I'll Be a Son of a Shark

[CoachC]

It may have been, depending which PG was on the court. Thompson is my best foul shooter, but if Conley was on the court at the time, then Stetson may have been the best. The AI coach even made the mistake of getting T'd while they had possession. But they were given the ball back in the front court after the foul shots.

[CoachC]

The Aztecs aren't as good as they were a year ago, but still plenty dangerous at home.They have quality road wins over Nevada and New Mexico St. and a quality loss at Gonzaga. We haven't put a complete game together in a while. I put the challenge to the team to provide me with one.

Both teams shot the ball well in the first half, but their guards were just killing us. The perimeter defense has to be much better in the 2nd half. At halftime we trail 43-40.

We had trouble with their guards tonight, and allowed them to shoot 52.5% from the field, but we have to tip our hats to them. They have some very good perimeter shooters, especially their point, Keven Robinson (19 pts) who might have made the difference in this game if he hadn't been in deep foul trouble most of the game. Our own shooting (50.7) , total dominance of the boards, and 17 forced turnovers led us home to victory. Although I wish we had done a better job on their perimeter shooters, I was for the largest part very happy with our performance tonight.

The Rocket is no longer a freshman....he's a man...26 pts, 4 rebs, 2 stls, 3 blocks.. quite a line for the 2nd straight game. Stetson backed him up with 9 points of his own.

Conley had 4 asts, but was at a loss to guard the quicker Robinson. Fortunately Michael Thompson had a terrific game off the bench and at least was putting a hand in Robinson's face. Thompson had 10 pts, 8 asts, and just 2 turnovers in 26 minutes and played a wonderful floor game. Robinson was a handful but , in all fairness he couldn't defend Thompson either

Jon Angelli gave us the kind of game we expect from him every night out. 9 pts, 5 asts, 5 rebounds, 5 stls and a block.

Ray had just 5 shots tonight, but with Houston maturing by leaps and bounds, teams are going to start paying for the attention to Ray inside. We played double low post much of the game and our inside people made them pay too. Ray had 7 pts, 7 rebs, and a block. A mediocre line perhaps, but I liked his play tonight and he's due to bust out soon, especially if they don't start paying attention to Houston.

Johnson had largely a non-factor night with just 2 points and no rebounds in 9 minutes. With Frederick out, this could have been a problem but Jackson (10 pts, 2 asts, 4 rebs, 2 steals), Tatum (Season high 10 pts, 6 rebs) and Larry Guy(4 pts, 3 rebs in 8 minutes) more than made up the slack. It was good to see Larry play well given the opportunity.

Petion couldn't find his shot tonight but rebounded (3 in 6 minutes, plus a steal) and defended well.

Good team effort, and great bench play. I'm inclined to chalk up the Aztecs shooting to their own play, and call this one a nice win.

Final: UNM 87 SD St 76

[CoachC]

Jan 22: We jump up to #9 this week in both polls and 6 in RPI. Air Force which won on the road again last night is 30.

Big week for Matt "Rocket Man" Houston who not only deservedly wins both Frosh and Player of the week in conference, but wins National Freshman of the week honors as well! Way to go Rocket!

[CoachC]

At home with a decent crowd (15,000 +) we need to establish once and for all that we can score against a zone. We've worked so hard in practice against zone defenses all season, it's time to show we've learned something. The Walkin' Rebels have had an indistinguishable season other than a quality loss to Mich. St. But they are in sole possession of 4th place in conference and their hatred of us shows no bounds. They have struggled to score all season (59.9/g). If we play defense and rebound AND get some balls to drop against the zone, we should be okay.

In the first half, we still prove we can't attack a zone, ANY zone, but we turn them over 13 times and lead at the half 33-26

Although we didn't attack the zone well, I saw two positives in our attack. Houston still couldn't be stopped, and we managed to get Ray lots of touches. We win this game mainly with our amoeba zone though winning A/to(16/9, 11/22)

Houston just gets better and better ..20 pts, 2 asts, 3 rebs, 1 blk
Ray fought and fought in the zone and had a great game 15 pts, 8 rebs, 2 stls, 3 blocks

It was Angelli's turn to turn in a no show, but Petion helped with 7 pts, 2 stls off the bench

One thing we will really miss about Johnson next season is that he almost always follows up a rare bad game with a great one. 7 pts, 4 asts, 12 rebs, 5 stls, 2 blocks for Vernon.

Conley had 10 pts, 7 asts, 4 rebs and just 2 TOs in 30 minutes but had no relief off the bench from Thompson who turned the ball over 3 times in 10 minutes. Bullock did have 4 pts, and assist and a rebound in 4 minutes, however.

Not much else off the bench. We win this one behind Houston ,Ray, and lack of offensive ability from the Rebels

Given our total lack of ability to attack a zone, we probably won't be seeing much man the rest of the season

we finish the first half of the conference season undefeated, but we have our toughest road games ahead of us.

Final: UNM 70 UNLV 53

[CoachC]

Jan 26: WIth Air Force putting down 3rd place Colorado with a decisive 17 point win at home, they finish the first half of the conference season solidly in 2nd by 2 games. Their lone loss has been to us, with a rematch at the Academy looming.

[PointGuard]

Jan 26: WIth Air Force putting down 3rd place Colorado with a decisive 17 point win at home, they finish the first half of the conference season solidly in 2nd by 2 games. Their lone loss has been to us, with a rematch at the Academy looming.

Hears the ominous music playing in the background.

[CoachC]

We barely managed to squeak out a 1 point win against the Horned Frogs at their place. If we don't do a better job attacking their 3-2 zone tonight we are ripe for an upset.

After losing their last 4 conference games, they've won 2 of their last 3 including a 19 point win on the road against Boise St. the last time out.

With Houston punishing their zone from everywhere, we shoot 53.3% in the first half, with Houston putting up 17. Now that he is starting to get confident in his 3 point shot as well we're starting to find some seams against zone for shots from other people.

We lead at the half 38-18.

Leading by as much as 36 pts in the 2nd half and destroying their zone, we managed to get quite a few garbage minutes for the deep reserves.

Obviously not playing as many minutes in the 2nd half, Houston still puts up his 4th straight game of 20+ with 21 pts, 5 rebs. With Houston developing into a marquis player before our eyes, teams may have to finally rethink zoning us. TCU eventually abandoned the zone for a good part of the 2nd half.

Ray had a double double with 10 pts, 10 rebs, and a block. He's starting to look a lot more at ease now with Houston taking a lot of pressure off of him.

Angeli finished our double digit scoring with 10 pts, 4 asts 1 stl. He had just 1 reb in the game, but with our bigs pounding the boards, there weren't many for him to get.

Conley couldn't find his shot, and had just 2 points, but 5 asts, 2 rebs and just 1 to in 28 minutes.

Johnson was terrific at the defensive end and on the boards and had 4 pts, 2 asts, 8 rebs, 2 stls, and 2 blocks in 25 minutes.

Tatum was stellar off the bench (6 pts, 7 rebs, 1 block in 13 minutes) as was Stetson ( 6pts, 2 asts. 2 rebs. 2 stls in 12 minutes.) Petion hit a couple of 3s against the zone and is looking more confident. Gerren hit a couple of shots at garbage time, and still projects to be a big part of this team in the future.

Final: UNM 71 TCU 45

[CoachC]

Jan 29: We move up 2 more spaces in the AP poll to #7 this week (#8 in the USA today poll). Our RPI is now at 5 and Air Force has jumped to 24

We are currently 7-3 vs the top 50. 3-3 against teams currently ranked.

Matt Houston sweeps MWC Player and Freshman of the week honors for the 2nd straight week.

Our lone HS recruit Terry Ohl passed his boards with flying colors.

[CoachC]

Our Bracket Buster opponent this season has been announced as well, and it's a good one...#19 Fresno St. out of the WAC (21 RPI)

[CoachC]

2 game road trip. Hoping the team isn't looking past this one to the showdown in Colorado. We took care of business against the Broncos at home, and need to do it tonight on the road.

Absolutely no sign of lack of focus from us in the first half as we outplay the Broncos in every aspect of the game and shoot a whopping 64.5 % from the field with extremely balanced scoring. At the half we have a commanding 50-27 lead.

Even with a concerted effort by the Zebras to help the Broncs out in the 2nd half, they lacked the offensive ability to make a serious run at us.

Front Court: A-
Angelli was terrific in this one, until some foul trouble early in the 2nd half made him sit for a while. He was our leading scorer tonight with 19 along
with 4 rebs, 2 stls. Ray had 14 pts, 8 rebs, 2 blocks. Johnson wasn't a huge factor tonight but had 4 rebs, 2 stls.

Back Court: B
Houston had 17 points, 7 rebs, 2 stls and was humming along until Angelli got into foul trouble and they were able to focus on Houston in the 2nd half. I love the way Rocket gets after the boards for his size though. Conley had 3 asts, but wasn't a big factor. We didn't close out on their guards as well in the 2nd half, but all the tic tac fouls were partly to blame.

Bench: B+
Gene Frederick (8 pts, 8 rebs, 2 stls) and THompson (6 pts, 7 asts) were the main contributors off the bench tonight.

Overall: B+
After a terrific first half, the poor officiating in the 2nd half seemed to get into our heads a bit at both ends in the 2nd half. Domination of the boards (38-22, 14-5) assured the Broncos wouldn't get back in the game, however. A decent road win.

Final: UNM 77 Boise St. 63