Lot's of exhibitions have been played. I don't really put too much stock into these games, especially with lot's of new personnel on teams. Here's my take:

Utah Valley: Utah Valley over a D2 but usually highly ranked Dixie State. Utah Valley was actually down by 11 at half but prevailed pretty easily 2nd half. New players but the 7'0 transfer looks like the real deal. He is going to be a load in the WAC.

Utah Valley Grade: C

NMSU: NMSU played offense pretty effortlessly. Deep team. The veterans Eli Chuha, Jermerrio Jones and Wilkens played well and although the potential is there, the rest of the team struggled. The team the Aggies played had 5 D1 transfers starting for them and the guard that transferred from Arizona State was super good. Defense was pretty horrible on the perimeter and a good shooting team will kill the Aggies if they play like that vs. a D1 team. Won 90-83 but next game will say a lot about the Aggies in their exhibition vs. Texas Tech on Saturday.

NMSU Grade: C

Bakersfield: CSUB impressed me the most so far. Same Barnes tough defense mentality. They have just enough offense that I think this team could win the WAC again easily. Beat Long Beach State, the favorite to win the Big West at Long Beach. Kudos to Barnes to have built a solid consistent program at CSUB, the hottest coach in college basketball! Trust me, if he does again what he did last year he will be gone.

CSUB Grade: A

Grand Canyon: Let me get this out of the way so GCU fans can shoot their wad. The crowd for a pretty meaningless game was something else. The spiked purple koolaid those kids are drinking sure has them juiced for games. GCU looked good but that St. Francis team was pretty terrible. Out of all the teams the WAC has played for exhibtions St. Francis was the worst. It's hard to give GCU a grade because that team looked like a bad junior college team but the two European guys look really good. GCU is going to be tough but we will see how good they are when they actually play a good team, which won't be for awhile since their OCC games are almost all at home vs. cupcake teams.

Grand Canyon Grade: B+

(11-03-2017 11:12 AM)dancingNMSUaggie Wrote:  Lot's of exhibitions have been played. I don't really put too much stock into these games, especially with lot's of new personnel on teams. Here's my take:

Utah Valley: Utah Valley over a D2 but usually highly ranked Dixie State. Utah Valley was actually down by 11 at half but prevailed pretty easily 2nd half. New players but the 7'0 transfer looks like the real deal. He is going to be a load in the WAC.

Utah Valley Grade: C

NMSU: NMSU played offense pretty effortlessly. Deep team. The veterans Eli Chuha, Jermerrio Jones and Wilkens played well and although the potential is there, the rest of the team struggled. The team the Aggies played had 5 D1 transfers starting for them and the guard that transferred from Arizona State was super good. Defense was pretty horrible on the perimeter and a good shooting team will kill the Aggies if they play like that vs. a D1 team. Won 90-83 but next game will say a lot about the Aggies in their exhibition vs. Texas Tech on Saturday.

NMSU Grade: C

Bakersfield: CSUB impressed me the most so far. Same Barnes tough defense mentality. They have just enough offense that I think this team could win the WAC again easily. Beat Long Beach State, the favorite to win the Big West at Long Beach. Kudos to Barnes to have built a solid consistent program at CSUB, the hottest coach in college basketball! Trust me, if he does again what he did last year he will be gone.

CSUB Grade: A

Grand Canyon: Let me get this out of the way so GCU fans can shoot their wad. The crowd for a pretty meaningless game was something else. The spiked purple koolaid those kids are drinking sure has them juiced for games. GCU looked good but that St. Francis team was pretty terrible. Out of all the teams the WAC has played for exhibtions St. Francis was the worst. It's hard to give GCU a grade because that team looked like a bad junior college team but the two European guys look really good. GCU is going to be tough but we will see how good they are when they actually play a good team, which won't be for awhile since their OCC games are almost all at home vs. cupcake teams.

Grand Canyon Grade: B+

Gotta' love that St. Francis mascot though!

Wish I had caught some of the other exhibitions, so I could add something of substance. Lopes did what they were supposed to do against an NAIA school. Not sure if/how you can grade that. San Diego is projecting in the Top 200 (KenPom), but we really won't know what this team is until Dec. 5th v. St. John's.

I'm honestly okay with the long run-up in level of competition, to nail down rotations and rhythm. Playing St. John's, Boise St, Louisville and Illinois away from GCU Arena in the month of December will sufficiently prepare GCU for WAC play.

Nice writeups. I don't put an incredible amount of stock in exhibitions either but I think CSUB has shown enough that they will be a contender this year. Joiner is the real deal and the defense is just as good as last year. The team is even more athletic than last year. They are probably a bit deeper than last year as well. I also really like Holden, very quick guard whose a good shooter. I feel really good about this year. Also Utah Valley losing Schenck for the year is pretty big. NMSU will take a while to gel and might struggle out the gates. GCU we won't know about until they play a real team so probably not until December.

(11-03-2017 11:12 AM)dancingNMSUaggie Wrote:  Lot's of exhibitions have been played. I don't really put too much stock into these games, especially with lot's of new personnel on teams. Here's my take:

Utah Valley: Utah Valley over a D2 but usually highly ranked Dixie State. Utah Valley was actually down by 11 at half but prevailed pretty easily 2nd half. New players but the 7'0 transfer looks like the real deal. He is going to be a load in the WAC.

Utah Valley Grade: C

NMSU: NMSU played offense pretty effortlessly. Deep team. The veterans Eli Chuha, Jermerrio Jones and Wilkens played well and although the potential is there, the rest of the team struggled. The team the Aggies played had 5 D1 transfers starting for them and the guard that transferred from Arizona State was super good. Defense was pretty horrible on the perimeter and a good shooting team will kill the Aggies if they play like that vs. a D1 team. Won 90-83 but next game will say a lot about the Aggies in their exhibition vs. Texas Tech on Saturday.

NMSU Grade: C

Bakersfield: CSUB impressed me the most so far. Same Barnes tough defense mentality. They have just enough offense that I think this team could win the WAC again easily. Beat Long Beach State, the favorite to win the Big West at Long Beach. Kudos to Barnes to have built a solid consistent program at CSUB, the hottest coach in college basketball! Trust me, if he does again what he did last year he will be gone.

CSUB Grade: A

Grand Canyon: Let me get this out of the way so GCU fans can shoot their wad. The crowd for a pretty meaningless game was something else. The spiked purple koolaid those kids are drinking sure has them juiced for games. GCU looked good but that St. Francis team was pretty terrible. Out of all the teams the WAC has played for exhibtions St. Francis was the worst. It's hard to give GCU a grade because that team looked like a bad junior college team but the two European guys look really good. GCU is going to be tough but we will see how good they are when they actually play a good team, which won't be for awhile since their OCC games are almost all at home vs. cupcake teams.

Grand Canyon Grade: B+

I would honestly give us a lower grade. I thought the second unit was sloppy with the ball, but did a good job on the defensive side of the ball. Lever will likely be playing the 5 on the second unit when Josh comes back and that unit should then look a lot better offensively because they can space the floor better with Lever out there as opposed to Smith. Damari also looked really good out there. I would say that Shaq is going to be ridding the pine most of the year if he continues to practice like he played last night.

Shaq is a punk. He flipped off the Aggie fans at GCU arena last year. Classy

(11-03-2017 06:59 PM)dancingNMSUaggie Wrote:  Shaq is a punk. He flipped off the Aggie fans at GCU arena last year. Classy

Was kinda hoping him and Tay would be able to recreate that CC magic, but it is clear the game is too fast for him at this level.

I would honestly give us a lower grade. I thought the second unit was sloppy with the ball, but did a good job on the defensive side of the ball. Lever will likely be playing the 5 on the second unit when Josh comes back and that unit should then look a lot better offensively because they can space the floor better with Lever out there as opposed to Smith. Damari also looked really good out there. I would say that Shaq is going to be ridding the pine most of the year if he continues to practice like he played last night.
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I would probably lean more to taking Vernon out. I would start Benson, Braun, Oscar Lever, Blumbergs personally. In all reality though I think it is something that gets played around with all year up until WAC play starts. I think they looked pretty good on all levels of the ball. Defensively they weren’t going to hold a team to under 30% shooting from the field at the end of the day. I especially loved the energy the Euros showed late in the game, diving for loose balls when the Lopes were up big. I’m very hopeful for this season!!!

No way Vernon is out of the starting rotation. His minutes might go down with that log jam in the front court, but I don't see Majerle benching a senior for a freshman.

(11-04-2017 03:10 PM)gleadley Wrote:  No way Vernon is out of the starting rotation. His minutes might go down with that log jam in the front court, but I don't see Majerle benching a senior for a freshman.

I second that. I could honestly see coach swapping out the two freshman based on who has the hot hand and is getting in foul trouble less. One thing I noticed about Alessandro is that he puts his hands behind his back occasionally on D when he is getting backed down. I would assume that is to keep him from being tempted to swipe at the ball, but I feel like it also hurts him defensively.

CSUB 84 Biola 64. Didn't find out this was being streamed until the second half but if anyone is interested there's a replay here. Not great quality but I didn't expect any video so it's nice. Offense is looking even better than last year and this group is even more athletic. Joiner is so good. Durham taking on an expanded role nicely as expected. Holden is stepping up massively and playing extremely well. He had 16 points and 5 assists in 25 minutes today. He is super quick reminds me a lot of Basile. McCall, Justin Davis and Lee look like they will contribute right away. Davis especially is really good on defense and the glass. McCall is really athletic and should be good scoring off the bench. Defense just as suffocating. Really didn't know how the young guys would be right away but they all look legit and ready to contribute. That is the key for the season and they all look ready. The future definitely looks bright. This team definitely isn't going away anytime soon. D2 but this with the Long Beach result and I have a great feeling about this year. Oh and last thing the new announcer is awesome haha.

https://www.facebook.com/csubroadrunners...409873934/

NMSU's second exhibition against Texas Tech did not go well: 84-54 Texas Tech.

(11-05-2017 04:18 PM)NeptunianEmp Wrote:  NMSU's second exhibition against Texas Tech did not go well: 84-54 Texas Tech.

Thats Sugar coating it.

Grade for TT game: F

(11-05-2017 04:40 PM)CrimsonPhantom Wrote:  

(11-05-2017 04:18 PM)NeptunianEmp Wrote:  NMSU's second exhibition against Texas Tech did not go well: 84-54 Texas Tech.

Thats Sugar coating it.

Grade for TT game: F

Would you care to elaborate. Didn't have the ability to watch/listen to the game, so I am looking for some analysis.

Texas Tech has size and is athletic. Gray, Stevenson, Zach Smith and Zhaire Smith had 45 points and were near perfect 16-of-17 shooting. That had a lot to do with the final score obviously. NMSU was limited to 18/52 shooting and shot 10/30 from three. Aggies were 8/12 with FT's but had 24 turnovers which turned into 39 Texas Tech points. N'Dir had 16 points. It was a crappy game for the Aggies like GCU's game at Nevada it doesnt count. Best to forget it and move on.

(11-06-2017 02:26 AM)ThunderDan49 Wrote:  

(11-05-2017 04:40 PM)CrimsonPhantom Wrote:  

(11-05-2017 04:18 PM)NeptunianEmp Wrote:  NMSU's second exhibition against Texas Tech did not go well: 84-54 Texas Tech.

Thats Sugar coating it.

Grade for TT game: F

Would you care to elaborate. Didn't have the ability to watch/listen to the game, so I am looking for some analysis.

As our beat writer said:

Quote:There weren't a lot of positives for NMSU on Sunday, other than the fact it got to play a team like Texas Tech before the season officially starts.

http://www.lcsun-news.com/story/sports/c...834337001/

(11-06-2017 11:07 AM)CrimsonPhantom Wrote:  

(11-06-2017 02:26 AM)ThunderDan49 Wrote:  

(11-05-2017 04:40 PM)CrimsonPhantom Wrote:  

(11-05-2017 04:18 PM)NeptunianEmp Wrote:  NMSU's second exhibition against Texas Tech did not go well: 84-54 Texas Tech.

Thats Sugar coating it.

Grade for TT game: F

Would you care to elaborate. Didn't have the ability to watch/listen to the game, so I am looking for some analysis.

As our beat writer said:

Quote:There weren't a lot of positives for NMSU on Sunday, other than the fact it got to play a team like Texas Tech before the season officially starts.

http://www.lcsun-news.com/story/sports/c...834337001/

I think as long you guys limit the turnovers by the time league play rolls around, you guys should be fine. I get that Jans doesn't want to live or die by the 3, but that is the only way to be competitive nowadays, the analytics show that you have to be able to shoot the 3 to win. I think more of a 50-50 split would be better for 2 and 3 point shots.

Very gracious responses from GCU guys here. Now reality. Buddies that actually went to the game told me we looked disjointed and lost vs. Texas Tech. I was out our exhibition vs. that Oklahoma team and we did not look very good either. I hope I'm wrong but I think it's going to be a tough OCC time for NMSU. I'm hoping we get our act together by WAC play or else we are easily looking at a 4th place regular season finish.