I'll Be a Son of a Shark

[CoachC]

Wyoming is in last place with with an RPI of 184. Overlooking these guys as we did against TCU could well result in another home disaster. 2 of the Cowboys 6 wins have come on the road vs ranked opponent's, so despite a tough rebuilding year, they are no stranger to the upset. They rebound well, and have a decent inside/out game with 3 players in double figures.

Thompson will get the start at the point tonight with Martin going back to the 2. It would be very nice to get two decent performances in a row from one of our point guards. Conley's leg is still bothering him. He'll be available, but Wilson will be the primary backup tonight. We need them both to give us some good minutes.

Once again we find ourselves playing down to our competition. The Cowboys do represent a slight problem for us defensively in that their center McClinton is the only 5 we've seen all season capable of stepping out and hitting the perimeter shot with finess from the high post, but the bottom line is, as a team we just did not play very well at either end of the court. Only our domination of the boards allows us to take a 2 point lead into the locker room 35-33. We had our fans sitting on their hands for most of the half.

Not a good game for us, especially defensively, where we let them beat us consistently on the perimeter, letting them shoot 47% for the game and 11-22 from 3. We get the win, but it wasn't one to write home about.

Angeli led us with 19 pts, 3 rebs, 3 stls and played 34 minutes
Vernon Johnson was phenomenal off the bench with 18 pts, 11 rebs in a season high 29 minutes.
Ray completed the double digit scoring with 14 pts, 8 rebs, a stl and 2 blocks in 27 minutes.
Durham added 9 pts off the bench
And Wlson looked like Wilson with 8 pts, 8 asts, 3 rebs, a stl and no turnovers in 26 minutes. We've been fooled before though, so we'll let Tim come off the bench again in the next one to see if he can put together two games in a row.

Final: UNM 79 Wyoming 69

[CoachC]

SD St. Upended Air Force by 14 at home last night to give us a 2 game lead at the halfway point of the conference season.

[CoachC]

Jan 29: We move up to #9 in both polls this week. Our RPI remains at 7th. Air Force falls to #20,#21

Martin Ray wins both Frosh of the week and Player of the week for the 2nd time.

Loyola Marymount with an RPI of 35 has been announced as our Bracket BUster opponent this season.

And the best news of all, all 3 of our recruits have qualified for enrollment next fall!

[CoachC]

Jan 29: Martin Ray still ranks 4th nationally in blocked shots at 2.3/g and leads the league in rebounding at 7.8/pg. Angeli and Ray are 4th and 5th in the league in scoring. Injo Jackson leads the league in field goal %. Wilson is still 2nd in the conference with assists despite having an up and down year. Angelli is 5th in FG% and 3rd in steals.

As a team we are 5th in the nation in blocks at 4.5/g, and 5th in rebounding at 36.1.
The Aztecs lead the nation in assists at 17.6/g. The Falcons are 4th in steals at 9.8.

[CoachC]

The Broncs are tied for 6th in the standings with an RPI of 298. We beat them by 32 at home, but as always, playing on the road is a different animal. We'd like to get some rhythm and consistency going the rest of the way heading into the post-season, and this is a good place to start.

Durham will start at the 2 tonight. Thompson will start again at the point.

poor freethrow shooting again, 10-17, and weak perimeter defense allowing them to shoot 5-8 from 3 keeps them in the game and at the half our lead is just 2 35-33.

I won't say we played a good game. OUr shooting wasn't very good, but we did play much better defense in the 2nd half,holding them to 11 points, and we totally dominated the boards (45-25,16-4) and win going away.

Martin Ray was all everything again with 16 pts, 9 rebs and 4 blocks in 29 minutes.
Durham added 15 pts, 5 rebs
Angeli had a horrible shooting night (2 of 13) but did have 7 rebs, 2stls.
Jackson also had 7 boards

WIlson had another decent showing off the bench with 6 ponts, 7 asts, 4 rebs, so that experiment will continue.

Vernon Johnson was terrific off the bench again with 8 pts, 8 rebs, and 2 stls in 23 minutes.

Willis and Martin also contributed good minutes off the bench


Final: UNM 67 Boise St. 44

[CoachC]

Jan 31: Air Force was upset at home last night by UNLV giving us a 3 game lead in first. Air Force, SD St., UNLV, and TCU now in a 4 way tie for 2nd.

[CoachC]

We beat the Rams 73-63 in Colorado, but we need to give the home crowd something to get excited about. Our recent showings at home have been subpar.

Johnson's recent play has earned him a start tonight, and Inyo will come in off the bench.

Too many turnovers in the first half (11), but otherwise we played very well and lead at halftime 38-22

A very good game. Other than the TOs which were way too many (16) this was offensively our best game in quite a while, shooting over 60% from the field with balanced scoring before we began emptying the bench with about 7 minutes to go. I don't think we scored at all in the last 5 minutes as our reserves put up clunker after clunker, but at least the deep bench got some minutes.

Ray led us with 15 pts, 8 rebs, 3 stls, and 2 blocks
Angeli added 12 pts, 4 rebs.
Thompson had 6 pts, 5 asts, but turned the ball over 4 times in 18 minutes
Durham had 7,
Johnson 6 pts, 4 rebs, 1 st, 1 block

off the bench
Inyo added 9 pts, 4 rebs
Martin scored 6 but suffered a minor concussion and will be out of practice for the next few days as a precaution
Willis had 2 asts, 5 rebs, 1stl, 1 block in 17 minutes

Final; UNM 63 Colorado St. 47 and it was never that close

[CoachC]

Feb 3: Air Force manhandled TCU on the road last night, while SD St. held serve at home vs UNLV. The Falcons now tied with the Aztecs for 2nd, a game in front of the Rebels and Frogs.

[CoachC]

Feb 5: We move up to #7 in both polls this week, our RPI is at 6.

Air Force is at #20 and #22, but an RPI of 49 doesn't guarantee them anything at this point.

On the other hand, the unranked and overlooked Aztecs now have an RPI of 22.

Martin Ray wins conference Frosh of the week for the 6th time.

[CoachC]

A huge game for Air Force as a win goes a long way the improving their shaky RPI for the post=season. It's important for us as well, not only because it would clinch the regular season title, but another win over a ranked team in the top 50 would help a great deal in terms of tournament seeding.

We played well in our home 72-59 victory over the Falcons, but we'll need to play even better tonight to walk out of here with a win. In particular we need to do a better job on conference leading scorer Hines who torched us for 30 the first time around. We also need to negotiate their 1-3-1 zone as effectively as we did the first time. Anything less than our A game will result in a loss. Martin who was our most successful defender against Hines in the first game is still recovering from his concussion and is likely unavailable, making things more difficult for us. Durham and Stetson are going to have to suck it up and get out on him.

I'd like to see us take better care of the ball in the 2nd half, but turnovers are even at 9. We also need to hit the boards harder but we are even there at 15. Otherwise, we played a very good first half and go to the locker room up 6, 35-29

This was truly an excitng collegiate basketball game. The Falcons played their hearts out, but we showed character and refused to buckle.

Lots and lots of turnovers in the game but we wind up +3 (18-21). The deciding factor in this game really came down to transition points, where we outscored the Falcons 20=10 on fast breaks.

With Martin unavailable Durham(19 pts, 5 rebs) and Stetson(14 pts, 2 stls) stepped their games up in a BIG way, and kept Hines under control on defense holding him 4 points below his season average.

We weren't able to score in the posts the way we usually do as they packed their zone, but Angeli had 6pts, 6 rebs, a career high 5 stls, and a block. Johnson had 6 pts, 4 rebs, Ray 9 pts, 5 rebs, 2 blocks,

Off the bench Inyo had 4 points, 5 rebs, and Wilson rose to the occasion with 6 pts, 11 asts, and 5 rebs in 25 minutes. WIllis supplied steals on back to back possessions in the middle of the 2nd half after the Falcons had taken a 4 point lead that proved crucial in getting the game hammer back in our hands.

A very good team effort, and even without Martin, probably the best game our guards have had all year. We clinch the title and improve our post-season resume. A tough loss for Air Force, but they played a very good game.

Happy Final: UNM 66 Air Force 61