Tuesday, December 10, 2013

Aggies vs. top-ranked Wildcats

From what I've been able to gather, with the help of others, is that Wednesday at Arizona will be the third time New Mexico State has played the No. 1 team in the country. 

The Aggies lost both Big West meetings to the defending national champion UNLV in 1991 where the Rebels were the preseason No. 1 and went unbeaten until the Final Four. From what I could gather, UCLA was also the No. 1 team when the Bruins beat NMSU 53-38 in the 1969 NCAA Tournament.

I don't expect an Aggies win on Wednesday. I understand the frustration from NMSU fans with the Aggies 0-3 record during this stretch, where I thought that two wins would be a success but that included a home win over the Lobos. I still think this weekend's road game at Drake is a NMSU win, but travel and the home loss to the Lobos make a win at the Pit unlikely.

I will say this however. Despite the losing, can you honestly look at this year's team and not see growth from last year. I would say every other NMSU team under Marvin Menzies would have been blown out at Colorado State and Gonzaga. I will grant you that failing to show up at home against the Lobos was a low point this season, and the Aggies certainly have their challenges. One that has surprised me has been on the boards, giving up 16 offensive rebounds per game the past three games, and the lack of a consistent backcourt scorer to help Daniel Mullings. It's too bad that the Aggies couldn't have those issues resolved by now because the WAC will offer little resistance.

I also think the fact that the Aggies have played these teams should help them once they step on the court in the NCAA Tournament. Without the hope of getting quality wins, the knowledge that they can compete with these teams could be the only positives the Aggies can take away from it. Lets hope so at least. It's a low standard, I admit. But I have a better feeling about this team than I have in years past. But I could be off.


5 comments:

Anonymous said...

Agree low standards are about all we have to shoot for. As a die-hard NMS basketball fan, these low standards under MM have removed any excitement or enthusiasm I used to have for our once proud program.
-Aggie Glare

Anonymous said...

NMSU will win the Weak Ass Conference (WAC)and get back to the big dance....and then what? Another 1st round loss?

Winning the WAC is nothing but fools gold!

Jefe

Anonymous said...

As long as they don't give up on themselves like the last time they played in Tucson..

Anonymous said...

We just had two losses against Gonzaga and UNM. Gonzaga was ranked when we played them and UNM was ranked heading into the season. I dont see how two losses are shocking considering how good these two teams are. While we should have beaten Western Michigan and CSU, there is no reason to gripe about losing two two very good teams. I agree with Jason, in previous years we would have gotten blown out of the water. We lost to UNM by and Gonzaga by 12. If I'm not mistaken, there was a year when St. Marys scored 100 points on us. I think the team is getting better year by year, but I think people here are just being affected too much by the attention that other mid major teams get. They see all this constant talk about the rise of the mid majors across the country and they wonder why we arent in that list. People have very high expectations and unfortunately they are very unrealistic expactations. We cant help it if the WAC is watered down this year, all we can do is win it and go to the NCAA Tournament. I dont see how a conference championship and being in the tournament to win the national championship can possibly be viewed as a negative.

Jesus

Anonymous said...

Jesus,

I agree with you 100%