I'll Be a Son of a Shark

[CoachC]

After our hardest workout of the season on Christmas Day, we had a quiet Christmas dinner together as a team before catching our charter to NC. In the 4th and final year of a 4 year probaation from post-season play (during which they've won 20 + games each of the first 3 years) Duke has nothing to play for but pride. I have to feel that their ranking is a bit of a bone thrown to them, but they have beaten Alabama, Nebraska, Arizona St, and Oklahoma (on the road). On the other hand they've lost home games to Oklahoma St., Creighton, and Toledo, and were gobsmacked by #15 Auburn on the road.

The god-forsaken barn known as Cameron Indoor Stadium still remains as one of the most difficult venues to win a game in all of Div I. At least the students are on break, although, as usual, it will be a sellout. If OK St., Creighton, and Toledo can all come in here and win, no reason we can't either, and I let the guys know they OWE me this one after our last game at home against Michigan.

We are making changes to the starting line-up tonight. Connely and Stetson will start in place of Wilson and Durhan, and Vernon Johnson will start in place of Willis. There are no moral victories tonight. Anything less than a win, and they had better hope their holiday break is a good one, because they'll be coming back to campus with one very pissed off head coach.

Offensively in the first half we shot the ball well, but didn't handle it well. Defensiively we didn't play any. Net result: at halftime we trail by 2 34-36

It;s an extremely unhappy locker room after the game. For some reason we thought we could win this game simply by outscoring them and doing nothing else. Poor defense was a big part of it, but the biggest woe for us the last couple of games has been horrible play from our point guards. At tje start of the season, if I had been told we'd go 10-4 against this non-conference schedule, I'd have taken it. Now, I won't. We are better than we've played the last couple of games and I'm going to be spending the holiday break trying to figure out how to put some fire under a few people.

it was a 2 to 5 point game until the final minute, but if we had played at all up to our abilities we would have won.

It all starts at the PG position for us, and for the second game in a row no point guard showed up. Wilson coming off the bench this time turned the ball over 7 times. Connely was only marginally better, and Thompson picked up 4 fouls in 4 minutes as his contribution. Martin who wound up playing point down the stretch will likely start there the next game.

As for Martin, he had another decent game with 15 points, and his 3 asts to 2 turnovers was better than any of our true point guards. Stetson in his first start of the season had 9 pts, 2 rebs, and 2 asts, and played a modicum of defense. He's earned at least another start.

Angeli struggled again from the field, as the freshman is having a hard time adjusting to being the focus of the defense, but still had a decent line with 11 pts, 4 asts, 8 rebs and a stl. Angeli needs to go back to letting the offense come to him instead of forcing shots. He does enough other things in the game that he's always a contributor even if he's not scoring.

Johnson had 11 points in 24 minutes, and also played a modicum of defense, but he needs to get after loose balls more. We need more than 2 rebs in 24 minutes from him.

Inyo had probably his worst game of the season, and he was still better than most with 6 pts, 2 rebs, a steal and a block in 18 minutes.

Martin Ray was the big bright spot in the game for us, and probably single handedly kept us in the game with 10 pts, 8 rebs and a career high 6 blocks.

We have a few days to sort some things out, but all in all this team did not give me a very merry Christmas

Final: UNM 68 Duke 77

[CoachC]

Jan 1: after a lousy week we fall one spot in each poll to #15 and to 6th in RPI.
With a decisive home win over Georgetown, Air Force hangs in at #23 and an RPI of 35.
The surprising Aztecs of SD ST. still are 17th in the RPI with a 10-3 record despite no consideration from the pollsters.
UNLV remains in the top 100 with an RPI of 96.

Martin Ray wins his 2nd MWC freshman of the week award and is up to 4th nationally in Blocks. He also leads the MWC in rebounding at 7.1/g

[CoachC]

Once the students came back from break, it was hell week. We've made a number of changes. Martin is going to start at the point in this one with Stetson at the 2. Angeli remains at the 3, and we can no longer deny Ray a start at the 4. Inyo will continue to start at the 5. Although we've resisted starting Ray and Inyo together all season, Ray can't be denied any further. Vernon Johnson will continue to play significant minutes off the bench, along with Durham and Willis, and whichever point guard decides to play. If no one else wants to contibute, Tatum and Guy have been chomping at the bit for minutes all season. In any event, bench minutes are shortening up. We will be looking to push the ball more and trap more from the Amoeba.

As for this game, I reminded the team that Wyoming despite their record, won back to back road games against ranked teams last month, and only played 3 home games the entire pre conference season going 2-1. They'll be more than happy to make us their 3rd ranked team to send to defeat of we don't show up. They are young, but Coach Carter has been getting a lot out of them, and they are thrilled to be at home for the first time in a month and will have their biggest crowd of the season by far for the conference opener.

Sloppy first half, but at least we showed more energy that we have in recent games. We turn the ball over 11 times but turn them over 15, and get after the rebounds 20-12,8-3. I look for a little more fluidity on offense in the 2nd half. At halftime we lead 33-24.

Not surprisingly without a true point guard for much of the game our offense flowed poorly. Still we rurned them over 23 times and won the battle of the boards 35-29. 12-7

Martin did an adequate job playing the point, but lacks the ability to direct the offense, plus his own scoring suffers greatly. Connely did play well enough the stretch to probalby get the nod in the next but i make no promises (4 asts, 1 stl , no TOs in 8 minutes)

Durham had a comeback game with 11 pts, 2 asts, 3 rebs 2 stls in 17 minutes.

Angeli had 19 pts, 2 asts, 2 stls, 2 rebs, 2 blks in 32 minutes.

In his first start Martin Ray had an exemplary game with his 2nd double double, leading us with a career high 20 pts, 3 asts, 10 rebs, 1 stl, 3 blocks in 27 minutes.

Not pretty. Not pretty at all, but we get the win

Final: UNM 71 Wyoming 62

[CoachC]

Jan 3: last night in their conference openers Air Force annihilated SD St. 90-62 at home, assuring that the Aztecs top 25 dreams are put on hold for now.

[CoachC]

Jan 4: instituted a new drill for our 4 true point guards. 2 on 2 with Angeli and Willis basket hanging. No shooting allowed. Fouls only called by my coaching staff if they were fragrant. Then that guy did a lap too. With belly to belly defense it was amazing how hard it was to find a guy basket hanging with a pass without throwing it over his head. Every time one of them turns the ball over they did a lap. Every time they hit their target with a pass, the other 3 did a lap. We did this for an hour. Unfair? most definitely. But the guy with the fewest laps was Connely with 9 and he'll start the next game at the point. Poor Pat Bullock did 25 laps and he hasn't even been playing. Then again, I can't really say he's really been practicing either.

[CoachC]

I neglected to say that Martin and Durham were there too to trap on the sidelines and in the corners. Just to make it more fun since they didn't have to do any laps and got steal the ball a few times each. They had the most fun of anyone. Angeli and Willis got kinda bored standing under the basket and trying to catch passes 10 feet over their heads. I don't think any of the point guards had much fun at all. too bad.

[CoachC]

With the students still gone and lowly Boise St. (picked last in the conference and coming in with a lofty 322 RPI) we have our smallest home crowd of the season by far, somewhere around 6500. The Baked Potatoes do come in on a 3 game winning streak however, indudling 2 road wins and their conference season opener at home vs TCU.

Connelly and Martin will start at the guards tonght along with Angeli, Ray, and Jackson.

For the first 15 minutes of the half it was more ugly ugly ugly, before we finally realized the half had started. The last 5 minutes we played like a basketball team. That being said, it's hard to tell just how much Boise St.
s 11 points on 21 percent shooting had to with our defense and how much it had to do with the fact that nobody on their team can shoot the ball. Still we finish the half nicely and lead at halftime 34-11.

This was much like an exhibition game in that the caliber of competition was so poor, it's hard to evaulate what you saw.

at any rate on individual notes:

Tim Wilson finally got tired of picking splinters out of his but and decided to play: 8 pts, 6 asts, 3 rebs 1 to in 20 minutes. May not get him back into the starting line up, but it's a start.

Stetson had 12 points, 2 rebs, 2 stls in 17 minutes.

Willis had 10 pts, 7 rebs, a st; amd a block

Angeli added 8 points.

Jackson had a team high 14 pts, 1 asts rebs, 3 stls in 19 minutes

Ray had 8 pts, 11 rebs, a stl and 2 blocks.

Vernon Johnson added 6 rebs, a stl and 2 blocks

and garbage time player of the game was Kurt Lewis who scored 5 points in 4 minutes when the benches emptied.

Final: UNM 77 Boise St. 45

[CoachC]

Jan 8: up to #11 in both polls, RPI 7th.
Air Force up to #17, and #16, RPI up to 26th

Martin Ray wins his 3rd Freshman of the Week honor in the conference.

[CoachC]

The Rams have an RPI of 143 against a fairly weak schedule. Their best win of the year came in their conference season opener at home vs UNLV.

Wilson returns to the starting lineup tonight.

Despite some chilly shooting in the first half, we dominated the boards at each end of the floor and at half-time lead 34-24

Our offense still appears to be having a severe cold, but we play well enough to keep them from gaining any ground in the 2nd half.

Ray led us with 18 pts, 9 rebs, 2 stls, and 2 blocks
Jackson 16 pts, 6 rebs, 1 stl, 1 block
Durham provided 10 pts, 2asts, 3 rebs and a stl off the bench
swarmed again, Angeli played within himself and had 7 pts, 3 asts, 5 rebs, 2 stls.
Miller still doesn't look right, but he and Conley combine for 11 pts, 5 asts, 3 rebs and a stl at the point.

Tatum gave good effort off the bench with 7 pts, 3 rebs and a stl in 16 minutes

Final: UNM 73 Colorado St. 63

[CoachC]

An early conference showdown with the Falcons who come in with an RPI of 26. They didn't play the kind of schedule we did, but it was still competitive and they posted home wins over St. John's, Providence, and Georgetown. Both of their losses came on the road to Santa Clara and NC-Greensboro.

They lead the nation in steals at 10.6/game and forced turnovers 19.2/g so it's time for our point guards to get their heads on straight. In fact it's a very good time for our offense as a whole to get back to it's earlier excellence that we've not seen in the last half dozen games. Their shooting guard Hines leads the conference in scoring at 18.5, so our perimeter defense needs to be on top of it's game tonight as well. We are going to need a good effort to win and take sole possession of first place.

Students are still on break unfortunately but there is still going to be a large turnout for this one.

Offense was much more fluid in the 1st half, and we even were +2 on turnovers and dominated the boards. Still we lead at the half only by 4, 36-32.

The guys listened and hit our keys. Excellent ball handling, winning the battle of turnovers (8-13) and allowing the Falcons just 2 steals. We shot 49% for the game and were well over 50% most of the game while limiting them to 41.5 % shooting and an acceptable 8 of 25 from 3. Even though Hines scored 30 against us, most of his points either came early against the 1-3-1 before we abandoned it for straight man, or when Martin was on the bench. When Martin was in the game he challenged every shot, and played his best defense of the season. We also outrebounded them easily (35-22,12-8).

Ray led us again with 15 pts, 9 rebs, 2 stls, 2 blks and played a season high 31 minutes.
Johnson was terrific off the bench with 13 pts, 6 rebs, and a stl.
Martin 12 pts, 5 rebs, and 2 stls besides some excellent man defense on Hines.
Angelli added 9 pts, 5 rebs
Durham added 9 off the bench, but was schooled by Hines at the other end of the court.

Conley had a outstanding game at the point with 6 pts, 9 asts, 2 rebs and nary a turnover in 25 minutes.


Final: UNM 72 Air Force 59