New Mexico State never threatened Texas-Arlington in a 68-47 loss at Arlington on Saturday in the Western Athletic Conference opener for both teams.
The Aggies scored a season-low 47 points to fall to 6-7 overall entering Monday’s WAC game at Louisiana Tech.
“We didn’t give them any indication of who the WAC champions were when we walked in tonight,” said Aggies coach Marvin Menzies in his postgame radio comments.
NMSU trailed 37-24 after a sluggish first half on the road and never threatened in the second half.
“The bell went off for the first conference game and we laid an egg on the road,” Menzies said. “I was emotionally embarrassed by our play tonight.”
The Aggies trailed by as many as 15 in the first half as Arlington made 5-of-10 from 3-point range while NMSU was 32 percent from the floor and 4-for-11 from the foul line in the first half. Terrel de Rouen knocked down one of the Aggies two 3-point makes to close NMSU to within nine with two minutes left in the half, but it was as close as NMSU would get as the Aggies finished the first half 2-for-11 from 3-point range.
The Aggies finished 33 percent from the floor, 47.8 percent (11-for-23) from the foul line while Arlington shot 44 percent and scored 12 points off 15 NMSU turnovers.
“It doesn’t matter what we do defensively if we don’t play offensively the way we are supposed to,” Menzies said.
The Aggies trailed 54-32 on a Karol Gruszecki 3-pointer with 10:33 to play.
NMSU closed to within 13 on a Daniel Mullings lay up with 3:20 left as Mullings led the Aggies with 21 points. Sim Bhullar had 14 points, six rebounds and five blocks in 25 minutes.
“They just kicked our butts from tipoff to the buzzer,” Menzies said. “They outrebounded us by seven, we weren’t blocking them out. We knew how well they rebounded offensively. ... I’m upset because of the lackluster effort of not answering the call.”
7 comments:
I attended the game decked out in my NMSU gear only to have some UTA fans heckle me on the way out. I had nothing.
Bhullar had some fine plays but was often times aloof and out hussled on some key rebounding plays. Mullings impressed but needs to add some Lbs over the next year so he can help control his speed. Sy had a slew of open spots to hit some 3 pointers but stayed out of focus. Finally, Remi, seemed afraid to get physical when the team needed it most.
This is not the year for the Ags because they are too green and didnt seem like they had spark. Perhaps it was the UTA's marvelous arena. Maybe its the holiday blues. Could it be a temporary glitch? Hope so, because Im still going to wear my NMSU gear here in DFW - win or lose!
Antonio B.Ball
Will the real Aggies please stand up? Oh wait, they did.
Is there ANY senior leadership?
6 points from the bench, 18% from 3 point range, 47% FT. More like WAC chumps!
This entire program has grown stale. Just look around the Pan-Am Center during a game. Where is the crowd? Where are the students? Does Menzies even have a offensive gameplan?
If the current state of Aggie basketball is acceptable, then there is no leadership at this University.
Even with a 26 win tournament team last season, average attendace is still only half of the MINIMIZED seating. To me, the community isn't buying into the athletic administration or coaching that this program has in place. That's sad because they have some talented kids, but no direction.
At some point, does this matter to anyone of importance?
I could not agree with anon 12/30 10:23pm more. I don't live in LC, so I don't go to games. But I'm completely embarrassed by the TV games I've been able to watch the last few years. The PAC looks empty, nothing like it was before MM showed up, or when I was at NMSU in the late 70s/early 80s. My empathy towards our men's hoops program is such that I have no desire to watch them play anywhere. And this from someone who used to plan business and personal trips to Southern NM around Aggie home games. I recently moved to the DFW area and chose to leave town when NMSU was in Arlington. And did not even think twice about it.
-Aggie Glare
We need a new president and we could use a new athletic director as well. What a mess.
Post a Comment