Saturday, December 22, 2012

6-6 entering WAC

After a 71-51 victory over Missouri State on Saturday, New Mexico State enters WAC play 6-6.

I wanted to see if you are disappointed? Is it where they should be? Concerned?

I had the Aggies going 7-5 entering WAC play so I'm not surprised by the record. This team had a lot of things to work through coming into the season so some growing pains were to be expected. I think the Aggies will be fine without Nephawe with Bhullar and Dixon playing center. Not as deep but I doubt Nephawe could score 25 like Bhullar did on Saturday.

The point guard spot appears to be KC Ross-Miller's despite mediocre results like a 1to1 assist to turnover ration, not what you are looking for from that spot. I don't think the WAC is going to be that good this year and the Aggies should still contend but I could see them losing games they shouldn't throughout the season, perhaps costing them a shot at a No. 1 or No. 2 seed.

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

You neglected to mention that the Aggies broke the redshirt on Bouvac which I think will be the most important of all. He has all elements of the game and can play in place of Sy when he is inconsistent. I am looking forward to seeing his progress. And the Lobos lost probably because two players were late to the game.
Big Al

Anonymous said...

I'm disappointed that the Aggies lost to UTEP there, with a 4 point lead, and possession of the ball, with a minute left. I'm disappointed that the Aggies couldn't shoot 65% at the strip against the Lobos here. I don't know how many front end of 1-and-1s we missed, but we should have won that game. I'm disappointed we lost that road trip game when we were up huge and gave up the lead.

I'm disappointed when I see unforced turnovers, especially when it's veteran players making them.

I'm disappointed that for about the 5th year in a row, we go into conference play with a mediocre record.

Anonymous said...

I noticed there was only a photo in today's Las Cruces Sun-News with a caption recapping last night's game against Absorbine Junior College, er, Missouri State.

Granted it wasn't a big game. Still, it makes one wonder if there's not a bit of tift between the NMSU men's basketball coaching staff and the Sun-News sports writers. I mean, I applaud Feinberg and Groves for pointing out repeatedly that Menzies plays unproductive players. Sorry, Coach, but to cite Bandja's rebounding as the reason to keep him in while he turns the ball over on offense and gets beaten defensively is not going to cut it. Besides, a lot of those rebounds he picked up off the floor.

So, Jason, is the assumption correct? Were the Sun-News press-passes pulled because your wrote from a journalistic perspective rather than as a fan after the back-to-back losses to the Lobos?

I sincerely hope the best for the kids, because they are, realistically, still kids. But the coaching staff's comprised of adults who get paid in the top 5% of the NMSU community. Every semester, professors and instructors receive course evaluations from their students. And every year, they receive the same from their peers and their department heads. Those evaluations are weighed heavily when the continued employment of those professors and instructors is addressed.

If there really is a guy on the staff who is "Director of Player Development," then his job is easiest to evaluate. This is is fourth year. I've not witnessed a whole of improvement or development. I see players who make the same mistakes they did last season and the season before.

It's incredibly frustrating. One thing the local sports fan around here can hang their hopes on is the imminent hiring of NMSU's next president, who, hopefully, will be somewhat sports-minded and able to look at the Athletics Director performance. McKinley Boston has done a wonderful job of steering Aggie Athletics into the only sink-hole in a thousand-mile radius.

Has anyone addressed the question why it's been so hard for the Aggies to find a conference with, what seems to be an obvious answer: conference commissioners and university athletic directors are more than wary about working with a guy who oversaw the biggest academic fraud scandal in the history of the NCAA. I'm tired of McKinley's tired corporate-language-based excuses of "TV market this" and blah blah blah blah.

Thanks for allowing me to vent.

Anonymous said...

Considering the schedule where I thought they would be.

Nothing really spectacular about this team but they should be in the top three in the WAC.

Anonymous said...

Should have beat UTEP, Niagra, and the Lobos at home. Am I suprised that they lost those games??? Of Course not.

The Aggies will be tough to beat in WAC play because they are huge and they are physical. They arent bad on defense either. WAC teams will struggle with that.

But the Menzies era has showed us that they cannot, and will not, win big games or win close games. Don't have the leadership up top.

I still think they are the team to beat in the conference. Utah State has question marks and the Aggies are no longer "scared" or intimidated by the Spectrum and or coach Stew. La Tech will fizz out.

They will be 14 seed if they make the tourney so they will have to play a 3 seed.