There are several different kinds of sports fans that I regard as asses.

One is the Chatty Cathy who bores innocent people with unsolicited talk about his team when the wins are piling up, but then turns silent as a cloistered monk when that team is losing.

With that in mind, I would like to pipe up about my alma mater's 2011-2012 basketball campaign.

I'll have you know that Northern Arizona won its opening game of the Big Sky Conference regular season schedule. And then the Lumber People -- as my wife once called them when she couldn't come up with "Lumberjacks" -- briskly lost the remaining 15 league games.

Yes, it was quite a year. The grim, unloved coach resigned after about five games. And he was replaced on an interim basis by a white-haired gentleman who -- I might not have this exactly right -- hadn't coached on any level since Warren G. Harding was president.

And the players, well, I hope they at least have the excuse of being actual students.

About the only highlight of the season was beating obviously terrible Arizona State in December.

But at least now there's something good to say: It's over.

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