News and notes

I talked to WAC media relations guy Jason Erickson regarding seeding scenarios entering this weekend's final slate of games.

"Every single game has seeding implications on Thursday," he said. Erickson said the WAC is going to put out a win lose scenario on Friday.

Here is what I have figured out for NMSU so far. I'm not so sure about the split scenario though.

If the Aggies get swept this weekend, NMSU would finish 11-5 and in third behind Utah State and Nevada if Nevada beats Louisiana Tech on Saturday. I think the Aggies could finish second if La. Tech beats Fresno State on Thursday and Nevada on Saturday and then La. Tech would be third and Nevada would be fourth.

If the Aggies sweep this weekend, they are the No. 1 seed, followed by Utah State and if La. Tech wins at Fresno, the winner of La. Tech/Nevada on Saturday would determine the 3/4, but it would come down to tiebreakers if Nevada wins since the Bulldogs beat Nevada the first time.

If the Aggies split this weekend, they would finish 12-4. If they lose at Nevada and win at Utah State, they would be the No. 2 seed. If they lost at Utah State and win at Nevada, I think they still end up at No. 2 regardless of what Nevada does against Fresno.

Check back on Friday.

I wrote a story on Nolan Richardson for today's paper. Richardson was signing books, as he is the subject of Rus Bradburd's book Forty Minutes of Hell. Richardson had some nice things to say about the book.

There was a photo last week of Richardson and Lou Henson.

"I was 15 years old and I played against his teams when I was at Bowie and he was coaching at Las Cruces High. I think we split that year. I was a sophomore when I first met him."

Richardson rememberd playing against Henson's Aggies team in the 1998 Top of the World Classic in Fairbanks Alaska. Arkansas was ranked No. 19 at the time and won by 6.

"His wife and my wife are really close. We all belonged to the Converse family back in the day and they used to take us on a cruise. We got to be close to them for five or six days. It was probably 15 couples."

I asked Richardson what he thought about NMSU having a black men's basketball coach, a black AD and a black head football coach.

"I wasn't familiar with that but to hear what you just told me about an African American having opportunities at key positions. Positions of authority is very important just because we have so many youngsters that are athletes in football and basketball. So in some of our kids could say, 'Hey I want to be an AD' because they see one. It's hard to want to be something a lot of times if you never see it."

Just some comments from a pretty interesting man.