Friday, April 26, 2024
Fair, 51°Wind: 6.9 mph, W
Welcome to our new web site!
To give our readers a chance to experience all that our new website has to offer, we have made all content freely avaiable, through October 1, 2018.
During this time, print and digital subscribers will not need to log in to view our stories or e-editions.
THE OPENING TIP
• A high-stakes showdown on the final night of the regular season is what's in store for the NM State men's basketball team as it plays host to Utah Valley inside the Pan American Center. Tip-off is scheduled for 7:00 p.m. MT.
• The 19th all-time matchup between the Aggies and Wolverines is set to be streamed nationwide on ESPN+ and the ESPN app. Adam Young and Joe Garza will handle play-by-play and analysis responsibilities on those platforms as well as on Comcast New Mexico, The CW El Paso/Las Cruces and Bally Sports Arizona.
• 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 night's showdown.
THE CALL TO THE HALL
• Saturday night's game serves as the annual US Bank/NM State Athletics Hall of Fame game. Friday night, NM State inducted three new members into its Hall of Fame including William Benjamin (men's basketball, 1988-92) the late Bob Kelly (football and men's basketball, 1957-60) and Maria Roth (volleyball, 1991-95). That trio will be recognized during a halftime ceremony of Saturday night's game.
SENIORS, 'SHIPS AND SEEDING
FAST BREAK POINTS
• NM State sits in a three-way tie with Seattle U and SFA for the top spot in the WAC standings. A win on Saturday for NM State would clinch at least a share of the 2021-22 regular-season WAC title for the Aggies as well as the top seed for the 2022 WAC Tournament.
• NM State head coach Chris Jans is 7-1 in regular season games during the month of March as the Aggies' bench boss. Against WAC teams in March, Jans is the owner of a 15-2 (.883) record and overall he's 15-4 (.789) in the month as NM State's head coach.
• NM State's 23 wins are the 26th-most among all NCAA Division I men's basketball teams this season as well as the most by any WAC team.
• Since the start of the 2009-10 campaign, NM State owns an 87-5 (.946) record in WAC home games. Those five losses came by a combined 36 points (an average of 7.2 per game).
• NM State head coach Chris Jans is 62-12 (.827) in regular-season WAC games as the Aggies' head coach. Included in that record is a near-perfect 30-1 (.968) showing against WAC squads inside NM State's home venue of the Pan American Center.
• NM State's .827 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 (76-3, .962) is higher.
• 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 118 to his credit.
• The second half has been a strength of the Aggies all season long. NM State has outscored its foes 1156-966 (+190) in the second half - good for an average of 6.8 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.
• High-scoring guard Teddy Allen currently leads the WAC and ranks 27th nationally in scoring at a clip of 19.6 points per game. Allen has put in 30 or more points four times this season which are the most 30+ point games by an Aggie in Chris Jans' tenure as head coach. Those four 30+ point games are the most by an Aggie in a single season since Troy Gillenwater went for 30 or more four times in the Aggies' 2010-11 campaign.
• Currently the Aggies have four players on their roster - Teddy Allen, Johnny McCants, Jabari Rice and Donnie Tillman - who have amassed 1,000 or more points in their respective NCAA Division I careers. Just three other programs - UAB (six), Notre Dame (five) and Florida (five) have more players on their 2021-22 rosters with 1,000 or more career points. NM State is one of 14 programs around the nation who have four 1,000-point scores on its roster.
• In addition to in the program's 1,000-point club, McCants has also jumped into the program's top-ten career rebounders. As of this writing, McCants has 731 to his credit which is the ninth-most by any Aggie player in the history of the program.
• Of the Aggies' four 1,000-point scorers, two of them - Johnny McCants and Jabari Rice - have piled up all of their points at NM State. McCants' 1,029 career points are the 34th-most on the Aggies' all-time scoring charts while Rice's 1,054 points put him 29th on that list.
• Chris Jans is 25-5 (.833) in games directly after a loss as the Aggies' head coach.
LAST TIME OUT | SFA 73, at NM State 71 | Wednesday, March 2, 2022
• A career night from senior forward Johnny McCants was, unfortunately, not enough to propel the NM State men's basketball team to a share of the WAC regular-season crown and the top seed for the 2022 WAC Tournament as the Aggies dropped a 73-71 heartbreaker to SFA Wednesday night.
• McCants turned in a 20-point, 10-rebound double-double, establishing a career-best in scoring with the first 20+ point outing of his career. A force on the defensive end, too, the Las Cruces, N.M., product racked up a career-high six blocked shots in the setback.
• Those six rejections were the most by an Aggie in a single game since Trevelin Queen totaled six in a 59-53 home WAC win over Seattle U on Feb. 16, 2019.
• Teddy Allen and Will McNair Jr., pumped in 11 points apiece for the Aggies who saw their streak of 32 consecutive WAC victories inside the Pan American Center come to an end.
• Virshon Cotton made sure the Aggies had a chance to win right up until the final buzzer sounded. The guard out of Milwaukee, Wis., went a perfect 4-of-4 from three-point range with three of those makes coming in the game's final 30 seconds.
• In the end, it was 18 total turnovers as well as a 14-of-25 (56-percent) shooting clip from the foul line which doomed the Aggies. NM State held a double-digit lead with a shade over 13 minutes to go, but the 'Jacks battled all the way back to even the all-time series at one game apiece.
• NM State was held without a field goal make from 5:31 remaining in the second half until 30 seconds remained in the game. The Aggies committed three turnovers and went 0-for-2 from the field in that span.
• The 46 points scored by SFA in the second half were the most NM State has given up to a WAC team in the final 20 minutes of a game in two years. Utah Valley netted 48 second-half points in an 84-82 NM State home win back on Feb. 15, 2020.
LAST TIME OUT vs. UTAH VALLEY | NM State 68, at Utah Valley 72 | Saturday, Feb. 12, 2022
• A poor shooting performance through the opening 20 minutes of action proved costly for the NM State men's basketball team as the Aggies dropped a 72-68 decision at WAC foe Utah Valley Saturday afternoon inside the UCCU Center.
• The Aggies put in just 25-percent (7-of-28) of their field goal tries through the first half and fell behind by as many as 14 points on two occasions in the second half.
• Though they shot an impressive 60.6-percent (20-of-33) from the field in the second half, NM State never could capture the lead.
• Twice in the final 10 seconds, NM State cut the Wolverines' lead down to two points. Free throw shooting, though, wound up hurting NM State's chances down the stretch as the Aggies converted only 50-percent (10-of-20) of their tries from the stripe on the afternoon.
• Just a few days after turning in his second double-double of the year, Jabari Rice became the 35th NM State player to enter the program's 1,000-point club by finishing with 10 points on a 4-of-9 clip from the field. Rice's point total of 1,004 at the time wass tied for Billy Keys for the 35th-most in the history of the program.
• Rice is one of three current NM State players who have amassed 1,000 or more points in their respective careers. Teddy Allen and Donnie Tillman have both exceeded the 1,000-point mark, too, but neither has done so exclusively at NM State.
• For Allen, he became the first NM State player in the 21st century to rack up 20 or more points in six consecutive games. The Phoenix, Ariz., product finished with a game-high 24 points to go along with a team-high 11 rebounds to complete his team-best fifth double-double.
SCOUTING UTAH VALLEY | ROSTER | SCHEDULE | STATISTICS
• With its sights set on improving its seeding for the 2022 WAC Tournament and earning the first season sweep of NM State in the history of the program, Utah Valley rolls into Las Cruces hoping to hand the Aggies their third-straight WAC loss for the first time since 2010-11.
• One of the nation's best frontcourt players, Canadian sophomore forward Fardaws Aimaq, leads the Wolverines into the Pan American Center as he takes aim at a WAC Player of the Year award.
• The well-documented rebounding prowess of "The Big Maple" has allowed Aimaq to lead the nation in double-doubles (26), and defensive rebounds per game (10.93). Aimaq sits second among all NCAA Division I men's basketball players in terms of total rebounds (409) and rebounding average (14.1 per game).
• No slouch on offense, Aimaq is second only to the Aggies' Teddy Allen in the WAC when it comes to scoring. Aimaq's scoring average of 19.2 points per game ranks 37th in the country.
• With Aimaq on their site, it's no surprise the Wolverines rank among the upper tier of programs in the land in many of the major rebounding categories including rebounds per game (sixth, 41.03), rebounding margin (fifth, +8.6) and defensive rebounds per game (fourth, 29.79).
• In the backcourt, things are run by Blaze Nield who ranks fifth in the WAC in terms of assists (3.8 per game).
• Justin Harmon (12.2 points per game) and Connor Harding (10.7 points per game) round out the Wolverines' top three scoing threats.
• Defensively, three of the WAC's top-ten shot blockers play for the Wolverines. Aimaq (1.34 per game), Tim Fuller (1.11 per game) and Tim Ceasar (0.82 per game) rank second, third and 10th in the league respectively.
COMING UP NEXT
• With much to be determined on the final day of the WAC's regular season, the Aggies are still unsure of where they'll be seeded for the 2022 WAC Tournament at Orleans Arena in Las Vegas, Nev. Once Saturday's slate of games ends, NM State will know exactly what seed they will be as it starts its quest for a berth in the NCAA Tournament for the first time since 2019.
