Jonathan Gibson now in Isreal

Jonathan Gibson is no longer with Oyak Renault in Turkey but is now on the roster of Ironi Askelon in the Israeli Premier league. Gibson had been a starter for Oyak Renault averaging 31.5 minutes, 18.1 points on 50.7 percent from the floor and 40 percent from downtown.
Both teams are at the bottom of their respective leagues, maybe JG can do some good in Israel.

About that rebounding thing

To follow up on my earlier post.

Hamidu Rahman: 277 minutes, 78 rebounds. That equals 1 rebound every 3.55 minutes.

Granted he’s been injured.

Chile Nephawe: 354 minutes, 86 rebounds – 1 rebound every 4.12 minutes.

I love Chili, but he needs to get after the boards better.

BJ West 132 minutes, 50 rebounds – 1 rebound every 2.64 minutes.

Food for thought.

Thoughts on the game at Nevada

Some thoughts on the Aggies’ 90-71 loss to Nevada on Thursday, Jan. 20.

New Mexico State’s centers Hamidu Rahman and Chili Nephawe: A total of 3 rebounds. Pathetic. Dario Hunt had 12 rebounds, including 4 on offense.

Maybe it’s time to play BJ West more. At least he goes after the boards.

Bandja Sy and Tyrone Watson were a combined 3 for 13 from the field, we need to find some consistency from someone not named Troy. Bandja did a nice job rebounding, though.

After Gillenwater’s technical, the Wolfpack went on 7-0 run.

I was glad to hear that Menzies was mad, but he needs to learn to get his team to play with some passion. I think he missed a chance to get the Aggies fired up. Sometimes his coaching style is too cerebral, too much Xs and Os and not enough fire and brimstone.

Don’t be afraid to get a “T” once in a while Marvin!

Don't leave those ears unguarded

One of my favorite moves in basketball is the pump fake. Not only does a good fake usually lead to an easy basket, it also makes the opposing player look like an idiot.
One of the all-time best Aggies at the pump fake was Gilbert Wilburn, who played from 1984-86 and was all-Big West Conference in his senior season.
Wilburn was only about 6-5 and built a lot like current Aggie Tyrone Watson. He was a great scorer, averaging 23.6 points his junior year and 19.1 as a senior.
A lot of his scoring prowess was due to his faking ability.
One fake – out of their shoes.
Two fakes – out of their socks.
Three fakes? You bet – maybe four sometimes.
Sadly, during his time at NMSU, Wilburn lost his mother, and after traveling home to California, he struggled through his first few games back in Las Cruces. It seemed to me that the pump fake was missing from his game.
Wilburn didn’t know me from Adam, but one evening at a restaurant on El Paseo we passed by each other.
“Gilbert,” I said, “don’t forget the extra fake,” hoping to plant a little bug in his ear.
The next game he was back in form, leaving opponents’ sneakers all over the court – figuratively speaking. I’ll probably never know if our chance encounter actually made a difference, but as an Aggie fan, it’s a memory I’ll always cherish.
One current Aggie who has the knack for pump faking is Troy Gillenwater, but since his recent injuries I haven’t seen as much of it.
I asked him about it at the Aggies’ press conference on Tuesday, abandoning my role as a journalist in favor of a shameless bug planter.
“The ankle has kind of slowed me down from jumping the way I want to jump, I’m not as explosive as I can be,” Gillenwater said. “I think the more games that we play it will get better.
“You’ll start seeing some more up fakes and finishes,” he said with a grin.
The Aggies faced Nevada at 8:30 p.m. Thursday, Jan. 20, and travel on to play league-leading Utah State at 9 p.m. Saturday, Jan. 22. The games in on ESPNU.
You can bet that during both games, I’ll be listening to Jack Nixon’s call and hoping to hear the sound of Wolfpack and Utag sneakers hitting the floor.
Oh how I love those pump fakes – excuse me “up fakes.”
Now, if I can just get Watson and Wendell McKines to watch some old film of Wilburn …
Oh well, I guess that’s enough bug planting for now.

Young in Serbia

It has been reported that Jahmar Young is playing basketball in Spain, however from what I have been able to find on the Internet he is actually playing in Serbia for Crvena Zvezda in the Serbian A league. He is starting for the team wearing the No. 6. On Dec. 11, he helped his team earn a share of the league lead with a game high 25 points including 9 of 9 from the line.

Give the refs a break

The men in the black and white stripes are not very popular in Las Cruces right now.
Fans of the Las Cruces High School Bulldawgs are still outraged at what they see as a blown call at the end of the state semifinal football game in Albuquerque, Saturday, Nov. 27.
Bulldawg Geoff Segovia believes he caught a “Hail Mary” pass in the end zone to win the game against the Manzano Monarchs.
The referees didn’t see it that way, and Manzano prevailed 35-31, and will face the Mayfield Trojans in Albuquerque’s Wilson Stadium at 2 p.m. Saturday, Dec. 4.
In the Aggie-Miner game at Pan American Stadium Tuesday, Nov. 30, officials seemed quick to call technical and flagrant fouls against the home team, but appeared to allow the visiting Miners to play “physical” defense.
Though New Mexico State’s backup center Abdoulaye N’doye was called for a flagrant foul on hot-shooting Miner Randy Culpepper in the first half of that game, an equally physical foul that laid Aggie Christian Kabongo on the floor in the second half was missed by the referees. That quickly led to a confrontation that sent Aggie Chili Nephawe and Miner John Bohannon to their locker rooms early.
I can understand why fans gather around the coffee machine the next day and complain about the calls. Some of the calls do seem implausible.
But personally, I don’t buy the biased referee meme.
Like everyone else, I like to yell at them. Call their mothers names. Maybe recommend an optometrist or two.
But I have never walked around in a referee’s shirt. I have never tried to run up and down the court chasing a bunch of human gazelles for two hours. I can’t imagine how they keep enough focus to see where so-and-so’s feet are when a pass is caught or a foul is committed.
It’s easy to sit on the sidelines or in front of a television and second-guess a call made on the field or on the floor.
While it’s only natural for sports enthusiasts to pull up a replay on YouTube to vindicate their point of view, fans should stop and consider that those guys making the calls are human, too.
There may be an occasional bad apple out there that tries to influence a game, but I think that is a rare case.
Maybe I just have a naïve view of human nature.
Call them names, if you want. Insult their family members and seeing-eye dogs. But spare me the conspiracy theories.

WAC Tournament format changed

Here is a press release from NMSU on the new format:

WAC Commissioner Karl Benson announced that the league will change its postseason men’s and women’s basketball tournament format, effective for the 2011 tournament.

The change was recommended by both the WAC men’s and women’s basketball coaches and approved by the WAC Board of Directors earlier this summer.

The change will reward teams based on regular season success, giving the top two teams byes into the tournament semifinals.


“I thought it was a very good direction to move into,” New Mexico State men’s basketball head coach Marvin Menzies said. “A lot of other conferences have used that model, and it seemed to be successful for them. After visiting with some of those coaches, it was evident to me that they liked it and in our position, hopefully, with where we will finish in conference, it will give us an advantage.”


Under the format, the tournament begins on Wednesday with two men’s and two women’s games featuring the No. 5 seed against the No. 8 seed and No. 6 versus No. 7. The winners then advance to Thursday’s quarterfinal matchups to play the No. 4 and No. 3 seeds. The winners of those games then advance to Friday’s semifinals against the top two seeds.

The change also results in two men’s and two women’s games being played each day of the tournament except for Saturday, which features the men’s and women’s championship games.


Aggie women’s head coach Darin Spence said he was also happy about the location change for the tournament.

“I think it is an exciting time for the league to play the tournament at a neutral site,” he said. “I think it is time to give it a shot. I know our fans like going to Las Vegas, so I think the change is good.”


The 2011 WAC Men’s and Women’s Basketball Tournament is March 9-12 at the Orleans Arena in Las Vegas and includes the top eight teams in the regular season standings.

The release said tickets will be available from the WAC soon.

My only concern is that it will take away a game from teams that may be struggling to reach enough wins to attract post-season bids. Sometimes the second though fourth place teams may have a record like 19-12 or 21-9 and another victory in WAC tournament play could get them to 20 wins of maybe more.

Any thoughts?