I'll Be a Son of a Shark

[CoachC]

11/27 With a 5-O record Air Force is ranked 16th in this weeks AP poll with wins over Providence and St. Johns. Much more inexplicably UNLV is ranked 21st. The best of their 4 wins was a home decision over Washington St., and although they played well on a neutral court against #6 Marquette, they lost their most recent game at home to Nicholls St. Is there a sportswriter strike I'm not aware of? Who is voting in these polls? I mean, I'm thrilled for the conference, but these rankings make little sense to me.

Jon Angeli is not only MWC freshman of the week again, but player of the week as well.

[CoachC]

The Beavers appear to be much improved coming off of an horrendous 8-20 campaign. They are still very young with 6 freshmen and 5 sophomores on the roster. Our first true road game of the year, we need to get everything clicking early.

The turnover bug was back for us in the first half as we shot ourselves in the foot over and over again with a totally unacceptable 15 turnovers largely due to lack of concentration. Only 60% shooting from the field keeps us in the game as we trail by 3 28-31. There is no excuse for not taking better care of the ball against the team that doesn't even press.

We took better care of the ball in the 2nd half, but some exceptionally bad defense early in the half put us in a hole we were never quite able to climb out of. Frustrating loss, given that we 100% beat ourselves. We now have 38 turnovers in our two losses and that kind of ball-handling is going to get you beat almost every time. We've gotten used to excellent ball-handling, and we expect excellent ball-handling. I'm a bit perplexed at the moment.

Wilson had 7 points, 9 asts but turned it over 6 times. Conley had 4asts, but 4 tos, and Michael THompson turned it over another 3 times in 6 minutes.

Durham had 7, and Martin had 10 so we had good production from the 2. Their defense was also much better this game.

Angeli drew a mob but still had 10 pts, 6 rebs.

Willis had 4 pts, 4 rebs in 13 minutes. Vernon Johnson had 10 pts, 6 rebs.

Inyo had 5 pts, 2 asts, 7 rebs being held to single digits for the first time this year. Ray had 8 pts, 4 rebs 2 blocks off the bench.

The schedule just gets tougher from here.

Final: UNM 61 Oregon St. 68

[CoachC]

No time to lick our wounds or even really prepare after taking a late flight back from Oregon last night. We do know that we'll be seeing a lot more zone this game than we have thus far as the Irish play primarily 2-3. We also are going to have to play better defense on the perimeter than what we've seen in several games. Benny Degala is their leading scorer averaging over 17 ppg and we can't let him get away from us.

Not surprisingly we struggled a bit against their zone but our defense was outstanding holding them to 24 % from the field and forging 33-24 halftime lead.

While better our ball-handling wasn't great and we have a 6-7 deficit in turnovers the first half

18 turnovers were still far too many once again, but the Irish turned the ball over 18 times as well. Our rebounding (41-27, 14-3) was excellent, however, and our defense was strong throughout and we led from start to finish.

Wilson had 6 pts, 2 asts, 5 rebs and Conley added 5 pts, 5 asts off the bench

Durham was not much of a factor offensively in this game with just 2 pts, 2 rebs in 17 minutes. Martin continues to play better coming off the bench though with 7 pts, 7 rebs and improved defense.

Angeli had an off night and foul trouble limited him to just 18 minutes. he had 6 pts, 3 rebs, but turned the ball over 4 times.

Johnson had a another statsheet filling game off the bench with 6 pts, 3 asts, 8 rebs and 3 stls in 23 minutes. Willis played hard in his 16 minutes but didn't have a lot of stats to show for it with just 3 pts and 2 rebs.

Inyo was solid again with 6 pts, 3 asts, 7 rebs, 3 stls, and 1 block in 21 minutes. Off the bench Ray led us with 20 pts, 4 rebs, 2 stls, and 2 blocks in 26 minutes.

Stetson gave us 14 decent minutes off the bench in this one too with Angeli in foul trouble.


Not a pretty win, but a good win never-the-less against a very good program that was ranked preseason.

Still not sure what to do about the poor ball-handling as of late, but in all fairness the guys didn't have time to practice much against the zone this week.

Final: UNM 66 Notre Dame 55

[CoachC]

Coming off their second round NCAA team from a year ago, the Sooners come to Albuquerque giving us a chance to avenge our season opening loss to them last year in the pre-season NIT. After the loss of their 1st team All-American center Potite to the NBA draft, they aren't quite as formdable this time around, but are still a dangerous program. We need to take better care of the ball. I'm still not sure why Turnovers have been such a problem for us in the early going,but it has to get fixed. Their wins have come against Indiana and Purdue and their 3 losses have been to #2 UConn (twice, on a neutral floor and at home) and to #3 Marquette at home, so you can throw out that record. They can still play.

An outstanding first half effort in all facets of the game gives us a huge 51-28 lead at the half. We just need to play heads up basketball in the 2nd half.

No letdown at all in the 2nd half, this was far and away our best performance of the season, blowing out a very good team.

Angeli had another tough game offensively as opponents continue to throw the kitchen sink at him, but the Sooners paid for the privilege as there was no lack of offense elsewhere.

No one played more than 20 minutes for us in this one, and we were able to start emptying the bench with about 8 minutes to go.

Wilson had 8 points, 8 asts and no turnovers in 18 minutes. Michael Thompson easily had his best game of the season with 10 pts, 5 pts, and just 1 turnover in 17 minutes and may have earned himself a little more playing time.

Durham had far and away his best performance of the season with a team high 18 points in 20 minutes, and Martin added 9 pts, 2 asts, 2 rebs, a stl, and a block in 17.
Stetson also provided 7 points in 8 minutes, and our guard corps gets an A+ in this one.


Willis and Johnson gave us strong defensive performances and played their roles very well at the 4.

Jackson had 14 pts, 8 rebs in 20, Ray had 12 pts, 5 rebs and a block in 18. Tatum played a highly impressive 16 minutes split between the 4 and the 5 with 8 pts, 3 asts, 6 rebs, and a stl.

An outstanding team game and a very happy locker room afterwards.


Final: UNM 94 Oklahoma 61

[CoachC]

Dec 4: Improving to 7-0 Air Force continues to be ranked at #14 in both polls.

[CoachC]

The Bulldogs return our Bracket Buster game from last year, and would like to pay us back for embarrassing them in Spokane. We'd like them not to do that. The Bulldogs like to run and like to press frequently, so we need to take care of the ball.

The Bulldogs play smothering defense in the first half, and we are fortunate to escape with a 1 point lead 29-28. We have to figure out how to get some guys open in the 2nd half.

In the 2nd half, we began to systematically break down their defense and got to the line quite a bit in the process. Meanwhile our own defense was pretty good once we finally started getting out on their 3 point shooters. We also turned them over 23 times on 15 steals, while taking care of the ball ourselves(10 TOs). We outrebounded them solidly as well (37-28,12-4). A good team effort for a nice win over a ranked team.

Limited to just 18 minutes due to early foul trouble, Wilson still had 6 pts, 5 asts, and just 1 turnover.

Durham(10 pts, 2 asts, 3 rebs, 1 stl) and Martin (13 pts, 2 asts, 2 rebs, 2 stls) continue to get the job done splitting time at the 2.

Angeli returned to form, but had to work hard against their defense to find his shot. He winds up with 19 pts on 8 of 10 shooting, 2 asts, 7 rebs, 3 stls.

Willis had 6 steals, and a block to go with his 6 points. Vergon had 5 rebs, 2 blocks off the bench.

Inyo had 10 pts, 3 rebs in just 15 minutes, due to early foul trouble. Ray had 6 pts, 10 rebs, a stl, and a block in and extended 26 minutes.

Stetson, Tatum, Thompson all provided quality minutes off the bench.

Final: UNM 77 Gonzaga 53

[PointGuard]

Nah, Gonzaga just Zigged when they should have Zagged.

[CoachC]

Yep, they zigged right into the Pit!

[CoachC]

Our second true road game, if we play the way we did at Oregon St. we will get blown out. Ranked preseason, Syracuse doesn't have any manor wins because a soft home schedule to this point. Their losses have both been on the road to #10 Kansas, and at Montana St. where they stumbled as badly as we did at Oregon St. They are talented though, and it's going to take a very very good effort to beat the Orange in the daunting Carrier Dome. They are led by high scoring 2 guard Ty Howard, and perimeter defense has let us down before. It has to be good tonight, and we have to take care of the ball again to have a chance to win.

Both teams play very good defense in the first half, but ours was better and we lead at the half 29-19. We know they'll make a run in the second half so we need to be ready for it. We need to do a better job at the line as well as we were just 6-12 at the stripe in the first half.

Out of the locker room we are able to extend the lead by the first media timeout so when they eventually did make a small run they were never able to get any closer than 12. It was a difficult shooting night all around but our +10 advantage in turnovers, plus a solid effort on the boards again (38-30,17-4) was more than they could overcome.

Wilson had a ho hum night going scoreless with just 2 asts, 2 rebs and 3 turnovers in 18 minutes. Conely played well off the bench, however with 4 pts, 3 asts. 2 rebs, a stl and nary a turnover in 19 minutes.

Martin kicked in 10 pts off the bench

After a tough first half where he was being swarmed, Angeli got on a roll for a while offensively in the 2nd half and led us with 19 pts on 8/12 shooting, 1 ast. 4 rebs amd 4 big steals in 30 minutes.

Willis had 5 rebs, and Johnson had 10 pts, 7 rebs

Jackson and Ray combined for 12 points, 14 rebs, and Ray had 4 blocks.

Stetson played good defense and had 2 pts, 2 rebs in his 9 minutes off the bench.

A very nice road win, that should help build our confidence.


Final: UNM 62 Syracuse 48

[CoachC]

Dec 9: Wyoming and UNLV both pulled off big upsets last night. UNLV defeated #18 Georgetown in OT 62-59 at home, While the rebuilding Cowboys pulled off a huge upset of #13 Auburn on the road, 86-83. A very good night for the MWC.