Sports Journal November 21-25, 2018

11-21-18

I went to the wrong game this week.  The Aggie Women’s Basketball team losing on Tuesday was disappointing, but I did enjoy going.  However, the Men’s game on Wednesday versus the Eastern NM Greyhounds was way more entertaining. 

The pregame chatter was interesting.  While this game was against a DII school, Jack Nixon did mention that the Aggies lost a game to Western NM in the 80’s.  His partner and former Aggie player, Justin Hawkins, nearly fell out of his seat.  The first game I heard Hawk doing color, he was a bit stiff, but he loosened up a bunch for this game and really contributed.

AD Mario Moccia was interviewed and asked about in-game promotions.  Tonight, they were having a wiener dog race.  Mario mentioned that he’d done the paper airplane promo that happened at the Women’s game, before at his previous job.  The team was playing Air Force at the time, so that’s how it tied in.  One of the planes somehow hit his boss in the face, who then got angry with him for the promotion.  Mario wants to run a baby race sometime in the future.

Our hero from the Aggies’ win in Albuquerque (11-17-18), AJ Harris, was out tonight with a “tender” ankle.  “I thought he burned his hand off in Albuquerque,” said Jack, referring to AJ’s hot shooting.  Given the nature of this game, I just took a few notes.  The contest started off with an “administrative technical” on ENM for not having their lineup ready.  So the game started with a technical foul shot and then they had the tipoff.

The game was actually close to start off.  Jojo Zamora in a bad slump in the beginning, but kept taking shots and eventually got out of it.  “Here’s Johnny!” Johnny McCants came into game about 10 minutes in to a big cheer.  This was a surprise to everyone except Hawk, who apparently has inside information.  The local kid with the highlight reel is everyone’s favorite.  He missed a dunk to start, but then shot a surprise three and got a block right after. 

Eli Chuha didn’t move in to get in a rebound later.  Hawk came close to saying he was being tentative.  Jack said his positioning on the play was, “More Hollywood than Redlands.”  The Aggies started pulling away, though several players were in foul trouble.  Johnny added another highlight with a slam late.  It was 51-29 Aggies at the half.

I could hear the wiener dog race going on in the background of the halftime show.  I cursed not being there, as the crowd was clearly enjoying it.  I didn’t find any pictures of the event on the Aggies’ social media.  Shame. 

In the second half, McCants had a spectacular rejection.  I assume it was spectacular, because I actually heard the crowd gasp.  It was his third of game.  “All the way from Lehigh Acres!” shouted Jack after a monster jam by freshman Berrick JeanLouis.  He added another one later.  JeanLouis may become another fan favorite.  The final was 92-65 Aggies.  Four Aggies finished the night in double figures.  Before signing off, Jack called over DJ Downs.  I hadn’t seen the marketing assistant around this semester.  He is now working for the Phoenix Suns and was in town visiting.  Good for him.

11-23-18

Happy Black Friday.  I listened to a bit of the Cowboys game on Thanksgiving, but I don’t cover the NFL.  Yeah, the league’s gotten some good publicity lately with a 100 point game between the Rams and the Chiefs, but don’t be fooled.  The next time there’s a racial incident in this country or, failing that, just a general media protest against Trump for running for reelection, these guys will be back on their knees and will start disrupting the games themselves.  (They don’t even have a choice in the matter anymore, like other celebrities, they will be forced to do what they’re told to by the Agenda Lords.) 

I don’t cover hockey for a different reason than football.  I love the sport, but I don’t get to see enough to really have any favorites or know what’s going on in the NHL most of the time.  Since I wasn’t doing any shopping today, I was pleased that NBC was broadcasting a morning matchup between the Philadelphia Pflyers versus the Texas Rangers.  I wish I was more familiar with league to make sure that I don’t say anything dumb here, but I think I know enough to make some general comments. 

Heh.  Actually, what’s more embarrassing is that I didn’t take any notes at all during the game, which was too bad, because it was great.  I didn’t think there’d be any need to.  Last year, I missed so many hockey games going to Aggie Sports and whenever I did watch, the games were generally bad. 

Mike “Doc” Emrick did his usual tremendous job on play-by-play and witty commentary.  I think I’d say he’s favorite sports announcer (my apologies to my beloved local guys).  Two days later, I can only remember a couple of comments.  At the start of the match, he noted, “Philadelphia is wearing their alternate black uniforms with black numbers.  They’re very stylish, but hard to read from 200 feet away.  They were not designed for the broadcaster’s convenience.”  And later, “The Philly fans are expressing some displeasure here.  If they were really angry, they’d let you know.”

The game itself was very intense.  The Flyers got one goal in the first period, but otherwise, NY Ranger goalie, Henrick Lundqvist stood on his head for most of the rest of the game against a barrage of shots.  In the other net, Calvin Pickard was also doing fine work to keep the Rangers from tying it.  Late in the third period, the Flyers added another goal.  The Rangers pulled Lundqvist and the Flyers added an empty-netter.  Moments later, the Flyers ambushed the Rangers for another goal.  4-0 Philadelphia was the final.  Trust me, the final score does not reflect how close the game was.  I’m now looking forward to the Winter Classic on New Years.

Later in the afternoon, UTEP Women’s Basketball was hosting an invitational in El Paso and were playing the Nicholls State Colonels.  Once again, I blew off taking notes, since I’d be going to work about halfway through the game.  I did learn some great news.  Katerina Zec is actually a junior.  I might get to see her play the Aggies here next year.  Yay!    

The Colonels are from the Southland Conference.  I had not heard of this conference before until last Tuesday, when member Abilene Christian beat the Aggies.  The Wildcats were at the invitational too and had beaten their opponent earlier by over 40 points.  Apparently, this team is for real.

The Colonels are too.  While it was close in the first quarter, they put up big lead in the second quarter.  I had to leave at halftime, but picked the game up later at work.  The Colonels were up by 17 at the most, but the Miners made a comeback.  They were within two points with two seconds left, but even inbounding the ball with a set play, they didn’t get a shot off.  The final was 58-56 Nicholls State (which I didn’t actually write down at the time and had to look up).  Though the nighttime reception will be bad, I’m going to try and listen Saturday for UTEP’s game versus Abilene Christian. 

Lastly, Aggie Volleyball beat UMKC to advance to the WAC finals.  I’ll discuss that elsewhere.

11-24-18

Aggie Football had their last game this season on Saturday morning versus Liberty.  It was cold and rainy in Virginia today and a small crowd was there for the game.  Jack Nixon and Cory Lucas (and AD Mario Moccia) were impressed with the facilities there.  The school has a $1 Billion endowment for sports, and Liberty isn’t even a big school.  Imagine what Alabama or Ohio State has.  NM State has an endowment too and large amount of money, but it’s just a fraction of Liberty’s. 

But this isn’t an economic contest (or is it?); it’s a football contest.  Regardless, it started badly for the Aggies as the Flames went up 0-17 in the first quarter, after two turnovers.  Jason Huntley had an answer as he ran back a kickoff for a touchdown, 7-17.  The kick was short because of a Liberty un-sportsmanlike conduct penalty.  Jevahn Fergurson then ran back an interception to make it 14-17.  This was all still in the first quarter.

Oops.  Babylon 5 is on.  Must watch.  Oh, that was great.  I rejoined the game at the start of the third quarter.  It was now 14-28 Liberty.  The Aggies took the opening drive down to the Flames’ 1 yard line, but failed to score.  By the fourth quarter, the rain had stopped, but a fog bank had moved on to the field. 

The Aggie offense could not get moving productively.  They were 1 of 5 on fourth downs and not much better on third downs.  The Liberty offense had cooled, but were using up a lot of clock with their running game.  Finally, with under two minutes left, Josh Adkins managed to lead the Aggies down the field to score, 21-28.  But, that would be the final, as they weren’t able to recover an onside kick.  Before the game and during, Jack Nixon mentioned the Aggie Volleyball team playing in the WAC championship tonight several times.  He seems like a fan of theirs.  

I had the game on the radio, while on TV, I had on a Women’s college basketball game on Stadium.  It was the Navy Mids versus the Penn Quakers.  I had the sound down, so I wasn’t getting a lot of insight while watching.  Penn seemed like the better team as they doubled up Navy in the first quarter, but Navy hung in there and even took a slim lead during the game. 

In the fourth, with under a minute left, Penn was back up, but Navy was within three.  Penn would make their free throws and come away with a 65-61 win.  Afterward, the Navy coach was actually pleased they’d managed to keep Penn from getting a field goal for over three minutes at the end.  After the game, the Navy cadets and staff stood at attention on the floor for the singing of their alma mater fight song.  They finished by pounding their chests and giving a Roman-style stiff arm salute.

Later, the UTEP Women’s Basketball team played Abilene Christian on KROD radio.  In spite of the poor reception at night, I wanted to listen to see how these two former Aggie opponents would square off against each other.  There was a late start due the previous game running long, but there was apparently the biggest crowd of the season so far for the Miners.  (Sorry in advance for the lack of details.  It was really hard to listen through the static.)

AC ran away with it in the first quarter 23-8.  They were 6 of 10 shooting three’s, and on a 10-0 run.  In the second quarter, UTEP clawed back into it and were trailing 37-30 at the half.  The ref’s were calling several travels.  The Euro-step used by several of the European players seemed to be confusing them.  UTEP cut the lead to one three times before finally taking the lead at the end of the third quarter 50-49.

The fourth quarter was epic.  The lead went back-and-forth.  With about 30 seconds left, UTEP was up by two.  That got shaved to one after AC converted on one of two free throws.  The shot clock was off.  UTEP had the ball with fouls to give, but committed a turnover on a walk because AC’s pressure defense.  AC converted on a pair of free throws after a foul to go up by one.  With seconds left, the Miners were unable to get a basket and fell 70-69.  Abilene Christian is now 6-0.  I think UTEP is the only team they haven’t beaten by double digits. 

And how did the Aggie Volleyball team do in the WAC championship?  I don’t know.  I’ll have to find out later.

11-25-18

Some dummy writing this forgot that he could have watched the local news and gotten the WAC Volleyball Championship results.  I finally remembered this evening and got my answer: Aggies Win!  I’ll recap what I can elsewhere.

Yay!

Otherwise, my sports event of the day was another Women’s College Basketball match.  I interested in watching, but suddenly fascinated when I found out it was the USC Trojans versus the Nevada Wolfpack.  Yep, it’s a game with our former Aggie coach, Mark Trakh, helming SC.  Unlike certain other coaches, Coach Trakh left here on good terms, so I’m happy to see him. 

I might have been even happier seeing his glamorous, tall, blonde assistant coach Blanche Alverson again.  I saw his other gorgeous assistant, Ashley Ford, with her.  I didn’t see dear sweet Brandee Walton, who also went to USC.  She also works for the team.  As long as we’re on the subject, the Nevada coach, Amanda Levens, was also a stunning woman.  One of the referees was also a pretty blonde.  While I’m sure either of these teams could easily beat the Aggies, they’re free to visit, and bring that referee too.  (If Coach Trakh comes, he’ll get a nice round of applause).      

USC was missing their top two scorers for the game.  Further, they’re not even considered a good team in the PAC-12 as of the preseason, though currently they’re 5-0.  The Wolfpack announcers felt that USC could be had today, though they didn’t sound very confident.  The Wolfpack are not considered to be a good team in the Mountain West. 

After ten minutes of play, the Trojans were up 19-13.  They had had a 9-0 run.  The Wolfpack had left open a Trojan player who was 11 of 16 on three’s this season.  In the second quarter, USC boosted its lead to 14 points.  A Nevada player lost her shoe, but nobody called a timeout for about two minutes.  During that time, she was playing in a sock.  It got very disorganized for both teams before the half, but USC kept rolling, 40-22. 

By the third quarter, USC was a bit sloppy and several players were in foul trouble.  That said, they continued their lead, 54-32.  Nevada went to a full court press in the fourth and USC didn’t entirely deal with it well.  Still, USC was killing it with three-pointers.  One girl banked one in at the shot clock buzzer “from Sparks,” as the play-by-play guy said (well beyond the arc).  USC won 72-51.  I apparently wasn’t really paying attention to the action and didn’t write down many details.  Most of the girls had weirdly spelled names, so I didn’t want to bother trying to write them down and look them up later.  It was good to see Coach Trakh again anyway (and his assistants and the opposing coach and that referee).

11-28-18

It’s another big rivalry game with the Aggies versus the UTEP Miners in El Paso in Men’s Basketball.  The Aggies had thrashed the Miners in Las Cruces earlier in the month (11-9-18), but the personnel were going to be a bit different this time.  Senior Eli Chuha was out today after a weight training injury.  UTEP, meanwhile, had activated two good players that were out for that game.

I really enjoyed the pregame tonight.  I got to hear all of it while I was working at my desk.  On the subject of pushing the players to play up to the DI level, color guy, Justin Hawkins, had fond memories of Coach Rick Majerus from when he was playing for Utah.  He loved being challenged by him, and said that if he’d listened to him more, he would have had a longer professional playing career.  I’m liking Justin more and more, the more I hear him.

Hawk and Jack Nixon tried to analyze this current Aggie team a bit.  The team hasn’t yet shown a superstar player.  So far, they’ve been playing unselfishly, which has been successful for them.  Sometimes teams get caught watching their star players and waiting for them to make big plays, instead contributing. 

AD Mario Moccia came on.  Justin asked Mario about the Volleyball team.  Mario is planning on going to see them play their NCAA Tournament game tomorrow.  He also mentioned that they’re having $1000 giveaway promotions at some the upcoming Aggie Men’s games.  Someone won $10K on a Jason Huntley kickoff touchdown runback this season.  That person will be presented with a check at a game.  In the interview with Coach Jans, he mentioned that he had the team over for Thanksgiving.  That’s nice, but must have been really expensive and he must have a big house.

Unfortunately, right as the game started, I got busy with work and couldn’t listen hard enough to take notes.  The first half was very close.  I’m not sure there was more than a three-point lead for either team.  They were going basket-for-basket with each other.  I heard Johnny McCants get a block and a jam.  He also picked up two fouls, but the Miners got in worse foul trouble.  It was 28-26 Aggies at the half. 

During halftime, Bernie Olivas, the Sun Bowl director, came on to talk about the game.  Right now, the matchup is still up in the air.  Invites are hinging on a makeup game in the PAC-12.  There’s no bowl conflict this year for people in Las Cruces.  I have a co-worker, who had to give away his Sun Bowl tickets, so he could go see the Aggies at the Arizona Bowl last year.

Five minutes into the second half, the Aggies went up by 11.  The Aggies got hot shooting, while the Miners went cold.  But there was still plenty of time.  With three minutes left, the Miners had closed it to within two.  You could clearly hear the 6,100 fans at the Don Haskins Center for the rest of the game. 

The referees started getting overly involved.  On two consecutive Aggie possessions, one ref overruled another to give the Miners the ball back.  Next, there was an odd goaltending call on UTEP that gave the Aggies a bucket.  There were several charging calls on both teams during the game.  Afterward, Coach Jans acknowledged that with the physical play, it was hard for the officials to make calls. 

AJ Harris fouled out with 1:30 left, but the Aggies still held a two-point lead.  Terrell Brown, who hadn’t made a shot all night, hit a jumper in the lane to make it a four-point lead.  UTEP answered with their own jumper and then fouled immediately with seconds left.  Terrell converted on both free throws to ice the game and win it 62-58 Aggies.  UTEP out-rebounded and out-shot the Aggies, but had more turnovers and the Aggies made their foul shots, which was the difference.

In the postgame, Coach Jans wished the Volleyball team good luck tomorrow.  I have a regular season review already written up for the team.  I’m not going to post it until the season is over.  I’m also withholding the postseason coverage.  We’ll see how things go.  I didn’t get to see the WAC Tournament games, but the NCAA Tournament will at least be on the radio.    

Yikes!  This went on for a while.  I should have broken this up into a couple of posts.