(This is the fortieth installment of Bill Harty’s game recaps as part of The Mid Majority ninth season taking readers to mid-major college basketball games around the country. Visit midmajority.com to find out more about this group-sourced effort to spread the word about the many fine basketball programs around the country that are having success on and off the court while generally not having access to the resources brought to athletic programs by big-time college football. Bill will be recapping most Aggie home games, and the occasional road foray, for both The Mid Majority and bleedCrimson.net.)

I was sure at the end of my nineteen-game week in Las Vegas (the WCC final, all 18 M/W WAC tournament games) that my season was over. I was so tired that I slept the entire trip on the plane home, through the St. Patrick’s Day party at my spouse’s college roommate’s home, and through the family birthday dinner at my sister’s. But late that night, I checked on whether bleedcrimson.net, where my NMSU recaps are published, could get us media credentials for San Jose, where the Aggies were to meet A-10 champion Saint Louis. I had an orphaned free ticket on Southwest that I had been trying to use for over a year; it would expire forever in April. So I gave that a shot and, surprise (!), there was a seat available to get to San Jose. I checked my frequent hotel stayer programs and found that I had enough points for a four-night stay. So, I made the decision that fate was taking me to the NCAA Tournament, reserved a small rental car, obtained the ok for three more days of annual leave, and headed to California. Here’s a snapshot of the east side of the Franklin Mountains from the car on the way to the El Paso airport.   Continue Reading This Post >>

(This is the thirty-ninth installment of Bill Harty’s game recaps as part of The Mid Majority ninth season taking readers to mid-major college basketball games around the country. Visit midmajority.com to find out more about this group-sourced effort to spread the word about the many fine basketball programs around the country that are having success on and off the court while generally not having access to the resources brought to athletic programs by big-time college football. Bill will be recapping most Aggie home games, and the occasional road foray, for both The Mid Majority and bleedCrimson.net.)

Following a Friday of upsets in the WAC Tournament, the championship game matched the third-seeded New Mexico State Aggies (23-10, 14-4 WAC) and the fourth-seeded University of Texas at Arlington Mavericks (19-12, 11-7 WAC). The regular season games between these teams were the first of the conference season for each, a December 29 Maverick 68-47 victory in Arlington, and the final game of the regular season just a week ago, a March 9 Aggie 69-66 victory in Las Cruces. The Aggies reached the final by defeating Idaho, 65-49, and Texas State, 74-65. The Mavericks advanced with wins over Utah State, 83-78, and UTSA, 69-53.   Continue Reading This Post >>

(This is the thirty-eighth installment of Bill Harty’s game recaps as part of The Mid Majority ninth season taking readers to mid-major college basketball games around the country. Visit midmajority.com to find out more about this group-sourced effort to spread the word about the many fine basketball programs around the country that are having success on and off the court while generally not having access to the resources brought to athletic programs by big-time college football. Bill will be recapping most Aggie home games, and the occasional road foray, for both The Mid Majority and bleedCrimson.net.)

Game 7, the first semifinal, of the WAC tournament pitted third seed New Mexico State, a 65-49 winner against Idaho in the tournament’s quarterfinals, against seventh seed Texas State. Texas State began the tournament with a defeat of Seattle, 68-56, in Tuesday’s first round; their quarterfinal was a big upset, defeating regular season co-champion and tournament second-seed Denver, 72-68, led by forward Joel Wright’s thirty-two point effort. The Aggies swept the Bobcats in their regular season meetings, first in Las Cruces, 78-67, and then in San Marcos, 86-72.   Continue Reading This Post >>

(This is the thirty-seventh installment of Bill Harty’s game recaps as part of The Mid Majority ninth season taking readers to mid-major college basketball games around the country. Visit midmajority.com to find out more about this group-sourced effort to spread the word about the many fine basketball programs around the country that are having success on and off the court while generally not having access to the resources brought to athletic programs by big-time college football. Bill will be recapping most Aggie home games, and the occasional road foray, for both The Mid Majority and bleedCrimson.net.)

In the first quarterfinal of this year’s WAC men’s basketball tournament, the third-seeded New Mexico State Aggies played the sixth-seed, the Idaho Vandals. New Mexico State and Idaho are the only two schools that were in the WAC last year that will return next year, so this matchup is what passes for continuity in WAC basketball these days. The Aggies (21-10 overall, 14-4 WAC) have had two tough games against the Vandals (12-17, 7-11 WAC) this season, winning the January contest in Moscow 71-70 on a free throw by guard Daniel Mullings with 3.5 seconds remaining. The Las Cruces game in February was also taken by the Aggies, 76-74, on a pair of Mullings free throws with fourteen seconds remaining.   Continue Reading This Post >>

(This is the thirty-fifth installment of Bill Harty’s game recaps as part of The Mid Majority ninth season taking readers to mid-major college basketball games around the country. Visit midmajority.com to find out more about this group-sourced effort to spread the word about the many fine basketball programs around the country that are having success on and off the court while generally not having access to the resources brought to athletic programs by big-time college football. Bill will be recapping most Aggie home games, and the occasional road foray, for both The Mid Majority and bleedCrimson.net.)

After their 76-63 win over the UT-Arlington Mavericks on Tuesday evening, the Aggies of New Mexico State faced the Redhawks of Seattle University. The Redhawks (18-9 overall, 15-3 WAC) entered the tournament as its top seed, having won one more conference game than second place Utah State. Seattle’s only losses of the conference season were on the road (at UTSA, San Jose State and Utah State); the Redhawks had won seven straight games before this one. Coach Joan Bonvicini, who has led teams to WCAA, PCAA/Big West, and Pacific 10 conference titles, seeks to add the WAC crown to her record.   Continue Reading This Post >>

(This is the thirty-fourth installment of Bill Harty’s game recaps as part of The Mid Majority ninth season taking readers to mid-major college basketball games around the country. Visit midmajority.com to find out more about this group-sourced effort to spread the word about the many fine basketball programs around the country that are having success on and off the court while generally not having access to the resources brought to athletic programs by big-time college football. Bill will be recapping most Aggie home games, and the occasional road foray, for both The Mid Majority and bleedCrimson.net.)

It has been a long season for both teams in this game between the eight-seeded San Jose State Spartans (9-19 overall, 3-14 WAC) and the ninth-seeded UTSA Roadrunners (8-21 overall, also 3-14 WAC). The Spartans have struggled through several player suspensions. James Kinney, leading scorer for SJSU in fourteen of their first fifteen games, is no longer listed on the roster. Internet rumor predicted the firing of coach George Nessman weeks ago; new athletic director Gene Bleymaier, most recently at Boise State, is making a number of changes.   Continue Reading This Post >>

(This is the thirty-fifth installment of Bill Harty’s game recaps as part of The Mid Majority ninth season taking readers to mid-major college basketball games around the country. Visit midmajority.com to find out more about this group-sourced effort to spread the word about the many fine basketball programs around the country that are having success on and off the court while generally not having access to the resources brought to athletic programs by big-time college football. Bill will be recapping most Aggie home games, and the occasional road foray, for both The Mid Majority and bleedCrimson.net.)

With ten schools In the WAC for this year, the tournament starts with first round games on Tuesday among those teams at the bottom of the standings. The first contest, matched the seventh seed, Texas State (10-20 overall, 5-12 WAC), against tenth-seed Seattle (8-21, 3-15 WAC). Texas State swept the team’s closely contested games in the regular season, the Bobcats winning 86-83 in Seattle, and 67-65 in San Marcos.

The tournament is hosted by the Orleans Arena in Las Vegas, which has undergone an amazing switch of logos in the sixteen hours following the conclusion of the West Coast Conference tournament in the same venue. The floor, chairs, doors, banners along the walk from the hotel to the arena and, well everything in the place now sports the WAC logo.  Continue Reading This Post >>

(This is the thirty-fourth installment of Bill Harty’s game recaps as part of The Mid Majority ninth season taking readers to mid-major college basketball games around the country. Visit midmajority.com to find out more about this group-sourced effort to spread the word about the many fine basketball programs around the country that are having success on and off the court while generally not having access to the resources brought to athletic programs by big-time college football. Bill will be recapping most Aggie home games, and the occasional road foray, for both The Mid Majority and bleedCrimson.net.)

New Mexico State women’s basketball closed out the regular season in Arlington by defeating the Mavericks of UT-Arlington, 72-66. These two teams also played to begin the conference season; the game in Arlington on December 29 also went to the visiting team, the Mavericks defeated the Aggies, 62-59; my recap of that game was titled, “Cold Shooting Beats Ice Cold Shooting.” In mid-February, the Arlington athletic director informed sixth-year head coach Samantha Morrow that her contract would not be renewed at the end of the season; she decided to step down immediately to let the search process begin. The Mavericks have since been coached by interim head coach Karen Blair, previously an assistant on Morrow’s staff.  Continue Reading This Post >>

(This is the thirty-third installment of Bill Harty’s game recaps as part of The Mid Majority ninth season taking readers to mid-major college basketball games around the country. Visit midmajority.com to find out more about this group-sourced effort to spread the word about the many fine basketball programs around the country that are having success on and off the court while generally not having access to the resources brought to athletic programs by big-time college football. Bill will be recapping most Aggie home games, and the occasional road foray, for both The Mid Majority and bleedCrimson.net.)

What a season for the Louisiana Tech Bulldogs! Coming into the final weekend of the regular season, they had twenty-six wins, having won all fourteen home games and the last eighteen contests consecutively, the nation’s longest active streak. Although two of their three losses (at Texas A&M, Northwestern State, and McNeese State) were to teams of questionable standing, the most recent one of those was on December 12. The first win of the streak on December 17 at UALR was attended by my Ballyfest Destiny teammate, Craig Caswell. The Bulldogs made a strong statement on the opening weekend of the conference season, sweeping two of the three teams expected to contend with them for the WAC title: Denver (68-60) and New Mexico State (81-72); the NMSU win ended a seven-game win streak for the Aggies over the Bulldogs. By a strange quirk of scheduling (or some amazing foresight by the WAC office), the Bulldogs’ road trip to New Mexico State and Denver is on this final weekend of the regular season, and they are the top three teams in the standings. LA Tech has a little extra motivation against New Mexico State this year; their miracle run through the 2012 WAC Tournament, including wins over favored Utah State and top seed Nevada, was stopped by the Aggies in the final.   Continue Reading This Post >>

(This is the thirty-second installment of Bill Harty’s game recaps as part of The Mid Majority ninth season taking readers to mid-major college basketball games around the country. Visit midmajority.com to find out more about this group-sourced effort to spread the word about the many fine basketball programs around the country that are having success on and off the court while generally not having access to the resources brought to athletic programs by big-time college football. Bill will be recapping most Aggie home games, and the occasional road foray, for both The Mid Majority and bleedCrimson.net.)

This weekend’s INCREDIBLY LARGE GAME in the WAC was the second meeting of the year between the second- and third-place teams in the standings, the Denver Pioneers (18-8 overall, 13-2 in the WAC) and the New Mexico State Aggies (19-9, 12-3).   Continue Reading This Post >>