The Aggie women's basketball team will try to bounce back from their loss on Tuesday night as they take on San Jose State tonight in the Pan Am. The Aggies had a battle with the Spartans in San Jose, similar to the one they had against Hawai'i on Tuesday night. It was a low scoring affair that the Aggies won 52-46. It was also a game in which SJSU's Sara Plavljanin scored over half of her team's points finishing with 28 on 9-of-16 shooting from the field, 5-of-6 from three point distance and 5-of-6 from the free throw stripe. The Aggies forced 25 turnovers in that game and scored 21 points off of those turnovers.

The Spartans have been held under 40 points seven times this season, including, three times in conference play. This is a game that the Aggies must win, it's a game they should win. Unfortunately, Tuesday night was a game that they should have won as well.

Obviously the second time around the Aggies will be more aware of Sara Plavijanin and it's unlikely that she will hit the Aggies for 28 again. The keys to tonight's game are the same as the keys to Tuesday night's game: Energy, Rebounding and The Big Four (Madison, Jasmine, Danisha and Tabytha). A win tonight is a must if they want to maintain hopes of finishing in the top four in the standings and earning a first round bye.

The game is scheduled for a 7:00 p.m. (MT) tipoff and can be heard on KSNM AM 570 in Las Cruces as well as online via Aggie Access (subscription required). Streaming video will also be available for tonight's game via Aggie Access.

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bleedCrimson.net: Your thoughts on the opening weekend?
Kathy Rodolph: We started practice January 8th and so we'd been practicing an awful long time and I feel like the kids came out with tremendous energy and excitement to play and I thought that carried throughout the whole weekend. Probably what I was most excited about on the weekend was the solid contributions that we got from a lot of people. It speaks for now as well as in the future.

bc.net: Teresa Conrad and Valerie Swedberg put up some big numbers in the opening weekend and for Conrad, her numbers were a big jump over last year.
KR: Teresa had a really good fall for us and hit really well all fall and probably the most notable accomplishment for Teresa on the weekend is Cat moved her into the five hole to protect Hoku because Hoku was getting walked a lot and Teresa was really able to solidify and come through in clutch situations protecting Hoku in that five hole. Teresa did a great job offensively for us.

Valerie Swedberg is a heck of a hitter. She had broken Angie Ortega's home run record for high school so I knew that when I got her I really had a good one coming in as a freshman.  Continue Reading This Post >>

Very disappointing loss last night for the Aggie women as they lost 57-52 to Hawai'i. The freshman vs. freshman rebounding battle we had hoped to see never materialized as it was a one-sided affair with the winner Kamilah Jackson from Hawai'i. In fact, the battle on the boards was a one-sided affair with Hawai'i crushing the Aggies on the boards 52-32. The 19 offensive rebounds by Hawai'i were a killer for the Aggies. One possession in particular summed up the rebounding last night. Late in the game with the Aggies trailing UH by six, Kamilah Jackson stole the ball from Tabytha Wampler, the ball got to Shawna-Lei Kuehu who put up a shot, missed, grabbed her own rebound, put up another shot, missed and Jackson got the rebound. Eventually Megan Tinnin would commit a foul as the Aggies and Wahine battled for a loose ball but Hawai'i nearly got three shots off in trip down the floor and in doing so, took just about a minute off the game clock.

The turning point in the game, however, was an exchange with just under nine minutes left to play. The Aggies had battled back from a nine-point deficit to take a two point lead after a three pointer from Jasmine Lowe. They had built up momentum and it looked like maybe they would give themselves a little cushion. Christina Fletcher was fouled and went to the free throw line for a one-and-one. Fletcher, in her defense, had only been to the free throw line 14 times the entire season (to her credit she had made 10 of those attempts. She ended up airballing the free throw. Hawai'i got the ball and on the other end, Fletcher committed a foul on Kuehu who was in the act of shooting and made the basket. Kuehu converted the free throw for the old-fashioned three point play and the Aggies would never lead in the game again.

For the Aggies, this loss is especially disappointing considering the Wahine had lost 18 consecutive WAC road games and this loss also keeps the Aggies in sixth place in the standings, 1.5 games behind Nevada and Idaho and 3.5 games behind Utah State. It also makes their job of attaining a Top 4 seed and at least a first round bye that much more difficult. The Aggies host SJSU on Thursday night and Fresno State on Monday night. Then they travel to Utah State and Nevada next Thursday and Saturday. Realistically the Aggies need to go 3-1 in that stretch to maintain hopes of a top 4 seed heading into the final weekend at home where they'll host Idaho and Boise State.

The good news for the Aggies is all three of those teams who are ahead of them still have to face Louisiana Tech and both Nevada and Idaho have to face both Louisiana Tech and Fresno State. Idaho has the toughest finish out of the five teams battling for spots 2, 3 and 4 (we'll lump Fresno State in there as well just because they have two losses and could still conceivably drop out of the 2-seed). Idaho ends the season with Nevada, Utah State, at Fresno, at NMSU and at LA Tech.

If the Aggies can right the ship they still have a good shot at a top four finish but they will definitely need to play much better than they did last night.

On a side note, Madison Spence, who continues to play well in her final season as an Aggie, notched her very first career double-double with 16 points and 10 rebounds. Madison did it all last night as she also notched five assists and five steals to go along with those double-double numbers (to put it another way, she was halfway to a quadruple-double).

Every college sports fan is probably aware of the acronym BMOC (if you're not, it stands for Big Man On Campus). Well, Hofstra's Charles Jenkins is said BMOC this morning after his heroics last night against William &Mary last night. A video is worth a thousand words. Check it out (H/T Mike Miller- MSNBC, Pete Thamel- NYT, @AJVoepel and our friends Rush The Court)

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New Mexico State suffered a disappointing loss to Hawai'i falling 57-52 on Tuesday night in the Pan American Center as the Wahine snapped an 18-game conference road losing streak dating back to January 30, 2009. Madison Spence led all scorers with 16 points and added 10 rebounds, five assists and five steals. The Wahine grabbed a whopping 52 rebounds including 19 offensive boards converting 10 second chance points in the upset.

The Aggies fell behind early 3-0 as Albuquerque native Megan Tinnin buried a three pointer. The Aggies would respond with a 13-2 run to take a 13-5 lead in the game with 14:12 remaining in the first half. The Wahine would claw back into the game over the next four minutes and tie the game at 13 on a jumper by Shawna Lei Kuehu. Christina Fletcher would spur a 5-0 run with a jumper followed by a three pointer from Madison Spence as the Aggies would take an 18-13 lead with 9:36 left in the half.

Hawai'i would answer the Aggies' spurt with a 9-0 run of their own capped by five straight points from Tinnin to give the Wahine a 24-18 lead. The Aggies would get a three from Kaitlyn Soto to cut the deficit to three at 24-21 with 4:13 left in the half but the Aggies would fail to score over the final four minutes missing six shots and a free throw while the Wahine would hit a pair of free throws with 36 seconds left to take a 26-21 lead into the halftime break.  Continue Reading This Post >>

The Aggie women's basketball team is back in action tonight as they host Hawai'i. The Aggies defeated the Wahine 74-58 to open conference play. That's how screwed up the WAC schedules are, the Aggies have completed their series against Louisiana Tech, playing back-to-back games last week and yet they go almost six weeks between meetings with Hawai'i and San Jose State, but we digress. The Aggies' victory against Hawai'i earlier this season was one of the most complete efforts the Aggies have had this season. They completely shut down UH senior guard Megan Tinnin (a native of Albuquerque) holding her to nine points (more importantly, zero three pointers) and kept her in foul trouble all night. The Aggies' Big Four, Spence, Wampler, Lowe and Corbett did what Coach Spence has said they need to do, they scored 17, 16, 14 and 13 points with Wampler dominating the post with the 17 points and six rebounds.

The recipe for success will be the same tonight. First, the Aggies need to play with the same energy level that they played with on Saturday night against Louisiana Tech. If they do that, they should win this game. The Aggies also need the Big Four to produce. If they do, they should win this game. They also need to keep Hawai'i freshman Kamilah Jackson in check on the boards. It should be an interesting battle between Jackson and Aggie freshman Jasmine Rutledge. The two freshmen are two of the league's best rebounders so that battle should be fun to watch.

Tonight's game is scheduled for a 7:00 p.m. (MT) tip off can can be seen on AggieVision with Kyle Doperalski calling the action. If you're away from a television set you can hear the game on KSNM AM 570 in Las Cruces. Streaming audio and video area also available for tonight's game via Aggie Access (subscription required).

The Aggie men's basketball team is taking a break from conference play this week but the win they got against Louisiana Tech on Saturday afternoon (sans Troy Gillenwater) just keeps getting better. Last night the Aggies got some help from Hawai'i who knocked off the Wolf Pack in overtime, 73-71. That gives the Aggies a one game advantage in the loss column over the Wolf Pack and the Aggies are two games clear of Boise State and Idaho after the Broncos swept the regular season series over Idaho.

Now, here's the dilemma for head coach Marvin Menzies as posed by Jason Groves of the Las Cruces Sun-News on his blog yesterday. Do you sit Gillenwater on Saturday when Northern Colorado comes to town for the ESPNU Bracketbusters game? Our answer? Yes. Absolutely. Do not risk Troy re-injuring that ankle if his ankle isn't 100 percent healthy. The Aggies need him for the stretch run. With four conference games left, the Aggies still have a shot at securing second place in the league standings. However, four losses are also not out of the question and here's why.

The Aggies' next two conference games are on the road at Hawai'i and at San Jose. The Aggies have historically (in the WAC) struggled in both venues. The Aggies have had close games with both teams, in fact, the Aggies have gone in with better teams than this one and struggled against worse teams than UH and SJSU currently field (hopefully that makes sense).

Here's the breakdown:

at Hawai'i
03/2/06 61-56 L
02/12/07 71-68 W
01/13/08 94-71 L
03/7/09 70-59 W
01/21/10 71-69 W

At San Jose State
01/28/06 81-75 W-OT
01/27/07 85-78 W
02/2/08 83-81 W
01/5/09 75-73 W
01/23/10 93-84 L

As you can see, the Aggies' largest margin of victory in those ten road games in 11 against a bad Hawai'i team in 2009. That UH team finished eighth in the WAC that season and was relegated to the 8/9 play-in game and lost to an even worse Fresno State team.

Last season, against an even worse Warrior team, with an NCAA-bound team the Aggies needed a buzzer-beating jumper from Jahmar Young to beat Hawai'i. A team that nearly beat Michigan State, a Final Four team, needed a buzzer beater to beat one of the worst teams in Division I college basketball.

Against San Jose State, the outcomes have been more favorable but the final margins have been much closer. The largest margin of victory at SJSU during WAC play has been seven points. The Aggies needed a buzzer beater from Jonathan Gibson in 2008 and a pair of last second free throws from Hamidu Rahman in 2009 and the Aggies were run over last year after a pretty physical battle against Hawai'i two nights earlier.

So, the answer is yes. If Troy is not 100 percent, you sit him against Northern Colorado (especially if Hawai'i plays the Aggies as physically as they did last year in Honolulu, that was more like a football game). The game on Saturday doesn't mean anything in terms of the "big picture" (i.e. NCAA tournament seeding as the Aggies would probably be no better than a 14-seed right now or WAC tournament seeding) other than keeping the Aggies' record in Bracketbusters games spotless. The important games are the final four WAC games. A 3-1 or better record should give the Aggies second place and barring disaster (i.e. an 0-4 stretch) they should finish in the top four.

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Written By Josele Diaz, For NM State Media Relations

LAS CRUCES, N.M. - The 2011 New Mexico State baseball team defeated the Aggie Alumni Team this past weekend but the coaches and fans didn't care as they were able to catch up with some of the all-time Aggie greats, finding out that some are still working hard to get to the next level.

Aggie baseball has had a lot of success in the past decade, the main reason being the outstanding players. A few players such as Tyler Sturdevant, Frankie Duran, Erik Nyquist and Bryan Marquez have either played at the next level or are still playing. Those players also showed up to the Alumni Game, Saturday, Feb. 12, to show their skills and to try to upset the 2011 Aggies.

"We are proud of kids that have graduated and have gone on to have jobs and be good fathers," head coach Rocky Ward said.  "All the players that come here to play for us have dreams of going on to play pro ball."  Continue Reading This Post >>

The Aggie softball team capped an undefeated weekend by knocking off Minnesota 7-6 in five innings and Colorado State 10-1 in five innings. The Aggies got strong performances out of their bullpen in both wins yesterday as Sydney Williard pitched the final 1.2 innings against the Gophers holding them scoreless after they had put up seven runs against Carissa Theis and Alex Villalobos. Then in the second game against Colorado State, Kelsey Schueler had one of the best performances of her Aggie career as she relieved Alex Newman who had given up a run and had runners at second and third with one out in the top of the second. Schueler stopped the Rams cold in the inning getting a pair of ground outs and then proceeded to pitch three more scoreless innings in the run-rule victory.

There were some surprises out of the weekend, both good and not so good. We'll start with the good. Sophomore Teresa Conrad. All she did this weekend was belt a pair of home runs, including her first grand slam, drive in nine runs, come around to score five times, draw five walks and was twice hit by a pitch. She sported a .438 batting average, .583 on base percentage, an .813 slugging percentage and a 1.396 OPS (on base + slugging). To put those numbers in perspective, last season Conrad hit a total of two home runs, drove in 15 runs and batted just .183 and was a regular starter playing in 45 of the Aggies' 55 games and starting 39 games. So after one weekend of play, she's matched her home run total, is more than halfway to her RBI total, and upped her on base percentage by over 200 points. Obviously there is a long way to go in the season but her performance definitely qualifies as the surprise of the weekend.

The other nice surprise, maybe not so much a surprise but an affirmation, was the play of true freshman Valerie Swedberg (if you recall, Swedberg. Her numbers this weekend nearly matched those of Conrad as she batted .500 (8/16), had an identical slugging percentage of .813, had three doubles and a triple, drove in eight runs, had an on base percentage of .529 and an OPS of 1.342. With seven seniors graduating after this season, it's great to see the young talent emerging (at least after one weekend of play) that will carry the program into the future.

Unfortunately there were some disappointments this weekend as well, namely, a sluggish start for sophomore pitcher Carissa Theis. She had two starts this weekend and well, neither was was particularly good. She threw 1.2 innings against Colorado State giving up five runs on six hits (only two of the runs were earned) and against Minnesota yesterday she pitched 2.2 inning giving up four runs (three earned) on four hits striking out three three. Her combined numbers this weekend were not so great, 4.1 innings, nine runs, 10 hits, three strikeouts and no walks.

It's no secret that the Aggies' achilles heel has been pitching. How far the Aggies go this season will depend on their pitching because we all know the offense will score and score and score. The Aggies need every single pitcher to deliver. Hopefully this weekend was an aberration for Theis (just as we hope the weekends for Conrad and Swedberg are signs of things to come this season).  Continue Reading This Post >>