Editorial Note:This week's interview was conducted through a teleconference with members of the media from the Las Cruces Sun-News, Las Cruces Bulletin and Albuquerque Journal. The questions asked by bleedCrimson.net are marked as such.

Marvin Menzies: This is a huge trip for us potentially. It depends on the result but it's going to be a big trip just when you have two environments to play in like Lawlor and in Logan. You've got to be ready to play. Yesterday's practice and today's as well as tomorrow even though that's a little trickier because we're on the road so it'll be light. I'm just anticipating trying to get better on the defensive end and trying to get some consistency there as well as shoring up a few things on offense. I think that you can throw the records out the window when you play either one of these teams. There'll be a lot of passion in both those games so we've got to make sure we match it with our energy and enthusiasm. We just have to go out and play the best ball we can play. With that we've been playing the best ball we've been playing as of late but you can't attach one game to the next unfortunately. Each game will stand on its own so it'll be interesting to see how this road trip works out for us.

bleedCrimson.net: Last season you went into this same road trip in a similar situation and didn't have a very good results. Obviously you got your revenge in the conference tournament the next week against both teams but is there anything that you do differently this time around?
Different team, different players. I think every year it kind of just depends on the matchups and so forth and that'll be a different component that we have to look at. As far as how we traveled and what we did, I think we had the most expeditious form of travel that we could have laid out for ourselves, we just didn't get favorable results. I think the only difference now can be hopefully that we have learned a little bit and we've got some retention of players that have been there and that will be more focused and understand what they're going into and not let the crowds rattle them at either location.  Continue Reading This Post >>

bleedCrimson.net: This week you host Hawai'i and San Jose State, two teams that come in desperate for a win.
Marvin Menzies: Yeah that's what they are. You've got teams that are capable of winning games as is evident from their non-conference wins but unfortunately for us have struggled in conference so far so their hunger level should be pretty high so we've got to match their intensity and be able to try to protect our home floor.

bc.net: Hawai'i has had a lot of injury issues much like the Aggies but they come into this game about as healthy as they've been maybe since the start of the season and have big man Bill Amis back in the lineup.
MM: They've had to make adjustments for a variety of reasons and as a result it's a little difficult to scout exactly what you're going to see at the beginning of the game but eventually your system has to kick in and you've got to do a good job of making adjustments based on what the warriors are going to throw at us. I think it can be one of those things that until you see it on the floor you're not going to know 100 percent what you're going to have to deal with. You will in the way of what they're going to do offensively and defensively but in the way of personnel it'll be a little bit of a gray area until gameday.  Continue Reading This Post >>

Editorial Note: This week's interview was conducted through a teleconference with members of the media from the Las Cruces Sun-News, Las Cruces Bulletin and Albuquerque Journal. The questions asked by bleedCrimson.net are marked as such.

On whether redshirting was a difficult decision for Wendell:
Marvin Menzies: It was. Wendell is very competitive by nature and really didn't want to sit out the full year but the injury just took longer than we anticipated in getting him back to 100 percent. It kind of forced our hand a little bit. He's close to 100 percent now. He has a green light to practice. He'll probably be a little out of shape and probably take a little bit longer to get all the way back in sync with the team, it wouldn't take too long because of his experience. But at the end of the day when we looked at everything the signs kept pushing to him coming back and having a great senior season and getting his degree. He loves Las Cruces, he's in no hurry to leave. It was just one of those deals where all the signs eventually made it pretty clear what he needed to do.

On when they sat down to decide on the redshirt:
MM: On the Idaho/Boise swing we kind of came to the conclusion. That's when it was really finalized.  Continue Reading This Post >>

bleedCrimson.net: Your overall thoughts on where your team is heading into conference play?
Marvin Menzies: We're still very much a unit, we've still got good chemistry. Fortunately and unfortunately we've got a lot of young kids more minutes and more experience than I would have liked at this point. Overall we're probably just a couple of games away from having our full squad back which would be a welcome change to attacking these conference games.

bc.net: What are some of the things that your team was able to take away from the loss against St. Mary's last week?
MM: One, we've got a long way to go offensively. We did some good things on defense and we did some good things on offense but our overall dilemma right now is sustaining any consistency for a duration of time. Looking back at the video we did a lot of things well, we just lost to a better team.  Continue Reading This Post >>

bleedCrimson.net: Your thoughts on the big win against Pacific on Saturday night?
Marvin Menzies: I was very excited to see the kids come out and play with that level of passion and desire on defense. It was good to see and I'm hoping it's something that will be a signature for us going forward and will allow us to be able to play up to our potential.

bc.net: Tyrone Watson has been a player that really has brought a ton of energy to the starting lineup and Renaldo Dixon is a player that has really brought that same level of energy off the bench.
MM: We've done a good job of bringing in young guys and trying to develop them and turn them into the type of players that can win at a high level. It's good to get those guys quality minutes in their sophomore years and that will be something that will be a big plus for us going forward.  Continue Reading This Post >>

bleedCrimson.net: Your thoughts on the past two games, the loss against New Mexico and the win against Arkansas-Pine Bluff?
Marvin Menzies: Obviously I wasn't here for the New Mexico game, they guys played really hard. We just didn't have enough depth to win on the road in that environment with Troy going out. I was proud of their fight and their heart and who hard they played. We've just got to continue to grow. There were times when we had three freshmen and two sophomores on the floor and they just weren't ready to win in that type of environment yet.

Pine Bluff was good to get back in the win column. That team has been on the road a lot and we caught them without a lot of legs. They're a better team than they showed that night. I thought we did what we were supposed to do which when you have a stronger team at home you should dominate and we did that.  Continue Reading This Post >>

bleedCrimson.net: Your thoughts on the team's play on Tuesday night playing without Hamidu you were still right in the game at the end.
Marvin Menzies: Playing without Ham I was really concerned about the center position and not having a lot of depth there but B.J. West came in and gave us quality minutes. Abdoulaye came in and gave us good minutes. So we were doing okay, probably not as productive as we could have been with Hamidu but nonetheless we were in a battle and we just ran into a buzzsaw named Randy Culpepper once again. It seems like they've always got one guy, no matter who we lace them up with they have that one guy that really does a good job against us and that was the case again.

bc.net: The Aggies had a big rebounding advantage in both games.
MM: I felt it was a big sticking point for us. We talked about it a lot and practiced on it a lot trying to improve our rebounding based on our road losses and we added some drills and emphasis in practice and I'm glad to see they responded. We just didn't get it done in two other statistical categories in terms of our three point defense and the final score.  Continue Reading This Post >>

bleedCrimson.net: Your thoughts on the win against Western New Mexico?
Marvin Menzies: I thought the guys played very hard defensively and were very focused on playing our game and not worrying about the fact that it was a Division II and not really looking at the level of competition and gave them [WNMU] a lot of respect and played hard just because the fact that's what they should do.

bc.net: The Aggies were able to hold Western to around 32 percent shooting from the floor in that game.
MM: We concentrated on a lot of man to man in that game and our guys were holding each other accountable on defense and I think that aided the overall effort we ended up with.  Continue Reading This Post >>

bleedCrimson.net: Your thoughts on the exhibition game against Eastern New Mexico on Monday night?
Marvin Menzies: I was happy to see our guys play hard. We didn't always play smart but we played hard. We had a positive energy within ourselves and good chemistry. You don't expect to see a lot of high level execution and some of the finer points to be fully carried out at a high level at this stage of the season but I think the most important thing is the effort and I think we got that.

bc.net: It looked like your team was a lot more crisp passing the basketball last night in terms of the ball not staying in one player's hand for three, four or five seconds while their teammates were running around.
MM: Our system is designed in a certain way to take advantage of the highest percentage shot, now we turned it over a lot in attempting to move the ball because of the fact that we're really pushing it this year and guys are trying to make that extra pass. But we've really kind of gotten some growth and returning players really understanding how the system works and just having a feel for using it and that's probably what you were seeing last night.  Continue Reading This Post >>

bleedCrimson.net: One of the big concerns heading into the game against Michigan State was the rebounding ability of the Spartans but your team was able to tie them in rebounding.
Marvin Menzies: Yeah that was a concern. Obviously they do a phenomenal job on their rebounding, especially on the offensive side of the game, we just preached the priority of it. So we just kept talking about what they do well in that area which we thought was a key and we ran a few extra drills and made an emphasis of it in our preparation. It was a credit to the kids for maintaining the focus on boxing out and getting after the ball with a passion realizing that was a key.

bc.net: Jonathan Gibson had a good last senior game and when you look around at a lot of seniors who go out in the tournament they don't necessarily have the best final game in a loss, for example Sherron Collins from Kansas and Scottie Reynolds from Villanova. What was he able to do in his final game that he was able to play well?
MM: Jonathan shot the ball okay, he didn't shoot it great but he shot it well from the three. He did a phenomenal job defensively. He got a little fatigued late in the game and had a couple defensive breakdowns but when you play that hard it's hard to not have some mistakes. To his credit, his effort was there which ended up giving him the stat line that was a good stat line for a senior on the way out. I really thought his concentration and confidence were high and as a result he had a good performance for his final game as an Aggie.  Continue Reading This Post >>