Aggies Trek north to Orem for Saturday afternoon skirmish at Utah Valley

Game Twenty-Four
—/rv NM State (20-3, 10-1 WAC) at Utah Valley (15-8, 6-5 WAC)
Saturday, Feb. 12 | 2:00 p.m. | Orem, Utah | UCCU Center
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THE OPENING TIP
• Armed with one of the nation's best road records as well as a 20-win mark that is tops in the WAC, the NM State men's basketball team travels north from St. George, Utah, to Orem, Utah, for a high-profile showdown with league foe Utah Valley inside the UCCU Center.
'• Tip-off in the 18th all-time battle between the Aggies and Wolverines has been set for 2:00 p.m. Brandon Crow and Josh Kallunki are scheduled to handle play-by-play and analysis responsibilities for the first meeting between the two teams since the 2021 WAC Tournament semifinals.
• Over the airwaves, legendary radio play-by-play man Jack Nixon will set up shop courtside to call the action.
• The play-by-play and analysis of the nation's 14th-longest tenured NCAA Division I men's basketball voice can be heard on 99.5 Zia Country FM in Las Cruces, N.M., and nationwide on The Varsity Network app.
• Affiliate stations of the Aggie Sports Network can be tuned in to in Artesia, N.M. (990 AM), Carlsbad, N.M. (1240 AM), Gallup, N.M. (94.9 FM), Alamogordo, N.M. (103.7 FM) and El Paso, Texas (1380 AM). All of those stations will also carry Nixon's commentary of Saturday afternoon's tilt.

FAST BREAK POINTS
• NM State sits alone in first place in the latest edition of the WAC standings. The Aggies are one game ahead of second-place Seattle U and two games on up third-place Sam Houston for the top spot in the league.
• For the second time under head coach Chris Jans and for the fourth time in the history of the program, NM State has won 20 of its first 23 games to start the season. NM State previously started 20-3 through its first 21 games in 2017-18, 1990-91 and 1989-90.
• Only five other teams in NM State history have put forth a better record than 20-3 through their first 23 games. The Aggies went 21-2 to start the year in 2016-17, 1969-70, 1968-69, and 1937-38.
• NM State's 20 wins are the eighth-most among all NCAA Division I men's basketball teams this season as well as the most by any WAC team.
• NM State has won its last 31 home games against WAC opponents dating back 2017. The Aggies' last loss to a WAC team in the Pan American Center came on Feb. 23, 2017, when they dropped an 84-72 decision to Utah Valley.
• Since the start of the 2009-10 campaign, NM State owns an 86-4 (.956) record in WAC home games. Those four losses came by a combined 34 points (an average of 8.4 per game).
• NM State head coach Chris Jans is 59-10 (.855) in regular-season WAC games as the Aggies' head coach. Included in that record is a perfect 29-0 (1.000) showing against WAC squads inside NM State's home venue of the Pan American Center.
• NM State's .855 winning percentage in WAC regular season games under Jans is the nation's second-best in-conference winning percentage figure since 2017-18. Only Gonzaga's (71-2, .973) is higher.
• Currently the Aggies have two players on their roster - Teddy Allen and Donnie Tillman - who have amassed 1,000 or more points in their respective NCAA Division I careers. A third, though, could do so as early as Saturday. Jabari Rice is six points away from becoming the 36th Aggie to join the 1,000-point club. Both Rice and Johnny McCants (982 career points, 18 more until 1,000) are set to join Allen and Tillman in the ranks of 1,000-point scorers.
• With a win at SFA on Saturday, Jan. 22, NM State senior forward Johnny McCants overtook Ian Baker for the highest number of wins in the history the program (111). Baker, who suited up for NM State from 2014-17, amassed 110 wins through the course of his storied Aggie career, but McCants is slowly increasing the number of wins on his resume with 115 to his credit.
• The second half has been a strength of the Aggies all season long. NM State has outscored its foes 965-793 (+172) in the second half - good for an average of 7.5 points per game. NM State has outscored its opponent by 15 or more in the final frame six times this season, too. Only Arizona, Colorado State, Gonzaga, Kentucky and St. Mary's have exceeded those second-half scoring stats put up by the Aggies.

LET'S TALK 20
• Thursday night, the Aggies secured their 20th win of the 2021-22 campaign. Now in his fifth season in charge of NM State, head coach Chris Jans has led the program to the 20-win mark four times (2017-18, 2018-19, 2019-20 and 2021-22).
• Prior to this season, NM State's most recent campaign of 20+ wins came in 2019-20. With their 72-64 victory over Seattle U on Thursday, Feb. 13, 2020, NM State hit the 20-win mark for the ninth-straight season. That streak was the longest when looking at 20-win seasons in the history of the program.
• NM State has won 20 or more games in a season 34 times in the history of the program.
• Fifth-year head coach Chris Jans became the first coach in NM State history to win 20 or more games in each of his first three seasons in charge with the Aggies' 20+ win 2019-20 campaign.
• Jans is one of just five NM State head coaches who have led the Aggies to multiple 20 win seasons. The full list includes Lou Henson (eight), Marvin Menzies (seven), Neil McCarthy (seven), Jans (four) and Jerry Hines (three).

POLL POSITION
• For the first time in 2021-22, NM State has appeared in one of the nation's two main college basketball polls.
• Monday morning, NM State picked up five votes in the latest edition of the USA Today/ESPN Coaches Poll. It marks the team's first appearance in that particular poll since week 18 of the 2017-18 season when the Aggies earned six votes.
• The last time NM State received votes in either the AP Poll of the USA Today/ESPN Coaches Poll came in 2019-20. In the final edition of the AP Top 25 Poll that year, the Aggies received four of votes, putting them 42nd in the land of the 46 teams.
• That marked the fourth time in 2019-20 that NM State secured votes in the weekly poll. For each of the three weeks prior, NM State received two votes in the poll.
• In 2018-19, NM State appeared in the receiving votes section of the AP Top 25 poll on four occasions - February 25, March 4, March 11 and March 18.
• The final 2019-20 appearance by NM State in the AP Poll in 2019-20 marked the Aggies' 18th appearance in the receiving votes section of the AP Top 25 poll under head coach Chris Jans. In Jans' inaugural season (2017-18) in Las Cruces, the Aggies piled up 66 votes in the February 12 edition of the poll - the most by the team in the 21st century.

THE ROAD WARRIORS
• Despite seeing their 10-game winning streak snapped Thursday, Jan. 20, at Sam Houston, the Aggies are still one of the nation's best teams when it comes to true road games.
• NM State's winning percentage of .875 (7-1) in true road games this season is the fifth-best in the nation. The Aggies' seven true road wins are also the 11th-most by any NCAA Division I men's basketball team in the nation. Only Chattanooga (10), Belmont (nine), Navy (nine), Monmouth (nine), Davidson (eight), Murray State (eight), Wagner (eight), Montana State (eight), Towson (eight) and South Dakota State (eight) have more true road triumphs this season than NM State.
• In Chris Jans' tenure as head coach, NM State is 39-13 (.750) in true road games.

MISCELLANEOUS & MILESTONES
• NM State's collective field goal percentage of .463 ranks 68th in the nation and is the second-best in the WAC.
• The Aggies' rebounding margin of +7.5 is the 15th-best in the nation as well as the second-best in the WAC.
• NM State ranks 16th nationally in terms of field goal percentage defense. The Aggies are allowing their opponents to shoot just 38.6-percent from the floor this season which is the second-best among all WAC teams.
• In one of his most recent games, redshirt junior guard Jabari Rice put in 21 points as NM State won at WAC foe SFA (Jan. 22). When Rice scores 20 or more points in a game, NM State is 10-1 (.909).
• High-scoring guard Teddy Allen leads NM State in scoring at a rate of 19.4 points per game and also ranks 40th nationally in free throw percentage (.871). The Phoenix, Ariz., product also sits among the top 85 players nationally in field goal attempts (81st, 314).
• Now in his fifth season in an NM State uniform, Johnny McCants has broken into the program's top-ten leaders in blocked shots. McCants, a Las Cruces, N.M., product has 113 rejections to his credit as a collegian which are the eighth-most all-time by any Aggie. Other Aggies who rejected 100 or more shots in their respective careers include James Moore (200), Sim Bhullar (196), Hamidu Rahman (137), Pascal Siakam (137), Tshilidzi Nephawe (135), Slab Jones (124) and Charles Gosa (116).

LAST TIME OUT | NM State 77, at Dixie State 69 | Thursday, Feb. 10, 2022
• Surviving 18 turnovers - the third-highest total in a game this season - NM State used its best three-point field goal percentage in a game this year and double-digit scoring outings from four players to collect a 77-69 win at Dixie State.
• Teddy Allen hit the 20-point mark for the fourth-straight game, going off for a game-high 20 points on a 5-of-11 clip from the field. Allen became the first NM State player to score 20 or more points in four consecutive games since Zach Lofton did so in the last four tilts of NM State's 2017-18 campaign.
• Leading NM State's three-point charge was senior guard Clayton Henry. He went 4-of-5 from downdown, matching his career-high in three-pointers made to finish with 12 points in 35 minutes of action.
• Jabari Rice led the way on the glass, submitting an 11-point, 10-rebound double-double. The guard's second double-double of the 2021-22 campaign helped NM State own a slim 40-35 edge on the glass.
• For the third-straight game, Johnny McCants was a primary contributor on the offensive end, too. The Las Cruces, N.M., product turned in a 13-point outing on a 5-of-9 night from the field. McCants' 10+ points for the third-straight game match his longest streak of double-digit scoring games in his career.
• As a squad, NM State drilled 53.3-percent (8-of-15) of its tries from distance. That's the fourth-best three-point field goal percentage in a single game during the Chris Jans coaching era.
• NM State generated just nine assists in the win with Rice accumulating a game-high four of them. The Aggies' nine assists are the third-fewest in a single game this season and NM State has been held under 10 assists in just four of its 2 1games through the current campaign.
• Both McCants and Rice are now within striking distance of the 1,000-point mark. Following Thursday night's game, Rice needs just six more markers to reach 1,000 points while McCants is 18 points away from that particular milestone.
• For the eighth time this season, NM State finished with six or more blocks in a game. Much of that had to do with McCants, the WAC's best shot-blocker, who added two rejections to hike his league-leading total to 34. Eight of the top 11 blocked shot performances in the Chris Jans coaching era have come this season while NM State's blocks per game average of 4.2 is well ahead of any other season under Jans. The Aggies averaged 2.4 blocks per game in 2020-21, 1.8 in 2019-20, 2.6 in 2018-19 and 3.0 in 2017-18.

LAST TIME OUT vs. UTAH VALLEY | NM State 78, Utah Valley 62 | Friday, March 12, 2021 | 2021 WAC Tournament semifinals
• The Donald Tillman Basketball Showcase was not a one-night-only show in Sin City as the forward out of Detroit dropped in a season-high 23 points to help the Aggies take down second-seeded Utah Valley, 78-62, in the semifinal round of the 2021 WAC Tournament.
• Facing off against the league's Player of the Year and Defensive Player of the Year in the Wolverines' Fardaws Aimaq, all the Aggies did was hold him scoreless in 29 minutes of action.
• A 15-2 run through the game's first 7:10 helped the Aggies take control early. All of the team's points through that surge came off the hands of Tillman and Jabari Rice who finished with 13 on a 4-of-5 effort from the field.
• Trey Woodbury did all he could to extend Utah Valley's season, putting in a game-high 34 points for the WAC's regular season co-champions. Fifteen of his 34 came at the foul line, but the usually sharp-shooting guard went just 3-of-11 from long range on the night.
• Johnny McCants led the way on defense against Aimaq and had another solid all-around outing at The Orleans. Las Cruces' favorite son contributed nine points and a team-high six rebounds in the Aggies' victory.
• A late first-half offensive lull by the Aggies was ended thanks to the play of Kalen Williams. The sophomore guard had all eight of his points though the final stages of the opening frame and hit a runner in the lane at the horn to give the Aggies a 32-23 lead at the break.
• With the win, NM State moved to 12-3 all-time in WAC Tournament semifinal bouts. The win also helped NM State move on to the WAC Tournament finals for the ninth-straight time.

SCOUTING UTAH VALLEY | ROSTER | SCHEDULE | STATISTICS
• The owner of one of college basketball's most creative monikers, redshirt sophomore Fardaws Aimaq - known as "The Big Maple" around Orem, Utah, and the nation - has upped the ante in 2021-22 as he continues to lead Utah Valley.
• Aimaq's rebounding prowess is the stuff of legends as the Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, product leads the nation in double-doubles (20) and defensive rebounds (10.13 per game) while ranking second in the land in rebounds per game (13.2). A dark horse candidate for some of college basketball's most sought-after individual hardware, Aimaq also sits third in the WAC in scoring (18.9 ppg) this year.
• Crashing the glass - and preventing their opponents from doing so - are the areas where Utah Valley excels. With Aimaq in their corner, the Wolverines rank 17th in the land in rebounds per game (40.17) and seventh in the nation in rebounding margin (+8.0).
• Manning the point guard position is one of the WAC's best in Blaze Nield. The junior out of Lehi, Utah, ranks third in the league in assist-to-turnover ratio (2.23) and fourth in the WAC in terms of assists per game (4.2).
• Backcourt scoring has been handled by the trio of Connor Harding (11.3 ppg), Justin Harmon (11.3 ppg) and Le'Tre Darthard (10.6 ppg) in the absence of Trey Woodbury. Without Woodbury, who has been in the process of rehabbing a knee injury suffered prior to the start of the year, the Wolverines have relied on those three guards to help shoulder the scoring load.
• Darthard (37) and Harding (35) are the team's top two three-point field goal leaders. It's Harding who leads the squad in three-point field goal percentage at a clip of 40.2-percent (35-of-87).
• The UCCU Center has given Utah Valley a strong home court advantage this season. The Wolverines have put up an 8-2 mark inside their home facility which includes a win over then-12th-ranked BYU back on Wednesday, Dec. 1.

THIS DATE IN NM STATE HISTORY
• For the second-straight season and the third time in his tenure at NM State, Chris Jans will be leading the Aggies into a game on Feb. 12. Jans is 1-1 as the Aggies' bench boss on this date following an 83-72 loss at Seattle U last season.
• NM State is 4-1 in WAC games on this date.
• The fourth game in program history was played on Feb. 12, 1908. NM State fell 44-25 at New Mexico with head coach John O. Miller leading the way. 

COMING UP NEXT
• The only other home game the Aggies have on their schedule in the month of February is set for Wednesday night inside the Pan American Center. NM State hosts Dixie State for the first time in program history at 7:00 p.m. that night as the Aggies go for the season sweep of the Trailblazers.