Do you think tonight's Idaho game is a must win? I kind of do.
The Vandals have proven that they are legit and Boise State just beat La. Tech so they are keeping up what they started. It's almost halfway through the league and with the next two games at home against one team that the Aggies have already beaten (San Jose) and Hawaii coming to the Pan Am next week, I think the Aggies have a good shot to get a win streak going.
This is just a thought and perhaps its too late in the game to shake the lineup up, but I think they need to do something. I think Wendell has shown an improved abilty to put the ball on the floor and knock down an occassional jumper, so why not start him at the small forward and get Gillenwater into the starting lineup at his natural position, the four with Rahman at the center.
So who gets left out? I hate to say it because I like watching him play, but I think Gibson comes off the bench. I think he would bring instant offense and athleticism to the lineup and J.Y. would play the two, which would fit his stature and game. Justin Hawkins had two inches on Jahmar as the small forward last year. And just because Gibson would be coming off the bench, he would probably get starters minutes anyway because the Aggies play small a lot, but if Gillenwater continues to rebound like the other night and with Wendell at the three, the Aggies wouldn't get outrebounded at those two spots at least.
Gibson's role is expanded this year and it doesn't seem like he has made the necessary adjustments. He played within himself in a win against Idaho and then reverted back to his old self at Boise. We shall see what he does tonight
14 comments:
So much for the must win game against Idaho.
Man, Gibson sucks! He hurts the team more then he helps them. Put his rear end on the bench!
NMSU is now 9-11 and will probably win the next two and be 11-11 and at the .500% mark, again.
Then, we will lose the next two, win two, split two, etc.
Wait!! Isn't this a recurring theme since Menzies got here?
Menzies teams love to flirt with mediocrity don't they?
This .500% CRAP has gotten really old!
I agree that this sucks already. I have one question though, I have been here since Reggie's first year so basketball has been pretty decent but was everybody this bitter about losing before Reggie?? Don't get me wrong, I love watching them and I am at every game, but with the way people make it sound about having a down year, it seems like if we have been a great program for years and we have not. I am looking forward to next year if this team stays together!! GO AGGIES!!
I think that the regular season is pretty much over for us now. I dont think that we will fall below fifth place and its not so bad now. Well probably face Idaho in the quarters because I dont see any other team finishing above us two so it should be a good game. Its been a disappointing season so far and frustrating to see us struggle so much. I just hope that we dont have a high numbers of players leaving due to the lack of results as it happened last season. We have a solid group of players here and if they all stick around they should be something special. Our coaching staff also needs to improve in order to not only make the fans happy but make the players happy as well.
GS
GS,
I like your post and I have a question for you. Who would leave? I don't think it's like it was last year because those who left came for Reggie although Wendell almost did. Gibson would be a senior so I dont see why he would leave at that point even if a bigger school would take him because I don't see the point of leaving, sitting out a year only to play one year. Young seems like he has adjusted to living and playing here and his junior year could be huge but he certainly has the ability to play elsewhere but I think it would be hard for him to leave. Gillenwater is the only other one who with the ability to play at a larger school right now but he is a Menzies recruit so I believe the team will be intact next year.
Pack it in boys ... lets start looking forward to the 2009/2010 season. This season has been disappointing to say the least. As for players leaving (being an Aggie fan the last 9 years) .. players leave expectedly/unexpectedly every year. This year's candidates to leave start with Jahmar Young. Troy Gillenwater and Wendell McKines top that list. JY because he could be getting major PT on a team with much more exposure; (U of Arizone especially when Theus gets the head gig there). Gillenwater because he's obviously talented, but seems to not be getting along so well with Menzies; and McKines - he will be the WAC's leading rebounder and a major program could try to get him to transfer because every major program needs a hussle/heart type of banger like him.
And during Theus' tenure, by this time during the season, we already had some big-time recruits committing to NMSU. Who have we recruited so far? Is Menzies going to recruit the leftovers from the Major programs again?
Sorry to be realistic. I hope I'm wrong!
Maybe this year the men will be like the women and get hot at the WAC Toruney. That will be our ONLY Chance, and it will be on the players to come together and just get it done. We have one of the worst coaching staffs in the WAC. Henson and McCarthy did much more with much less at times during their time at NMSU. This loving Life, but watching out basketball program turn into something like our football probram is for the BIRDS. NMSU was one of the winningest programs in the 1990's. We are now a far cry from then. I have very little hope that MM is a true HEAD Coach. With what he was given last year, the AGGIES should have gone dancing and had a 28-7 record heading into the NCAA. Time for a new coach. This yo-yo season is done, and attendance will be footballish for the remainder of the season.
I think it just depends on what the players want to achieve as a team and individually. McKines came back more for his daughter than to play here again. I dont know his story but he didnt come back because he had a change of heart for Menzies and NMSU. JY can play ball at a better school than here and sitting out a year is not so bad if you get a better window. I see Gillenwater play and I just dont see him happy here. Maybe its just me but most of the time he walks around, has a bored expression on his face and doesnt get the ball as much as he would want. If any of them leave it wont be surprising but as I said in my last post they have to look the next two seasons. All three will get plenty of playing time, score points and be atop of certain categories around the league. The team will only get better with time and I think if they want to win and make a name for themselves this is the place to do it.
GS
Did anyone honestly think coming into this year after losing all of the seniors and some others from last year that we would have any other option for the post season besides winning the WAC tourney? From the beginning people weren't expecting big things from this team due to their inexperience and lack of playing together. We beat a couple of cupcakes in the OOC schedule lost to some mediocre, good, and great teams and all of a sudden we're supposed to be tearing up the WAC?
Nevada, USU, and BSU are all very good. Idaho, SJSU, and La Tech are improved. But the key is we have been in every game down to the end, with the exception of the USU game. As these young kids gain more experience in game time situations we will win more of these close games. It's Marvin's SECOND year as a head coach. Hovering around .500? He won 21 games last year and was a couple of missed shots from taking us back to the NCAA tourney! Don't fool yourselves into thinking that we would have got an at large bid in Theus's second year if we would have lost that title game (which we almost did). I can live with giving him a pass this year because of all the freshman, but I expect better next year.
The Idaho loss was worse than the score reflected, just because the Vandals made 42 two-pt baskets during the game to NMSU's 13 (0.351 from inside the arc). They did it with 9 steals being a major part of 13 Aggie turnovers, but maybe that's a Moscow scorekeeper, and they added 7 blocks. Point is, Gordo's 9 from outside masked some inside futility. I wouldn't go blaming your lone junior just yet. Don't forget that Reggie would have never gone to the NCAA if Gibson, as a freshman no less, hadn't hit a circus layup vs UTags the play before Knauber stole the ball (got it on TIVO), trust me. The big men were toast by that point just like they would be the next year in the BSU triple OT. If anything, let Gibson play pressure D minutes and create on offense. Aggies are missing dunks and some big men muscling their way in and getting to the line.
Heres proof that Menzies teams flirt with .500 records. BTW, it's on the NMSU website.
Last year he had the best WAC team and the team was 15-13 at the end of February.
The team had a nice streak into and, including the WAC tournament (WAC tourney started on 3/13) and finished 20-14.
Yes, 20-14 is nice but the big picture is that the team played .500 ball the entire season except, the last two weeks of the season!!
Do we even want to get into this seasons sub .500 record?
Hmmmm...people are saying exactly what I was saying weeks ago about Menzies and his mediocre coaching (for which I was viciously attacked)...lol. I think it's hilarious how everyone on this blog has changed their tune. And to the person who said Aggie basketball was not that good before Theus. I'm assuming you're too young and probably not from Las Cruces originally to remember all of the great Aggie teams dating back to the 60's. I was in college during the early 90's and NM State was awesome. They were top 25 for a large part of the 90's and had a winning tradition even long before that. Even though I wasn't alive in the 60's, I know my Aggie basketball history from my Dad and reading. Most college kids now think history is going back to the year 2000.
The Aggies are not good this season, but it urks me when people say that NM State has never been good at basketball because NM State has a very rich tradition.
Anon 6:03, what does it matter if the Aggies had a .500 record all last season except after February? ITS OVER. But I'll play your game anyway. Last I heard its better to be playing good ball at the end of the season when the tournament come around. Just ask Coach Spence how he managed to make 3 straight conference championship appereances. Ask Nevada how it felt to sweep us only to lose to us in the semis. Do you honestly think that if the team had won more games last season it would have changed the outcome of the Boise game? I dont think so.
GS
See, JG - the thing is last night Anon 8:44 was basking in this "I told you so" glory. Well, I've been to the Pan Am and seen Lou Henson (Aggies Final Four in 1970 - lost to UCLA), yeah that Lou Henson, get his 700th Div 1 coaching win TWO TIMES. How could Jimmy be so lucky, you say? Or is Jimmy on crack? Turns out you can get a bunch of wins for a short period of time by having the athletes complete classes from a correspondence college out of the Florida Keys. But the winning doesn't last very long before the NCAA busts you, places the program on probation, and takes away those wins that big crowds showed up at Pan Am and paid green money to see.
Lou had to rescue a "winning" program from the late 80's and most of the nineties (Anon 8:44 is correct technically) that was headed for PROBATION. He got his 700th win once before the sanctions and again afterwards. Players he inherited from McCarthy cost him the games. Gillenwater might want to quit, but I'm guessing his technical was called for backing up a teammate on a BS call from home-teaming refs? Could be this team will band together and try to come back and prove something to the WAC in the next couple years? Or they could all quit? What you have to ask is, "Does Menzies have the players in the mindset that a diploma from NMSU is a goal they hold as a main priority?"
Everybody needs to simmer down. The WAC is a one bid conference (and it has been since about the 2nd week of the season), so the only games that matter are in Reno in Feb/Mar. What matters is winning the WAC tourney and getting to the dance, especially after this start. The team has the talent to pull together a late season run, and do just that. I think it'd be safe to say that you all would be happy with the season if that were the end result.
It's not the end of the world. This team is young, we have a 2nd year head coach, yet they've been competitive in almost every game (including Kansas & USC). They play hard, play D, and are fun to watch.....when the offense isn't stagnated by guys trying to do too much.
~JL
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