I was covering the NMSU/Kansas women's game against Kansas and Jahmar Young asked me if I remembered St. Joe's tandem of Jameer Nelson and Delonte West. Now West is playing along LeBron and Nelson is an all-star, but Young's point was that Jonathan Gibson and Jahmar Young have been putting up big offensive numbers this year.
After the Aggies' 75-72 win at Idaho on Monday, Young leads the Aggies with 20 points per game and Gibson is right behind him with 19 per game.
Nelson scored 20.6 and West scored 18.9 in 2003-04 during St. Joe's Elite 8 season.
Both of them were great over the weekend.
First Gibson scores 26 in an 88-85 win at Boise State on Saturday. JY comes back with 32, one off his career high in a 75-72 win Monday.
Gibson was 14 of 30 (47 percent) from the floor and 7 of 17 (41 percent) from long range and averaged 22 per game the last two games. Young was 18 of 35 (51 percent) from the floor and 5 of 16 (31 percent) and scored 25.5 per game to help the Aggies make up some of the ground they lost by dropping the home game to Nevada.
Here's the first few paragraphs of my story after listening to Jack's radio broadcast. Listening to it brought back how it seemed he played at UTEP earlier this season in the second half of that game.
Coming off a win at Boise State on Saturday, Aggies junior guard Jahmar Young scored 23 of his 32 points in the second half, giving the Aggies a 3-1 Western Athletic Conference entering Saturday’s showdown against 3-0 Fresno State at the Pan American Center.
Young scored 21 of the Aggies’ final 23 points.
13 comments:
Great road trip for the Aggies...fans need to show up on Saturday. I may try to make the 3 hour trip!
Slow down Jahmar... and Jason, tell me you don't think he's right.
I'll agree that Young and Gibson put up similar point totals to Nelson and Delonte West. And yes, they are all guards.
But Delonte West and Jameer Nelson led a team to the Elite Eight. They led their team to an undefeated regular season with two losses coming only in the conference and NCAA tournaments. That team was 30-2 because Nelson and West knew how to play with the pieces around them. They got their points AND they got wins.
That Nelson/West tandem never would have allowed St. Joes to have six losses by Dec. 15.
That said, after seeing NMSU play the way they did against UNM and knowing, as mentioned above, they had six losses by Dec. 15, I never would have guessed they'd be in the position they are in right now where they are right there hovering around that No. 2 team in the league with Nevada (despite that loss last week) and Fresno State.
I don't think anyone beats La. Tech in the WAC this year, but just a month ago, I didn't think NMSU would even be in the conversation for No. 2 in the league.
Very impressive Idaho sweep and very impressive string of recent games for that not quite St. Joe's back court tandem of Young and Gibson.
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Geoff Grammer
My blog
I hope Wendell was looking into the stands. 3800 fans in attendance at the Boise game and 1300 at the Idaho game.
Maybe the attendance in Las Cruces isn't so bad after all.
LOL
Gibson is acting like a senior leader. He wants the ball at all times and does not shy away from it in crunch time. Of course that was true of him as a freshman, too, as your SunNews article pointed out prior to the Idaho game. If you've only got one senior with significant PT you've got to ride that guy. So I'm real glad to see him and JY pick up their scoring with WAC play begining. When Vandals return to Pan Am Mac Hopson will have more impact however. Can't wait to see that one but agree the radio call did the whole thing justice.
Grammer,
I don't think it's very nice to make me look like an idiot on my blog and then plug your own blog first of all.
As to if I agree with Jahmar, no I don't. But the title of the blog post is something that I thought would draw interest. It's a journalism tactic. I don't know if you would know anything about that. I do think it's an interesting comparison though and I just wanted to talk about how well those two guys played over the weekend. The numbers are pretty impressive given that the two games were on the road and Idaho is a very good team that will get better as the conference season goes along.
I think if NMSU was to play UNM right now. NMSU would beat them. NMSU is a better basketball team. We should of beat Nevada the other night, but I think our guys were a little tired from the Utah State game.
I don't know anything about these so called "journalism tactics" you speak of. I try not to ever let journalism get in the way of the crap I write every day on my Grammer School blog.
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Geoff Grammer
Never ashamed to shamelessly plug his wonderful blog any chance he gets.
you don't think anyone beats la tech in the WAC this year? are you kidding me? the WAC has had much more dominant teams that eventually fell. i.e. Nevada in '07. la tech has had four good games and you're already crowning them conference champions? we're not talking texas or kansas here. this is LA TECH!
Anon 2:54...
Where La. Tech ranks among past WAC teams is another debate. Where La. Tech ranks in the WAC this year is pretty clear at this point of the season. They are hands-down the favorites at this point.
What makes you think otherwise?
The reality is La. Tech has two losses at tough road venues, they have five more wins than any WAC team, they've already beat Utah State and Nevada and pulled off the same Idaho road sweep at NMSU. They have great guard play and great post play.
I'm not a La. Tech fan, so don't have much of a reason to cheer them on or speak with wishful thinking. I just look at the season to this point and it's fairly obvious who has had the best season so far among WAC teams and until there is a reason to think that will change (i.e. injury, suspensions, etc.), why wouldn't you consider them the favorite?
They'll likely slip up once or twice, but there isn't a better team in the WAC right now than La. Tech.
I do like talking WAC hoops. Not much interest up here in Santa Fe.
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Geoff Grammer
Santa Fe New Mexican
ggrammer@sfnewmexican.com
My blog
Grammer is correct that LaTech has exhibited the most so far this season, but Anon 2:54 is also correct in pointing out that much better teams than 09 LaTech have fallen victim to the tough road schedule in the WAC. And 09 LaTech is not gapping the conference by 2-3 games like USU did last year or Nevada did in 06 and 07.
They looked good at home crushing Utah State, but a closer look at their home Nevada game reveals that they were a few bounces away from being on the other end. Their road wins (like the Aggies' road wins) are at dismal BSU and Idaho, who is looking more and more like a 5th to 6th place team. The real test for the Bulldogs (or any WAC team) will be can you go in to Ruston, Reno, Logan, Fresno or Las Cruces and come home with a W. So far only Nevada has been able to answer in the affirmative.
Regarding the original post, I a)like that JY is enough a basketball fan to remember the West/Nelson St. Joe's team (he would have been about 15 or 16 when that happened) and b.) think the major on court difference is that West and Nelson were both more point guards than pure gunners like JY/Gib.
As far as comparing their on court accomplishments vis a vis wins, it's unfair to do so without considering the other 6-7 rotation players on both teams. I don't remember who else played for Martelli that year, but I'd wager they didn't miss their best rebounder for the first half of the season, that they didn't have a 6'4" walk-on as the first big off the bench, and that their weren't 3 or 4 not-ready freshmen filling out the roster.
Are you kidding me. They got blown out by the Lobos have won 1 tough home game (nevada - usu still unclear) and 2 weak road games and you can't see them losing in the WAC this year? They will have a minimum of 3 losses and probably 4 or 5.
Grammar,
you're a dork. Get a life.
Good wins for the Ags this past weekend. JY and Gib are not West and Nelson but they are very dangerous. Especially in March. Look what they did against Utah St in last years WAC tourney. NOBODY wants to play NMSU come March. I watched both games online and both JY and Gib were making very very difficult shots down the stretch.
La Tech is the best team at this point but can and will be knocked off. Probably in Reno and in Cruces.
So I guess, guillen is now dead in the water...bad joke, but hey, what to do????
I have a question for those of you who have had the good fortune to see our merry band of misfits perform...do they pass the ball??? I was watching the game through ESPN gamecast...a program that describes the game through a ticker....the other night and it always seemed like the guy getting the rebound on one end was the shooter on the other end....I love NMSU basketball in a place beyond logic...(I guess its from being 6 years old when we were treated to Chito, Charley, Sam and Jimmy...but what to do???) but I can't stand teams that don't pass...say it ain't so...
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