At 6-10, 265 pounds, NMSU center Tshilidzi Nephawe is a physical specimen, especially against Western Athletic Conference opponents.
Photo by Shari V. Hill
But for whatever reason, Nephawe's production so far hasn't been nearly as impressive.
Part of that is due to the fact that Nephawe is relatively new to the game and has in a sense, learned basketball at the Division I level. He was paired with Hamidu Rahman for the first two years of his career and showed he could be effective here and there, but has not put up the numbers you would expect from an important part of a center rotation. He was given the starting nod at the position last year before suffering a hand injury that required season ending surgery after nine games. Nephawe was averaging 7.2 points and 5 rebounds per game last year before his season ended. Those numbers are more representative of what the Aggies needed at the time from a center playing 20 minutes per game. But his career numbers of 5.9 ppg and 1.7 rpg and .8 block per game are lower than I expected. I think with the addition of Tanveer Bhullar and the remarkable development of Renaldo Dixon, there isn't any pressure on Nephawe as the Aggies open practice Sunday. It will be interesting to see how and for how long Nephawe plays with Sim Bhullar at the same time this season. I think it's something the Aggies want to play with and the fact that college teams now have even more practice time, will allow for that. Although they are both centers, I would like to see Bhullar with the ball in his hands at the top of the key in the early offense rather than Nephawe, who should still be a threat in the post. There is also the issue of Nephawe's health. He had an additional surgery on the hand and was only recently cleared in the past month. This could be Nephawe's best season to date for the simple fact that he can work his way back into the mix in a crowded frontcourt rotation. His experience should give him an edge on the younger Bhullar at the outset, but it's a good problem for a coach to have when Nephawe is the a third or fourth option.
Lou Henson should one day be inducted into the Basketball Hall of Fame.
But before that happens, the last two New Mexico State coaches both have ties to a Hall of Famer. Reggie Theus and Marvin Menzies have that with Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame coach Rick Pitino, who was inducted recently.It's somewhat unique for a school like NMSU to have that kind of connection, but it all started with McKinley Boston's relationship with former Kentucky AD CM Newton while Boston served on the NCAA Men's Basketball Committee.
"I appreciate what Rick does from the standpoint of running a program," Boston said. "Replacing Reggie was a very easy and natural thing to do. What I didn't want to do was bring in a coach with a completely different system because as you remember, we had seniors coming back."
Current NMSU coach Marvin Menzies, and former Aggie coach Reggie Theus, both coached under HOF coach Rick Pitino at Louisville.
Boston went on to hire former Pitino assistants Reggie Theus in 2005 and Marvin Menzies two years later, who has won 61 percent of his games in six years at NMSU with back-to-back NCAA berths. Both the current and former Aggie coach were among Pitino's guests for the Hall of Fame induction ceremony last weekend in Springfield, Mass.
"He is as loyal as advertised," Menzies said. "He has been very supportive throughout my career since I started working for him. It's a nice perk as a coach but I don't think about it like a perk, just having someone of his magnitude to bounce things off of. I have a good relationship with Reggie and he's a superstar in his own right. It added to the whole experience."
Menzies and Theus have vastly different career paths.
Menzies was already an established recruiter and up and coming coach in the business when he joined Pitino's staff in 2005. He had already worked for established coaches like Steve Fisher and Lon Kruger, but he has spoken more often of the two seasons he spent at Louisville than any other stop. Prior to last season, he took his staff to Louisville for a weekend.
After spending 20-plus years in the business, Menzies had crossed paths with Hall of Famers.
"I have a lot of mentor type relationships, but I'm proud to be a part of (Pitino's) coaching tree," Menzies said. "I didn't spend as much time as other coaches have, but he treats us all like his guys even though I worked for other guys longer than I worked for him. You don't really think about it in this business before you see it on paper on a resume that you really think about it that I have been blessed to cross paths with these guys."
Theus had direct ties to two men inducted this year since he played under Jerry Tarkanian at UNLV. But Pitino took Theus with virtually no coaching experience in 2003, where he spent two years on a Division I sideline for the first time.
Theus said he approached Pitino in what he described as a "great lesson in making that phone call."
"We really didn't have a connection. I found out he was interested and I almost flew out that day," Theus said. "Coach Pitino is in that situation where he doesn't have to worry about what other people think.
It took awhile for Theus to turn his NBA playing days around as a legitimate coach. He spent time coaching AAU teams and was an assistant at Division IICal State L.A. After leaving NMSU for a NBA job with the Sacramento Kings, Theus was hired at Cal State Northridge of the Big West. "I think (Pitino) was intrigued by my willingnes to do the grunt work and at the time he was looking for someone with my background to add to the staff, which was my experience as a professional," Theus said.
Theus speaks highly of both Boston for giving him his first college job, and Menzies, for taking the NMSU program to another level. He describes Northridge AD Brandon Martin as "a younger version of Dr. Boston" and said there is talk of a new arena within three years. "There are a lot of similarities to Northridge now and New Mexico State when I was hired," Theus said. "I never talked about how many games we were going to win but I said we would be the hardest working team in the conference and I think that leads to wins. It doesn't have the same history or the same following, but the first thing we need to do is get the students involved. I'm happy for Marvin and for the people of Las Cruces who deserve it."
Expect an announcement from New Mexico State regarding point guard Terrel de Rouen suspending the former Oñate standout indefinitely for an unspecified violation of team rules. It's unclear if de Rouen, who underwent offseason foot surgery, will return to the program at all.
From a basketball standpoint, the Aggies should be able to recover from de Rouen's absence if he has indeed played his last game at NMSU. Freshman Travon Landry and KC Ross-Miller will battle for playing time at the position when practice starts and Ian Baker is expected to play the position at some point this season, possibly by the second semester.
Something to watch: It's been tough going for the Aggies in the Don Haskins Center the past two seasons. The Aggies led the Miners in El Paso for much of the game but two turnovers in the last minute and Chris Washburn, who left UTEP this offseason, got an offensive rebound that looked like an over the back on Nephawe that went the other way. Washburn made two free throws to seal the win. I think it could be a similar grind it out game and give the Aggies another chance to hold on to a lead and close out a game. This was also the first game Daniel Mullings played last year with his jaw wired shut.
NMSU coach Marvin Menzies said center Chili Nephawe will be ready to go when the Aggies open practice in about a month.
Nephawe sat out last year after nine games with a thumb injury. He underwent another surgery in the offseason, but he was recently cleared.
"Having someone in the program with (Nephawe's) experience is a huge addition," Menzies said. "For the bigs, it creates a lot more competition at the position."
I asked Menzies if Nephawe's return meant that Tanveer Bhullar may redshirt.
"We don't make those decisions on who may or may not redshirt until early November," Menzies said.
Terrel de Rouen also underwent surgery on his foot in the offseason.
"Physically he has a little ways to go right now and wouldn't be able to go full in practice," Menzies said.
Whether or not to redshirt the younger Bhullar is an interesting question. If Nephawe is healthy, the Aggies certainly don't need another center because Renaldo Dixon proved more than capable of playing the position, especially in the WAC.
But adding Tanveer Bhullar to the roster also is very intriguing, especially if Nephawe shows the ability to play the power forward position as well. Menzies has said in the past that he doesn't think Bhullar will be around for four years, but say he picks up near where he left off last year and decides to enter the Draft. At that size, the window for a productive pro career is probably shorter than your average player. I wonder if the possibility of playing with his brother for at least one year factors into the decision to get Tanveer on the court this season?
Do they need the younger Bhullar this year? It would certainly make the Aggies a big draw nationally as the year goes on.
Last season: Northern Colorado was 13-18 and 10-10 in the Big Sky, lost in Big Sky semis.
Key returners: Derrick Barden, 6-5 first team Big Sky led league with 9.1 rebounds per game to go with 13.5 ppg; Senior guard Tate Unruh hit three 3-pointers per game and shot 43 percent from long range for 13.5 ppg as UNC shot 38 percent from 3-point range last year.
Something to watch: Northern Colorado hasn't done much for the past couple years after beating NMSU in the 2011 BracketBuster game in Las Cruces during the school's only NCAA Tournament run. NMSU beat the Bears in Greeley to open the next season. But it sounds like they have been building for this season with four seniors and expect to be better this year, although there is only two players listed who are 6-8 or bigger. They didn't have any seniors last year and they have some size with 6-9 senior center Connor Osborne, whose 28 blocks last year set a single season record, which Sim Bhullar also did in Las Cruces with 85 blocks.
I have read and heard a lot about Canadian wing Jaylyn Pennie the past year but never got the impression that the 6-7 Pennie would actually make it to campus. Pennie could fill the athletic void left by Bandja Sy at one point at NMSU, a long athletic player on the wing.
And then I spoke with him. Pennie said he will be on campus on Aug. 20 for the upcoming year but redshirt the 2013-14 season.
"I have been talking to NMSU for probably the last year and committed to them at the end of my last high school season," Pennie said.
Pennie had several schools interested in him, such as Marshall, Miami, George Washington and Iowa. But after graduating from Christian Faith Center Academy in 2012, Pennie said he had to re-take the ACT again to qualify. Pennie is looking forward to sitting out this season, he said.
"I think it's good so I can get used to the college atmosphere, get stronger and work on the things I need to," he said. "I'm pretty good at attacking the basket and I'm athletic. I need to clean up my handle and get to where I am making the jump shot more consistently."
Pennie, 20, played two years at Christian Faith and was in Ajax, Ontario before that. Pennie played with Kaza Keane and MiKyle McIntosh from Illinois State.
Pennie said he is familiar with current Canadian Aggies Daniel Mullings and Sim Bhullar and like other Canadians, Pennie moved to the US to increase the level of competition he went up against.
The number of players who were or are sitting out was starting to pile up. At one point it looked like 6-7 power forward from Texas Kyle Wilson will not be coming to NMSU afterall. He told me instead he will play at Blinn Junior College this year in Texas.
Jim Coleman will likely attend and also sit out and Matt Taylor will redshirt. As far as the point guard position, the Aggies are hoping Ian Baker will be ready to go and cleared at some point but likely won't be able to practice with the team until he is, probably by the second semester.
In the meantime, it should be KC Ross Miller and freshman Travon Landry at the point guard position.
Point guard Terrel de Rouen (foot), Daniel Mullings (knee) and Chili Nephawe (wrist) all underwent surgery in the offseason. Mullings and Nephawe should be ready for practice in September but it's unclear that de Rouen could miss more time and possibly sit out another year due to injury.
