I'll Be a Son of a Shark

[CoachC]

Jan 21: Air Force picked up their 2nd conference road win last night at Colorado St. to remain tied with us in first 2 games in front of the Cowboys and the Rebels.

[CoachC]

A first place showdown in front of a capacity crowd at the Academy. It will take our best effort of the season to get away with a victory. To make matters worse, the Falcons play primarily 1-3-1 zone, and we've looked horrible against zone all season. The Falcons are a deliberate team that hang their hats on the defensive end. We are going to have to do everything well, including making some shots.

We don't do very much well at all in the first half, and pay the price. At the half we trail 25-32.

We play better all around in the 2nd half, winning the battle of the boards 32-33,9-5, we turn them over 18 times with 6 steals for a +7 in TO differential, and we make shots. The effort is enough to pull out a huge 66-61 victory on the road, giving us sole possession of first place.

Wilson had 5 pts, 6 asts, 3 rebs.
Martin was just 2 of 12 from the field but still had 8 pts, 2 asts 3 rebs.
Stetson was solid with 12 pts, 5 rebs, and a steal
Madic led us with a season high 22 pts, but had just 1 reb.
Inyo had 5 pts, 3 rebs, and a steal.

Off the bench Taylor had 4 pts, 7 rebs, and a stl; Michael THompson had one of the best games of his young career with 4 pts, 6 asts, 2 rebs, and just 1 TO in 16 minutes, and John Willis gave us a huge lift off the bench defensively in the 2nd half and had 2 points, 5 rebs in just 9 minutes.

Delightful FInal:

UNM 66 Air Force 61

[CoachC]

Jan 25: UNLV becomes the first team other than the Lobos and the Falcons to get a road win in conference play surprising the Cowboys, and move into sole possession of 3rd.

[CoachC]

Might as well sweep this road trip! Our first meeting with the Horny Toads was ugly, with neither team able to do much offensively. We were able to win thanks to a large TO differential that lead to some fast break baskets. We shot a little better against a zone at Air Force, hopefully we'll show some improvement against TCU's 3-2 as well.

Another defensive war in the first half. We trail by 1 27-26. We need to do a better job on the boards in the 2nd half

As is our usual M.O. we turn it up a notch in the 2nd half. Although our rebounding wasn't great (32-36,10-13), our defense was superlative, and we were able to get enough offense from our post players to pull away and win it by 7 in the 2nd half.

None of our point guards had very good games but
Wilson 2 pts, 4 asts, 3 rebs, 2 TOs
Martin had an entirely forgettable game going 0/6 from the field and giving us nothing, no rebound, no ast, no nothing.
Mad Dog led us with 14 pts, 5 rebs, and a stl
Inyo had 12 pts, 3 asts, 4 rebs, and a stl.

Off the bench Taylor was magnicent with 13 pts, 10 rebs, and a block. Durham added 7, and John Willis was a one man wrecking crew on defense with 2 pts, 3 rebs, and a career high 8 steals in 19 minutes.

A terrific 2 game road trip for us.

Final:
UNM 58 TCU 51

[CoachC]

Jan 28: Wyoming overcame the sting of losing at home to UNLV by handling the Falcons by 14 at home, to give us a 2 game lead in first, and a huge hammer. UNLV took care of business at home as well, moving into a 2nd place tie with Air Force (incidentally I just realized that Valdarix' mod mistakenly calls Air Force the Eagles rather than the Falcons).

[CoachC]

Jan 29: With the two big road wins our RPI improves to 28. Our two high school recruits easily get the minimum SAT scores as expected. We also get our bracket-buster opponent in the regular season finale....Gonzaga.

[Wayne23]

Way to go, Coach!

[CoachC]

thank you

[CoachC]

In our first meeting in San Diego and our only conference loss, their 6-5 guard freshman guard Reese killed us. Stetson will get the starting assignment on Reese tonight.

The good news is that Reese scores just 3 points in the first half. The bad news is that our defense is so faulty everywhere else, especially in the paint, and we trail at the half 33-32.

Our defense continued to stink in the 2nd half, but our offense was so good we were simply able to outscore them.

Wilson had 4 pts, 5 asts, 5 rebs, a stl and just 2 TO in 26 minutes
Martin had 9 pts, 2 asts and a steal
Stetson did a good job on Reese and added 5 pts, 2 rebs
Madic had 10 pts, 2 asts 5 rebs
Jackson had 16 pts, 3 rebs.

Off the bench Taylor 10 pts, 5 rebs; Durham had 8pts, 6 asts, and Larry Guy had a terrific game off the bench with a team high 17 pts and 4 rebs. Conley had 4 pts 3 asts in just 6 minutes as well.

Our defense needs to be better but we win.

Final:
UNM 85 SD ST. 73

[CoachC]

Feb 1: UNLV and Wyoming both win on the road and Air Force wins at home to keep pace.