run at Weber State. He had built Weber State into a regional power, and was equally successful at New Mexico State. For most of McCarthy's tenure, the Aggies were the second-best team in the Big West, behind UNLV. McCarthy led the Aggies to four straight regular season and tournament titles, including the 1992 Sweet Sixteen run. Academic Scandal The 1992 Sweet Sixteen run, along with two other NCAA runs in the early 1990s, was scrubbed from the books in 1996 when the NCAA found several players from that team received help on correspondence courses from a coach. Six Aggie players were found to have received help. Without those courses, the players would not have been eligible. The McCarthy era came to a sudden and abrupt end just weeks before the 1997–98 season when new athletic director Jim Paul stripped him of coaching duties, citing the team's poor academic performance. Only nine of McCarthy's players had graduated in 12 years, including only one in the last four. McCarthy was originally supposed to serve as an assistant athletic director for the balance of his contract, but instead sued NMSU for wrongful termination—a move that would come back to haunt the school later. In 2000, the Aggies were rocked again by a scandal from the McCarthy era. McCarthy had promised to hire a junior college coach as an assistant coach in return for bringing two of his top players to Las Cruces. That coach, Fletcher Cockrell, helped the two players with coursework and exams. The school placed the basketball program on two years' probation and withdrew from postseason consideration during the 2000–01 season. The NCAA imposed an additional four years' probation and forced the Aggies to vacate McCarthy's last season and the first season of Henson's second stint. The NCAA said that the penalties would have been even harsher if the school's former president, the former athletic director and McCarthy had still been at the school. Lou Henson's 2nd run (1997–2004) Henson was lured from retirement to coach the team on an interim basis for the 1997–98 season after McCarthy's ouster. He initially came back because he wanted to help the Aggies during their search for a new head coach. Henson wanted to donate his time, but state law forbade him from coaching the program for free. He ultimately settled for $1 per month. The following season Henson agreed to stay on as