NM State Men’s
Basketball
12-6-17
The Aggie Men played the San Diego Toreros. I hadn’t
heard of them either, but they apparently came well-regarded. The first half was pretty low scoring with
lots of defense. Johnny McCants added a couple of more highlights to his reel. Overall, the Aggies had a good interior
defense and passing assists. It was 29-29
at the half. In the second, the Toreros came
out hot, scoring on 8 of 9 shots for an 8-point lead. The Aggie defense came on with four minutes
left. It was a one point difference with
19 seconds left. The Aggies fouled and
went down by 3. The Aggies then missed a
couple of free throws on their end, which they needed, and lost 65-60.
Maybe Brooke Salas or Tamera William could come to practice
and teach these guys how to shoot free throws.
This was the first time their poor free throw shooting came back to hurt
them. More on this game in a minute.
NM State Men’s
Basketball
12-9-17
Here was the guys’ big rematch versus the Lobos in Albuquerque. The Aggies’ big win last month (11-17-17) had UNM fans looking for revenge. Voice of the Aggies, Jack Nixon talked to Athletic Director Mario Moccia before the game.
Mario mentioned saying, “Hi,” to “Snake.” This guy is apparently an obnoxious fixture
at Lobo games, like the Old Man here.
Jack grudgingly acknowledged him.
It was a tight game. The Aggies
took a small lead into the half, but went down by 9 in the second with 10
minutes left. Zack Lofton led a furious Aggie comeback. (He’d finish with 22 points.) The Aggies took a slim lead with one minute
left. The Lobos missed a last second
three to tie it, giving the Aggies a
hard 65-62 win. Johnny
McCants finished 8 points, 10 rebounds, and 2 blocks, perhaps his best game. Jack and Coach
Jans were impressed with him.
NM State Basketball
12-10-17
Mario Moccia
issued an angry tweet after the Men’s Basketball loss on Wednesday. He pointed out that the team had trouble
practicing with a concert being set up.
Right after that, the Men’s and Women’s teams had to practice at a high
school as the Pan-Am and the practice court were being used for
graduation. The paper printed a long
article about it. Mario felt this was
one of the reasons why they lost Paul
Weir as a coach: a lack of dedicated facilities for the teams that
sometimes conflicted with other entertainment events. We’ll see where this goes.
The paper had another recent article praising NMSU athletics,
especially compared to UTEP and UNM.
Those programs have twice the budget and much larger populations in
their communities, but the Aggies have outplayed them this year. All of these athletics departments have had
to deal with some big coaching turnover, but the Aggies have weathered it. Not to mention, UNM’s program has also been embroiled
in some scandal. A little pat on the
back is actually warranted.
Meanwhile, I also found out this week that Jacob, who I went
to a Men’s game with a couple of weeks ago (12-3-17), had coached Joe Garza and Johnny McCants in youth league basketball. Now I’m really disappointed we didn’t wait
around for autographs.
NM State Men’s
Basketball
12-12-17
The Men were playing the Eastern NM Greyhounds on Tuesday.
It was Star Wars night since the
new movie is coming out this week.
Characters were out on court for introductions. Football player Ron LaForce was one of the players honored tonight. “May the LaForce be with you,” quipped Jack Nixon. As for the game, the Aggies were resting
three injured starters. It was close
halfway through the first half, but the Aggies built up a 10-point lead with 5
minutes left. It was 39-27 Aggies at
half. There was a light saber battle with
Darth Vader for halftime. I would have liked to have seen that. One of my co-workers, who’s a big fan and
going to the first showing of the Last
Jedi, should have gone. In the second
half, the domination continued. 84-62 Aggies final. Jemerrio
Jones finished with a rare Aggie triple double.
NM State Women’s
Basketball
12-14-17
Today’s matinee featured the Aggie Women versus Arizona Wildcats. Adam
Young impressed with the arena in Tucson and with the large crowd of kids
in attendance, numbered at over 7,500. He
was definitely enthusiastic about the game.
I think he was enjoying the large crowd and the possibility of a win
over a PAC-12 school. Arizona was on a
six-game losing streak with a worse record than the Aggies, who coming off a
big win over UTEP. The Wildcats also had a “short” bench with only
10 players.
I had to go to work early today, so I wasn’t able to just
sit and listen as I was getting ready for work.
For this game, I figured the main thing the Aggies needed not to
do was go down big early. That is
exactly what happened. The kids got into
it and were loud enough at times that I could barely hear Adam calling the
game. It started bad to begin with as Brooke Salas got called for two
travelling calls on consecutive possessions.
When I got out of the shower, they were down by 12. Brooke got over her shaky start with 10
points and was the only reason the Aggies weren’t getting blanked. “Where would the Aggies be without Brooke,”
exclaimed an amazed Adam Young.
In the second quarter, Monique
Mills hit a three with about 4 minutes left. It was the first field goal for the Aggies by
anyone not named Brooke. On the other
side, JaLea Bennett was pouring it
in with 17 points. I didn’t find out
until later that Gia Pack had gotten
into early foul trouble was sitting out the first half. This might be one case where I’d say, the
coach might have been better off letting her play. I’d take my chances with Gia fouling out in
the third quarter with the game close than let it get out of hand this early. It was 43-23 Wildcats at the half when I went
to work.
When I got there, I was actually sitting in a meeting with
an earplug in listening to the rest of the game. Things didn’t go any better in the second
half as the game got further away from the Aggies. Adam even seemed to be getting worn out by
the crowd, probably unable to hear himself.
In the fourth, Gia hit a three for her first field goal of the
game. JaLea Bennett was out for most of
the half, but because of the short bench, she had to come back in. Both teams emptied their benches and everyone
ended up playing. Adam mentioned that
freshman Pam Wilmore had be a high
school teammate of one of the Wildcats. Aissatou Fall came in and converted on
a free throw. Sara Lopez wasn’t on the Aggie roster today. I don’t know where she is.
The final was 83-44
Wildcats. Brooke Salas finished with 20 points. I think she shot about 50%. JaLea Bennett
finished with 26. Afterward, Coach Atkinson sounded more
disappointed than angry. She said they
weren’t taking care of the ball. The
Aggies did have a lot of turnovers, along with being -13 in rebounds and the
short Wildcat bench had 27 more points.
Not to make excuses, but I think I heard Adam say that they took a bus
there. That’s not a short trip and that might
have made the team a bit flat on arrival.
Also, I hesitate to say that a bunch of kids might have intimidated the
team, but this was the largest crowd they’ve played in front of this year and
they were loud. Let’s forget this game
happened. I guess one good thing is that
Brooke has definitely got her shooting touch going.
I'm off next week and the Aggie teams are out of town.
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