Veteran coach steps down

Saturday, January 22nd 2005, 11:38 am

By: News On 6

LAS CRUCES, N.M. (AP) _ Ailing New Mexico State University basketball coach Lou Henson has retired. The 73-year-old recently said he would wait until the end of the basketball season to decide whether to retire.

Henson is among the N-C-A-A's winningest coaches. He is 21 wins short of becoming only the fifth Division One coach with 800 career victories.

He has battled health problems in recent years. He was diagnosed with non-Hodgkin's lymphoma, a form of cancer, in the summer of 2003. The cancer is in remission, but in September he was hospitalized with viral encephalitis, a disease that left him partially paralyzed.

Henson had planned to return to coaching on January eighth. But he suffered another setback when he was hospitalized with pneumonia a couple of days before his planned return.