ALBUQUERQUE — Thirty years ago, Jeff Ruland was one of the best college basketball players among the freshman ranks.

Today, at the age of 49, he’s in his first season as the head coach of the New Mexico Thunderbirds of the NBA’s Development League.

His main focus is helping NBA hopefuls, many of them draft picks, acquire the skills and mental toughness it takes to play in the NBA. If Jim Valvano were still alive, he’d be able to add some interesting anecdotes about Ruland, whom he recruited while he was coaching at Iona.

Like Ruland, Valvano has a Duke City basketball connection: 25 years ago, Valvano, by then at North Carolina State, led his Wolfpack to the national championship in The Pit.

In high school, Ruland was one of the big men being sought by Kentucky, North Carolina, Maryland, Notre Dame -- and Iona, an independent school that had never made an NCAA tournament appearance.

“Jimmy V” and Ruland changed that, making back-to-back appearances in Ruland’s sophomore and junior years.

As a freshman, the 6-foot, 11-inch Ruland led the nation’s freshmen in scoring, rebounding and field-goal percentage n even though he was hobbled early in the year with a sprained ankle, which he suffered in the Gaels’ first game. He averaged 22.3 points, and 12.8 rebounds a game for the independent team, shooting 59.4 percent from the field.

The next season (1978-79), Iona was seeded eighth in the East region but lost to Pennsylvania, 73-69, in the first round of the East bracket. (That was the year the championship game featured Larry Bird’s Indiana State team vs. Magic Johnson’s Michigan State team.)

Ruland’s junior season was even more memorable, thanks in part to a huge upset of Louisville at Madison Square Garden.

According to Valvano’s autobiography (“Valvano. They Gave Me a Lifetime Contract, and Then They Declared me Dead”), as he grew older, Ruland “didn’t just get heavy. He got huge. Though many recruiters thought they had Ruland, we knew he was coming to Iona all along.”

Ruland was a fun-loving, happy kid — when and if you got to know him — Valvano said, and “one of the true standards of his era in college ball. He had small hands and didn’t jump that well. But he could shoot, rebound, pass and outlet the ball in combo better than most any big center in the land.

“How good was Ruland?” Valvano continued, rhetorically. “In the three years he played at Iona we won 17 games, then 23, then 29. In the last two we made the NCAA tournament, a place where Iona had never been before. That’s an improvement of six games each season. If both Jeff and I had stayed for that one last year ...”

But they didn’t: Valvano got the head-coaching job at N.C. State,

In the game against Louisville — that season’s eventual national champ — at the Garden, Ruland scored 30 points, hauled down 21 rebounds and dunked the ball to end the game.

The Gaels were the 6 seed in the East, and beat Holy Cross 84-78 in the first round, then lost to Georgetown, 74-71.

Then Valvano got the job with the Wolfpack. Ruland, the Gaels’ leading scorer and rebounder for the third year in a row, was declared ineligible because he’d hired an agent, after thinking about turning pro following his junior season.

No harm, no foul.

Golden State selected Ruland in the second round (25th pick overall) of the 1980 NBA draft, but he decided instead to play in Barcelona. He returned to the U.S. the next year, his rights by then having been dealt by the Warriors to the Washington Bullets — where he found himself behind Spencer Haywood at center.

Two years later, and by then moved to forward, he started all 75 games and averaged 22.2 points and 12,3 rebounds a game, which earned him all-star honors for the first time in his career.

Moved back to center in 1984-85, he suffered a broken bone in his foot and played in just37 games. In 1985-86, still in pain, he backed up Manute Bol and was dealt to the Philadelphia 76ers.

The injury nearly cost him his career — and four seasons, at least. Ruland played in just five games with the Sixers in 1986-87 before “retiring.”

Five years later, he felt strong enough to return to the NBA wars, playing in 13 games, with five starts, for the Sixers in 1991-92. An Achilles tendon tear shortened that season.

His playing days ended in 1992-93, when he played in 11 games with the Detroit Pistons after inking a free-agent deal..

For his eight-year career, Ruland averaged a double-double: 17.4 points and 10.2 boards a game.

Later, Ruland went back to Iona and earned his degree, believing coaching was all he knew. He was an assistant coach for the Sixers before getting the head-coaching job at his alma mater; he was fired following last season’s horrific 2-28 campaign. He had led the Gaels to 137 victories and three 20-win seasons in his eight seasons there, including three NCAA appearances.

Last July, he was hired to replace two-year T-Birds coach Michael Cooper.

He’s a fun guy to talk to, although his colorful language doesn’t always allow him to be quoted verbatim.

The NBA today, Ruland says, “is watered down” by expansion, compared to his days on the hardwood.

“You obviously have your upper-echelon players that are as good as any other era,” he said. “I know the players are a little bit more talented now; I definitely know they’re not as tough.

“There were only 10 or 11 teams then, so you played against Bill Russell 30 times a year,” he said. “I liked the challenge. The best battles I had were against (Kareem Abdul) Jabbar and (Moses) Malone.”

He enjoyed “banging” against Larry Bird, who, Ruland said, used to talk trash.

“I like the 3-point shot. I wish it would’ve been in college when I played — I wouldn’t have had four guys on me,” he said.

Court highlights for Ruland?

“I try not to live too much in the past,” he said. “Making the all-star team a couple times was a great thrill.

“Here and there are little things that stand out. Like the night before (my daughter) was born, we played the Sixers, gave Moses 38 — and we won, more importantly. Little things like that.”

Ruland said he thought he should have been selected to four all-star teams.

Growing up on Long Island, he said, baseball and the New York Yankees were foremost on his mind.

“I was a terrific baseball player; I was a terrific athlete,” he said. “I was a big Mantle fan. But I’m a realist; I think I would have been an all-star on the baseball field but in the summer between eighth and ninth grade, I just fell in love with basketball and stopped playing everything else.”

His love for the sport coincided with a growth spurt: “I went from 5-8 to 6-3½ in two months, then from that to 6-7 and 6-10.”

And what college wouldn’t want a 6-10 kid?

“I could’ve went to any school in the country,” he said. “I wanted to stay close to home because of my mother and the (deleted) story Jim Valvano threw my way n hehehehehe.”

Yeah, Ruland likes to laugh and talk about the old days n and swear.

One of his best stories, it seems, concerns his brief broadcasting career n like many athletes, Ruland entered the broadcast booth to provide color commentary.

As he tells it, “Bob Ryan (a newspaper columnist) wrote in the Boston Globe (that) when I retired I was going to be the John Madden of basketball.

“I did one game for the Sixers. … Kate Smith was in a state of unrest; the family hadn’t been buried in a year. And they sued to roll out this ratty red carpet and the color guard would come out and do the National Anthem and ‘God Bless America.’

“So the guy I worked with goes, ‘Man, that carpet’s seen better days.’

“I said, ‘Yeah, Jim, we could kill two birds with one stone: Why don’t we roll up Kate and bury them both at the same time?’

“The (expletive) switchboard lit up. I was supposed to do another game and I never got called back — and that was the end of my broadcasting career.”

So, if you want to hear some interesting stories about the NBA or ask him what he likes about some of his Thunderbirds, he’ll be happy to tell you.

How often do you get an opportunity to talk hoops with a two-time (shudda been four) NBA all-star?

D-tails: The T-Birds last week acquired forward Jamaal Thomas, who was recently released by the Anaheim Arsenal. Thomas (6-8, 22) was drafted in 2007 by the T-Birds in the second round.

During his time with the Thunderbirds, Thomas aver-aged 10 plus points a game, through 20 games. He was traded to Anaheim in January 2007 for center Greg Clausen. Thomas averaged 8.4 points per game through 22 games with the Arsenal.

… The T-Birds waived forward Serge Angounou, who played in 21 games for Albuquerque, averaging 16.6 minutes, 4.8 points and 4 rebounds.

… Bakersfield visits Tingley Coliseum Tuesday, closing out a five-game home stand. The game tips off at 10:30 a.m.; it’s another school-day extravaganza.

… Thunderbirds 2007n08 single game tickets are on sale and can be purchased at abqtbirds.com, any Ticketmaster location or at the Thunderbirds front office at 111 Lomas Blvd. NE, Suite 240. For premium or group seating call the 265-DUNK.