Tuesday, January 4, 2022

NM State Aggies vs Chicago State Cougars Men’s Basketball 1-1-22 Part 1


We start the New Year with Aggie Men’s Basketball.  The free tickets I got for going to football (11-27-21) were finally going to pay off.  I had four tickets and, unfortunately, dad just refused to go.  I’m doubting I’m ever going to get him to go to a sporting event again.  I gave two of the tickets to a co-worker.  I’m not sure if he went given the day and given that it wasn’t great opponent.  (He was planning on partying pretty hard on New Year’s Eve.)  I wasn’t sure if Ron would want to go, since he could otherwise stay home and watch the Rose Bowl.  (I would have stayed home to watch the NHL’s Winter Classic outdoor game, but don’t even know where it’s being broadcast.  And I thought they’d suspended play for a month anyway, but they hadn’t.)  Ron was enthusiastic about going to the game, though.

 

Certainly, I didn’t want to go outside today.  There were high, cold winds blowing.  Nonetheless, Ron picked me up for a late lunch at Whataburger (using an Aggie ticket coupon).  It wasn’t our first choice.  I’d gotten a Raising Cane’s gift card for Christmas that I was eager to use, but they were closed for the holiday.  We got to the Pan-Am Center about an hour before the game.  The lot in front of the arena was almost deserted, which it never is on a Men’s Basketball gameday.  Ron went ahead and parked there, though I cautioned him that that lot usually requires a parking pass on days like these.  Given the lack of a crowd, he wasn’t worried. 

 

Inside, Ron asked a ticket-taker where our seats were, and she said just to sit anywhere.  Like the football game, there weren’t any ushers there to tell us otherwise.  We sat in our usual seats for Volleyball and Women’s Basketball, but I told Ron to not get comfortable.  The teams were on court warming up.  Chicago State, today’s opponent, looked like a bunch of guys getting ready for a pickup game at a Southside playground, but a bit taller.  This is to say that they weren’t well-dressed for a college basketball game.  I didn’t even see anyone with them that looked like an obvious coach. 

 

Also on court were a couple of really good-looking production assistants for the TV broadcast (in addition to Emerson, who was working with PA Ed.)  One of the girls I’d seen before, but today she was wearing very tight black yoga pants that didn’t leave much to the imagination.  The other one was also in all black and was also really attractive.  (I am making assumptions, since they were both masked the whole time.)  They looked like they had escaped from a 60’s movie from a beatnik jazz club during a big dance number. 

 

Wow!  Who is that?  TV broadcaster Adam Young was talking to a very hot blonde courtside.  She wasn’t wearing a mask, so I didn’t have to guess about her face.  She turned out to be the broadcast sideline reporter, Megan McCormick.  (My dad knew who she was.  I didn’t.  She’s married to an El Paso newscaster.)  Ron and I were both enraptured.  Also on the broadcast, former Aggie player, Joe Garza, joined Adam as his color commentator.  That’s awesome.  Garza was profiled in Sports Illustrated for making the team in 2017 as a walk-on, who’d previously been playing on the Women’s practice squad.  (At the college level, Women’s basketball teams practice against men.)  Garza’s also a local kid.  He’s my hero.  To hear Garza’s analysis, I kind wished I was watching the TV broadcast instead.

 

The students were still on break, so there wasn’t the usual large contingent of them.  (Unlike every other Aggie sport, the students do come out for Men’s Basketball.)  The band was absent, as were the Sundancers.  A small troop of late-arriving Cheerleaders did make it for game.  I found myself wishing they’d put the Rose Bowl up on the new video board while we were waiting.  Our other local product hero, Johnny McCants came by the sidelines to hug a child and greet the young woman with the kid.  I don’t know their relationship.  I bring this up because I noticed that Johnny had two fingers on his right hand taped up. 

 

A guy came down our row and Ron and I got bumped down a couple seats.  I was glad we didn’t get moved to the upper deck.  Ron struck up a conversation with him.  The rest of the row was reserved for the local theater owner, but the guy said he only shows up for important games.  This was definitely not one of those.  The referees came out.  They looked over the courtside table and picked up the large wrapped cookies left out for the fans in the really good seats.  They didn’t seem to approve of them, as they tossed them aside.  

 

Ron and I both had radios for the game call, though neither of us could hear much of the pregame over the noise.  The Aggies were doing well with an 11-2 record.  Yuat Alok, who was a standout over the Aggies’ four-game sweep road trip, was out with a cold.  Not the cold, but a cold.  Looking over the program, I didn’t know he was from New Zealand (or that there were black guys in New Zealand).  Marchelus “Chi Chi” Avery was suited out to play today after he’d had a cold recently, but not the cold.  Jordan played with the flu, Magic played with HIV, but the cold is too much of a risk.

 

AD Mario Moccia then came on the broadcast, and I really couldn’t make out more than every other sentence over the noise.  I heard him say, “Damn masks,” about a dozen times, which is about a dozen more times than an athletic director should say, “Damn,” over the air, so he was angry.  Mario also mentioned that the Lobos had closed the Pit to unvaxxed fans.  Mario said he would not be doing that. 

 

I’d seen the front page of the Albuquerque Journal last month.  The media there was basically bullying the Pit to put on the restriction.  They’d better have been prepared to issue some refunds to season ticketholders.  Our local paper in Las Cruces is produced in Juarez, so no one cares what it says.  (The Sun-News didn’t even produce an edition on Christmas Eve, Christmas, New Year’s Eve, and New Years because they . . . didn’t feel like coming in to work on those days?)

 

First Half

Here’s where I like covering Women’s games, because they break it down into four quarters, which I prefer frankly.  Right before the start, a decent crowd, considering the circumstances, suddenly materialized.  This is normal.  Here’s Johnny!  McCants filled in a three to start the scoring for the game.  I got a good look at 6’10” Will McNair on court.  He is really big.  I’d heard radio broadcaster, Jack Nixon, call him, “The Baby Bull,” before.  I thought I heard PA Ed call him, “Big Philly,” in the introductions after his hometown. 

 

The Aggies were just shooting three’s to start, apparently not able to get the ball inside.  Mario McKinney made one, but most of the shots missed.  It was 6-5 Aggies, 3 minutes in.  Johnny dove into the sideline table going for a loose ball.  He said, “Hi,” to the fans there.  It was 8-5 Aggies with 15 minutes left at the first media timeout.  Suddenly, I got a call.  I couldn’t hear it; I just felt it vibrating.  Oh, it was my Aunt Judy from Missouri calling to wish me Happy New Years.  I think.  She could hear I was at a game.  I told her I’d call her back later.   

 

The Aggies were just getting sloppy out of the break, as the Cougars took an 8-9 lead.  The Aggies retook the lead, 10-9, with 14 minutes left, as McKinney made 2 of 3 free throws at the line.  He really hustled on that final miss and nearly got the ball back.  The Aggies picked up the D at this point.  McCants got a block that got a rise out of the crowd, though I think it was waived off on a shot clock violation.  Clayton Henry was inserted into the game.  He got a cheer from the crowd.  He’d been injured at the start of the season.  I wonder if this was his first home game in front of a big crowd.

 

Great.  Now, nobody was scoring.  At the media timeout with 11 minutes left, it was still 10-9.  Clayton hit a last second three out of the break to end the funk.  Chicago State player, Ali Abdou Dibba was called for a foul.  Marking that on the scorecard, I noticed he was from Sweden.  This black person from Sweden wasn’t entirely surprising, as we were already familiar with Soufia Inoussa from our Aggie Women’s Basketball team.  13-14 Cougars as JJ Harris hit a three from NBA distance.  The crowd was impressed.  McCants missed a 3, jumped high around the rim twice trying to get the rebound, but lost it.  The effort was there.

 

During the break, there was a disturbing shootout contest.  A pair of large eyeball mascots came out with an enormous pair of glasses with nets instead of lens.  The contestants shot small balls into the nets.  A little tribute to Betty White played afterward in the form of the Golden Girls theme song.  She’d passed away at 99 years old on New Year’s Eve (three days after getting the shot?).  The crowd kind of went, “Ahh,” for a moment.

 

McCants hit a pair of free throws to end a four-minute Aggie scoring drought.  A Cougar pass hit an open man on the arm who wasn’t looking.  Timeout Chicago State.  17-16 Aggies with five minutes left.  “Turnovers, fouls, and missed shots,” was Jack Nixon’s game analysis on the radio.  Brandon Betson hit a three and had a layup to give the Cougars a 19-21 lead as the Aggies took a timeout. 

 

Nate Pryor came in for the Aggies.  You couldn’t miss him with his gold shoes and big hair.  He scored on his first shot, and then had a no-look assist to Teddy Allen for a three, his first points of the game.  24-21 Aggies with 3 minutes left and another media timeout.  Pistol Pete brought a policeman out on court, so the crowd could honor him with a standing ovation.  I thought I also saw the officer tossing balls to the crowd with the Cheerleaders later.  Speaking of the Cheerleaders, on this break, they handed out gourmet local pizzas to the crowd from Lorenzo’s.  A kid who planned ahead well got one, as he held up a handmade, “Pizza Here!” sign. 

 

Out of the break, Nate went to Teddy again for a dunk off a turnover.  On the other end, McCants got a block, but it was scored anyway on a goaltend.  Finally, the half ended.  It was 30-26 Aggies.

 

Continued in Part 2.

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