I'll Be a Son of a Shark

[CoachC]

A little over two weeks ago when we played the Rebels on this court, our defense stunk so bad they could smell it's stench in Santa Fe.

I called Ma's cell phone and told her that if she and Jerry plan to come to this game to do me a favor and sit up in the rafters where I can't see them. They were too much of a distraction last time.

NO problem with communication on defense in the first half of this one. The Rebels must have felt like we had 9 or 10 people on the court at the time. They shoot 20% for the half, and we do it while only committing 4 team fouls. At the half we are putting it to them 37-13

This may have been the best team basketball we've seen all year. We began emptying the bench with 9 minute to go and a 36 point lead.

Frontcourt: A
Amgelli 7 pts, 4 rebs, Johnson 6 rebs, 1 block, Ray 10 pts, 3 asts, 9 rebs, 1 stl 4 blks. Those numbers may not jump out at you, but those 3 guys plus Inyo off the bench didn't let anyone get within 7 feet of the basket all night

Backcourt: A+

Thompson 7 asts in 14 minutes, Houston was the leading scorer with 18 pts, 4 rebs. Tons of numbers from 4 players off the bench. And the guard's defense was at least equal to the front line, maybe better.

Bench: A+

In a game where a lot of people were able to get a lot of minutes this could go on forever, because pretty much everyone on the roster looked great tonight. However, Inyo(4 pts, 3 asts, 5 rebs, 1 stl in 14 minutes), Stetson (5 pts, 2 asts, 3 rebs in 15 minutes), Conley (6 pts, 5 asts, 2 rebs), and Gerren ( 8 pts, 2 asts in 10 minutes) were the major contributors in the guts of the game. Even garbage time guys were looking great!

Overall: A+

If you were to look at the team stats for this game, you might think this was a 10-12 point game. Once again the sum of the parts doesn't equal the total, but this time in a good way. This was the best 40 minutes of basketball we've played this entire season. I don't care how Rebellious you are, you should never poke a Wolf in the eye with a stick, because you will eventually get bit...HARD! The Rebels were ready to throw n the towel at halftime, but it's awful hard to take it easy on a team when the guys at the end of the bench are embarrassing them as well. A great resolution to our most embarrassing loss of the season. Plus we had the chance to rest all the starters for tomorrow's championship.

Final: UNM 72 UNLV 41

[CoachC]

May 7: Late night phone call to my hotel room:
Jerry: What did you feed those guys before the game tonight, Son?
Me: Raw meat seasoned with revenge! You were at the game tonight?
Jerry: Yes. I was invited to sit in the broadcast booth tonight as a guest commentator. I had to pretend all night that I was disappointed about the Rebels crapping all over my court.
Me: And where was Ma?
Jerry: Your mother? Was she here? She didn't tell me (familiar female chuckles in the background)
Me: MA! I can hear you!

To no one's surprise Air Force handles the Aztecs in the nightcap 64-49.

Do my boys have another dose of revenge left in them?

[CoachC]

May 8: Before shoot around I take aside Pat Bullock and tell him it hasn't escaped my notice that in the last two games he scored 13 pts with 2 asts and no turnovers in 8 minutes. In fact for the season he has the best a/to ratio of the entire team. I remind him that with Stetson and Conley leaving after this season, a 6-5 guard who can play both positions could sure come in handy. We'll probably give him some time in pre-season scrimmages to play a bit of 3 as well.

I also had a private talk with Isaac Gerren who has come on strong late. I'll keep that discussion between myself and him, though.

[PointGuard]

The rafters will be a-shakin' for the UNM/AFA game.

[PointGuard]

Rumor on the street is that the 3:30 a.m. fire alarm at your team's hotel the morning of your game with them may have been set off by an Air Force fan. Hmmmm.

[CoachC]

A month ago in Colorado, after leading in the first half we went into the tank in the 2nd half, struggling at both ends of the floor. We need more of a sustained effort tonight. We've played some of our best basketball of the season in this tournament, and need it to continue tonight. This is a big game for tournament seeding for both of our teams.

In the first half, we struggle on the half-court against their zone, but got out and scored 18 points in transition aided by 8 steals. Defensively we defended the paint very well (points in paint 22-2), but didn't get out on Hines who burned us from downtown, and the Falcons were 7-8 from 3 in the half. We 34-30 at halftime, but we've got to start getting a hand in Hines' face.

Much the same in the 2nd half, as the Falcons continued to survive on long range bombs, while most of our scoring came in transition. In the final 8 minutes of the game, we made fantastic defensive plays several times in a row, and Angelli started taking apart their zone allowing us to pull away.

Frontcourt: A+
Angelli was most of our offense in the game, tying Hines for game hi scoring with 22. He also had 5 rebs, 1 stl, and excellent defense against York this time around.
Johnson was a defensive dynamo and was terrific on both the primary and secondary breaks. 4 pts, 5 asts, 8 rebs, 6 stls, 2 blocks. He was a nightmare for the Falcons all night long.
Ray was outstanding defensively as well and added 8 pts, 8 rebs, 3 blocks.
Strong play from the bench as well from Jackson and Tatum

Backcourt: C+
Thompson was a non=factor, doing nothing in his 10 minutes but play lousy defense.
Houston struggled against the zone, but 11 pts, 3 stls, and did a good job getting out on Murray in the 2nd half.
We did get very good guard play from the bench.

Bench: A
Tatum was almost as much a defensive nightmare for them as was Johnson, plus Steve was able to find and make shots in the low post, something he does very well. 12 pts, 5 rebs, 2 stls in just 10 minutes. Terrrific game.

Stetson was excellent as well with 6 pts, 4 stls in 14 minutes.

Conley had 3 pts, 7 asts, just 1 turnover in 23 minutes. He also had some problems getting out on Hines, but was steady.

Pat Bullock continued his post-season surge and was rewarded with 9 minutes in the crux of the game, and did far and away the best job of our pont guards of getting a hand in Hines' face. Only negative was his 3 turnovers, but he did have 3 assists/

Overall: A-
Despite our difficulties with the zone we went to our strengths and scored 33 pts in transition, turning them over 24 times and shooting 50% from the field as a result. We were 44-8 pts in the paint, and 12-0 on 2nd chance as well. A great way to head into the NCAA tournament

Final: UNM 74 Air Force 58

[CoachC]

Mar 12: Headed into selection Sunday we fall to #7, 3rd in RPI. Air Force is #18 with an RPI of 15. Here's hoping we both get favorable seeds from the committee.

[CoachC]

Mar 12: Selection Sunday:

Notre Dame is top seed at Charlotte.
Top Ranked Memphis is the 1 seed in Indianapolis
We are dismissed with a number 4 seed in the Midwest, and not very happy about it. Our first round opponent will be Loyola-Marymount, a team we beat earlier in the season on the road.
The Falcons are also in our regional as the 6 seed facing Kansas. I think we both were hosed a bit by the selection committee, but nothing new about that. The old boy network is tough to overcome.
Florida is the top seed in Nashville.
Arizona is the top seed in San Jose.

We were 9-4 against this year's field of 68.

[CoachC]

no other team from the MWC goes to the post-season this year, which comes as no surprise. Colorado St. was probably about a win short of an invite to the CIT

[CoachC]

We beat the Lions 69-51 in Los Angeles back in December. We struggled against their 3-2 zone (naturally), but played good defense, went to the boards, and took good care of the ball (season low 3 turnovers). We need to do all those things well again, keep Correy Abney (21.1 ppg, 17 against us in the first game) under control, and hopefully, if we can't score against the zone, we can get out in transition as we did against Air Force.

Conley will get the start tonight at the point for stability.

Houston took apart their zone in the first half scoring from everywhere, held Abney scoreless, and despite some very weak officiating we lead at the half 42-23.

Forced to go zone for most of the 2nd half because of the foul disparity, Abney was able to get free for 16 2nd half points, largely on deep 3s against the zone, but they were no match for Houston and Angelli. When both of those guys get going for us it's usually, "turn out the lights, the party's over", they were never able to get closer than 16 and we steadily pulled away. We shot almost 51% against the zone which was encouraging.

Frontcourt: A-

Angelli had 16 points, 2 rebs, 3 stls.
Johnson had his typical game with 6 pts, 7 rebs, 2 blocks and relentless defense.
Ray had a ho-hum game with 4 pts, 5 rebs, 3 blocks, but our post defense was superb again. They essentially had no post game against us, and weren't able to penetrate all that much either.
Decent minutes from Jackson and Tatum as well.

Backcourt: A+
Conley showed senior leadership tonight, rewarding me for starting him. He had 10 pts, including a couple of 3s early, 8 asts, 3 rebs. and just 1 TO in 21 minutes.
Houston moved without the ball tonight about as well as I've ever seen him and was able to score against the zone inside, outside and upside down. 23 pts for the super freshman with 2 asts, 5 rebs, 2 stls. When we were able to play man to man, he absolutely hounded Abney on defense as well.
Decent minutes from Stetson and Thompson.

Bench: B+
Tatum and Inyo did the things they've been doing very consistently down the stretch this season. Scoring a few points, grabbing a few rebounds, and showing no letdown in our post defense when in the game.

Thompson had 3 pts, 4 asts in 15 minutes, and Stetson has been a rock off the bench lately at both the 2 and the 3.

Overall: B+

I didn't like that we couldn't play man tonight without fouling, and I would have liked to have seen better rebounding. Still we never trailed and looked good against the zone for one of the few times this season. Perhaps I've been getting spoiled by the way we've been playing down the stretch. Not a bad game at all, but we can play a notch or two above this, and will have to if we plan to make a deep run again.


Final: UNM 76 Loyola-Marymount 53