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The Daily Aggie :: 03/15/10

The Aggies' NCAA Tournament seed was announced yesterday during the Selection Show and much to our surprise the Aggies received a... 12-seed. Much better than the 13 or 14 seed we were expecting the committee to hand down. The Aggies will face 5-seed Michigan State in Spokane, WA. Also in that "pod" is fellow WAC mate Utah State who also received a 12-seed and will face 5-seed Texas A&M.

New Mexico State been a 12-seed once before. In 1992 the Aggies were seeded 12th and made a run to the Sweet 16. We'll have more on the NCAA Tournament and the Aggies' first round opponent Michigan State as the week progresses but let's just say, this is a favorable matchup for the Aggies and it's also one of those 12 vs. 5 matchups that have produced so many upsets in recent tournament history.

We also did a little fact finding last night and discovered that this is the first time in the history of the NCAA Tournament that New Mexico State, UTEP and UNM are all in the same tournament field. UTEP also received a 12-seed and will face 5-seed Butler (Horizon) while UNM received a 3-seed and will face 14-seed Montana (Big Sky).

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The Daily Aggie :: 03/14/10

The Aggies are champions again! Marvin Menzies and crew battled through adversity both on and off the court this season to hoist the 2010 WAC Tournament trophy and more importantly, the automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament. Perhaps the biggest statistic for this season is the 11-0 record the team holds in games decided by six points or less this season. Last season the Aggies were 4-5 in those same games. Last season we pointed to the fact that the Aggies' were a young team, in fact the second youngest in the country according to noted statistical guru Ken Pomeroy. In our interview with Coach Menzies this morning, he pointed to experience being the key factor to that 11-0 statistic.

The other key statistic from last night's game in particular was that New Mexico State had just FIVE turnovers in the game which we believe is a season low. We also talked with Coach Menzies a little bit about the team's defense. If you look at what they were able to do to role players on the other teams, players that had hurt them in previous meetings, the Aggies were outstanding. San Jose State's Robert Owens had scored a career-high 29 points in the last meeting against the Aggies. In the quarterfinal game the Aggies held him to just seven points. Against Nevada in the regular season game in Reno, Brandon Fields had a career-high 32 points in the Aggies' 100-92 loss. In the semifinal game against Nevada the Aggies held Fields to ZERO points. Against Utah State in the regular season finale, Tai Wesley scored a season high 24 points, Brian Green, Tyler Newbold and Pooh Williams combined for 23 points. In the championship game last night the Aggies held Wesley to just 13 points (due in large part to a broken nose in the first half) and Green, Newbold and Williams combined for just seven points, all coming from the shooting hand of Brian Green.

Defense was the question mark heading into the conference tournament and the Aggies emphatically answered the question.

The Aggies now await their seeding and opponent as the brackets are unveiled today at 4:00 p.m. MT on CBS.

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The Daily Aggie :: 03/13/10

Jahmar Young. Wow. He struggled all night long getting his shot. He might have cost his team the chance to play in the championship game with his technical foul with 13:00 left to play that saw the Wolf Pack get a five point possession. But instead of being the goat, he goes down in history as the hero. His 15-foot jumper with 3.8 seconds kept the Aggies perfect in games decided by six points or less, the Aggies are 10-0 in those such games. Troy Gillenwater brought his 'A' game last night as well as he picked up the scoring for the Aggies with Jahmar Young and Jonathan Gibson held below their season averages. Gillenwater finished with 21 points and eight rebounds and nailed all three of his three point attempts. Wendell McKines was a beast finishing with 16 points and 10 rebounds, five of them offensive. Every single player that stepped on the court for New Mexico State contributed. They all scored and the Aggies needed every single point.

The Aggie defense which has been much maligned the past week and a half came up big. They turned Nevada over 14 times the Aggie defense held Nevada to just six offensive rebounds and even though Nevada's Luke Babbitt had a career night against the Aggies, the team made sure that the other players on the team didn't get going. Joey Shaw and Armon Johnson each had 13 but the biggest number of the night was 0. That was the total number of points that Brandon Fields had against New Mexico State last night after torching the Aggies for a career-high 32 last week.

Up next it's the final piece of the redemption puzzle for the Aggies as they take on top seed Utah State. The Aggies have avenged one of last week's two losses that cost them the regular season title and they'll look to finish off their run tonight. Utah State breezed by an injury riddled Louisiana Tech in the first semifinal winning 85-55. Utah State will be plenty rested as only one starter played more than 30 minutes for the Aggies in the blowout. None of the other players played more than 25 minutes the entire game.

For the Aggies, fatigue will be a concern. Last night's game was a physical and emotional war. One has to wonder if the Aggies have anything left in the tank for tonight's game. However, Coach Menzies doesn't believe will be an issue. He pointed to all the high-emotion games the Aggies have played this season, at New Mexico, at UTEP, at UCLA, at Utah State just last week. "I don't think it'll affect it at all, the emotional part. We've had a lot of emotional games this year." He added, "We are resilient. These young men will be ready to play tomorrow and give another valiant effort. We didn't get zapped energy wise. They'll be fine, they'll be ready to play."

We only bring it up because it's happened before. In this exact same situation. In the 2008 WAC Tournament the 3-seed Aggies did battle with 2-seed Nevada. The Wolf Pack had swept the Aggies during the regular season but the Aggies won an absolute war in the semifinals. The next night New Mexico State took the floor for the championship game and quickly found themselves down 19-4. Yes, they battled back and the game turned into an epic triple-overtime thriller but the Aggies lost that game and one has to wonder if the previous night's game with Nevada was the cause for the Aggies' sluggish start to the championship game.

We'll find out tonight just how much the Aggies have left in the tank after last night's game. Tonight's game is scheduled for a 8:00 p.m. MT tip-off and will be televised on ESPN2. It's the rubber match between the two teams with the ultimate prize on the line... a trip to the NCAA Tournament.

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The Daily Aggie :: 03/12/10

The Aggie men's basketball team defeated San Jose State last night 80-69. The Aggies held the league's second best three point shooting team to just 5-of-17 (29.4 percent) from beyond the three point arc. They also held the league's leading scorer, Adrian Oliver, in check. Oliver finished with 23 points, right around his season average, however, it was a quiet 23 points. He didn't really hit any run sparking shots and he had to work for most of those points. The Aggies did well on the boards most of the night as well. They outrebounded San Jose State 38-25 and limited SJSU to just eight offensive rebounds.

Jonathan Gibson had a very good night as he led the team with 22 points on 8-of-14 shooting. He also hit 4-of-7 three pointers. Jahmar Young had an outstanding all around game as he finished with 16 points, eight in each half, four rebounds, six assists and a steal.

The Aggies will meet Nevada in the second semifinal tonight at 9:00 p.m. MT. The Wolf Pack dismantled Idaho 87-71 to set up the meeting between the two rivals. The Aggies are hoping that history will repeat itself tonight. During the 2007-2008 season the Aggies were swept by the Wolf Pack during the regular season in eerily similar fashion to this season. Nevada won 87-78 in Las Cruces in a game whose final score was much closer than the actual game was. The Pack then won 98-85 in Reno later in the season (though the Aggies were never really in that game in '07-'08 wheres this year's game in Reno was up for grabs until late).

The two met in the semifinal round under the same circumstances as this season, Nevada as the 2-seed, New Mexico State as the 3-seed. The Aggies prevailed that night and advanced to the championship game (which is where the Aggies hope history stops repeating itself as they fell in the epic triple overtime game to 4-seed Boise State).

Tonight's game will be televised on ESPN2 at 9:00 p.m. MT. Streaming audio is also available via Aggie Access (subscription required). Streaming video will also be available via ESPN360.com.

The Aggie baseball team kicks off a three game series with Georgia State tonight. The Aggies are coming off a midweek split with No. 22 New Mexico. Georgia State comes into Presley Askew off a 2009 season in which they were an NCAA Regional participant. Georgia State is 6-6 on the season and coming off a seven game homestand in which they went 6-1 and averaged a school record 22 runs per game.

There could be plenty of offensive fireworks in this series as two quality teams do battle. Today's game is scheduled for a 6:05 p.m. start time. Streaming video will be available via Aggie Access (subscription required).

The Aggie softball team is in Clearwater, FL for the USF UnderArmour Showcase. Day one has been rained out. The Aggies were scheduled to face Long Island (8-8) and Florida Gulf Coast (6-6) today.

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The Daily Aggie :: 03/11/10

The Aggie men's basketball team kicks off their drive for the WAC Tournament title and the automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament. The Aggies play in the final game of the day at 9:30 p.m. MT. The 3-seed Aggies take on the 6-seed San Jose State. We'll be honest. This game scares us. Not just because the two teams split the regular season. Not just because the WAC Tournament is one-and-done and there is added pressure there. But if you read our Quarterfinal Preview, you'd also know that San Jose State's Adrian Oliver, who was left off the preseason All-WAC team, destroyed the rest of the league this season. Oliver has the propensity to show up in big games. There have been a total of 20 30-plus point performances in the league this season. Oliver owns EIGHT! That's twice as many as Jahmar Young AND Jonathan Gibson combined. Not to mention that the last time these two teams hooked up, Robert Owens scored a career-high 29 points. Do we think the Aggies will win? Yes. We still think the Aggies are the better team, but if Adrian Oliver gets hot, the Aggies will have their hands full.

The Spartans are the second best three point shooting team in conference play at 39.9 percent but the Aggies are right behind them at 38.4 percent. The Aggies have the third best three point shooting defense at 34.4 percent. San Jose State is dead last in the league giving up 39.6 percent from beyond the arc. This will probably be the highest scoring game of the day and the winner could possibly reach triple-digits. It will definitely be a game worth staying up late for.

The game will be streamed on WAC.tv and streaming audio can be heard via Aggie Access (subscription required). The game can also be heard on the radio on the Aggie Sports Network across New Mexico.

The Aggie women's basketball team exited the WAC Tournament after a 75-63 loss to 4-seed Idaho. The Aggies jumped out to a 9-2 lead but were behind by two at halftime. The Aggies led just once in the second half, at 44-43, and just could not get over the hump in the game. Every single time the Aggies hit a big three point shot, it was answered on the other end by Idaho. The key sequence in the game came between the 4:35 mark and the 2:17 mark of the second half. Danisha Corbett hit a three to get the Aggies to within one but Idaho answered with a three by Charlotte Otero to go back up by four. Idaho's Bianca Cheever added another three to put Idaho back up by seven then Jasmine Lowe buried a three to cut the lead back to four. The Aggies called a quick 30 second timeout and out of the timeout, Charlotte Otero drove a dagger through the Aggies' heart with another three. Otero only scored six points in the game but her two three pointers in that two minute span just killed the Aggies.

When a team is in a conference tournament or in any other big game, it's often a role player that unexpectedly comes up big. For Idaho that player was Shaena Kuehu. Kuehu scored a season high 22 points and grabbed 10 rebounds. Kuehu only averages 10.4 points per game in league play but score over twice that many in yesterday's game.

The Aggies are now left to hope that they'll get a postseason invitation from either the WNIT (unlikely) or the new 16-team single elimination Women's Basketball Invitational. According to a post from Coach Spence on his Facebook page, the WBI is interested in the Aggies. The school really needs to support the team and get them into the postseason. The program has only been to the postseason three times in the 35 year history of the program. With the majority of the team returning next season it would be a valuable experience for the team this season and hopefully build some momentum heading into next season.

If you need any proof of what a postseason appearance can do for a team, just look a little bit to the south. UTEP (yes, we hate to use a rival as an example but oh well) finished last season at 19-12 (including a similar first round loss in the conference tournament) but the school backed them and they accepted a bid to the CBI (which is the men's equivalent of the WBI tournament the Aggies are hoping to be in this year). The Miners ended up playing all the way into the championship game and this season they have turned that added experience (think about all the extra practice time the team gets in postseason play) into a 24-5 record, a Top 25 ranking, a regular season conference championship and an almost certain bid into the NCAA tournament.

Similarly, New Mexico's women's basketball team made the postseason WNIT (before there were automatic bids into the WNIT) about 10 years ago, ended up making it all the way to New York for the championship (we can't recall if they won or lost the title) but that provided a springboard for the program and they have been a perennial NCAA Tournament participant ever since.

All it takes is one postseason appearance.

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The Daily Aggie :: 03/10/10

The day has finally arrived! The WAC basketball tournament begins today on the women's side as four quarterfinal matchups will take place. The Aggies play at 3:30 p.m. MT against 4-seed Idaho. The Aggies and Vandals played very competitive games in the regular season with Idaho coming away victorious in both. In both games the Aggies held nine point second half leads only to see them disappear. Hopefully the Aggie players feel as though they "owe" Idaho for the two regular season losses.

The Aggies are averaging 66.8 points per game while Idaho averages 62.2 points per game in the 16 conference games. The Aggies are third in scoring defense allowing 63.1 points per game while the Vandals are sixth allowing 64.7 points per game. Both games between the Aggies and Vandals saw the winner reach the 60s as Idaho won 68-65 in Las Cruces and 60-59 in Moscow. Should the game come down to the wire as the first two did, free throw shooting will as always be important. In the first meeting in Las Cruces it was Idaho who hit free throws down the stretch (but not before missing a couple that had the Aggies gotten the defensive rebound they would have had a chance to tie or win). In the second game it was once again free throws that were a deciding factor. However, this time it was the Aggies' misses that cost them the game. Kaitlyn Soto and Madison Spence each missed the back ends of two shot fouls which could have won them the game and for Madison, her missed free throw would have tied the game and sent it to overtime.

The players to watch today on both sides are of course the usual suspects. For Idaho it's senior point guard Charlotte Otero. Clearly the heart and soul of the team. She averages 38.7 minutes per game and even though she is not the Vandals' leading scorer she is the calming force on the floor for Idaho. The Vandal scoring is led by Rachele Kloke who is averaging 14.8 points and 5.0 rebounds per game on the season but 17.0 points 4.9 rebounds in conference play. She is also the team's second best free throw shooting at 73 percent but has taken and made the most free throws on the team by a wide margin.

The Aggies will of course be relying on Second Team All-WAC honoree Crystal Boyd. Boyd is the fifth leading scorer in the WAC at 16.6 points per game in league contests. The Aggies are also hoping that fellow necomer Jasmine Lowe is at full strength after nursing an ankle injury for a good part of the conference race. Lowe is the ninth leading scorer in WAC play averaging 13.9 points per game. And of course not to be forgotten is Madison Spence who is the Aggies' heart and soul. Like Otero, she may not be the leading scorer on the team but she is the Aggies' calming force on the floor.

The key to today's game for the Aggies will be to take Rachele Kloke out of her comfort zone. Against the Aggies she has posted 14 and 15 points on 4-of-9 shooting and 7-of-15 shooting. In Idaho's loss to Louisiana Tech, Kloke scored just six points on 3-of-20 shooting.

Today figures to be another hotly contested battle between two good teams. The winner has the unenviable task of taking on behemoth Fresno State who went 16-0 in conference play. The Aggies are looking to win a conference tournament game for the fifth time in seven years under head coach Darin Spence who holds a 7-6 record all-time in conference tournaments (Sun Belt and WAC).

Today's game is scheduled to tip off at 3:30 p.m. MT and can be seen on WAC.tv. Streaming audio for today's game will be available via Aggie Access (subscription required) and the game can be heard on KSNM AM 570 in Las Cruces with Kyle Doperalski calling all the action. We will also provide scoring updates on our Twitter page @AgsBleedCrimson. Travis Mason-Bushman of the outstanding Vandal Nation blog will also likely have a Live Blog (check back later on his site).

Congratulations to Jahmar Young who earned USBWA (U.S. Basketball Writers Association) All-District Honors again this season. Last season Young was honored by the National Association of Basketball Coaches.

Finally, the Aggie baseball team knocked off No. 22 New Mexico yesterday 14-10 at Isotopes Park in Albuquerque. The Aggies will go for the series win today at 3:05 p.m. MT. Live Stats will be available for today's game via the New Mexico athletic website.

And if you live in Albuquerque and can get away for the afternoon then head out to Isotopes Park. This message was sent out to alumni just a little while ago from head coach Rocky Ward.

"This is really short notice but the Aggie baseball team is playing UNM today, one or our Aggies , Dan Foley plans to have an RV for tailgating setup at 12pm today. Team will be there but will have to leave by 12:30-12:40 because batting practice is at 1pm. Team pregame ends by 1:45pm, so I (Rocky) might be able to head back out to the tailgate to mingle for a few minutes before the 3pm game time."

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The Daily Aggie :: 03/09/10

The Aggie baseball team will face in-state rival New Mexico today and tomorrow in Albuquerque at Isotopes Park. The Aggies and Lobos split a pair of games last week with UNM winning the first game 9-6 and the Aggies winning the second game 17-8. We talked with head coach Rocky Ward about those two games as well as the four game series against St. Joseph's in this week's interview. The Aggies have had pretty good success in Albuquerque the past few seasons winning there in 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008 and 2009. Last year was the only time the Aggies and Lobos did not play two games in Las Cruces and two in Albuquerque. The Aggies are 9-6 on the young season while New Mexico is 8-4 and coming off a 2-1 series victory over Southern Cal.

Both games against UNM this week are scheduled for a 3:05 p.m. first pitch. They can be heard on the radio (tape delayed) on KSNM AM 570 in Las Cruces at 6:00 p.m. but live streaming audio will be available via Aggie Access (subscription required). Live stats for today's game will also be available via the New Mexico athletic website.

Be sure to check out our interviews with Aggie men's head basketball coach Marvin Menzies and Aggie women's head coach Darin Spence as the two coaches and teams head to Reno for the WAC tournament.

The women open up play tomorrow afternoon at 3:30 p.m. MT while the men will wrap up the first day's action on Thursday at 9:30 p.m. MT.

Both coaches are obviously very optimistic about their chances to win the tournament. Both of the top seeds in league play are on a roll, Utah State on the men's side has won 15 straight games and 14 straight conference games. On the women's side, Fresno State has won 17 straight games and went undefeated in WAC play winning all 16 games.

Both the Aggie men and the Aggie women face a dangerous first round opponent. For the men it's San Jose State, a team that defeated them in San Jose and a team that if they get hot behind the scoring of First Team All-WAC selection Adrian Oliver and Robert Owens, they have the talent to win the tournament. Likewise for Idaho, they have gotten hot at the right time. The Vandals struggled to open the season and lost their first two conference games but have won six of their final nine games and vaulted to a tie for 4th place over the final three weeks of the season.

For both teams to win the WAC title, they will have definitely had to take the toughest road. The Aggie men will have to defeat San Jose State, likely setting up a semifinal rematch with Nevada, a team that swept them this season and then if they can win that game they would face Utah State, a team that just beat them by 18 points.

The women have an equally daunting task. They must defeat Idaho, a team that swept them this season, then setting up a semifinal game with Fresno State who as we mentioned earlier is undefeated in league play this season. If they can get past that semifinal game it would set up a game against one of the teams from the other half of the bracket which includes Boise State, Nevada and Louisiana Tech.

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The Daily Aggie :: 03/08/10

The Aggie baseball team fell 35-16 on Sunday to St. Joseph's in a game that saw the Aggies hit five home runs. The Aggies used nine different pitchers, none of them pitching more than two innings. The 51 combined runs were just three shy of the all-time record of 54 which was set by the Aggies and Nevada in a 38-16 loss by the Aggies all the way back in 1999. There were a whopping 126 runs scored by both teams in this series and the first and final games saw the winner score 30-plus runs.

The Aggies return to action tomorrow when they face New Mexico in Albuquerque in a two-game series with game two taking place Wednesday.

The Aggie men's and women's basketball team brought home a few accolades yesterday afternoon as the All-WAC teams were announced. The Aggie men's basketball team saw Jahmar Young earn First Team honors, Jonathan Gibson earn Second Team honors and Wendell McKines earn Honorable Mention. On the women's side Crystal Boyd earned Second Team honors and Camila Rosen earned All-Freshman honors.

The Aggie women will take the court on Wednesday afternoon against Idaho as they hope to win their first WAC title. The Aggies are much better than their 8-8 conference record indicates as they were probably about 30 seconds or less of game time from being 10-6 in conference play as they suffered last second losses on the road against Idaho and twice against Nevada and another three minutes of game time from being 12-4 in conference as they held late game leads over those same two teams at home before losing.

The men's team will play in the final game on Thursday against San Jose State. The Spartans lost eight of their final 10 games but are still a very dangerous team and also much better than their 6-10 record indicates. The main concern for the men heading into the tournament this week is defense. The Aggies' interior defense was exposed twice this past week as Nevada had their way scoring at will inside in a game that was reminiscent of last season's home finale against Boise State (from a defensive perspective). Then on Saturday Utah State similarly was able to score inside just about whenever they wanted in the first half and then when the UtAgs got hot in the second half from outside, combined with NM State's struggles offensively, it was game over.

Fatigue is also a bit of a concern as the winner of the tournament has to win three games in four days and in the second half of the last three games the Aggies have given up 54, 59 and 47 points (H/T to Jason Groves of the Las Cruces Sun-News for that stat). Since that outstanding defensive performance against Idaho at home in which they held the Vandals to just 30 percent shooting, the Aggies have given up 92, 100 and 81 points and in each of those three games a player from the opposing team either had a career-high (Robert Arnold's 35 points and Brandon Fields' 32 points) or season high (Tai Wesley's 24 points) scoring night. The Aggies will need to shore up that defense if they want to win the title this week.

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The Daily Aggie :: 03/07/10

The Aggie men's basketball team got whacked in Logan last night losing 81-63. The Aggies were only down by four points at halftime but a lengthy second half drought did in the crimson-clad Aggies. New Mexico State was down by just six with 10:19 left to go after Troy Gillenwater hit a free throw to complete a three point play but then the Aggies' offense deserted them. The Aggies would not score a field goal until the 3:23 mark when Wendell McKines got a layup. In that stretch the Aggies scored just six points in nearly seven minutes, all from the free throw line while Utah State had scored 26 points via a barrage of three pointers, alley-oops, layups, jumpers and free throws.

It was a disappointing end to a disappointing road trip in which the Aggies failed to capitalize on a chance to win the regular season title. The Aggies also went from being a possible bubble/at-large to being squarely on the outside looking in and needing to win the WAC tournament to get a bid to the Big Dance.

Fortunately for Aggie fans and fans of the other six teams not named Utah State, recent history says that Utah State will not win the WAC tournament this year. In the past seven WAC tournaments have been won by different teams, there are repeat winners in that bunch but no back-to-back winners. The last team to repeat at conference tournament champions was Hawai'i who pulled off the feat winning the 2001 and 2002 titles. The 2000-2001 Warriors were also the last team outside the top four to win the WAC title as history says that you have to be inside the top four to win the conference tournament (we have the numbers to back it, we just can't seem to find the post we did last year with the data).

The one major concern heading into next week's tournament is fatigue. Jack Nixon alluded to it last night in his postgame interview with Coach Menzies. Coach Menzies acknowledged that he saw some fatigue in his players. The WAC tournament comes down to who can survive and win three games in four days. The Aggies play a high energy level of basketball both on offense and defense with the constant full court press. There is no doubt that the Aggies are one of the most physically talented teams in the league but defensively they have not been very good the past two games and that could be due in large part to fatigue. The Aggies don't play until the final game on Thursday in the quarterfinals, something that will hopefully aid in the fatigue level of the team.

The Aggie women's basketball team won their home finale last night defeating San Jose State 62-35. The Aggies will be the 5-seed in the WAC tournament and will face 4-seed Idaho. The Aggies have to be licking their chops at this matchup as they let the Vandals steal both games after they gave up nine-point second half leads in both games. The Aggies will play in the afternoon game of the quarterfinals with the game time scheduled for a 3:30 p.m. MT tip-off.

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The Daily Aggie :: 03/06/10

The Aggie baseball team absolutely crushed St. Joe's in the Friday night opener beating the Hawks 33-1 (yes, you read that correctly). You may be asking yourself, how exactly does a team score 33 runs in a ballgame? Here's how: The Aggies scored six in the first, five in the second, nine in the third, two in the fourth, three in the sixth, one in the seventh and eight in the eighth. Their 33 runs came on 24 hits. St. Joe's scored one run in the top of the second on a solo home run. The Aggies' 33 runs were just four shy of the school record 37 put up by the 2006 team against Northern Iowa. The 32-run differential was the largest margin of victory in the Ward era (Rocky or Gary).

What gets looked past in a blowout like this is the job the Aggie pitching staff and defense did. You don't often hold teams to just one run at Presley Askew Field but that's exactly what the Aggies did. Three pitchers scattered 12 hits, Dan Reid went 5.0 innings allowing six hits and just the one run. Reid is quickly becoming this year's D.J. Simon.

Just as impressive however, was the Aggie defense. They turned five double plays in the game which breaks the old school record of four which had been done on several occasions, the last occurring in the 2006 season (it may have happened last season as well). The Aggies also did not commit a single error in the game, nor were there any plays by the Aggies that could have been called either an error or a hit. The Aggies played a pretty flawless game defensively.

The play that probably made Coach Ward the happiest all game came on defense in the seventh inning with the game already long since decided, the Hawks had a runner on first who according to play-by-play man Jeff Matthews decided to get a little "cute" and strayed too far off the bag. Aggie pitcher Corey Hill stepped off the bag, wheeled around and gunned the ball to the second baseman Mike Sodders who was able to get the St. Joe's runner in a rundown. Why was that play so significant? It showed that the Aggies were still mentally in the game even though they were up 25-1. It's that kind of mental focus that will win the Aggies a championship this season.

The Aggies and Hawks resume their series today with a doubleheader. The first game is scheduled for a 3:05 p.m. start.

The Aggie men's basketball team is in Logan tonight as they wrap up the regular season. Unfortunately this game does not have the significance that both Aggie fanbases had hoped. With New Mexico State's loss to Nevada on Thursday night, Utah State wrapped up the regular season title for the third consecutive season, including the second consecutive outright title and second consecutive 14-2 conference record.

New Mexico State still has much to play for despite not having a shot at the regular season title and the number one seed. The Aggies must win tonight to secure the 2-seed in the conference tournament. The Aggies could fall to the 3-seed if they lose to Utah State and Nevada defeats Louisiana Tech (which is a very likely outcome in Reno). As we mentioned yesterday, the Aggies can wrap up the 2-seed with a victory or a loss by Nevada.

We were a little off in our seeding predictions yesterday, San Jose State has locked up the 6-seed in the WAC tournament. Idaho is definitely in the tournament, however, their seeding is still undetermined as they could finish as the 7-seed or 8-seed. Boise State and Hawai'i are the two teams who could miss the WAC tournament. Boise State hosts San Jose State and Hawai'i faces Idaho in Moscow. Boise State just has to win and they're in, their seeding will be determined by what other teams do. The Las Cruces Bulletin's blog has a rundown from the WAC Media relations department on seeding scenarios.

The Aggies also have a chance to do something they haven't done since the 2005-2006 season and that is sweep Utah State. The Aggies are one of just a short list of teams to have beaten Stew Morrill in Logan and a win tonight would be huge for the Aggies heading into the conference tournament. The Aggies certainly don't want to enter postseason play on a two-game losing streak.

Tonight's tip off is set for 7:00 p.m and the game will be televised on AggieVision with streaming video also available via ESPN360.com. Streaming audio will be available via Aggie Access (subscription required). The game can also be heard on the Aggie Sports Network across the state of New Mexico.

The Aggie women will play their final regular season game tonight as they host San Jose State for Senior Night. The Aggies also have much to play for in the way of seedings. They are in a three-way tie for fourth with the two Idaho schools but can finish with the 4-seed if they win tonight and Nevada defeats Idaho. If the Aggies somehow lose tonight, they would potentially drop to the 6-seed if Boise State (vs. La. Tech) and Idaho (vs. Nevada) both win. It's an unlikely scenario but one that must be mentioned.

The Aggies will honor three seniors tonight, two players, Crystal Boyd and Ashley Scroggins, and the Aggies' four-year student manager, Sierra Spence.

The Spartans are already eliminated from postseason play and one has to wonder if this might be SJSU head coach Pam DeCosta's final game at the helm of the Spartans. DeCosta is in her third season and currently has an 11-78 record overall and just a 4-43 record in conference.

In any event, the Aggies should win this game tonight. They're playing a lesser team, at home, on Senior Night with a chance to finish in the top half of the league and knowing that they gave away four conference games (both Idaho games and both Nevada games) and could have finished second in a season that they were picked to finish fifth and sixth by the coaches and media respectively (and for the record, we picked them to finish second).

Tonight's game is scheduled for a 7:00 p.m. tipoff. Streaming audio and video will be available for tonight's game via Aggie Access (subscription required). The game can also be heard on KSNM AM 570 with Kyle Doperalski calling the action.

The Aggie softball team is back in action today in Las Vegas after splitting two games yesterday at the Eller Media Stadium Classic. The Aggies run-ruled Southern Utah 11-3 and then fell 6-0 to No. 13/15 Cal. The Aggies will face UNLV and Weber State today. The games are scheduled for a 4:45 and 7:00 p.m. MT first pitch. Live Stats will be available for both games and can be accessed at the Eller Media Stadium Classic page on the UNLV athletic website.

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