Long, somewhat happy plane ride home

NMSU is 5-1 after picking up two wins in the Great Alaska Shootout. I guess there is some good news in that the Aggies get a chance to avenge what was a weird loss to Southern Miss later this season.

But for now, the Aggies return home after three games in three days to play a well rested Arizona team coming off a home loss to San Diego State. NMSU leaves Alaska at 150 a.m. Alaska time. They return home around 1230 pm on Sunday and have one day to prepare for a 7 p.m., game on Tuesday against Arizona.

"I like it (the schedule)," Hernst Laroche said. "I like playing more games so you can get in that groove. We have seniors so it shouldn't be a problem. We should be able to get ready for it."

NMSU was 85-131 (64.9 percent) from the foul line in three games in Alaska, setting a Great Alaska Shootout record for both free throws made and attempted. That's 28 makes and 44 attempts per game.

Christian Kabongo made his first 30 free throw attempts at the tournament and was 11 of 12 in Saturday's 81-71 win over Southern Miss.

Obviously the Aggies are putting pressure on officials to make calls.

"We are aggressive and physical. That's our reputation and they have to call it. If they don't call it one time, we are going to go back the next time," Laroche said. "We have to keep working because we know we are going to get open shots. The more free throws we get, the better it is for us. We have to keep practicing so that we step to the line with confidence."

A possible reason for first setback

NMSU is not a perfect team by any means, but the Aggies are certainly the most athletic and talented team in Alaska this week.

Saturday's 80-72 loss to Southern Miss wasn't a bad loss, but it was a loss that shouldn't have happened.

I'm sure the Aggies aren't looking for excuses. But you have to think that playing five of six games away from home to start the season can take its toll on a team. How else could you explain getting outrebounded 38-26 with 13 offensive rebounds against a smaller team? Last year, you would expect that but it doesn't fit with how this team has been playing. NMSU continued to get to the foul line, but a night after shooting 70 percent from the line, the Aggies were 68 percent from the foul line (30-44) but only 15-26 (57 percent) in the second half.

We knew the Aggies weren't the best shooting team. What's starting to show for me though is not the 3-point miss because the Aggies aren't shooting an unrealistic amount of attempts. But they are missing 10 footers, and what's more, they are good shots, open shots. It could make scoring get more and more difficult as the season goes on if they can't knock down the occasional jumper.

NMSU has some home games coming up after the Alaska trip. Coming back at 5-1 is nothing to be ashamed of considering all but one were played outside of the Pan Am.

Success in Alaska

The Aggies beat Tenn. Chattanooga 75-65, Oregon 86-75 and Illinois 95-94 to win the 1992-93 Alaska Shootout.

The competition there wont be that stiff this time around, but there is still some good competition the Aggies can get out of it. Here is a blog entry from prior to the season on the schedule.


I think the Aggies are the best team in Alaska. I expect them to play Central Michigan, Southern Miss and either Murray State or San Francisco.

It's very early in the game, but NMSU is currently ranked No. 28 on RealTimeRPI. (Cleveland st. is No. 1.

Central Michigan is 2-1 with a 67-57 win at Pepperdine on Monday and a 2OT loss to Charlotte.
Southern Miss is No. 3 at 1-1 with a loss at Denver (RPI No. 2, 59-52) and a win at Colorado State (RPI 56. 79-58). Will be interesting to see this clash of styles since it looks like Southern Miss wants to slow things down like UTEP did.

Murray State (109 RPI) has wins over Morgan State and UAB (62-55) this year. San Fran is No. 133 with a loss to North Dakota State and four straight wins over Northern Arizona, Lafayette, San Jose State and Seattle, all schools 188 or above.

Behind the scenes of the Aggies' run-and-gun start

Ever wonder how the Aggies have seemed to outlast teams and pull away from them in the second half so far this season? Do you think they can sustain it for an entire season?

I asked the man tasked with getting the Aggies in condition for an up tempo style driven by defense, former Aggie  player and second year strength and conditioning coach Trei Steward a few questions.

Did you do anything differently?
Steward: Coach came to me with some concerns about last year's conditioning. Me being a first-year strength and conditioning coach there were a lot of things that I changed. I knew we had to get better in certain areas, one being able to get up and down the court. ... Coach put it on me and said, 'Hey Trei, we have to get this done.' I put it back on the players if this is the kind of style you want to play this year and they did it. ... I think we are below average right now in my eyes but we are playing well. If we continue to build it, we can make defense a staple for this team for years to come."

SUMMER
"We put in some new drills with a lot of resistance training for quick sprints, but we went old school too and did a lot of suicides and 30 second on and 30 second off drills to get them ready for games. You aren't going to be in basketball shape before you are playing. Simulating basketball in conditioning drills is tough. We weren't allowed to touch a basketball but  I can still work on defensive conditioning because we don't need a basketball. We can still tell how you are supposed to slide and cut people off."

Steward said that there was above average participation for summer workouts
"Even guys who aren't playing minutes now were here. Something that clicked I think was losing last year in the tournament didn't sit well with them. Defense was always the key for this year's team. They knew that they aren't going to have that scoring punch all the time so we have to do it with our defense. In order to play defense, you have to be well conditioned and able to move side to side."

PRESEASON
"When they got back for school, we did testing to see where they were at and then just went at it three days a week on Monday, Wednesday and Friday. Sometimes we went four or five days with certain guys like Chili and Hamidu trying to get those big guys to run more. They still aren't where we want them to be but nobody is. That's OK. I want them to peak in February to be the type of team that can outlast teams."

REGULAR SEASON
"I felt like going into the season last year, we were decent but we didn't keep up with it in practice like we should have. This year there is more emphasis that if we want to be this kind of team, we are going to have to run more in practice."

Ags No. 22

At least according to this AP Top 25 voter.

"22. New Mexico State cracks the poll here after winning at New Mexico and beating UTEP. A nice road win, winning at the Pit. Next: C. Michigan on Thurs. in the Great Alaska Shootout."


The Aggies haven't received votes since the 2007-08 preseason poll and they ended the previous season receiving votes in the final poll.


Marvin Menzies said after the UTEP game that if his team went to Alaska and went 3-0, perhaps they would receive votes. It happened earlier.


"I'm happy to see that one person was listening," Menzies said. "It's just one of those benchmarks along the way that you would like to achieve. Hopefully we can get more people on board."


Menzies said that Oñate grad Terrel de Rouen could get some minutes on this Alaska trip. He also revealed that he likely won't play Eric Weary in hopes that he can redshirt Weary. Remi Barry is not on the trip as the team left Monday, but Menzies said he would join the team if the suspension is dropped from six games to four or five.

Two down, two to go

Tim Floyd lost to NMSU for the first time at UTEP.

Said Floyd, "That's a really good Aggie team. Their speed, their quickness, their athleticism I thought was just superior. It reminded me of a Memphis team we played a year ago. They were tremendous on the offensive class. Their second and third and multiple efforts on the glass were the key to the game."

Pretty decent praise for the Aggies, who are now 2-0 vs. UTEP and UNM after going 0-4 in these games last year.

But apparently beating UTEP holds a special place for Aggies coach Marvin Menzies.

"Anytime you can beat UTEP, it feels a little bit better than beating any other school. Its a great rivalry and I respect it a lot."

Then Menzies added this, referring to Wendell McKines' Twitter posts a couple weeks ago and UTEP's trending topic entitled #under10wen.

"I don't think they held him under 10 did they? No, 23 and 13 so that didn't happen. I was glad to see Wen keep his head and play great basketball."

McKines was efficient, shooting 5 for 13 from the field and 12 for 15 from the foul line for a career high 23 points. He registered his 29th career double double with 13 rebounds for his second double double effort in three games this season.

McKines had 7 of the Aggies' 21 offensive rebounds as the Aggies had 22 second chance points. Two of those offensive rebounds came on two different free throw misses while the Aggies were trying to put the game away.

NMSU was 71.8 percent from the foul line (28-39) after entering the game shooting 60 percent. Getting to the free throw seems to be part of the Aggies' offense. NMSU is averaging 39 attempts per game. If they can shoot at least 65 percent from the line, that's 25 points per game. Hernst Laroche was 9 of 10 at the line and Chili Nephawe was 6-for-7, all in the last 5 minutes.

It was good to see the Aggies handle an inferior team at home. UTEP frankly isn't very good offensively. They shot 45 percent for the game but were 3 of 13 from long range and you could tell they wanted the game in the 60s but when the Aggies opened the second half 7-0, UTEP couldn't keep up.

Is it strange to anyone else that NMSU hasn't been 3-0 since 2003-04? They've been in the tournament a couple times during that span, but this team is different. It's not lost on Menzies, whose team has  a realistic opportunity to run the table in the Alaska tournament next week. If so, the Aggies would be 6-0, something that hasn't happened since 1969-70 when Lou Henson started the season 8-0. The Aggies started 5-0 in 1990-91 and 4-0 in 2003-04.

"If we can go to Alaska and have success out there, I really think we will be on track for maybe even some Top 25 votes, which hasn't happened in some time."

Quote time:
Marvin Menzies
"Hamidu struggled a little bit tonight (0 points, 8 rebounds) and he was frustrated with the speed of play."

Saturday was the first time in three games NMSU led at the half. UTEP slowed the game down early but couldn't keep it going.
"Our guys are not front runners but they are competitors. When they don't have everything going their way, sometimes they can get a little distracted on a possession or two. We are 3-0 and we have loads of improvement in front of us. I'm so excited about the potential of this team. They say its a scary word but not with this crew. We are going to realize some dreams. We are going to shock some people and have a season to be remembered."

Chili Nephawe picked up another technical, but he didn't foul out for the first time this season.
"He's a firey passionate guy."

Wendell McKines, on the new Pan Am floor
"I like it. We are undefeated on it."


Tim Floyd
"We didn't guard the 3 point line. We had a hard time staying between them and the basket with their drives. A lot of that was just not being back on defense so we are late to play and reach and stab. They just whipped us."

"We came out at the start of the second half and didn't show the poise we showed in the first half."

Floyd said that the Miners spread the floor hoping to go by Aggies defenders. It was just like the Lobos, where Snell tried to drive. It seems that it will take some time for the Aggies to prove to people that they can guard the ball and play good help defense.

"It wasn't an offense to delay the game. It was to take advantage of what we thought we could do."

COMMENTARY: Aggies win ugly, win big

It was not pretty.

Just how the Aggies like it.

My snapshot memories from New Mexico State’s 62-53 victory over New Mexico at The Pit on Wednesday aren’t highlight dunks, blocked shots, or both teams making big shots.

Although this game also included that.

Plays that stand out to me include Daniel Mullings diving into Lobos fans courtside for a loose ball.

Or center Hamidu Rahman walking away with his hands in the air to avoid escalating a situation after he was tackled by Demetrius Walker. Rahman made 1-of-2 free throws on the intentional foul and Wendell McKines converted a three-point play on the extra possession to put the Aggies up for good with 8:57 to play. 

Or Christian Kabongo, who stood in to draw a charge on Tony Snell with 2:52 to play with four fouls.

How about Hernst Laroche, who was buried beneath three Lobos going to the hole with 54 seconds left. Laroche made both free throws to put NMSU up four.

Finally, Bandja Sy blocking Phillip McDonald’s 3-point attempt with 23 seconds left and then converting a three-point play two seconds later on the other end to ice the win and snap a seven-game skid to the Lobos.

Statistically, the Aggies won at The Pit for the first time since 2002 despite every player on the roster having an off night.

McKines, Laroche and Kabongo were a combined 0-for-14 from the floor in the first half. Laroche had an uncharacteristic seven turnovers. Rahman was 8-for-16 from the free throw line and NMSU was 21-for-38 (55.3 percent) from the foul line for the game.

But it was even worse for the Lobos and you have to credit the Aggies for that.

UNM shot 28 percent (14-for-50) from the floor for their worst shooting percentage under Steve Alford.

The fact is that in just two games, NMSU has proven it can adapt to its environment. The Aggies scored 89 points to open the season and 62 in the second game.

The common theme in both games was speeding the game up, defending full court for 40 minutes and making it look sloppy but making plays in crucial situations.

It’s not pretty but it’s working for them and it seems to be a signature for this team.

I’m a Denver Broncos fan but not a believer in quarterback Tim Tebow. But after two straight road wins, I would rather my team win ugly than lose.

NMSU is 2-0 for the second straight year. A home win at UTEP on Saturday would be the Aggies first 3-0 start since they went 4-0 in 2003-04.

And that is beautiful for Aggies fans.

Jason Groves can be reached at (575) 541-5459. Follow him on Twitter @jpgroves