Written by: NMSU Athletic Dept.
View the 2008/2009 Women's Basketball Schedule
LAS CRUCES, N.M. - New Mexico State women's basketball head coach Darin Spence announced the release of the 2008-09 schedule on Monday, July 21. The schedule is highlighted by 14 regular season home games, a spot in the Maggie Dixon Classic in San Diego, Calif. and a road game against perennial Big 12 power Kansas.
The 30 scheduled regular season games tie for the third most in program history and the most since the 1990-91 season when NMSU played in 31 regular season games.
After setting a program record for the most home wins in a season a year ago with 16, the Aggies hope to use their 14 home games to their advantage once again. NMSU went over the 300 win mark in its own Pan American Center last year and are 313-137 (.696) all-time in the Pan Am.
The Aggies will face six teams in the upcoming season that advanced onto postseason play in 2007-08 (four were in the NCAA Tournament and two were in the WNIT). NMSU also plays five games this season in the state of California, where the Aggies have been very successful in recruiting and there are six players from the state on the current roster.
Coming off a 23-9 season last year, head coach Darin Spence believes he has put together a well balanced schedule that will allow his team to have another successful season.
"We really have a good mixture of games against competitive teams with obviously Kansas being the big program that we will face," Spence said. "We play a handful of teams that played in the postseason and we have a good balance of home, away and some neutral site games at the Maggie Dixon Classic in San Diego.
"We have a good number of games out west for all of our players that are from out there so their families can see them play and it's great for our recruiting efforts out there as well. Our WAC schedule is really balanced this year, which is great."
New Mexico State will play in a couple of milestone games this season. The 13th game of the season, NMSU's second game in the Maggie Dixon Classic, will be the 1,000th game in program history.
The Aggies also enter the year with 541 all-time victories, so win number nine of the season will put the Aggies at 550. The Aggies enter the season with the third most all-time victories out of all the schools in the WAC.
Practice will start in mid-October and then the Aggies will play in two preseason exhibition games at home before the start of the regular season. The first is on Nov. 2 against Western New Mexico and the second is three days later on Nov. 5 against the Melbourne Australian Roos. This is not the first time NMSU has brought in the Roos for an exhibition, as the Aggies beat them 64-60 in a preseason exhibition on Nov. 9, 2005.
After the two preseason tune-ups, New Mexico State's season-opening game comes on Nov. 14 at home against UC Irvine. This marks the second season in a row that the Aggies open up against the Anteaters, but this is the first time since 2005 that the Aggies have started out the year at home. NMSU defeated UCI 65-61 last year in Irvine, Calif.
The second game of the year comes two days later at the Pan Am against Cal Poly. This will be the seventh meeting all-time against the two schools and the first since Dec. 17, 2005.
On Nov. 20 the Aggies face I-10 rival UTEP for the first of two meetings on the year. They play in El Paso for the first game and then host the Miners on Dec. 7. UTEP, who advanced to the second round of the NCAA Tournament last year, has won the last six games in the series.
New Mexico State travels out to Kent, Ohio to face Kent State on Nov. 23 for what will be the first ever game in program history played in the state of Ohio. Last year NMSU defeated the Golden Flashes, 72-55 in the Pan American Center.
Next up is the Aggie Hotel Encanto Thanksgiving Classic, Nov. 28-29, where Texas A&M Corpus Christi, Loyola (Ill.) University and Western New Mexico all come into town for the tournament at the Pan Am. In day one, WNMU and TAMCC kick off the tournament at 4:00 p.m. and NMSU and Loyola meet for the first time since 1984 at 6:30 p.m.
Day two of the Thanksgiving Classic places WNMU and Loyola in game one at 4:00 p.m. and the Aggies and the Islanders in game two at 6:30 p.m.
The first two games of December could be New Mexico State's toughest back-to-back games of the season. The first of the two is on Dec. 4 at New Mexico in the first of two Rio Grande Rivalry games. The Aggies snapped a 22-game losing streak to the Lobos last season, but NMSU has not won in Albuquerque since 1995 (a span of 12 games).
From that rivalry game onto another with the second game of the season against UTEP at home on Dec. 7.
After defeating Northern Colorado by two points at home last season, the Aggies travel to Greeley, Colo. for a Dec. 16 game against the Bears. NMSU has a 4-2 all-time record against UNC, but are just 1-2 against them in Greeley.
The Dec. 20 home game against the Lobos is last game at home for the next 26 days, as the Aggies begin a six-game road trip on Dec. 22 at Long Beach State. The two former Big West Conference rivals last met in 2003 and New Mexico State owns a 13-7 series record.
Following Christmas the Aggies head back out to California for the Maggie Dixon Classic, which is being hosted by the University of San Diego. NMSU faces Long Island University on Dec. 28 and then will face he winner of Illinois-Chicago or San Diego on Dec. 30. UCSD made the 2008 NCAA Tournament last year and finished with a 19-13 record.
New Mexico State's first game in 2009 will be a challenging one, as they head to Lawrence, Kan. to face the Jayhawks. NMSU won the only meeting between the two schools, 64-62, on Jan. 3 in the 1987 Wahine Classic in Honolulu. Last season the Jayhawks advanced to the third round of the WNIT and they were one of 11 Big 12 schools that made the postseason.
"This will be a big test for us and an opportunity to see where we are at going in to WAC play," Spence said. "I'm excited about this series with Kansas and the competition with a good team from the Big 12."
The final two games of the six-game road swing are the first two league games of the season. The first comes on Jan. 8 at Utah State and the second is two days later at Nevada. Last season the Aggies won by 13 in Logan, Utah, but lost in overtime to the Wolf Pack in Reno, Nev.
NMSU is back in Las Cruces for two home games against San Jose State (1/16) and Fresno State (1/18) before hitting the road again for the next three games. The first two come against the two Idaho schools – at Boise State (1/23) and at Idaho (1/25) – and the third is at Louisiana Tech on Jan. 30.
In the month of February the Aggies have their longest home-stand of the season, a four game stretch that puts NMSU in the second half of the conference schedule.
It all starts with home games against the Broncos (2/6) and the Vandals (2/8). The Wolf Pack and New Mexico State meet for the second time on the year (Feb. 13) before the home stand ends with the first of consecutive games against Hawai'i (1/15).
On Feb. 20 the Aggies are out in Honolulu facing the Rainbow Wahine. This is the second consecutive season that NMSU faces UH in back-to-back games. NMSU actually faced Hawai'i three times last year, winning every game by an average of 11.3 points. The Aggies also faced Fresno State in back-to-back games last year and this year's games against UH will mark the 13th time in program history that New Mexico State has faced the same team in back-to-back games in the same season.
Game two of the far west road trip ends at San Jose State on Feb. 22. Last year the Aggies defeated the Spartans by 11 and 16 points respectively and NMSU is 5-1 against SJSU since they joined the WAC.
New Mexico State is at home for two of its final three games of the regular season. The first is against the USU Aggies on Feb. 26 before heading to Fresno State for a March 4 game. Last season the Bulldogs, the WAC Tournament Champion, were the only team to sweep the Aggies in conference play.
The regular season finale is on March 7 against La. Tech. NMSU defeated the Lady Techsters for the first time ever in the regular season last year at home.
After two years of hosting the WAC Tournament, the Aggies will look for continued success in the conference championships at the place where it all started. NMSU has reached the title game of the league tourney in each of the last three years and it all started in 2006 at the Lawlor Events Center in Reno, the site of this seasons championships.
Spence's six WAC Tournament victories in the last three seasons are more than any other coach in the league and the Aggies joined Utah and Louisiana Tech as the only teams in the history of the league's tournament to appear in three-straight title games.
New Mexico State lost six players off last season's squad, but Spence reloaded with another great recruiting class. Senior guard Tyshae Walton and sophomore guard Madison Spence are the Aggies' two returning starters and they will look to lead NMSU to back-to-back 20 win seasons for what would be the sixth time in school history.
