Aggies squander chance, not chase

Jans’ squad still has onegame league lead, hosts Chicago State tonight

LAS CRUCES — The New Mexico State men remain in the driver’s seat for the Western Athletic Conference regular season title and No. 1 seed for the league tournament as they host Chicago State tonight.

But there is no doubt, as coach Chris Jans told the Las Cruces Sun-News earlier this week, that the Aggies (22-5, 9-2) “left some chicken on the bone” in road losses last week at Utah Valley and Seattle.

Gone is a shot at the Top 25. Remaining to be seen is if the Aggies can get an at-large NCAA tournament berth if they don’t win the postseason tournament, or if they can get a seed better than the 14s and 15s to which the program is accustomed. NMSU’s Ratings Percentage Index (RPI) of 46 coming into Wednesday will take a hit just by facing Chicago State (2-26, 0-11).

“We had something pretty special going on and we screwed it up,” Jans said. “But at the same time, I can’t change that, we can’t change that and there are no doovers. We have to learn from it, grow from it, get better from it and try to turn that short negative into a major positive. And that’s what we are going to do.”

In any case, it’ll be tough for UVU (19-8, 8-3) or Seattle (19-9, 8-3) to pass the Aggies with three games to play in the regular season.

NMSU plays two of its final three games at home while Seattle plays its final three games on the road and UVU is away from Orem for two of its final three.

Also, the Aggies’ three remaining opponents are among the four worst teams in the league.