I had two college basketball games on tap today. There were plenty of interesting conference
championship football games on today. I
listened to a bit of the Big 12 game
on the radio while exercising. It
sounded interesting, but I think the Sun
Bowl is about the only college football game I usually sit down and watch
or listen to (except for Aggies
games).
First up was another Women’s game and another USC game, this time playing UNLV.
I don’t know how they’ve come up twice for me this season (11-25-18),
especially since I haven’t seen them before.
Coach Trakh looked sharp in a
dark grey suit and a black turtleneck.
Assistant Coach Blanche
Alvarson’s shapely rear end was prominently displayed on screen during the
Anthem. (Hey, I’m just reporting on what
I saw.) Lovely Assistant Coach Ashley Ford was also there. That was unfortunately about all I saw of
them.
The coverage on Stadium
picked up the UNLV feed and showed the Rebels’ team intro video. The Cox
Pavilion is a large gym/small arena.
It’s not where the Men’s Basketball team plays. The court had a silhouette of the Vegas
skyline on it and was still marked out for volleyball. There was a banner on a back wall for the NIT Volleyball Tournament. Large posters of the volleyball and
basketball players were hanging on the wall over the stands.
During intros, I latched on to #21 on the Rebels, Katie Powell. She was hard to miss, about 6” taller than
her tallest teammates. Katie also
sported long grey/silver hair and was pretty on top of it. She got the first UNLV points with a
three-pointer. The Rebels had an early
lead thanks to lots of USC turnovers. When
the pace went up tempo, USC kept scoring and took a brief lead, but it was
21-21 after ten minutes. During the
quarter, one of the announcers, maybe a student, referred to a block by the
Rebels as “disgusting.” I’d work on that
phrasing before their next game.
There were some technical problems with the
broadcast. At the start of the second
quarter, the network coverage dropped altogether for a few minutes. The pregame for the Aggie Men’s Basketball game came on about that time anyway. I turned down the TV sound to listen to it. When the broadcast resumed, I saw Katie go
down on the court after a rough play in the lane. She had to come out and later returned to the
bench wearing a boot. My interest in the
game kind of waned. USC hit a deep three
at the buzzer to tie the score at the half at 42.
During halftime, there was half-court shooting contest. I think I saw one go in. Actually, I’m not sure it was a contest as I
didn’t see any prizes awarded. There was
a good crowd there. The cameras panned
around them. They were a colorful
group. There were quite a few young
people having a good time there.
In the third, USC poured it on. They were leading 73-57 after another
buzzer-beating three before the quarter ended.
The UNLV coach got a technical in the quarter. She looked in shock after the call. In the fourth, UNLV hit a couple of three’s,
but couldn’t get it closer. 86-72 USC was the final. They are 8-0.
Good job, Coach Trakh. Audio and
scoring line issues came up pretty bad by the end of the broadcast, but I was
into the Aggie game by that time.
Aggie
AD Mario Moccia was not thrilled about playing Washington State in football next year,
but managed to twist their arms into agreeing to a home-and-home with their
basketball team. According to the paper,
the Aggies were expected to win tonight, though the Cougars are from a Power 5
conference. Senior Eli Chuha was still out though.
Mario was hoping for a good student section. They were going to be doing $1,000 giveaways
for the students at the games this season.
Jack
Nixon gave some out-of-town scores in the pregame. Elsewhere in the WAC, the UMKC Roos were playing the Perdue-Fort Wayne Mastodons. Roos verus Mastodons . . . Majestic. Less amusing was the score from Albuquerque, 83-56 Lobos over the Aggies in Women’s Basketball. They’ve
been spanked there for a second year in a row.
Gia Pack had a great game
with 26 points. Brooke Salas had a double-double, but only 11 points. I think she’s got to start scoring more. I hate to put more pressure on her. I’m sure she already knows what she needs to
do. The Lobos are a very good-shooting
team, but I hope the Aggies can put up some better defense against everyone
else. Maybe the Lobos’ Women’s coach can
get promoted to take over the Men after Paul
Weir is shown the door after next season.
In the first half, the Aggies got off to a good start,
13-2, after seven minutes of play. The
crowd sounded good and they were into it.
The team was rebounding well as was their pressure defense. After hitting a couple of three’s, the Aggies
were up 22-7. Johnny McCants picked up two fouls.
Jabari Rice got two after
getting a flagrant foul. The Cougars
went on a run around the nine-minute mark.
At 26-21 Aggies, Ivan
Aurrecoechea (I’m getting close to being able to pronounce his last name)
hit a jumper to end the run. Washington
State was double-teaming him during the game.
Shunn Buchanan got a steal
and passed to Jojo Zamra for a
layup, and CJ Bobbitt hit a three on
the last possession to get the lead to 33-25 Aggies at the half.
To start the second half, the Cougars tied it shooting
three’s. At 43-40 Aggies, Cougar star, Robert Franks, picked up his fourth
foul and had to come out. Another Cougar
missed two free throws, thus the crowd roared.
That’s free Chik-fil-a for
everyone in the stands. The Cougars
would keep it close, but the Aggies were making them pay for fouling them by
dropping in their free throws. But, the
Cougars came back again and got it to 53-52 on a Franks’ three with five
minutes left.
60-56 Aggies, Buchanan hit a big three to put the Aggies
up by four. 62-56, Terrell Brown made
two free throws. 64-56, AJ Harris was briefly injured under the
basket. Bobbitt took his free throws and
made them with under 2:00 minutes left.
I think the team made about 8 or 10 free throws in-a-row. Were these guys really the Aggies? 67-58, AJ
Harris was back in and hit a three.
The Cougars answered with a three two seconds later. McCants forced a jump ball with 17 seconds
left and got possession back to the Aggies.
Buchanan got a steal to finish it off.
69-63 Aggies win.
21 free throws made.
I can hardly believe it. Three
Aggies finished in double figures: CJ
Bobbitt (15), Terrell Brown
(14), and AJ Harris (12). The Cougars never led in the game. This was a great win. Okay, after I read the paper from Saturday morning
and a columnist said beforehand that the Aggies should win this game, it was a
bit less impressive, but I was still happy to hear it.
12-4-18
After a big win on Saturday, the stakes only went up on
Tuesday night. Tonight was the return
half of the Rio Grande Rivalry series between the Aggies and the Lobos in Men’s Basketball. The Aggies did all they could for karma and
to boost attendance by handing out snacks and merchandise to their fellow
students for Finals Week. It
worked. The student section was full,
along with the rest of the lower bowl of the Pan-Am Center.
I started off the coverage by listening to the radio as
I was busy working. Eli Chuha was back for this game.
The Aggie team would be fully healthy for the first time this season. I could tell without being told when the
Lobos had come out on court. The boos
were deafening. In the pregame, AD Mario Moccia said he was amazed by
color commentator and former Aggie player, Justin
Hawkins’, low blood pressure, even before a big game. Hawk said he could go out right now and score
20. I love it.
First Half
We were warned that the Lobos would be using a full
court press and trapping for the entire game.
They did, but the Aggies were the ones with the stiff defense. An Aggie fan tradition is to stand at the
start of the game until the opposition scores.
They were standing for about 15 minutes tonight (real time, not game
time), until the first media timeout. In
that time, the Aggies had a 10-0 lead, four blocked shots, and the Lobos had
accumulated a bunch of fouls.
Ivan
Aurrecoechea (you’d better believe I’m using
cut-and-paste on that name) already had 10 points nine minutes into the
game. By late in the half, the Aggies
were still in lockdown and Ivan was actually outscoring the Lobos by
himself. It was 50-22 Aggies at the
half. Ivan had 17. Jojo
Zamora had 16. The Lobos had four
players with two fouls each and another had one with three. The Aggies were rebounding well holding a 29
to 10 advantage. Even Jack Nixon couldn’t help sounding happy
doing the game call.
Halftime
During my lunch time, I switched over to the video
coverage on Twitch. (I wonder if I’ll be saying that more in the
future when watching sports over the Internet.)
There were over 500 people watching, but the chatroom was pretty
quiet. A Lobo fan posted this about his
team’s shooting:
my dad told put a
bucket of chicken on the basket and they wont miss
(Put a box of Raising
Canes on the basket and I won’t miss either.) It was hard not to notice that Jack and Adam Young, who was doing the
play-by-play on the video, were pronouncing Ivan’s last name in a widely
different fashion. Now, I have no idea
how it’s pronounced.
Second Half
I can guess what
Coach Chris Jans told his team at halftime.
“Remember how you guys were leading by 19 there at the Pit last month (11-17-18)?
Remember how that game ended? You
just barely won that one!” The Aggies heard
him. Zamora hit a three to start the half,
Ivan got a layup, and Jojo then hit another three. That was their first three possessions. The Lobos just had one three in the middle of
that.
We have this from another Lobo in the chatroom:
Hard to have any
after losing 4 (almost 5) straight to a team from Las Cruces. Brutal
Zamora hit another three to make it 63-28. An Aggie went flying in to the Sundancers on a play at the baseline
(sorry, I wasn’t quick enough to catch who it was). The girls were okay and smiling
afterward. The color commentator coach said
on the replay, “Look at how tough those Aggie cheerleaders are!”
70-35 Shunn
Buchanan hit Johnny McCants on a
lob. The crowd got up for that one. 79-41 Ivan jammed one on a fast break with 11
minutes left in the half. Let’s check
the chatroom again.
Isn't showing murder
against Twitch TOS?
When I went to a
game at NMSU there was a dead bat inside the stadium. Can't even clean up the
stadium before the game. I hope they all get rabies
With about five minutes left and up 90-56, the Aggies put
their bench in. Jabari Rice got a three to hit 100 for a 40-point lead. The final would be 100-65 Aggies. This 35-point
victory was the largest ever by the Aggies over the Lobos. Somehow their traitor coach, Paul Weir, managed to keep his cool for
the whole game. Coach Jans, on the other
hand, is now 8-0 in NMSU rivalry games.
He went to the student section and gave them a roar. What’s chat have to say?
Chris
Jans tries to crowd surf in the student section and they drop his fat a
caitasim: ss
caitasim: I'm a Notre Dame fan. I've never even been to a NMSU game
tbh I don't even know where it is. I just wanted to troll some people
The poster then invited viewers to go watch his
stream. Almost appreciated his
honesty. Almost. Here’s your stats for the game: the Aggies finished
up 50 to 28 in rebounds, and shot 50% to the Lobo’s under 30%. Jojo
Zamora led all scorers with 27 and went 6 for 6 on three’s. Ivan
Aurrecoechea had 23, and Eli Chuha had
a good comeback with 13 points. Lastly,
I think I saw that pretty assistant girl from volleyball last year working by
the bench. Who is she?
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