shared SLC Coach of the Decade honors for the 1960s with Abilene Christian’s Dee Nutt.
Adams, a 6-7 forward from LaBelle, Fla., played just two seasons for the Cardinals, but was named first-team all-conference twice and was the Southland Conference Player of the Year in
1971. In 48 games in a Cardinal uniform, Adams averaged 19.3 points and 10.7
rebounds per game. As a senior, he posted averages of 23.0 points and 11.1
rebounds per game.
Kea, a burly, intimidating 6-6 center, played four seasons for the Cardinals, earning first-team all-conference honors once and second-team accolades twice. Kea finished his career with
1,814 career points and is the school’s all-time leading rebounder with 1,143
rebounds. He had four games with at least 20 rebounds and is one of only two
players in school history with more than 1,000 points and rebounds.
In addition to the selection of the 20 all-decade players, one of the picks,
Dwight “Bo” Lamar (1971-73) of Louisiana-Lafayette, was selected as the
player of the decade after he was a two-time all-conference selection, the 1972
Southland Conference Player of the Year and a third-round NBA draft pick by the
Detroit Pistons.
Lamar led the Ragin’ Cajuns to two conference titles, two
NCAA tournament appearances and two tournament wins. In 1972, he led the league
in scoring with 1,054 points (36.6 points per game), which still ranks as the
most points in a single-season in Southland history.
Lamar was the conference’s most prolific scorer, holding the conference record for most field goals made in a game (23), season (429) and career (1,445) along with the record for most career points (3,493) and highest scoring average (31.2).
The Columbus, Ohio, native still holds four of the top 10 single-game scoring
records and two of the top five single-season scoring records. In the
Southland’s record books, Lamar’s name still appears 14 times.
To best assess the candidate pool for the all-decade team, the Southland
Conference developed a metric that analyzed numerous elements of a
student-athlete’s performance and value within the league at the time.
Most notably, the conference honored “real-time” factors such as all-conference
selection by coaches and a player’s statistical performance among his peers at
the time.
Further, other components of selection including a player’s effort
toward helping his team win a championship or finish near the top of the
conference, whether he earned individual honors from the league, if he
participated in postseason tournaments, and if he was drafted by the NBA or ABA
at the time.
Southland Conference 1970s All-Decade team
Name School Years P Ht. Hometown
Luke Adams Lamar 1970-72 F 6-7 LaBelle, Fla.
John Belcher ASU 1968-72 C 6-9 Hot Springs, Ark.
Steve Brooks ASU 1969-74 C 6-9 St. Louis
Roy Ebron USL 1971-73 C 6-9 Norfolk, Va.
Mike Green La. Tech 1971-73 C 6-10 McComb, Miss.
Ronnie Hearne ACC 1968-71 G 6-3 Millsap, Texas
Dan Henderson ASU 1973-77 F 6-8 Memphis
Jerry Johnson UTA 1972-75 F 6-6 Bullard, Texas
Clarence Kea Lamar 1976-80 C 6-6 Wilmington, N.C.
Victor King La. Tech 1975-79 C 6-9 Newellton, La
Bo Lamar USL 1971-73 G 6-1 Columbus, Ohio
David Lawrence MSU 1976-80 C 6-10 Lake Charles
Edmond Lawrence MSC 1972-76 C 6-11 Lake Charles
Mike McConathy La. Tech 1973-77 G 6-2 Bossier City, La.
Allen Pruiett ASU 1969-71 G 6-3 Rector, Ark.
Henry Ray MSU 1972-75 G 6-3 Alexandria, La.
John Rudd MSU 1974-78 F 6-7 DeRidder, La.
Don Scaife ASU 1972-75 G 6-2 Helena, Ark.
Andrew Toney USL 1976-80 G 6-3 Birmingham, Ala.
Lanky Wells La. Tech 1973-77 F 6-6 Little Rock, Ark.
