"Im happy with the way the guys are playing right now in the sense of getting wins. There are a lot of things we have to clean up. Take a bit more urgency to treat the whole game as winning time, rather than the last four or five minutes of the game. Just being a little less loose. That's what we are working on in practice. Getting up and down a little bit more, practice a little bit shorter, breaking up practice into two practices with shooting and free throws practice and a separate practice later on. Just seeing if we can get our percentages up from the line and our confidence back from the deep ball. Right now, they are pretty clear as to the formula for success, which is basically taking high percentage shots. We have taking a lot of challenged shots here as of late."
On guards defending Idaho's and Utah State's myriad of screens
"We took care of the whole floor against two tough teams. Now we have to do the same task on the road. These guys know who they are going against. They are armed with the knowledge. Its about them coming together and playing for each other."
On Idaho center Kyle Barone, who only had seven shots in the first game.
"They were taking what we were giving them. Barone is obviously a focal point for us. I think we did a good job here."
On trying to get a win at Utah State
"We have to handle the crowd, not let the emotion get to us. Not let the exterior things get to us that come from a road game."
5 comments:
Glad they are thinking about free throw shooting. To lose a game on poor free throw shooting is one of the worst ways to lose.
It could happen. Look at the Giants.
"Im happy with the way the guys are playing right now in the sense of getting wins."--M. Menzies
What does that even mean? Menzies just seems to toss a Word Salad every time he opens his mouth. He can't string together two coherent sentences. He's not exactly a great representative for the university, the state, or the city of Las Cruces.
I watched the Idaho game, and, once again, Menzies got out-coached. The play to put Idaho up to win was about as basic a play as can be drawn up. Too bad Menzies doesn't have the same capability. The Aggies couldn't score from the field during the last seven minutes because their offensive sets are, well, offensive.
So, time to cue Menzies' "Tournament Talk." Just as he's slouched off the rivalry games with UNM and UTEP, he'll explain away the remaining regular season games and talk about making a (blech) "stong run in the conference tournament."
Oh, well. Even though the football team under Coach Walker hasn't had a winning season yet, at least there's strong evidence of continued improvement on both individual and team levels. I can't see any improvement with the basketball team.
We're 5 years into Menzies and the question to ask is have we made 5 years of progress? Have we made any progress?
Our talent level is down from where it was 5 years ago. Our product on the court is less consistent, less coherent and...
attendance reflects that the general indifference fans feel for the program.
This coach doesn't have a cogent plan for recruiting (i.e. a team that runs (Bhullar), a team with skills (all raw athletes who can't put the rock in the hole)
This coach can't get it done tactically (does anyone believe that with equal talent UNM and UTEP beat us EVERY game)
And this coach doesn't have an alpha bone in his body (watch him try to kiss Jahmar Young after repeated on the court fits and disdain for the coach was sickening - and I do mean literally trying to kiss Jahmar while he storms off the court)
But, that's ok. The Menzies apologists will continue to say that he's nice, will continue to improve (as though he's a teenager). We have no money, so we should just endure mediocrity...
We suck, so just deal with it.
Not me, I'm going to continue to believe that we can get a coach with a plan, who can coach and put a product on the floor we can be proud of.
And, I'll continue to hope that when that happens fans will actually turn out to see Aggie basketball again.
ANON 4:15pm,
You and I are so very like-minded. What do you think Henson would've done with a piece-of-work like Young?
Menzies continues to take money that he's not earned.
There are plenty of Division I caliber kids out there. To the Menzies apologists: don't cite "recruiting" as something he does well. His coaching has devolved so badly that he's resorting to recruiting kids who barely speak English and don't understand the complexities, nuances, and dynamics of American basketball ... which is only fitting because Menzies certainly doesn't as well.
Post a Comment