Monday, January 14, 2008

Weekend games

It's difficult for me to accurately comment on how the team is playing for one simple reason: I don't go to many of their games. I have been to two of them - Texas and West Virginia. Other than that, Groves covers them and Felix goes occasionally. I listen to them on the office radio more than anything.

A few things though regarding the weekend. Great win at Boise. Do they win if Jahmar doesn't go off for 33? Probably not, but a win is a win. And that was a big one.

Utah State, I thought the team played well too. The UtAgs seem like a good team once again. Pretty balanced. They got an off night from Carroll and still won. NMSU didn't fold on a handful of occasions when it seemed like they easily could have. The Aggies shot too many 3's - 30 in total. They only shot 35 percent from the field, just point at the 3-pointers as evidence to the poor shooting night.

Still, a split was solid I thought. Boise looks pretty decent and the rematch with both of these teams in LC should be good. The team also played well with an unproductive Justin Hawkins in the lineup. He shot 6-of-30 during both games. They need Justin to be consistent and playing at a high level.

Also, I heard Passos is coming back. Every day is different but that's the word on the street. Could be in the lineup come Saturday.

10 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hawkins, Pope, and Passos will cause a lot of match-up problems. I also believe one of the reason for Hawkins poor play was, because Hawkins was playing the 4. Now that Pope is cleared to play. Hawkins will be able to move back to the 3, and Pope will play the 4. I do hope Passos is cleared to play, because I think we are going to need him to add some more depth. I also believe Utah State, and Nevada will have a hard time beating NMSU. Utah State did play good, but NMSU is going to be a better team on the 24th, and 26th with the addition of Herb Pope. JayCee had a bad game, because we played really good defense on him. They also had a guy hit 3 3pointers on Saturday. NMSU needs to go inside more, because we shot way to many 3's on Saturday. I still think we are the best team in the WAC, and we should be with Pope, and possibly Passos back in the line-up.

Anonymous said...

Teddy,

You stated, "A few things though regarding the weekend. Great win at Boise. Do they win if Jahmar doesn't go off for 33? Probably not, but a win is a win. And that was a big one."

My answer is if Boise State knew that Jahmar Young was capable of going off for 33-points they probably would have adjusted their defense accordingly in the day leading up to the game. It was obvious that their defense was focused of stopping Hawkins and Gibson. I think if they tried to adjust to stop Young as well, their defense might have been stretched too thin and Hawkins and/or Gibson might have going off for bigger numbers. And, the result might have still been the same. Pick your poison.

As for the USU loss, that was a result of great interior help defense by USU. They forced our under sized Aggies to shoot from the perimeter. Unfortunately, Young, Peete, and Hawkins all had an off shooting night or NMSU might have pulled that game out too.

Currently, Menzies is covering up the glaring size disadvantage by using our quickness to push the ball up the court for easy fast-break baskets. However, in a half court set, our offense is bogging down because we don’t have a legitimate inside threat; hence all the three point attempts.

Hopefully the addition of Pope and possibly Passos will give us an inside presence we desperately need.

Anonymous said...

Considering that Passos, Pope and Carter did not play and Hawk had a bad week.
I thought a split was very good.

This Saturday should be the first time we are 100%. If we are 3-1 @ 80%, can you imagine what we can do at full strength!!

Just bought my WAC tickets and waiting to see us repeat in March along, w/ a regular season championship!

Vic

Anonymous said...

Don't forget that USU is the second toughest court to play on with the arm Pit being the first. USU does a great job bringing out the fans and especially the students. They won this last game because of the 6th man.

Anonymous said...

The team is now 100% and playing very good ball!
Time to start making some noise around the BB world!

The biggest dissappointment is the student body. The kids are not showing up or just sitting doing nothing to help the team.
I see more energy out of the retiree community than from the students!

I attended NMSU in the early to mid-90's and have gone to BB games through out the years.
This has got to be the most un-spirited class that I have ever seen!!!

Ganja Boy

Anonymous said...

Considering the students don't start back until Wednesday dopesmoke boy, that could be the reason they're not showing up.

Anonymous said...

Have no fear. The students will be back at the Pan Am starting this Saturday.

Anonymous said...

What about Carter?

Anonymous said...

Groves for Sports Editor 2008

Teddy said...

As of the Aggies press conference on Tuesday afternoon, Paris Carter was still ineligible. The university met on Tuesday to determine final eligibility. Menzies said Paris has done all that he could do to clear up whatever academic issues he faced, but there will be a decision by Wednesday.

JG