Aggies try to renew WAC titles

Men, women are in Vegas, carrying the favorites label

Rinse. Wash. Repeat? New Mexico State’s men and women try to defend their Western Athletic Conference tournament titles in semifinal games today at the Orleans Arena in Las Vegas, Nev.

Be it WAC Vegas or Pan Am West, the town and the arena have been friendly of late to Aggie basketball. The men are overwhelming favorites to win their fifth consecutive tourney title — the biggest favorites, in fact, in any conference tourney on the board at the sports book of the MGM Resorts properties, according to Jay Rood, Albuquerque native, Aggie alumnus and vice president in charge of such.

As the regular season champions, both the NMSU men and women drew byes into today’s semifinals of their respective seven-team tournaments.

It meant coach Marvin Menzies’ Aggie

men (22-9, 13-1) would need a late-night study session after only learning its opponent on Thursday afternoon. Fifthseeded Missouri-Kansas City defeated fourth seed Utah Valley 80-78.

“It’s a little more work as a result of that,” he said, “but we’ve played both these teams twice, so the extra day of rest is probably more important than the mental preparation.”

The Aggies swept UMKC during the regular season — but only by 65-64 and 62-61 scores. NMSU holds an ace in 6-9 sophomore Pascal Siakam (20.7 points, 11.7 rebounds per game), a possible All-American. And they know what Vegas routines have worked in the past — where to practice, where to rest, where to eat team dinners.

But Menzies doesn’t yet know how this senior-less edition of Aggies will respond to postseason play.

“We have (succeeded),” Menzies said. “They haven’t.”

The Aggie women (24-4, 13-1) face Utah Valley (16-14, 8-6) in their semifinal today. UVU won its Wednesday quarterfinal 61-53 over UMKC.

Coach Mark Trakh’s squad goes for its second consecutive tourney trophy, but it has to come off the deck after a shocker in the season finale — a 66-55 loss to UT-Rio Grand Valley on the Aggies’ Senior Day, when an unbeaten league season and school record for consecutive wins (at 16) were at stake.

Trakh hopes he has put that disappointment to bed.

“It would have been nice to go undefeated,” said Trakh. “But there’s only one other undefeated conference team. That’s (No. 1) UConn. We are not the UConn of our conference. Our kids work hard. They play together. … We’ve got it going right now.”