Laroche has started every game since coming to New Mexico State. That's 99 straight. Laroche enters his senior season No. 2 on the All-time assist list behind Sam Crawford. Laroche's 416 assist are 176 behind Crawford, meaning if Laroche wants to leave Las Cruces atop the list, he has to improve slightly on his WAC leading 5.1 assists per game. He had a career year in terms of total assists with 152 last year. He also
averaged a career best 11.5 ppg. Laroche is the Aggies' best returning shooter from long range after shooting 34 percent from 3 last year. He's always done a good job taking care of the ball, but last year's 2.7 turnovers per game was the highest of his career by one TO per game as he probably tried to press offensively. If Laroche can up his scoring slightly and remain a leader on both ends (62 steals led the Aggies and was third behind seniors Anderson and Graham last year) it shouldn't matter if he catches Crawford for individual records because that would likely put the Aggies back in the tournament his senior year.
No. 9 — Idaho junior center Kyle Barone
No. 10 — Utah State senior guard Brockeith Pane
6 comments:
No offense towards Laroche but, Sam Crawford did it only TWO years and in front of 12,000 fans not, a partially opened PanAm!!
yes, but Crawford also didn't know when to let the game come to him...I remember that UCLA Sweet 16 game....the guy had big heart, but he was a 'live by the sword, die by the sword' kind of player. Also, if memory serves correct, he had very good players surrounding him.
Crawford was worlds better than Laroache so lets not compare then. Laroache has been great though. He just not as talented as SC.
agreed...it really isn't a comparison....probably they would have done well together.....Crawford was very short, but it would have been interesting to see him and HL in a two pg lineup.
Agreed that Laroche and Crawford aren't comparable for many reasons. Crawford was a much better penetrator, and made more things happen. Hernst seems to be more of a solid game manager who needs a couple other stars to really make things go. If you have those stars (like say JY and The Gillenwater), then he's a perfect point for that team as he won't dominate the ball. Also, Hernst graduated early, and Crawford barely went to class if at all.
Finally, maybe this is my own personal gear-grinding, but can we let go of the idea that we had constant sellouts prior to the Menzies era when talking about the PanAm adjustments? There were no sellouts during the RT era, not even the tournament. McCarthy era only had a few- UNM, UTEP, and UNLV games in a few of those years.
great point about past attendance...I went to many of those games and NEVER had trouble finding a ticket......why don't you write a guest entry and see if Jason would publish it...I feel this romantic version of past eras needs to be addressed.
In fact Menzies is doing a decent job and learning to coach at this level. I look forward to what he brings and the team is more likable each year.
I am more curious to see if NMSU can bolt from the WAC with Utah State to a more competitive conference.
Your thoughts?
Post a Comment