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?

Interview with La Roche

Writer Jimmy Courrier has a nice interview with Aggie point guard Hernst Laroche in this weeks Las Cruces Bulletin. Click on the link above and when you get to the website click the sports button on the left side of the page, then click 'Return to Canada."

A bit or two

Apparently Marvin Menzies will be returning from a trip to Germany on Sunday, Aug. 1 and the Aggies will begin practice for their trip to Canada on Sunday or Monday. They are allowed a certain number of practices before making trips out of the country.

Jahmar Young tidbit

Apparently Jahmar Young will participate in a workout for the Golden State Warriors on Saturday, June 5.
Click here for the post.
This is right in the back yard of the WAC's premeir blogger.
Hopefully we can get the scoop from PTW ASAP
(Hint, hint)

NMSU signs Kabongo

From NM State Sports: New Mexico State men’s basketball coach Marvin Menzies has signed Christian Kabongo to a National Letter of Intent, he announced Friday, April 30. Kabongo is a 6-4 combination guard from Toronto, Ontario, Canada.

“(Assistant coach) Paul (Weir) has done an excellent job by bringing Christian Kabongo to the table,” head coach Marvin Menzies said. “Christian is the exact student-athlete that we need in order to replace Jonathan (Gibson) and Jahmar (Young). He is an athletic, scoring guard that should also give us quality minutes at the point guard position.”

Kabongo joins the Aggies this fall from Central Commerce Collegiate Institute in Toronto. The Hoop Scoop named him the No. 4 ranked fifth-year player in the Class of 2010. As a sophomore, Kabongo scored a personal-best 58 points in a single game. In July 2008, Kabongo and his AAU team, Grassroots Canada, won the adidas Super 64 Tournament.

In addition to Kabongo, the 2010 Class includes Tshilidzi Nephawe, a 6-10 center from Johannesburg, South Africa, that signed during the fall period.