Saturday, January 11, 2014

Idaho: Three keys and a prediction

Marvin Menzies is 12-2 against Idaho in six seasons. And this could be the worst Idaho team since Menzies has been at New Mexico State.

Kyle Barone was a very good player for Idaho for four years and while Stephen Madison is putting up All WAC numbers and Connor Hill is one of several Idaho guards capable of hitting shots, but the Vandals just don't have the inside presence to hang with NMSU.

Aggies win 88-74

3-point defense: Hill is shooting 38 percent from 3-point range, Sekou Wiggs shoots 39 percent, Glen Dean shoots 38 percent and Madison shoots 36.5 percent. Seattle got loose for 8 3s the other night, but for the most part, NMSU does a good job against the 3 pointer, holding teams to 34 percent from there. It doesnt matter if the Aggies continue to shoot the 3 as well as of late, but the 3 is one way inferior teams can keep games close.

Stephen Madison: Madison is stepping up as a senior, playing more inside this year where he has increased his rebounding to 8.2 per game this year to go with 17.6 points per game. He's an interesting matchup for the Aggies at the power forward position. He will be tough for Renaldo Dixon to guard, but at the same time, Madison doesn't want to bang with Dixon in the post on the Aggies offensive end. It seemed like the Aggies were more willing to let Isaih Umipig get his shots up as long as he didn't get his teammates involved. I think NMSU should go at Madison, make him work on both ends, perhaps getting him tired. Idaho is not completely a one man team, but they are close.

Limit turnovers: Idaho wants to play faster than previous years because of their lack of size. NMSU only had 2 first half turnovers in the first half and led by 20. They got sped up a little in the second half and Seattle made a little run to make it respectable as NMSU had 7 second half TOs.

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