If you haven't heard, Aggie senior basketball player Wendell McKines tweeted a message to UTEP after the Miners lost to Eastern New Mexico the other night in El Paso. Click here to read about it.
First off, Wendell is a good Aggie and is a very public student athlete. His Twitter account has done good things for the Aggie hoops program and I believe his presence on the team will bring more people to the Pan American Center this year.
And his recent comments about UTEP could very well pump some life into a rivalry that has recently fallen flat.
I will also say — and this is just my opinion — if I were a coach I wouldn't want my players on Twitter.
It's an unnecessary distraction that can cause unnecessary distractions.
I don't think as a coach you want to give an opposing team bulletin board material and the Aggies haven't had a good record against their rivals in recent years. I would just rather see the team go out, play, and win. That's it.
But it also brings me to my next point….
This is a big year for the Aggie men's basketball team and I think there is pressure on McKines. He's the unquestioned leader of the team and fans and followers of the program have been waiting for his return. He's viewed as a key player. And I think this might be how he handles that pressure.
He's not going to sit around and internalize it. He's going to take it head on and put it on his shoulders. And, you know, he's going to bring it when the Aggies play the Miners, and likely every other NMSU game for that matter. The question will be, who else is coming with him? Perhaps his head-on approach will rub off on the Aggies — which would be a good thing.
It really boils down to that. Wins and losses. Could the Twitter comments take things up a notch when these two teams play? Yes. But it doesn't change the fact that the Aggies need to beat the Miners this year. Period.
Tweet or no tweet.
Follow me on Twitter @TeddyFeinberg
5 comments:
Who knows, maybe Wendell's comments will help the DHC get an extra few thousand UTEP fans in the Don, making it an even better atmosphere for the Aggies to play in. Maybe another thousand or so of the Miner faithful will drive up to help make our house theirs.
Makes perfect sense. Right.
If it wasn't for their silly UTEP and NMU rivalries what would they have ?
Nice article, Teddy...well done. I wouldn't recommend what McKines did on a steady basis, but starting the season with some pizz azzz...I say o.k. Wendell will have to live up to his tweet, or suffer the consequences.
1. Play
2. Win
3. Talk
in that order
Anon 1:24 hit the nail on the head. McKines is making it unnecessarily hard for us to beat them. Furthermore, as you point out, Teddy, we have a horrible track record against our rivals under Menzies and have NO room to be talking like this. The only rivalry game we have won under Menzies was one in which Menzies was in the locker room because of T. As 3:08 said, play, win, and then you can talk.
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