New Mexico State Aggies men's basketball
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| New Mexico State Aggies | |||||||||||||||||||||
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| University | New Mexico State University | ||||||||||||||||||||
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| Conference | WAC | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Location | Las Cruces, NM | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Head Coach | Marvin Menzies (1st year) | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Arena | Pan American Center (Capacity: 12,482) |
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| Nickname | Aggies | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Colors | Crimson and White
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| Uniforms | |||||||||||||||||||||
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| NCAA Tournament Final Four | |||||||||||||||||||||
| 1970 | |||||||||||||||||||||
| NCAA Tournament Sweet Sixteen | |||||||||||||||||||||
| 1952, 1968, 1969, 1970, 1992* | |||||||||||||||||||||
| NCAA Tournament Appearances | |||||||||||||||||||||
| 1952, 1959, 1960, 1967, 1968, 1969, 1970, 1971, 1975, 1979, 1990, 1991, 1992*, 1993*, 1994*, 1999, 2007 *vacated by NCAA[1] |
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The New Mexico State Aggies Basketball team is the basketball team that represent New Mexico State University in Las Cruces, New Mexico. The school's team currently competes in the Western Athletic Conference. Aggie Basketball has seen 17 NCAA Tournament appearances, 5 NIT Tournament appearances and 14 conference championships. The team last played in the NCAA Division I Men's Basketball Tournament in 2007. The Aggies are currently coached by Marvin Menzies.
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[edit] History
NMSU Basketball has seen much success throughout the years, even making an NCAA Final Four appearance in 1970. In addition to the 1970 Final Four appearance, the Aggies also advanced to the NCAA Tournament's "Sweet Sixteen" in 1992, their best showing during the largely successful 11-year coaching tenure of Neil McCarthy. The McCarthy era came to a sudden and tumultuous end in 1997 when, two days before the start of fall practice, he was fired amid a massive academic fraud scandal. NMSU alumnus Lou Henson, who had previously coached the Aggies during their dominant era of the late 1960's to early 1970's before departing for a very successful 21-year run at Illinois, was lured from retirement to coach the team on an interim basis for the 1997-98 season. Following that year Henson agreed to stay on as head coach on a permanent basis, leading the Aggies back to the NCAA Tournament in 1999. Henson continued to coach the Aggies until being sidelined by Non-Hodgkin Lymphoma prior to the 2004-05 season. Due to Henson's illness the Aggies were led that year by assistant coach Tony Stubblefield, who guided the squad to a dismal 6-24 record, by far the school's worst season in twenty years. Henson officially announced his retirement from coaching in January of 2005, and Stubblefield remained interim head coach for the remainder of the season.
On March 31, 2005, NMSU hired 13-year NBA veteran Reggie Theus as head men's basketball coach. In his first season, Theus turned the Aggies from a 6-24 squad in 2004-05 to a 16-14 team in the 2005-06 season despite moving from the Sun Belt Conference to the Western Athletic Conference, which is generally considered a much stronger league. The Aggies' ten game improvement matched the fifth best turn-around for a Division I men's basketball team. In Theus' second year the Aggies finished the regular season at 22-8, good for second place in the WAC. The Aggies proceeded to win the WAC Tournament on their home floor and earn an automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament, their first appearance in the event since 1999. The Aggies battled hard but ultimately fell 79-67 to Kevin Durant-led Texas in the first round, finishing the season at 25-9. However, in June 2007 Theus left NMSU to take over the head coaching position of the NBA's Sacramento Kings. Marvin Menzies has been named to succeed him at NMSU. Like Theus before him, Menzies came to NMSU after having been an assistant to Rick Pitino at Louisville, but has no previous Division I head coaching experience. Nonetheless, Menzies inherits a talent-laden team that is favored by many to repeat as WAC champions and return to the NCAA Tournament in 2007-08.
[edit] NCAA Tournament Results
The Aggies have appeared in 17 NCAA Tournaments. Their combined record is 9-20.
| Year | Result |
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| 1952 | Regional Fourth Place |
| 1959 | First Round |
| 1960 | First Round |
| 1967 | First Round |
| 1968 | Regional Third Place |
| 1969 | Regional Fourth Place |
| 1970 | Third Place |
| 1971 | First Round |
| 1975 | First Round |
| 1979 | First Round |
| 1990 | First Round |
| 1991 | First Round |
| 1992 | Sweet Sixteen* |
| 1993 | Second Round* |
| 1994 | First Round* |
| 1999 | First Round |
| 2007 | First Round |
[edit] Aggies in the NBA
- Bill Allen
- Jim Bostic
- Randy Brown
- Jimmy Collins
- Steve Colter
- Charlie Criss
- Mike Dabich
- Reggie Jordan
- Sam Lacey
- Bob Priddy
- John Williamson
[edit] See also
[edit] External links
[edit] References
- ^ Johnson, Gary; Straziscar, Sean; Senappe, Bonnie; Williams, Jeff & Buerge, Kevin (October 2007), Official 2008 NCAA Men's Basketball Records Book, National Collegiate Athletic Association, pp. 51, ISSN 1089-5280, <http://www.ncaa.org/library/records/basketball/m_basketball_records_book/2008/2008_m_basketball_records.pdf>
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