I listened to the Aggies/USC game on the radio and the same things stood out to me that you probably noticed. I spoke to Coach Menzies after the game about what he thought.
I asked him about the bench, which had a good outing. Robert Lumpkins hit a couple 3s, Wendell McKines had seven boards in limited action due to foul trouble and Gordo Castillo had a couple steals and hit a three.
"Both of those guys (Castillo and Lumpkins) gave us good minutes in that atmosphere. Robert hadn't played any minutes in that kind of intense atmosphere maybe in his life and he responded."
What stood out for Menzies the most it seemed was that his young players played young at critical times. He said his players acted surprised when they were trapped and that they took ill advised shots and went to the wrong spots at ties in the half court. I was looking at the play by play sheet, and there was one stretch where they were down 57-51 with 8:09 left but they didnt score again until the 4:54 mark. They turned it over on their next two possessions, Gibson missed a 3, followed by another turnover and another missed 3 from Young.
"All of our mistakes were tiny mistakes where guys would get caught looking at the ball instead of moving and realizing that the first option is going to be there everytime. It's just a matter of maturing and being more patient."
Menzies also knows his team needs to do a better job rebounding (USC 50-35 on the boards), but said USC was more athletic than they looked on film. He added that he was encouraged that the halftiime deficit was only 10 considering USC was 10 of 16 from the foul line in the first half. USC was 26 of 36 from the line for the game while NMSU had 18 attempts at the foul line.
6 comments:
was courstside for the game last night cheering on the boys...
what a great effort from the aggies, but Menzies called it.. We are young and at the pressure moments it showed. Most notably the first half we weren't settled. The second half we played our game and basically outplayed them. There were a couple times where the crowd started counting down the shot clock ahead by like 5 seconds and our guys rushed shots believing them. That said, we played professional, didn't bitch about unfavorable calls, and was a joy to watch us compete.
From a talent perspective we can clearly run with the 19th ranked team, and this is a much more complete aggie team than we have seen in years.
Couple observations...
1) No true point guard is very evident. Too many possessions ended in turnovers at the top of the key.
2) Castillo needs more minutes somehow. I wasnt very high on him, but clearly his perimeter threat more than compensates for his average defensive abilities.
3) Jahmar Young HAS to get more physical. He has so much talent but plays weak and was proven against a stronger SC team.
4) Gillenwater has the skills to take a game over. He and Rahman bodied up well against Taj, one of the best big men in the pac-10.
5) Menzies needs Reggie's taylor. What size suit was the guy wearin... two man tent?
I think this years team has a bright future and they proved that with a decent showing at USC. But I do think last years team, despite all the problems, would have had a better chance of beating USC due to one statistic. Rebounding. We got beat on the boards last night. We need to consistantly win on the glass to win our league and play in the post season. Other than that, I thought it was a plus to compete and get some big game experience for our young team. Im excited.
PS. Nevada got embarrassed by San Diego last night. They did not look like the good RENO teams of the past. I'd say that we are ahead of Nevada at this point in the season. Not that it matters. I give Menzies and the young Aggies an "A" so far.
I think that the team played well and it was just the fact that we are too young right now. That sure showed in the first half listening on the radio but it definetely picked up in the second half. I was disappointed with Gibsons 0/5 showing at the three point line. Its just one game but as Teddy said in his blog sometimes he just decides to shoot the ball without looking around. Also the lack of points from Rahman and the fact that he drew so few fouls in the paint. Hes a freshman and he will definetely get better but 2 points seemed like way too little. However, its just the second game and Im sure the team is on the right path and hopefully we can do better vs Kansas now that they have that road experience.
GS
Turnovers (16) tallied less than last year's team would have commited. Several were just fumbling the ball up to USC for no good reason. Ags had one more assist than USC. These two categories bode well as everybody seems to accept a role, even if they're not the perfect fit for the role. Perfect fit for Coach's suit is probably secondary (maybe it was Reggie's suit?). Blocking out USC from the glass proved impossible for the Aggies given USC's "athleticism." Way to sport the colors for those of you among the 5,600 on hand! - Jimmy
NMSU played good. USC started 1 freshmman, 3 juniors, and 1 senior while NMSU started 3 freshman, 1 sophomore, and 1 junior. NMSU goes 6'1, 6'2, 6'4, 6'8, and 7'0 while USC went 6'5, 6'5, 6'7, 6'9, 6'9.
Aggies should lose that game, on paper. That McKines blocked the Taj Gibson shot in 2nd half, after Ags had chipped away to be within 6, shows a lot of heart (and hops). Too bad it deflected right to USC for a put-back or the final score might have been different? Ags got back to down 6 again, but that was kind of a bad-break turning point...
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