Look who's behind the mike as the Lady Lobos play.

As the University of New Mexico women's basketball team try to overcome their 12-seed ranking and knock off 5-seed Florida Saturday night in a first-round NCAA Women's Tournament game in Tucson, former UNM men's coach Fran Fraschilla will be broadcasting the game, along with Ron Franklin and Alex Flanagan, for ESPN2 and ESPNU (whatever that is).

No doubt coach Fran, who was fired by UNM in 2002 and replaced with current coach Ritchie McDay, will be a perfect gentleman and not let any lingering animus color his commentary as the underdog Lady Lobos tip off around 8:30 p.m. Saturday at McKale Center in Tucson.

Of course if you want to be sure of some home cookin', you can listen to Mike Roberts and Hazel Tull-Leach on KNML-AM, 610 on your dial.

If you read Mark Smith's story Wednesday on Ritchie McKay's intention to stay as UNM's men's head basketball coach, you saw there's not much love lost for Fraschilla among UNM honchos.

UNM Regents president Jamie Koch couldn't even remember Fran's name, saying ol' whats-his-name "really hurt the program and ability to recruit."

Isn't this the kind of thing you put up on bulletin boards before the game ... even for broadcasters?

Well, according to Rick Wright in this morning's Albuquerque Journal, at least one women's basketball analyst likes the Lady Lobos' chances.

Hall of Famer Nancy Lieberman said on an ESPN Web site that she sees the UNM-Florida as the most likely upset among first-round games.

UNM, Lieberman said, is "better than its seed would indicate," are "a fun team to watch" and Coach Don Flanagan "knows his stuff."

And, she went on to say, they're motivated to win two games and get back to the regional semifinals at The Pit.

All we can say is that we hope this isn't a jinx.

The NCAA tourney 5-12 matchups are certainly no strangers to upsets ... look at what Texas A&M did to Syracuse last night on the men's side.

But when we think of getting back to The Pit for a coast into the Final Four, we can't help remembering that time back in the `70s when Norm Ellenberger's Lobos got shocked by Cal State Fullerton and some guy who wore goggles shot the Lobos' lights out.

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