NM State Aggies vs Clemson Tigers Men's NCAA Tournament 3-16-18

Jack Nixon postponed the Aggies vs Clemson Tigers pregame show and went straight into doing play-by-play for the preceding game, which had run over.  Certainly I was impressed by his seamless call of two teams he'd probably never called before.  He must have done some homework for the Aggies' possible future tournament opponents.  Auburn won in a close game.

I was momentarily heartened before the game after checking out the Aggie Baseball win from earlier in the evening.  Embarrassingly, I'd forgotten about the Softball girls.  I found out they had big win over Minnesota that night too.  Back to the basketball, I was able to watch this game on TV, though that did mean I wasn't able to listen to Jack all of the time.  I was still at work though and my viewing and listening tended to be spotty.

Zach Lofton came out firing and put in a three to start the game.  It looked like a great crowd in San Diego.  Some woman was doing the color commentary.  I'm assuming she was a player.  I'm going to refer to her as “The Chick,” since I never got her name.  It was a bit different listening to her.  There was some talk about Zach, since he's had an interesting college career.  He's been at five schools in his five years.  When the Aggie program took him on, Coach Chris Jans was assured that Zach wasn't moved around because of personal problems.  He's a good kid.

Though the Aggies kept up with the Tigers, there were troubling signs early.  Keyon Jones had three straight turnovers, which led to 4 points and a 13-10 Clemson lead.  Over halfway through the first half, rebounding machine Jemerrio Jones had no offensive rebounds.  Worse, the Tigers were having no trouble getting to the rim.  They had a significant height advantage.  

 

There was a feature on the Tiger mascot.  Where's Pistol Pete?  Clemson started pulling away late in the half.  They were keeping the Aggies from getting good shots, they were getting turnovers, and they were putting in hurtful threes.  It was 44-32 Clemson at the half.  Zach had 13 points to lead all scorers.

To start the second half, Jack mentioned that the crowd in San Diego was cheering about another tournament game.  I'd seen something on TV where the hosts were talking about some #16 seed team giving a #1 seed team a fight.  I didn't pay much attention to it, since I was sure nothing interesting would come of it.  However, it was now late in that game and the 16 was still winning. 

Shamefully, I flipped away from the Aggie game to watch the end of what would become an immortal moment in tournament history.  The #16 University of Maryland-Baltimore County Retrievers beat the #1 Virginia Cavilers 74-54.  What's even more shocking than this never before accomplished feat of a 16 beating a 1, it's that they did it in such dominating fashion.  Dad, who was just listening to the radio, told me that the people in San Diego were angry when they turned off this game from the video screens.

Not much had changed when I got back to the Aggie game.  Clemson was still up 54-40, five minutes in.  Pistol Pete got a little airtime.  The Chick reported that Pete and the Tiger were friendly before the match.  (No doubt the Tiger was jealous though.  Seriously.  Being Pete must be awesome.)  The Chick did hang out with Pete a bit.  I'm sure he charmed her.  She asked him about mustache care.  When briefly on camera, it didn't look like she had a problem with that.  Perhaps she was asking for the men in her life.      

I'm avoiding talking about the game.  The Aggies did manage a comeback attempt.  Keyon Jones hit three's on back-to-back possessions to make it 60-49 with 10 minutes left.  Zach hit a three to bring it to 68-60 with 6 minutes left.  Jemerrio got it to 68-62 with a couple of points in the paint to cap a 10-2 run.  The Chick reported from talking to the coach that Double J even wants to win every practice.

It was a good effort, but Clemson had an immediate answer.  The Aggies just couldn't figure out how to stop them down low or in transition.  They were giving up too much in height, which as they say, you can't teach.  (Although that Baltimore team looked even smaller than the Aggies.)  The lengthy and frequent commercial breaks also had me flipping stations.  I caught a little of a Diamondbacks/Dodgers' Spring Training game.  There looked like a full house there.  The announcers were fascinated by switch-pitcher Pat Venditte throwing with both arms for the Dodgers. 

Zach hit another three with 30 seconds left, but there was no dramatic finish here.  The Aggies' season ended with a 79-68 loss to Clemson.  The big difference stat appeared to be points in the paint going 42 to 28 for the Tigers.  Zach Lofton did all he could, finishing with 29 points.  Jemerrio Jones put in another double-double effort.  There was no post game interview with Coach Jans.  In fact, the radio coverage ended pretty quickly.  Jack sounded a bit melancholy, but I'll pick everyone's spirits up here.

Season Rewind

Wow, when I went back over the season, I couldn’t believe all the highlights (and some lowlights).

11-5-17  I listened to this game, but didn’t even write anything about it, since it was a hastily put together charity exhibition, and they were completely crushed by Texas Tech.  It seemed like a really bad sign for the second game of the Chris Jans era.  He even brought this game up right before the NCAA Tournament as being one of their motivators for the rest of the season.

11-17-17  For longtime Aggie fans, this may have been the game of the year.  It was the revenge win against the Aggies’ traitorous ex-coach Paul Weir and his Lobos here in Cruces.

11-25-17 and 11-30-17  The Aggies stomped their other rival, UTEP twice (though I only wrote about it once).  The Miners had a pretty down year for their entire athletics department.  This was just par for the course.

12-3-17  While this wasn’t much of a game against Prairie View A&M, it was a great game for me, since I had free tickets.  I also had the privilege of going to the Barbara Hubbard Room and I got a motivational speech from football Coach Doug Martin after their big win versus South Alabama.  This game was my personal highlight.

12-6-17   Bad loss to the San Diego Torreos.  Who?

12-9-17  The Aggies got a close win against the Lobos in Albuquerque.  How sweet it was sweeping all the games against our two archrivals.

12-16-17  At the United Center in Chicago, the Aggies beat Illinois in a thriller.  Jack Nixon was a believer after this game.

12-22-17  Ah, a tournament in beautiful Hawaii.  No time for sight-seeing with the high-level competition there.  How did the Aggies get invited?  Doesn't matter.  They proved they deserved it with a win against Davidson, a team that college basketball wonks get all hot over.

12-23-17  Shock the world!  #6 and unbeaten Miami no longer either after running into the Aggies.  This got the program some national attention.

12-25-17  Christmas is usually disappointing for me.  I never get what I really want: real estate.  I was more realistically hoping for a tournament-winning victory over USC, but that didn't happen either.  I was still pretty pleased with the team anyway.

1-11-18  What a way to finish a road trip; three conference games.  The game this night was at Grand Canyon, one of the toughest places to play in the WAC.  No problem for the Aggies.  They wiped them.

1-20-18  I got free tickets to another game and to the Hub (and a super cool poster).  The team returned home 7-1 after a 37-day road trip.  This was their second win upon getting back and was a convincing victory over Utah Valley.

2-10-18  Pack the Pan-Am.  The Aggies needed every single fan at the sell-out as they willed the team to victory over GCU.

2-15-18 and 2-17-18  The Aggies lost two in a row on the road, including an OT loss to Seattle U and wearing down against Utah Valley's strong shooting.  This caused the team some soul-searching and likely cost them getting into the top 25 for this season.

3-9-18 and 3-10-18  WAC Tournament.  They were tested by Seattle U and then dominated GCU in the championship.

Athletic Director Mario Moccia thought hiring Chris Jans was pretty close to a sure thing for success.  He pegged that one.  Here's hoping we can keep him for a while.  Zach Lofton ended his college career with an exclamation point.  I hope somebody in the NBA sees his potential too.  Likewise, Jemerrio Jones, who just about averaged a double-double this season.  Lastly, let's look forward to a bright future with the human highlight reel and local boy, Johnny McCants.  Much like the football program, Aggie Basketball just needs to keep building on what they've established. 

I had a great season.  Not just from listening and watching, but from being able to go to and enjoy a couple of games in person and even experiencing the hospitality suite.  That's likely ruined me for just going to a game.  It's likely I'll remain a mostly remote fan, as opposed to an in-person one.  Good luck to Mario in pursuing Pan-Am upgrades with luxury suites.  That would probably be a great boost to the program.