I'll Be a Son of a Shark

[CoachC]

At tournament time, throw out the rankings. As we learned last year, you play well or go home. Another one and done would be unacceptable.

The Hatters are the champions from the Atlantic Sun Conference and had wins over West Virginia and Virginia Tech and a season opening road loss at St. Mary's. Otherwise they didn't play much of a schedule, but undoubtedly they'll be pumped to play us. They can score, averaging 73.8/g lead by their shooting guard McDevitt averaging 19.4 per contest.

Earlier today, the Falcons beat the Golden Hurricane 65-58 and we had a chance to watch part of the game while waiting for our turn on the floor for shoot around and it helped loosened us up a little.

Terrific guard play set the tone for us in the first half. We turn them over 15 times with 10 steals and score 16 points in transition while shooting 58.8 % from the field for the half storming to a 44-20 halftime lead.

We take care of business in the 2nd half and win easily, although I had to take a T in the middle of the half to keep the zebras under control.

Wilson continued his terrific floor play late in the season with 12 pts, 7 asts, 5 rebs, and a steal
Durham add 7 pts, and a steal
Angelli had a stat sheet night with 7 pts, 5 asts, 3 rebs, 1 stl and 1 block
Johnson had a good all round game as well with 8 pts, 2 asts, 6 rebs, 1 stl, and a block
Ray led us with 20 pts, 7 rebs, 3 blocks

Great play off the bench again in this one too. Stetson (10 pts, 3 rebs, 1 stl), Martin (11 pts, 4 rebs), and Thompson (8 asts, just 1 to in 14 minutes) continue to give terrific contributions, and Inyo (3 stls and a block), and Willis(2 stls, and a block) provided strong defense for the 2nd team.

We haven't rebounded quite as well of late, although we edge them 31-25, but you can't have everything.

no one and done this year.. onwards and upwards!

Final: UNM 79 Stetson 52

[CoachC]

Regular season co-champs of the Atlantic 10, the Flyers defeated Southern Utah in the first round, and have quality wins over Arizona St. and Missouri outside of the conference, both road wins and finiished the season with an RPI of 17.

Dayton will play 3-2 zone for the most part, and hopefully we'll respond as well as we have in the most recent games in which we've faced a zone.

Conley will be available in this one.

Too many turnovers (9) and not enough rebounding in the first half, although our defense was solid. We need to get to the line in the 2nd half, as we didn't shoot a free throw the entire first half. Also of concern, Martin Ray picked up his 2nd personal early on and played just 6 minutes and wasn't a factor. We need him to avoid picking up another one quick in the 2nd half and help us pull away. Regardless, we lead at the half 29-25.

Not a pretty game. Another lackadaisical night of rebounding, and some spotty floor play, and some struggles against their zone in the 2nd half, this one went to the wire and we are lucky to pull it out of the fire.

Wilson had 6 pts, and 3 rebs, but not a smart game at the point with just 3 asts and 6 tos.
Durham led us with 13 points and was our only consistent offense against the zone.
Angelli had 9 pts, 9 rebs
Johnson added 10 pts, 4 rebs, 2 stls, and a block
Ray played just 15 minutes and had a subpar game with just 7 points, and only 1 reb.

Inyo had 4 pts, 6 rebs off the bench and WIllis was the difference maker on the defensive end with 4 pts, 4 rebs, 6 stls, and 3 blocks. It was clear that the senior did not want his career to end tonight. Conley in his first game back since the injury had 7 points, but turned the ball over 4 times in 18 minutes. Martin(5) pts and Stetson (3 asts 2 stls) gave us decent minutes off the bench.

Not one of our better performances of the year, but we'll take the win and advance to the sweet 16.

Final: UNM 65 Dayton 64

[CoachC]

Mar 16: Air Force answered some of their critics tonight by rolling over 2 seed and 7th ranked Mich. St 76-60 to also advance to the sweet 16. 9th ranked 2 seed UNC defeated Wake Forest by 2 in OT and will be our next opponent.

[CoachC]

after the first weekend of play, all 4 1 seeds advance. Meanwhile the Tarheels are the only remaining 2 seed, and we are the only remaining 3 seed. This years cinderella is Austin Peay a 14 seed that advances by beating Oregon and South Carolina.

In our regional, it's the top 4 seeds in the regional semis. The Falcons will be facing 6 seed Stanford at the Meadowlands.

[CoachC]

Regular season ACC champs the Tarheels only losses this season to teams not in the tournament were ineligible Duke (twice) and the two Miamis.

Needless to say, we are going to have to play at our very top shelf level tonight and need production from everyone.

Defensive war in the first half, with neither team shooting well. They have contested everything in the paint, and our perimeter shooting has been cold but 15 offensive rebounds has kept us in the game. After leading most of the half we go into intermission trailing 29-27. We have to get someone nailing some intermediate jumpshots in the 2nd half to open up the blocks a bit for Ray whom they've swarmed.

A war was how it continued, but we were able to get just enough stops late and a big clutch 3 from Angelli with about half a minute to go to hold on for the one point win! Neither team shot free throws as well, but the Tarheels helped us out greatly with an especially woeful 6-15 from the stripe. We won this game on the boards(46-36, 20-10)

Wilson had 7 pts, 5 asts, 4 rebs
Durham added 7 all in the crux of the game when the Tarheels had taken a 6 point lead and gave us momentum to fire back and regain the lead. after that it was a battle to the wire.
Angelli led us with 14 pts, 4 rebs, 1 stl, but foul trouble limited him to 19 minutes which led to some of our offensive woes.
Johnson played hard defensively and was willing to bang with their big guys and finished with 5 pts, 6 rebs, 2 stls, and 1 block
Ray was frustrated offensively in this one, but didn't take it with him to the other end of the court. He finished with 9 pts, 9 rebs, 1 stl, and 2 blocks.

Jackson was a big factor off the bench tonight with one of his best games in a long time, supplying 5 pts, and 10 rebounds. Martin added 7, and Tatum had 4 offensive rebounds in just 6 minutes.

Happy Final: UNM 60 UNC 59

[CoachC]

Mar 24: Air Force continues their deep run as well with a decisive 68-57 victory over #17 Stanford. Willis sufferend a strained calf in our game, and is day to day and doubtful on Saturday. In the region finals we'll take on top seed and 2nd ranked UConn while Air Force faces #1 Arizona. We'll both have our hands full on Saturday. In the other Regionals top seed UCLA takes on cinderella Austin Peay who won again defeating Seton Hall. The other top seed Louisville faces 11 seed Kansas.

[CoachC]

You don't get to the final 4 without going through the best of the best, and that's what we face tonight. All 3 of the Huskies losses came on the road in conference play, to top 10 teams Louisville and Marquette, and in their regular season finale on the road in OT to Villanova.

They play largely 3-2 zone, like to run and have a balanced scoring attack. They have an average winning margin of almost 19 pts/g. We need to handle the zone on offense, play top notch defense, and horse the boards. If we can turn them over a bunch, that will help too.

We didn't do much in the first half to convince anyone we should be playing at this level as we were beaten in every aspect of the game. We are fortunate to only trail by 13 at the half. We need some inspired play from several someones in the 2nd half if we don't want to get buried.

There was just too much talent for us in this one. If we could have rebounded better, and turned the ball over a little less we may have been able to make it a lot closer, but hats off to the Huskies, and it doesn't take away from our fine season.

Wilson finishes his career with 4 pts, 9 asts
Angelli had 8 pts, but was schooled on the defensive end by their talented 3 Blackmon.
Johnson had 8 pts, 6 rebs
Ray had a fine game defensively, but they weren't going to let him beat them on the offensive end of the floor and had few touches. He finishes his amazing freshman year with 7 pts, 7 rebs, 1 stl and 4 blocks.

Martin finished his Lobo career in style with 21 points off the bench in 23 minutes. Inyo played well too with 8 pts, 6 rebs, 2 stls.

Final: UNM 61 UConn 83

[CoachC]

mar 25: Air Force finishes their season as well losing by 16 to the top-ranked Wildcats.

[CoachC]

Mar 26: all four 1 seeds advance to the Final Four, although 3rd ranked UCLA had their hands full with upstart Austin Peay, who ended their magical cinderella run losing by just 2 to the Bruins. Louisvilled defeated Kansas in the other regional final.

[CoachC]

Mar 27: BCS conferences will win all the post-season hardware this season. Arkansas wins the CIT, while Arizona St. wins the NIT.