Aggies try to make most of break
They put 15-game streak on line Sat.
LAS CRUCES — As New Mexico State only has one game this week, the Aggie men look to get to take advantage of that time with some rest and recovery.
The Aggies, who face Missouri-Kansas City Saturday night at the Pan American Center and did a light workout on Monday, will get some administrative stuff done early in the week as well, especially academically as the spring semester began Wednesday.
“Get their bodies rested, get guys healthy, get in the weight room, get in the training room to recover their bodies as much as possible,” NMSU coach Paul Weir said earlier this week. “… There’s a couple different ways to look at it. One, there’s a break and you can get out of rhythm, but I also think you can take advantage of it as well. And that’s what we are trying to do.”
After Saturday’s game, NMSU will play three games in a five-day span, at Seattle on Jan. 26, Utah Valley on Jan. 28 and in Rio Rancho to face Northern New Mexico on Jan. 30.
NMSU (17-2, 4-0) has won 15 straight, is the only WAC team undefeated in conference play and has a 1½-game lead over both CSUB and GCU for first place in the league standings. NMSU will face Bakersfield on Feb. 9 and Grand Canyon on Feb. 11, both on the road.
“Grand Canyon and Bakersfield both did some things to us on the offensive end that we have to come back and clean up going forward,” Weir said. “On our offensive end, Bakersfield in particular did some things to take us out of rhythm. We’re just trying to correct those things from those games because other teams are going to copy things that have done and have had some success with. We have to make sure if we see those again, whether it’s from UMKC or anybody else, we’re prepared.”
There are some things they need to improve on this week. One of those is layups; NMSU missed a number of them last week. Another is developing another post player, which Weir hopes will be either redshirt junior Jalyn Pennie or redshirt junior Tanveer Bhullar.
“Eli (Chuha) and Jemerrio (Jones) have been playing at such a high level it’s been hard to get them off the floor,” Weir said. “But for balance and development, we are going to need another post player here sometime soon. I’m hoping either Tanveer or Jalyn will be that guy.”
NOTE: Weir said redshirt sophomore guard Sidy N’Dir had his first workout Saturday since his foot injury and it went well. N’Dir has been out since the middle of December with a torn ligament in his foot. Weir said N’Dir should be back shortly.