I was still buzzing about yesterday’s Women’s Basketball and the football game.
Today’s Men’s Basketball game
would be a nice way to indulge in some extra Aggie Love. I’d listened to the guys’ last game, which
was in El Paso versus UTEP. The Miners’ coach had very suddenly quit
earlier in the week from health concerns, so the team was a bit down and in
transition. The Aggies won 80-60. Johnny
McCants had another highlight reel jam in the game. They had a great crowd of over 7,000 there
for a Thursday night and up against a Cowboys’ game. This was also the back end of a double header
at the Don Haskins Center, where the
Women played the UNM Lobos. I wish NMSU had scheduled their basketball this
weekend like that, instead of pairing the Aggie
Women up with the football game.
I’d planned on trying to go to a couple Men’s games this
season, since they’d scheduled some weekend afternoon games. Embarrassingly, I also wanted an excuse to
wear my new shirt that I’d picked up on sale at the University bookstore. I’d gotten free tickets for this game from
work. Along with those tickets were
passes to the Hub, the hospitality suite.
(That’s my nickname for it anyway.)
Since I had two tickets, I asked my co-worker, Jacob, to come with
me. I know he’s a big basketball
fan. We met at the Pan-Am Center an hour early.
I got there first. Jacob arrived
a bit after and hitched a ride across the parking lot on golf cart with a staff
member he just met. That should give you
an idea of his charming personality.
The Barbara Hubbard Hospitality Suite
I didn’t even know this place was here. It was added to the building well after it
was built. The suite is upstairs and
overlooks the court. Its window shades
are usually drawn, so I’d never noticed it.
The walls of the room are covered in memorabilia from all the acts that
had been there since the Pan-Am Center’s opening in 1968. I should have wandered around and looked at
them more. I noticed a large plaque from
a Reba McEntire concert and a
poster from a production of Grease. Jacob, who’d been there before, pointed out a
mounted article, maybe from the 70’s, with Bill
Cosby and “Mother Hubbard,” the
lady who books the Pan-Am shows. Jacob
thought they should take it down because of his scandals. I said, “I wonder how far he got with her.”
It was an intimate dining room and maybe about 20 people
were inside. I don’t know what you have
to buy into to get in here. There was a
buffet serving fajitas. Jacob said they
were hot, but I must have missed the chili peppers, since I thought they were
pretty good and I have little tolerance for spicy food. They served beer and some other alcohol and water
and some bad tea (which was what I had).
Some soft drinks would have been a good option.
Shortly after we got there, Athletic Director Mario Moccia and Football Coach Doug Martin came in.
I was sort of expecting Mario to come in and make a bowl game
announcement at some point. Seeing the
coach was a bonus. Certainly today,
these guys are the heroes of Aggieland.
They immediately received a standing ovation.
Mario addressed the group first. He was wearing a t-shirt under his business
jacket, promoting the Aggies’ bowl game.
“I’m going with a Don Johnson/Miami Vice look today.” I knew he was scheduled to make a press
announcement earlier in the afternoon, and indeed Mario confirmed that the
Aggies had been invited to the Arizona
Bowl at the end of the month. By a
strange twist, they’d be playing Utah
State, the same team they’d played at their last bowl game in 1960.
Mario also talked about the Aggies’ win last night was the lead
story on ESPN college football and
other national outlets. It occurred to
me just then that I should have watched the news and Stadium’s Rally show last night.
I did find Scott Van Pelt’s ESPN clip talking about the game later on Youtube. He said that they were watching the end of
the game intently to see if the Aggies could pull it off. “Unless you were rooting for South Alabama or have no heart, how
could you not be cheering for the Aggies?”
Scott’s congratulatory commentary was very heartfelt, especially given
that they’d admittedly been ragging on the program for so long. As little as I think of ESPN, Van Pelt said
exactly the right things here and, I have to admit, this praise from this
source really does validate the win for me.
Assistant Basketball
Coach David Anwar was introduced and gave a scouting report on today’s
opponent, the Prairie View A&M
Panthers. Wow, talk about insider
information for a game. He emphasized
that while they weren’t a well-known team, they were a good one. They’d played a hard schedule to this
point. He pointed out a couple players
that were their stars, who did play well during the game. Coach Anwar even opened up the floor to
questions. I wasn’t sure I heard this
right at the time, but someone asked for a comment on UNM losing to UTEP last
night in Men’s Basketball. (And they did
shockingly lose. More mocking laughter
directed at traitorous ex-Aggie Coach Paul
Weir.)
Coach Martin was asked twice to speak and finally
relented. He mentioned he got a lot of
play call second-guessing from his assistant coach after the game, and then
pointed at his wife, who was with him.
It’s good to see a couple share the same interests. The Coach finished up his talk, just like
you’d expect a good coach to, with an inspirational message. “This university has been haunted by Old Man
Can’t for too long. We can’t win the
games. We can’t win the big games. We can’t go to a bowl game. Well let me tell you, we buried Old Man Can’t
out on that field Saturday night. And we
did it with that shovel we won when we beat UTEP this year!” Needless to say, another round of applause followed.
I had a chance to talk to Mario and could have asked if he’d
noticed that the crowd for the Women’s game yesterday was half Lobo fans. (I cannot get over that.) But, he was on a high and had had a really
busy two days. It felt like an
inappropriate moment. Maybe I’ll run
into him again in the near future. Jacob
and I left and ran into Chuck and his wife in the concourse. Chuck’s the one who got me the tickets, so I
got a chance to thank him again.
I took a solo trip up front.
I was looking for cinnamon
roasted almonds, which are my favorite Aggie concession item, but not sold
at every sporting event. I wanted to
look for them at the football game, but was carrying too much to travel around. The nut people had their table set up, but
only had pecans. They were good, but not
what I wanted, and I ended up giving them to Jacob. The grill was open, but I was full. I do intend on trying their burger
sometime. Aggie sponsor, Sports Accessories had a table set up
selling a pile of commemorative football shirts, probably just made after a
long night’s work. I said I was done
buying Aggie shirts, except if the Aggies went to a bowl game, so I picked up
one.
I made it back to my seat just before the Anthem. A local guy did a great version out on court
with a color guard. The Aggie team intro
video was also really well done. The
regular PA was off today after a long day yesterday doing basketball and
football. The younger PA that I like too
was in. I think I can identify him as DJ Downs, a marketing guy at the University. He did a good job here. The crowd was okay for a Sunday afternoon at
about 3,000. The Cheerleaders and Sundancers
were back out performing after a long day yesterday. The Sundancers seemed to do most of the
on-court performing for the game.
First Half
Owing to my late arrival, I was unprepared for any note
taking for this half and didn’t recover for 20 minutes. I even forgot I had my radio with me. I’d wanted to hear the pre-game show to hear Jack Nixon’s comments about the
football win yesterday. Our seats were
at midcourt in the section overlooking the east tunnel. They were good ones with a commanding view of
the court. Coach Martin and his
assistant coach/wife were briefly sitting right below us.
A lot of my entertainment for the game was watching the two
hyperactive coaches working on the sidelines.
You could hear Aggie Coach Chris
Jans barking at the players and officials pretty easily anywhere in the
arena. Jans is so soft-spoken whenever I
hear him interviewed on the radio, it’s quite a contrast. There were other extra circular
attractions. The cheerleaders threw
t-shirts into the crowd anytime the Aggies made a three. There was also mass toss of football t-shirts
that the crowd went crazy for. Several
pizzas were given away (and were handed to winning fans, not thrown.) And there was a contest with two guys
attached at the back by a cable trying to make shots at opposite ends of the
court. The biggest event for the game
was the football team coming out onto court during a break. The crowd loved seeing them and roared. I think the guys there really enjoyed the
adulation and they certainly earned it.
As for the actual game action in the first half, like I
said, I was ill prepared and scrambling.
I ended up just jotting down a few random things. My apologies.
The Aggies went up early. The Panthers
went to a full court press after going down 13-4 to start the game. The officials had problems with the game
clock which caused a couple of short delays.
It wasn’t an equipment issue this time at least. The Panther’s bench got a technical called on
them. Unfortunately, I don’t know what
it was about. (Should have turned on the
radio.) The Aggies picked up a bunch of
fouls in the half. The Panthers fouls
didn’t really hurt them as the Aggies weren’t very good at shooting free
throws. Jacob, who’s a basketball coach,
kept cringing at every miss. The Panthers
had the most embarrassing play of the half when they fired a cross-court pass
that went straight into the crowd.
Local player, Joe
Garza came in. The crowd went into
an uproar when Garza took a charge and ended up getting called for a foul. From listening to other radio broadcasts, Jack
Nixon, doesn’t seem to approve of the two local recruits, or at least doesn’t
approve of the Las Cruces fans wanting locals on the team. In Johnny
McCants' case, I think he may be a future star in the making, so there
shouldn’t be any bias against him. The
program probably could have recruited someone better than Garza, but his story
of going from high school star to being on the Women’s practice squad to walking
on to the Men’s team, earned him a profile in Sports Illustrated’s March Madness coverage last year. That kind of good publicity for the University
is priceless.
The Aggies continued to lead, but their shooting went cold
late, allowing the Panthers to catch up.
It was 32-28 Aggies at the
half. Seems like the scouting was
correct, Prairie View was tough.
Halftime
Our halftime contest featured a guy playing for a car. He had to make a layup, a free throw, a three-pointer,
and a half court shot in 20 seconds, which didn’t happen. A guy in the NBA might have trouble doing all
that, especially having retrieve his own ball.
Next up was a troop of little girls from a local dance studio. They did a good job and were cute. The Sundancers came out to watch them from
the sidelines. The intermission finished
with an extended fan Dance Cam. The
halftime stats had the Aggies shooting 52% from the field, with the Panthers
shooting 40%. The big difference for the
Aggies was 9 assists to 0 for the Panthers.
The Aggies did a really good job dishing off to teammates to finish
plays and finding the open man for a shot.
Second Half
I made a better attempt at noting the action for this
half. I think I like the Women’s format
better with four quarters. The action is
a bit more intense and focused, though this format does make the game more of
an endurance contest. The Panthers
certainly got a second wind from the rest and kept the score close. Three minutes in, they’d closed the score to
35-33. Still, it didn’t feel in
doubt. The Aggies started a run right
after that. With fifteen minutes left, Keyon Jones got a steal and a layup to
make the score 42-33 Aggies.
The Panthers took a timeout.
The contest on the court had a blindfolded guy crawling around on the
court, trying to find a poster with the crowd directing him. Something I took note of in this half was
that the fans in the good seats are way more serious about the game than the
rest of the crowd. I was the only one
there keeping a scorecard, but they were really paying attention and hanging on
every play and calling out how they felt about those plays. These fans have a real investment in the team, beyond just today’s ticket.
The Aggies started showing some good hustle. Jermerrio
Jones made a great out-of-bounds save with 14 minutes left. Sidy
N’Dir made a monster block on a shot, swatting the ball away. Sidy has come back from an injury last season
with a name pronunciation change.
Instead of “City Nadir,” it’s “City N-Dear.” It doesn’t roll off the tongue as well, but
is still fun to say. 12 minutes left and
the Panthers went back to a full court press.
On their next possession, they missed an alley-oop jam. Eli
Chuha took off with the rebound for a layup.
During a break, a Special Olympian volleyball player was
honored on court. A few members of the
Aggie Volleyball team were with her. I
definitely saw Jordan George and Julianna Salanoa there. I told Jacob about seeing Julianna palm a
volleyball. He was impressed. In another break, a contestant had to putt
from midcourt and try to hit a hole in a sign.
10 minutes left in the game, and it was 49-40 Aggies. The Panthers kept trying to take the ball
inside during this half, but kept losing it when they drove the lane against
the Aggies’ interior defense. The Aggies
busted out some of their best moves of the game. Sidy got a steal and a slam to rev up the
crowd. Jemerrio took an inbound pass
directly to the rim for a jam. There was
a great back door pass to a completely unguarded player right under the net for
a layup. (That one happened so fast, I
didn’t the players’ names.) Johnathon Wilkins had a great block on
a fast break shot.
With three minutes left and the Aggies comfortably up, some
the crowd started deserting. There was a
promotion that if an opposing player missed two free throws in a row, everyone
would get a free Chik-fil-a coupon. In
the last minute, a Panther missed his first free throw attempt and the crowd
got all over him on the second shot, trying to get that free sandwich. (He made it.)
I was surprised that Prairie View didn’t start fouling in the last
couple of minutes, given that it was still close and the Aggies weren’t very
good at free throws. The last few
minutes played out pretty quickly. Our
final: Aggies 69, Panthers 57. Gary
Blackson for PV A&M was the high scorer with 19 points. Jermerrio
Jones was our Aggie player of the game with 18 points. AJ
Harris also came up big with 17 points.
(Without the radio call, I don’t have any other stats to report.)
Right after the game, Jacob had to leave. I think had night yard work to do. (He’s a very hardworking man.) I knew there was going to be a player
autograph session after the game. I kind
of wanted to stay, but thought I should leave with Jacob. Yes, I know.
By not getting their autographs, I’ve just ensured that one of these
guys is going to be a future NBA star.
You’re welcome. Though I was
never there for a formal autograph session for baseball, I’m still regretting
not getting a Daniel Johnson
autograph a couple of years ago. Maybe
I’ll get another chance sometime to tell Joe Garza he’s my hero and call Johnny
McCants, “Highlight Reel.”
What-a-burger coupons
were handed out at the door for the win.
I decided to go to Schlotzsky’s
with a different coupon for takeout. A
couple of Aggie fans came in behind me, using a coupon on the back of their
tickets. These promotions are working
out well for everyone.
Well, that’s it. It’s
over. I’ve been ruined. This experience with the hospitality suite
and these half court seats has spoiled any future experiences in the Pan-Am
Center for me. Actually, I lucked out in
being at the Hub on such a momentous day.
I’m thinking that it’s not usually so noteworthy to be there for a
pre-game meal. Still, that was a very
cool.
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