I was going through my notebook from the past couple weeks and or months. Here are some quotes first from today's press conference with Marvin Menzies.
Outlook for the season
"I'm really excited about possibility of having another chance to make it to the tournament. All of the kids are anxiously awaiting to get into some real competition which happens every year about this time. Seeing that in practice which is good. Seeing some chemistry which i think canada gave us an early boost. Seeing more retention from plays from last year. It's like you're growing from last year. ... You can look at your team all year long but until you lace them up against other people, it's hard to tell how you really measure up. We are playing a bunch of teams that we haven't played yet. Even Hawaii has a brand new coach. Are we better than them? Not yet. Not until we play them and beat them."
On Wendell McKines being around while rehabbing
"Wendell gets it. He understands that it's important that he's there. He's doing a phenomanal job of tutoring younger guys. He also talks about the negative and the potholes that he has had to roll over and just keeping them focused by his own life experiences. He has really grown up and I'm really proud of him."
On Troy Gillenwater
"I expect him to play in the NBA one day and compete and prepare to be an NBA player. At the same time, I can say that about several other guys on the team. He probably just has a realistic chance of doing it. He's heading in the right direction and has the right frame of mind. The work ethic is improving."
Here is a link to a story I wrote about the Aggies having an opportunity to change their identity a bit from the past couple years. People talk about having to replace 40 points per game lost from Jonathan Gibson and Jahmar Young. I don't think they can and I don't think they need to. I think that they certainly have the ability to replace 30 points though and be a better defensive team and a better rebounding team, limiting teams to one shot and running off the miss.
Here is a comment from Menzies from the other day when we were talking about the potential changes to the WAC
"We have to grow our program based on what we are trying to do here and not what is going to happen on any other campus. If we play a strong schedule in the non-conference, regardless of what our conference is, it will put us in a good position. Scheduling has a lot to do with it and as long as UNM and UTEP are playing the way they have as of late, I think you are going to have some great RPI games there as well as any home and homes that you can schedule and guarantee games that can keep your RPI up. If you have to reload every year, that makes it tough but if you are bringing in kids who are going to be returning players that have an understanding for your system then you are going to be in position to go play some teams and win on the road and do some things to be in position to be an at-large team."
5 comments:
Yeah, you'd only have to replace 40 pts because Aggies were giving up the most points in the WAC. The downside to Young/Gibson unfettered attack was the easy lay-up off turnovers that would always allow opponents to climb back into laughers after JY got tired and sloppy. No player should be getting 36 mins a game. Troy got benched and suspended when he demanded 15 mins. Freaking Pope got shown the door for wanting decent minutes. JY is not in the same NBA potential class with Troy or Herb, based on his physical build - sorry. How the guy could play the entire game Jimmy's not certain? Maybe Coach was afraid he'd have to deal with Mrs. Young like Allen Iverson's mom or something?
Troy got benched and suspended for more than just wanting 15 minutes of play time. Same for Pope. Pope demanded 40 minutes; he wanted a guarantee he will play 40 minutes. When he didn't get it, he chose to leave. End of story.
Anon 8:21 is undoubtedly right but the fact remains that JY and Gibson had green light to shoot all the time. On the defensive end neither one had the height/bulk to stop opposing scorers in the WAC. It was not until Gibson made it clear that he would hoist a shot any dang time he wanted that Menzies was forced to limit his time. Why was Menzies afraid to utilize JY to benefit the team similarly (i.e.; limit his minutes) ... because is sounds like Anon 8:21 has some insight that could answer some questions fans have. Keep the blogs coming!
Hey, man, 40 minutes in the WAC or be a main cog on a Big East team? Sounds like a fair demand from Pope if JY could play 36 mins. jimmy never understood why people want a pro-caliber player at NMSU but but they want him sitting next to Menzies on the bench?
for all out athleticism, Young was the best on the team last year. But he peaked last year which is why he played a lot. In other words, his game would not have progressed to another level in his senior year. But we'll never know. Would have liked to see JY and Lumpkins running a tall backcourt tandem in the remaining year of the WAC as we've come to know it.
So what's the appropriate number of minutes for your best backcourt scorer to be playing? 33? 36? 29.5? The 34.8 he was actually getting in 09-10? The 32.6 that JGib was getting? If he weren't playing those minutes, who would you give them to?
Gib and JY were both in the top 10 most efficient players in the WAC, were well conditioned athletes who didn't flag at the end of the game despite big minutes, and made things happen. They were not great defenders (JY especially), but were a big net positive in terms of points generated vs. points allowed. Clearly Pope was a dynamic talent, but no player should be demanding huge minutes without having earned them in practice, and the cardiovascular shape he was in for the games he did play suggested that he wasn't ready for more minutes anyway.
JY and Jgib earned their minutes. Pope did not.
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