Sunday, March 2, 2008

Win at Fresno

NMSU won at Fresno State last night in a exciting game.

This team is unbelievable. They fall behind big early and are still down 10 early in the second half. They came back though, and a sequence of back-and-forth possessions ensued. The Aggies ended up on top. It was very nerveracking.

When I was listening to the game last night I thought they were done early. Fresno came out on fire and it seemed like NMSU was hung over from the Nevada loss two nights ago. But they hung in there and got the win. They could have folded there and didn't.

Fresno has a terrific player in guard Kevin Bell. He can score with the best in the conference. Eddie Miller produced as well but they got nothing outside of that. That was a deciding factor as the Aggies had a balanced effort across the board. That is the staple of the team. Many can score the ball and they are hard to defend when they are sharing the ball and everyone is a threat.

In the end, the win does not make up for their loss at Nevada. Again, it wasn't the fact they lost in Reno but the manner in which they did - giving up 98 points, being out-muscled and never really threatening. Still, the road trip could have been disastrous, particularly after falling behind by 15 early to Fresno. The team got the win. Now they come home and have to finish off the final two home games of the season against San Jose St. and Hawaii. Both of these teams could pose more problems than people think. NMSU will need two solid efforts on their own court before tourney time.

14 comments:

Anonymous said...

This team is a big time tease.
Just when you think they turned the corner, BAM! They go and stink up the gym.

NMSU will have a tough time w/ SJSU and especially Hawaii.
I have a feeling we will win one game in the tourney and then gag in the semis.
Sorry for being so negative but, 98% of the season is complete and this team is still trying to find its identity!

The Aggie Women have been the pride and joy of Aggie basketbal this year.

Vic

Anonymous said...

There's a chance there could be a four way tie for the WAC regular season title.

I think we are better of going into the tourney as #4 seed.
Nevada will end up #2 if, we end up #3. We will play the Wolf pack in the 2nd round and get beat pretty soundly.
I'd rather play #1 Boise and have Utah State #3 knock off the Pack.

Sorry guys, Nevada has us by our manhood!

Wacky WAC

Anonymous said...

A wild game last night. But hey the Aggies won and that is all that counts. For me anybody can win the WAC tournament with no clear favorite other than NMSU having home court.
Teddy speaking of the WAC tournament, I pose this question to you and hopefully you can write your answer in the blog or else do an article. Well here goes my equation: Let's say that NMSU wins their last two games. Utah State wins their last three games including the trip to Boise State and Nevada wins their last game at Fresno State. This scenario would have a four way tie with NMSU,Boise State, Nevada and Utah State finishing the regular season at 12-4.
Now second part of the equation: NMSU swept Boise State, split with Utah State and then was swept by Nevada. Nevada swept the Aggies, split with Utah State and then was swept by Boise State. Boise State gets swept by NMSU, Sweeps Nevada, and if things go to plan are swept by Utah State. Finally Utah State splits with NMSU, splits with Nevada and of course for this discussion sweeps Boise State. My question is who gets seeded first, second, third and fourth? How do they decide? Do all the coaches get put in a wrestling ring and have a battle royal and throw each other over the ropes with the last one in the ring seeded first. Sorry for the long post. Let us know the answer.

Anonymous said...

While we won, we got outrebounded once again. Not good. In fact, if FSU had more than two legitimate players, we probably get beat. But a win is a win, and a conference road win is darn good. I figured this road trip would be exceptionally tough, first because one game was at Nevada, and second because the Ags had only one game against a bad team in the two weeks leading up to Reno. Hopefully NMSU's performance on this road trip was that of a good team that was rusty. If not that, then it's just more of the same - an underachieving, wildly inconsistent team. With only two games left before the WAC tourney, that's not a good thought.

There very well could be a four way tie for first. But we need to hope to avoid Reno until the championship. In fact, losing one of our remaining games won't be such a bad thing if it means avoiding Reno.
-Aggie Glare

Teddy said...

Glare -

While getting outrebounded again isn't a great sign, the Aggies committed just 13 turnnovers compared with Fresno's 19. Typically speaking, when NMSU wins the turnover battle that is a good sign. It hasn't happened much this year.

Anonymous said...

PLEASE COME ON OUT AND SUPPORT THE TEAM. WE WILL DEFINITELY NEED THE 6TH MAN IN FULL SUPPORT FOR THE REST OF THE SEASON!!!! I GOT MY TICKETS. DO YOU???

Anonymous said...

Let's quit with the negative talk for once.
The season is almost over and the tournament is next week.

Just show up to the last two games and tournament.
The Aggies need to get in a roll and "we", the fans win games!

This years crowds have been pretty dead. Let's pick up the intensity and let the team feed off it!!

Go Aggies!

Anonymous said...

My predictions? MEN:A heartbreaking loss in the tourney finals to Utah State or Nevada-MAYBE an NIT bid. WOMEN:3 wins & going to the big dance!-Az Aggie

Anonymous said...

Knew we could count on AzAggie to be Mr. Sunshine!

Anonymous said...

Teddy,
Agree with your turnover observation. That's what makes the Nevada debacle so odd - we committed 7 less turnovers than Nevada and still could not compete with them.

Will be interesting to see how this all shakes out. Since I bought an all-session pass to the WAC tourney, I sure hope NMSU makes the championship game. If they can avoid Reno's bracket, I like the odds of that happening. Of course, we've all seen this team meltdown several times throughout the season. It ticks me off that UNM is on the bubble with inferior talent, and our only chance for the Big Dance is to win the WAC.
-Aggie Glare

Anonymous said...

Everyone has been critical of this team and how inconsistent they are. While they have had numerous ups and downs this season the thing that ticks me off the most is the way LC has responded. I work at the Pan Am and usually stand where the teams come out. If people would see the faces of the players when they come out and then realize just how few people are there...its just sad. I mean we're in the LC what else is there to do? While the team has not been what we expected them to be, they are not horrible. We still have a shot at making the tourney and this town believes that because we dont win the regular season crown there is no point in going to the game. Especially the students. We're one of the few schools who have free admission and this year it looks like we are charging 20 bucks a game. Our team may have had a inconsisten season but it seems to me that they are still trying to salvage something. They dont deserve a crappy fan base like ours. I realize that we dont have the most ilustrious history in sports but there is a thing called pride in your community. If people supported the Aggies the way they support their high school teams I dont think that our team would be so inconsistent. Just a thought.
-GS

Anonymous said...

anon 7:28
I think you made everyone who reads this blog dumber with your comment. We really think more fan support has anything to do how this team plays on the road? Give me a break. The Aggies are an okay team at home and suspect on the road. The coaching staff along with questionable senior leadership is cause of the inconsistent play.

Anonymous said...

Anon 7:28 PM, what the hell man? Are you kidding me? Is it this same old 'support the team and they can beat anybody' junk? Do me a favor, and go back to two years ago and pick up this discussion where it left off. I'll tell you why there's not as many fans this year, Reggie's gone, and Menzie's looks like a fool out there, heck, he didn't even know that UTEP was a rival. It's just not as fun as it used to be. Go back to kindergarten you moron.

Anonymous said...

Anon 8:35. Same old excuse. You were all fainting like teenagers over Theus. Update: Theus left and never had aspirations for staying at NMSU. NMSU was just a stop over until a pro job came up. Why don't you just admit you don't care for basketball and you just went to the games because it was cool to be one of Theus groupies. Theus was loud, would jump on the scorers tables and yell like a rock star in a stadium. Theus did this act to get excitement back in the product. It worked but the program cannot live off the laurels of a coach who has to yell to get people excited. Menzies may not be as cool. He is bringing in great talent and did a great job of keeping the team together this year. I will continue to support the Aggies and attend the games. Theus is gone. Get over it and move forward.