It's lunchtime here at bleedCrimson.net and that means... well it means lunch. The big news of the day is Aggie defensive coordinator Woody Widenhoffer announcing his retirement at the end of this season. We wish Coach Widenhofer the best and hope he enjoys retirement. It's a big loss for the Aggie football team, it's hard to replace a coach who's got four Super Bowl rings as a defensive coach.

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It has been well documented over the past three posts here but in case you missed it, the Aggie volleyball team is headed to Austin, TX for the first round of the NCAA women's volleyball tournament. Their opponent is LSU. Unfortunately we don't know much about LSU except that they were the SEC West Division champions and the SEC is a pretty tough league in just about every sport so we'd imagine they're a darn good volleyball team. They're making their third consecutive tournament appearance and are 5-4 this season against tournament-bound opponents. The Aggies and Tigers have met four times and are 2-2 against each other but have not met since 1996. The Aggies will face LSU at 3:00 p.m. on Friday.

This week is rivalry week for the women's basketball team and half of rivalry week for the men's basketball team. The ladies take on UTEP on Wednesday and UNM on Sunday and the men take on UTEP tomorrow.

FIrst let's talk about the men's team. This is a crucial week for the Aggies. They're currently sitting at 2-4 overall. They've played three tough teams, two of whom were ranked (#13/10 Duke and #15/16 Texas) and obviously are MUCH better than everyone thought. Tomorrow's game against UTEP is in El Paso and will be Coach Menzies' first taste of the rivarly games at NMSU. Just like Reggie he's been a part of some big rivalry games and from an emotional standpoint, we're not worried. He'll have the kids prepared.

From a basketball standpoint, we don't know what to expect from this game. Coming into the season we'd have told you hands down that the Aggies would blow UTEP out of the water. However, UTEP has been pretty solid this season thus far. They beat Texas A&M Corpus Christi, an NCAA tournament team from last year. They also hung tough with #15 Texas A&M in their game in the Preseason NIT, leading by 8 at halftime and they didn't go away, losing 81-76. Texas A&M is a very good team, they beat a good Washington team and absolutely obliterated a very good Ohio State team. So tomorrow's game is a toss-up, especially if Justin Hawkins sits out with that strained (not sprained) knee.

After tomorrow's game, they've got the Lou Henson Classic this weekend with games against Chicago State and North Texas. The Aggies should handle Chicago State but are in for a game against North Texas. North Texas went to the NCAA tournament last season and hung tough with Memphis in the first round before succumbing to Memphis' superior athleticism. So far they're 3-1 with an early signature win over Oklahoma State.

The Aggies will be very fortunate if they can get out of this week 3-0 but going 1-2 is not totally out of the question. The Aggies have shown improvement (except on the turnover side of things) with each game and we think they're finally settling into the Marvin Menzies offense. If they can cut down on the turnovers, they'll do just fine. Tomorrow's game will be another big test though because The Don will be a very hostile environment.

Now, for the ladies, as we mentioned they'll take on UTEP on Wednesday night and UNM on Sunday. These are two measuring stick games for the Aggies. It's nice to be 4-0 but the Aggies can really catapult their season if they can beat UTEP and UNM in the next seven days. The Aggies continue to play great defense and we look for them to really put a lot of pressure on both UNM and UTEP and we think they can win both games. The Aggies have learned how to win games and also how to close out games. They've done a very good job of that in each of their four wins this season. Don't be surprised if the Aggies finish the week 2-0.

Last but certainly not least, the Aggie football team closes out their season on Friday night against Fresno State. Friday is also Senior Night and in addition the game will be broadcast on ESPN. Show up to the game and support the seniors as they play in their final game.

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The men's basketball team suffered another tough loss on the road at the Legends Classic on Saturday afternoon. The Aggies took on West Virginia in the consolation game. The Aggies and Mountaineers traded the lead back and forth throughout the first half with NMSU trailing 33-30 at halftime. The Aggies actually took a four point lead early in the 2nd half at 41-37 but WVU went on a 21-4 run which pretty much took the air out of the ball for the Aggies.

What we didn't like: Turnovers, turnovers, turnovers. The Aggies had 19 of them for the second straight night. The stat we couldn't find last night, tells the story of the game. Against Texas, the Aggies turned the ball over 19 times and UT scored 46 points off the turnovers. The Aggies had somewhere around 11 turnovers in the first half, West Virginia had NONE.

What we liked: More inside game. Martin Iti and Hatila Passos were more involved in this game than they have been in the previous few games, especially last night's game. In the first half, Martin Iti only had one official block but altered several WVU shots. Iti also had 13 points and grabbed 7 rebounds. Hatila Passos had 9 rebounds and 10 points. Wendell McKines also grabbed 9 rebounds. There are going to be nights when the threes don't fall for the Aggies and they're going to have to pound the ball inside, especially against smaller lineups. It's going to be essential for the Aggies to utilize their size advantage.

If you didn't catch the championship game of the Legends Classic, let us just tell you that #15/16 Texas blitzed #7 Tennessee. Maybe our 15 point loss Texas isn't as bad as it seemed. Last night the Aggies got down by 21 in the first half and closed to within 11 at halftime and were down 25 in the second half and closed to within 7. Tennessee was down by 9 at halftime and was down by as many as 25 in the second half and was never closer than their halftime deficit and trailed by as many as 21 with Texas' lead somewhere between 15 and 20 points for most of the second half and ended up losing by 19. The Aggies lost by fewer points to Texas than did the 7th ranked team in the country. That's at least a minor victory in an otherwise disappointing weekend.

The Aggie women's basketball team is now 4-0 on the season after beating Texas State in the Thanksgiving Classic. Texas State was 3-1 coming into the game and their average margin of victory was 20+ points. The Aggies once again did a very good job defensively enabling them to pick up the win. This week however, their competition level will rise a little more as they take on UTEP at home on Wednesday night, the game can be seen on AggieVision. Then on Sunday the Aggies take on our hated rivals the Lobos in the Pan American Center at 3:00 in the afternoon. That game can also be seen on AggieVision. Those two games will give the Aggies a pretty good idea of their progress. This week marks the beginning of a very tough four game stretch of basketball for the Aggies. They'll face UTEP twice, UNM and BYU. All three of three of those teams are very good basketball teams but from what we've seen out of the Aggies thus far, we think they have the potential to beat all three and come out of that four game stretch with at least a 3-1 record.

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For some strange reason we thought the NMSU/West Virginia game was going to be on Versus, however, it's not. Here are the list of radio stations with live streaming audio that will be carrying the game for West Virginia. The game starts at 2:30 p.m. MST.

Charleston, WKWS-FM
Cumberland, Md., WDYK-FM
Martinsburg, WEPM-AM
Morgantown, WKKW-FM

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The venue on Friday night was different for the Aggie/Longhorn rematch but the end result was the same. The Longhorns raced out to a 30-11 lead behind A.J. Abrams and his hot shooting and while the Aggies were able to mount three separate comebacks, they were never able to get closer than seven points and Texas finished with 102 points and a 15 point win.

What we didn't like: Zone defense. The Aggies once again came out in zone defense against a good shooting team and once again the Aggies were shot right out of the zone. Texas hit eight three pointers in the first eight and half minutes of the game before the Aggies pulled out of the zone defense, unfortunately for the Aggies, the damage had been done and by the time they had gone man-to-man, the Aggies were facing a 30-11 deficit. The Horns would finish 16 for 26 from behind the three point arc for the game including A.J. Abrams' 9 for 12 performance shooting threes. Turnovers. The Aggies committed 14 turnovers in the first half, many of those by guards. Texas capitalized on nearly every turnover, turning it into either a fast break basket or one of their eleven first half three pointers. The Aggies committed only five turnovers in the second half.

What we liked: Jonathan Gibson. Jonathan had an outstanding game, leading the Aggies in scoring with 21 points on 8-14 shooting from the floor, including 5-9 from three point range. The improvement we've seen from the first game against Ohio two weeks ago to this game last night from Jonathan is tremendous. His shot selection has been outstanding compared to what it was in the first game and the majority of last season. As a point guard, we'd like to see him find his teammates a little more often though (he finished with only one assist). Free Throws. This is both a good and bad situation. The Aggies only shot 17 free throws on the evening, but they converted 14 for an 82% free throw percentage. The Aggies last season averaged nearly 29 free throw attempts per game, this season they are well below that average, attempting only 20 free throws per game.

Tonight the Aggies will take on Bob Huggins and the West Virginia Mountaineers. We'll admit that we don't know much about the Mountaineers but if they're like most Bob Huggins teams (Cincinnati and Kansas State) they'll be tough on the inside and pretty good from behind the three point arc.

Also happening last night, the Aggie women's basketball team continued their good start to the season, defeating Northern Colorado, 69-67. The Aggies led by 10 points at the half, 32-22, and built a 12 point lead in the second half. Northern Colorado took the lead late but clutch free throw shooting, something that was an issue last season, helped the Aggies seal the victory. Senior leaders Sherrell Neal and Anikia Jawara continue to lead the Aggies as Sherrell had 16 points and Anikia had 12 points. Freshman standout point guard Madison Spence chipped in with 15 points. The Aggies will take on Texas State who took SE Missouri State behind the woodshed, 80-47. It was Texas State's second consecutive blowout win as they defeated Concordia 84-55 on Tuesday.

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If you're reading this it probably means your wives and girlfriends are out shopping, hopefully you got to stay home and watch some football and basketball today as we are doing.

After tonight's battle between the Aggies and Longhorns, be sure to check out fellow WAC members Hawai'i and Boise State as they battle for WAC supremacy and a possible BCS bowl bid. The game is on ESPN2 at 7:00 p.m. MST.

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Today both Aggie basketball teams hit the hardwood after a Thanksgiving break. The men's basketball team has a rematch of sorts with 15th ranked Texas in the semifinal round of the Legends Classic. It's been only eight months since the Aggies and Longhorns met in the first round of the NCAA Tournament in Spokane, WA. The Aggies gave the Horns all they could handle but in the end it was too much Kevin Durant.

Much has changed since that meeting back in March, Kevin Durant and Reggie Theus are now both in the NBA. Durant with Seattle and Theus in Sacramento. There are still major players from that March game involved for both teams. The key tonight for the Aggies, just as it was last March, will be to stop D.J. Augustine and A.J. Abrams. Texas struggled with UT-San Antonio in their season opener before pulling away late but in their past two games they have dominated, including a 31 point win over UC-Davis two days after the Aggies squeezed out a 10 point win over UC-Davis. On Sunday the Horns beat Arkansas-Monticello by 48 points while the Aggies defeated LeMoyne-Owen by 36. The game tips off at 5:00 p.m. and the game will be seen on Versus.

While the guys are in Newark, N.J., the girls basketball team will be busy taking on Northern Colorado in the first annual Thanksgiving Classic. Northern Colorado is coming off a historic win for their program as they defeated in-state rival Colorado State for the first time since the 1978-1979 season. In assessing the matchup with Northern Colorado, Coach Spence said in our weekly interview with him that the Bears are similar to UC-Irvine and Kent State. He also mentioned that a few of the kids on the Northern Colorado team were recruited by NMSU but passed over by Spence and Co. We're not sure how that'll factor in to tonight's matchup but sometimes that can provide extra motivation to players when they go up against a team that passed them over.

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Happy Thanksgiving everyone. We hope you have a safe and enjoyable holiday with your family and friends or whomever you're spending the day with.

Be sure to check out this week's interview with women's basketball head coach Darin Spence.

In honor of this being Thanksgiving, we'd like to share what we here at The Daily Aggie are thankful for.

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Last night the Aggie women's basketball team opened their home slate with a convincing 72-55 victory over Kent State. The Aggies, who hadn't played for eleven days, came out a little sluggish to start. They were strong on nearly all their shots starting out but settled down and finshed with 72 points. One thing that definitely wasn't affected by the long layoff was their stifling defense. The Aggies forced the Golden Flashes into numerous bad shots, forced KSU to fight for every shot attempt and made KSU run down the shot clock on several occasions.

The Aggies led by 18 at halftime, which, we went back and checked, was the largest halftime lead that we could find the team having in the past four or five seasons. It was not the largest margin in a half, the Aggies outscored Nevada last year by 23 points in the second half of the final home game of the season. NMSU stretched the lead to as many as 23 points last night before finally winning by 17.

The ladies return to action on Friday versus Northern Colorado at 6:30 p.m. in the inaugural Thanksgiving Classic. The Aggies will then take on Texas State on Saturday at 6:30 p.m.

If you didn't check out the post from our friends at Parsing The WAC, be sure to do so. The struggles of Utah State and NMSU are not the only problems, the WAC as a whole is not doing particularly well out of conference. The WAC is 0-5 versus the BCS conferences, 2-4 vs. the other eight mid-major conferences (A-10, CAA, C-USA, Horizon, MVC, MWC and WCC). The Aggies will get four shots at C-USA and the Mountain West over the course of the next few weeks with the two annual home-and-home games with UNM and UTEP. The disturbing fact is that the WAC is merely 9-7 versus the low-majors (everyone not from the aforementioned BCS and mid-major leagues). If the WAC hopes to get two bids this season, the entire conference will need to pick up the slack.

Don't forget to check out Jordan Bostic's latest entry in her Aggie Volleyball Diary.

Also check out this week's interview with Coach Mumme.

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As you can tell it's picture day here at bleedCrimson.net. We finally got around to posting all of our pictures from this weekend's action. Check out all the football, volleyball and men's basketball pictures.

Tonight the women's basketball team returns to action after a 10 day break. The Aggies will take on the Kent State Golden Flashes at 7:00 p.m. in the Pan American Center. The Golden Flashes and the Aggies are somewhat of an opposite of each other personnel wise. In their first two games of the season, Kent State has played nine players, six of them were making their first two Division I starts. As for the Aggies, this is an experience-laden team with Sherrell Neal, Anikia Jawara, Monique Bribiescas, Tyshae Walton and Irma Kmataite-Smith having all contributed to the Aggies over the past few seasons. For the Aggies, it will be their home opener of the 2007-2008 season. Last year the Aggies finished 9-9 at home and Coach Spence mentioned that the girls never really felt comfortable playing at home. The Aggies say that's no longer the case this season and we'll find out tonight.

Kent State opened the season with a close loss at home to St. Bonaventure but then went on the road to Robert Morris College and were blown out 90-65. One bright spot for the Golden Flashes in that game was junior forward Anna Kowalska’s 27 points and 16 rebounds.

The game can be heard online via the WHLO website (Kent State radio affilate).

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