NMSU Men and Women in NCAA Basketball Tournament

 

Underdog Aggie men take on Baylor Friday and the underdog women face Stanford Saturday

New Mexico State has both its men and women in the NCAA Tournament while the University of New Mexico is on the outside looking in with recent negative news to be concerned with

MEN’S: NMSU vs. Baylor University Friday March 17, 2017 10:40am MST

WOMEN’S: NMSU vs. Stanford University Saturday March 18, 2017 11:30am MST

By ARNIE LESHIN | March 16, 2017

There are woes in Lobo land and joy in Aggie country.

That’s college basketball, the University of New Mexico men’s and women’s teams, the men’s and women’s teams of New Mexico State.

While both the Aggie teams have qualified for the Big Dance, March Madness, the NCAA tournament, the Lobos’ season is over. No post-season for either.

After putting together a 22-game win streak, NMS stumbled a bit down the stretch, settled for second place in its conference, but then came from behind at regular-season winner Cal State Bakersfield to claim the conference tournament final and receive an automatic berth in the NCAA tournament.

Under first-year head coach, Rich Weir, who was an assistant for several years with the program, his Aggies enter the opening round with a 24-6 record and a tough task against Baylor (30-3) at the BOK Center in Tulsa, Okla. Game time is scheduled for 10:40 a.m. on Friday.

The New Mexico State women are playing Saturday morning, 11:30 o’clock, and bring a 24-6 record versus 2^nd seeded Stanford (28-5) at Manhattan, Kan.

But for UNM, the news was different.

The men’s team learned that starting guard Elijah Brown, a 6-foot-4 junior, has been suspended by the Mountain West Conference. He has been suspended for the first game next season after being found repeatedly violating the conference’s sportsmanship rule.

He had been named the MWC pre-season Player of the Year last November, now the question is does he return for his final campaign with the Lobos or does he enter the NBA college draft, which could in turn find him in the NBA’s D League or in Europe or South America.

He was assessed a flagrant foul in UNM”s loss to Fresno State in the first round of the conference tournament in Las Vegas. He was caught tripping Bulldog post Terrell Carter when the two were transitioning down the court.

He was given another flagrant earlier in the season versus conference rival Boise State, and was also called for a pair of technical fouls in game one against Conference foe Air Force.

Lobo officials appealed the suspension, but their appeal was denied, which led to the announcement.

Brown was the team’s leading scorer each of the last two years after transferring from Butler. He averaged 21.7 his sophomore season and 18.9 as a junior. He also averaged 5.2 rebounds, 3.1 assists, and led the team in steals with 39.

The women’s program also received a jolt, but not along the same lines as junior Jayda Bovero and freshmen Hannah Sjerven and Brittany Panetti informed head coach Mike Bradley that they were transferring.

Bovero, a 5-11 guard, started in 28 career contests as a Lobo and made 95 appearances. This season she averaged 4.3 points and 3.6 rebounds while averaging 23 minutes per game.

Panetti, a 6-1 power forward, appeared in only eight games, averaging 2.6 points and 1.3 rebounds.

The 6-3 forward Sjerven played in 13 games with no starts. She averaged 2.8 points and 1.8 rebounds. She did have a breakout game in scoring a career-high 18 points in a win over Air Force, as well 14 points and a career-best 11 rebounds in a victory over Northern New Mexico.

All three felt it was best for pursue other options with other programs.

As for New Mexico State once again landing in the NCAA tournament, it comes in as underdogs, the men as a 14^th seed, the women as a 15^th seed.

While the women return for a third-straight year, the men missed out last season, but are now in their fifth appearances in the last six years.

In the men’s task against Baylor, on paper the Bears of the Big 12 are bigger and have more length than the Aggies, especially in the post, and this can create bad match ups.

But Baylor has also lost in the first round the past two seasons, to No. 12 Yale and to No. 14 Georgia State. But that’s history as NMS now faces its toughest opponent of the season. To offset this, the Aggies must hit their 3s, their perimeter shots, and perhaps slow the Bears down while on offense.

The women, too, should have their problems with tournament-tested Stanford in their fifth appearance in this post-season event under head coach Mark Trakh. They did put together a program-best 17-game win streak, but haven’t played the strong slate that the Pac 12 Cardinal have.

The Aggies do have five experienced seniors, but Stanford has more talent to go with more size and have traveled this road before, even winning the national championship.

But there are always surprises in the post-season and NMS would like nothing better than turning in upsets.