HOUSTON -- Texas Southern University fired Ronnie Courtney
as T-S-U's men's basketball coach today.
T-S-U Athletic Director Alois Blackwell tells K-R-I-V T-V in
Houston that he's interested in hiring former Houston Rockets star
Calvin Murphy for the job.
Courtney told the station that he was shocked by the timing of
the move, coming late in the off-season.
Courtney's been the Tigers' head coach for six seasons,
compiling a 76-and-99 record. The highlight of his tenure came in
2003, when the Tigers won the Southwestern Athletic Conference
tournament and earned a bid to the N-C-A-A tourney.
Murphy played all of his 13-year N-B-A career with the Rockets.
He holds the N-B-A season record for highest free-throwing
percentage with point-958 in the 1980-81 season. He's a member of
the National Basketball Hall of Fame.
In December 2004, he was acquitted by a Harris County jury of
sexual abuse allegations lodged by five of his grown daughters.
Murphy's lawyers contended that the allegations by the grown women
stemmed from a dispute over money.