Isotopes extend safety netting
Alot is being made of extending the safety netting down the foul lines at Isotopes Park. Considering the injuries fans can incur with a screaming liner to the brain bucket, perhaps it’s not the worst idea in the world.
Maybe they should look into the same thing for The Pit during halftime promotions. During Saturday’s men’s basketball game between the Lobos and Wyoming, a few fans sitting in the third row got machine-gunned with T-shirts during an interactive promotion that had two teams of three contestants line up along each side of the court.
The gimmick’s sponsor was a local gym, so the idea was a fitness relay that began with the first contestant doing push-ups before tossing five rolled-up shirts into the stands before the next discipline could begin.
The first guy was pretty fired up, doing his push-ups like a military man on a caffeine overdose. He then blindly fired each shirt in rapid order into the third row about 10 feet away. He pelted an older couple with at least three of the throws, then buzzed one high and tight into the fifth row before he finally eased up and got the last one a little higher into the crowd.
Ushers checked on the T-shirt victims, reminding push-up man that it wouldn’t be a bad idea to look before throwing things as hard as he can at unsuspecting fans.
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The Lobo basketball team gets one
more shot (maybe two) at undefeated San Diego State when it travels to SoCal on Tuesday night to face the fourth-ranked Aztecs at Viejas Arena.
UNM has never beaten a ranked unbeaten team this late in the season and the Aztecs are seeking to become the first team to run the table in the regular season since Kentucky carried a 38-0 record into the 2015 Final Four.
If it’s conference records you’re interested in, there are only six unbeatens left in their respective leagues: Dayton (Atlantic 10), Baylor (Big 12), Winthrop (Big South), San Diego State (MWC), Gonzaga (West Coast), and New Mexico State (WAC).
The Aggies (19-6, 10-0) have won 13 straight overall and haven’t lost since Dec. 14 in The Pit against UNM. They’ve won seven of those games by double digits and have had six different players lead the team in scoring during the streak.
Don’t look now, but here comes the two-time reigning Class 5A boys basketball champion.
While the buzz regarding the contenders in Class 5A revolved around Rio Rancho Cleveland, Las Cruces, Albuquerque Volcano Vista, Santa Fe High and Capital, for the most part, it deflected much attention to Albuquerque Atrisco Heritage Academy, which is coached by Las Vegas Robertson graduate Adrian Ortega.
Starting the season 8-6 did not help, but the Jaguars have been as hot as a fire cracker since then. They are on a seven-game winning streak and lead perhaps the toughest district in the class in 1-5A with a 5-0 mark.
Even more impressive is how Atrisco Heritage has done it. It rallied from deficits of 36-8 and 44-17 and 63-49, with the latter deficit coming with a little more than three minutes left, to beat Cleveland, 70-68, thanks in part to Joziah Ramos’ 46 points.
On Feb. 4, the Jaguars overcame a 47-32 third-quarter deficit against Volcano Vista by holding the Hawks to three points and winning the game, 51-50, on Elijah Gaxiola’s 8-footer at the buzzer.
According to a report in the San Diego Union-Tribune earlier this week, the Mountain West Conference’s board of directors quietly voted to rescind a decision that would have prevented Boise State from getting additional revenue from its new TV contract with CBS and FOX.
Boise State has subsequently dropped its legal complaint against the MWC, potentially ending a dispute that threatened to turn ugly in the courts. The two sides are at odds over BSU’s take of an additional $1.8 million every year for rights to its home football games, a sum that none of the other 11 football-playing schools receives.
The MWC announced in December a new TV rights package worth an estimated $270 million for a six-year deal expiring in 2026. Boise State’s additional take would exist throughout the agreement but MWC commissioner Craig Thompson said at the time that this would likely be the last time the school would be allowed to get the additional revenue, that all future TV rights deals would be split evenly among the league’s members.
BSU countered with its civil complaint, essentially setting the stage for a legal battle in which the school claimed a 2012 agreement between it and the MWC to negotiate a separate arrangement for football TV revenue did not have an expiration date. Back then, Boise State was threatening to leave the Mountain West for the Big East but chose to stay when the MWC agreed to let the school get an annual carve-out of TV revenue.
By rescinding its decision and Boise State dropping its complaint, it essentially means nothing has changed and (for now) it appears Boise State’s right to future revenue boosts is as it has been for the last eight years.
Congratulations to Volcano Vista head girls basketball coach Lisa Villareal on winning her 300th game after beating Atrisco Heritage on Feb. 4. The Española Valley graduate coached her alma mater from 20012003, then spent two years at Capital from 2005-2007 before taking over the Volcano Vista program when the school opened.
In that time, Villareal compiled a 301-154 record over 16 seasons, and guided the Lady Hawks to state titles in 2012, 2014 and 2016. Even more impressive is that none of her teams has missed the postseason. With Volcano Vista at 19-2 this year, it’s a pretty good chance that mark is secure, too.
Speaking of career marks, Peñasco senior Adrianna Tafoya scored her 1,500th point during Saturday’s 62-36 win over Mora on Saturday. She scored 13 points and was one of three double-digits scorers as the Lady Panthers, the top-ranked team in Class 2A according to MaxPreps.com’s Freeman rankings, improved to 20-2 on the season and 5-1 in District 5-2A play.
A note from esteemed St. Michael’s football historian Mike Pitel: Former Horsemen running back David “Bulldog” Garcia died Jan. 6 at the age of 64. He played for St. Michael’s from 1970-72, and teamed up with fullback Sam Merlino for one of the greatest backfield tandems in school history.
The pair combined for 3,366 rushing yards and 39 touchdowns in 1972 as the Horsemen went on to win the Class 3A title, beating the Lovington Wildcats, 28-6. The rushing total remains a school record, and they helped St. Michael’s score 356 points that was a program standard for 13 years.
Garcia’s rushing total of 1,505 was second-most in school history at the time, while he and Merlino became the first pair of Horsemen running backs to break the 1,000yard barrier in the same season.