Thursday, December 20, 2012
Lobos 68, Aggies 63
Tyrone Watson
"I would say they played better defense in the second half on the 3-point line. Overall we were 10-for-17 we were making 3s but we just fell short. ... Our shooters were on the bench so that could be a little frustrating at times when there aren't shooters on the court. We are still trying to pound the ball inside. ... Usually they let us shoot the 3s. This time we were making the 3s. They made a halftime adjustment and we struggled to make the easy ones. ... First half we shot good from the free throw line, and then ended 11-20. We spotted them nine points and they won by five. ... We looked on it on film and we weren't really pounding the ball inside. We figured if we could get (Kirk and Adams) in foul trouble, eventually they would have some problems. ... We try to do it for the the city, for the fans and for the university and we just fell a couple possessions short."
Steve Alford
"We won the last four minute game and we have done that a lot this year so that's a good trend. ... (Kendall Williams) that would have changed how we subbed but he came back and he was just terrific. He's playing at a very high level. ... (Tony Snell) We challenged Tony at half. I keep telling him he is our shooting guard, not our screener. I thought in second half, he moved a lot better. He hasn't been getting to the free throw line and our whole team is getting to the free throw line. He's got to get there because he's a 90 percent free throw shooter, he is our best 3 point threat. I thought he worked a lot harder in the second half to get shots. ... Our game plan in both games, we were hoping it was going to be post play. Their big kid is big but I don't think he's going to be a double-double guy yet. I don't think Dixon could be a double-double guy yet so those shots were taken away from Sy and Watson and Mullings). We weren't going to trap, we weren't going to double. If you look at the center position in both games at the center position, if you look at points and rebounds, I think we come out ahead. I think that was key. ... I don't think there was an adjustment. We just said contest more. They haven't been a good 3-point shooting team. To their credit, in the first half they made 3s. Aronis was a good 3-point threat we knew that and he kind of got away from us a little bit. The other guys, Dixon made a 3, Miller might have made his second all year. We weren't really concerned about it. We just wanted to contest a little better because I think the key to it was trying to take away the dribble drive. ... We caught them at halftime and just told our guys they have not been a good 3-point shooting team but they just made 6-of-7 and they are still down two."
Marvin Menzies
"Tip your hat to the Lobos. They are on a roll right now. I thought we could get a win here. Our guys were really shooting the ball well in practice but it wasn't meant to be. They are the better team and they proved it by beating us twice. ... We drove, we did what we designed to do. We can't get to the free throw line if they don't call fouls. I have to watch the tape. I think we were hit a lot more than we got called. They called the games like they call the games. It's one of the components you can't control. ... Not having Chili hurts. Sim played his heart out. He's a work in progress. We didn't have the manpower to beat them tonight. I was concerned about rebounding and I challenged them there. I just have to ask them to do everything I guess. We will get there eventually. ... Kendall Williams came off a broken foot and went to work. It was the Kendall show. ... It was tough because Bandja was rebounding really well and I couldn't take Daniel out because he was subbing for (Aronis). Maybe so."
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
14 comments:
I guess the Aggies are waiting around to win the weak WAC. Good teams win during the pre-conference too.
This is a game the Aggies could have won. I just don't understand why Kevin Aronis was left on the bench down the stretch after hitting 4/5 three point shots earlier in the game. He is clearly the best pure shooter on the team, yet he only gets 9 minutes of playing time. The same can also be said for Rhemi Barry and Terrel De Rouen, who have both showed promise in limited action. Combined, these three players were 6/7 on three point shots, yet they each played 10, 10, and 9 minutes.
Menzies prefers to go with his normal line-up and play the inside - out game of going to the low post then kicking it out. The problem is that your outside perimeter players need to be good shooters, not power fowards.
It would be nice to see more plays set up for Mullings that allow him to come off screens and penetrate the lane. When it looked as though a play was run for him, he finished.
I've never been a big Menzies fan because I think his coaching skills are questionable. I venture to guess there are many other Aggie fans that feel the same. I personally know many fans that don't go to games because he is the coach. At this point though, he hasn't done an awful job and they have been to the tournament twice in his five years. Plus for NMSU, he is cheap. I support the Aggies, but I feel this program has underachieved.
Patrick NaySay
Effort was there. Outcome was expected. Aggies are where their talent and how they are coached has brought them. No surprises, no expectation.
Still don't understand why Aronis was not in the game down the stretch. Watson and Mullings can get the ball up the court why can't Aronis be on the court at the same time as DM?
The argument that Aronis can't guard is out the window because the Aggies zoned down the stretch. Don't understand it. Coaches get paid big money in a poor community to make these decisions.
I'm mad.
-DB
DB, exactly. NMSU was playing zone and it was working but they couldn't get closer than 3. I understand not wanting to get Mullings, or even Sy off the court. Perhaps they didnt KCRM on the court since Watson and Mullings are capable of filling that role anyway. My opinion.....just an opinion. Is that Aronis was literally forgotten on the bench. Doubtful, but it's hard to explain otherwise.
I heard Jack Nixon on the post game show remark that he hoped a particular caller was not the type of Aggie fan that bases the season on the UNM/UTEP games.
What Mr. Nixon doesn't seem to understand or doesn't want to admit, is the fact that these games basically generate the level of interest and attendance for the season. I'm not saying that is a good thing, but it is the way many Aggie fans think. We want to beat UNM and UTEP.
Since Menzies has been coach, the Aggies record vs. UNM is 2-10. Against UTEP it is 3-8. That is 5-18 against our two biggest rivals, which includes 5 straight Pan-Am losses to UNM. To me, this is unacceptable.
I can recall following the Aggies since about 1985, and I don't ever remember these two teams dominating NMSU as thouroughly as the past 6 seasons.
Patrick NaySay
What's sad is that in many of those losses, we clearly had the better team. In this year's lost to UTEP, we aren't clearly better, we are more on par with them.
I'm really sick and tired of Menzies dismissing these games and saying he only cares about winning the WAC. Sure, winning the WAC is great and two NCAA tourney appearances in the last three years is nice, but fans want nothing more than to beat UNM and UTEP. Lose those games and you've lost most of your fan base. I wish Menzies would get another job (the world needs ditch diggers, too) and NMSU could hire someone who has ties to the school and the community. How about someone like William Benjamin? He's an Aggie, played in NCAA tournaments and probably learned quite a bit from Neil McCarthy. He's someone who could certainly generate more excitement than we're seeing now.
I'm not going to look up every single rivalry game, but I would guess that in many of them, the Aggies were not the favorite, and that the game went pretty much as expected. UNM in particular is playing in a different basketball strata than we are right now. This is reflected in their conference, their recruiting budget and their coach. They are essentially, since Alford has arrived, a perennial top 30 team. Aggie fans have a different perspective because of the long history of the series, and because we hate imagining that UNM might be good. college basketball has changed a lot, even since the mid 90s. It is now much more difficult for a lower budget conference team to compete with a higher budget one, and I think that is reflected in the Lobo series results. Imagine if you will that the Aggies were 1 of the last 10 against UNLV or Gonzaga. We wouldn't like it, but we wouldn't be surprised either. Well, UNM currently sits in the Gonzaga/unlv/sdsu neighborhood, and we do not. Nor will we until we can realize a similar conference situation, similar revenues, similar resources.
Fundamental BB. Free throws, taking care of the ball. Positioning for rebounds. half court offensive sets.
Bandja is on pace to shoot worse than he did his freshman year. He really needs to step it up or Menzies needs to pull him out of the starting line up and give someone else a chance to gain experience and develop for next year.
People really need to calm down on the whole "UTEP and UNM are so much better than NMSU because of Menzies". Menzies clearly is not good at all in rivalry games for one reason or another. We all hate losing to the Miners and Lobos but it shouldnt make us go or not to the game. The ultimate goal is to win the WAC and go to the NCAA Tournament. Going 0-4 against our rivals is embarrassing but it wont prevent us from reaching the ultimate goal. Someone mentioned that all Menzies has to win the "weak WAC" and we all get happy. Im sorry but you have to win whatever conference you are in, would you rather we not win it? We are not at an large team and havent been since the 90's so we kinda need to win the WAC.
People keep talking about how both UNM and UTEP have more money and that we dont measure up to them anymore. Well since Menzies came on board, we have gone to the NCAA Tournament twice. UNM has gone twice as well and UTEP has gone once. UNM managed to win its first round games because they had much more favorable matchups (Long Beach and Montana compared to Michigan St. and Indiana). I dont think that we are doing so horrible considering that UNM has more money and a much better coach. We are all aware that Menzies has several shortcomings as a coach but he has worked well with the resources that we have. He stinks up before conference starts and turns it up during the WAC. A more consistent approach would be nice, but that has worked for Menzies so far.
Jesus
Sorry Jesus, but you are dead wrong about going 0-4 against rivals not preventing us from reaching "the ultimate goal", which for some Aggie fans is more than just showing up at the tourney and declaring mission accomplished. Winning the WAC and getting thrown to the sharks as a 15 seed every year is not my idea of success. I am pretty tired of this defeatist attitude of just trying to be mediocre. If mediocrity is what you want, then congrats, Menzies is your man.
If I was to measure success, it might be the regular season conference championship AND getting an at-large bid to the NCAAs. It would also be getting past the first round of the NCAAs, which we haven't done in over 20 years.
Getting to the dance is nice, sticking around for a couple games is better.
Anon 11:22,
NMSU hasnt been able to get past the First Round (second round now) since the 90's. Menzies has only been around for five years so I guess Lou Henson and Reggie were also mediocre since they were only able to get the team to the NCAA Tournament but couldnt advance. Again, we havent been an At Large team since the 90's so I really doubt that Menzies is the one to blame for a mediocre program since then.
Jesus
Post a Comment