Wasn't that fun?

Venturing into dangerous territory, at least as far as citizens in Las Cruces and the surrounding areas and Ruston-ites are concerned, what a couple of games! The WAC showed well even though there is disappointment in two fan bases.

Utah State survives scare
Jared Eborn
Deseret News
March 14, 2009

Utah State won't have to worry about its bubble-bursting for at least another day.

Tyler Newbold took a pass from Tai Wesley and dropped in a 12-foot jump shot from the left wing with 3.1 seconds left to give the Aggies their first lead of the game since the 5:12 mark of the first half and held off any talk about brackets, bubbles or the drama associated with a gut-wrenching 71-70 win over New Mexico State.

The win gives Utah State a 29-4 record and sends them to the Western Athletic Conference championship game tonight at 8 p.m.

"Wow," was all Stew Morrill could say with his first breath during the post-game press conference...

Go here for the remainder.

Shawn Harrison reports in:

What a comeback
Shawn Harrison
Herald Journal
March 14, 2009

A dream season continues for the Utah State men’s basketball team.

It came down to the final seconds Friday night at the Lawlor Events Center, but the Aggies are headed to the Western Athletic Conference Tournament championship thanks to a last-second shot by Tyler Newbold. USU did not lead the entire second half until Newbold hit a 12-foot shot with 3.1 seconds to play.

“Wow,” said Aggie head coach Stew Morrill after his team nipped New Mexico State, 71-70, in the first semifinal game of the night. “I don’t remember in the 23 years I’ve been a head coach, that I’ve ever been prouder of a team. We were in trouble at half.”

Yes, the Aggies in blue were in trouble. NMSU had built a 47-34 lead at the break and were lighting it up from all over the court, especially from 3-point land — connecting on eight straight treys during one stretch.

USU, however, came up with a plan to chip away at the deficit in four-minute increments and turned this Friday the 13th into a celebration instead of what was looking like a nightmare. The Aggies in red will be the ones haunted on their return to Las Cruces, N.M...

Go here for the remainder.

Jared Eborn also has a feature on Tyler Newbold plus some mascot extracurricular activity.

Jeff Hunter/Herald Journal twines Tyler Newbold and Bruce Springsteen here in just the kind of cultural referencing we love and a Boss one at that

Here's Shawn Harrison with a Tai Wesley-centered feature.

Jason Groves check in with the southern Aggie report:

Aggie basketball battled No. 1 Utah State, eventually falls in season finale
Jason Groves
Las Cruces Sun-News
3/14/2009

Top-ranked Utah State advanced to today's Western Athletic Conference Tournament championship game with a 71-70 semifinal victory over No. 5 New Mexico State at the Lawlor Events Center in Reno, Nev., on Friday.

The Aggies finished the season 17-15 after losing for the third time this season to the UtAgs while Utah State returns to the final for the first time since 2007 after erasing a 13-point halftime deficit.

"We were making shots in the first half and they took us out of our stuff in the man (defense) in the second half," Aggies coach Marvin Menzies said. "We went up against a really good team that did what it had to do defensively to get back in it. I'm really proud of the way my guys fought but we were just one possession short, like last year, of getting to the next game, which is really painful. But after a few days of reflecting, we will start to feel good about the program again..."

Go here for the remainder.

This doesn't sound good -- further details on the mascot imbroglio. Hey guy (in this case, the USU bull), it isn't about you -- it's about the game and doing a Nevada fans bidding is classless. We think yes, a castration is needed and there are many a New Mexico State fan that will volunteer to do the slicing and dicing.

Mascots get physical at WAC basketball tourney
Sun-News report
3/14/2009

The intensity of Utah State's 71-70 win over New Mexico State in the final 3.1 seconds Friday night spilled over to the sidelines where the mascots for the two teams named Aggies got physical with each other down the stretch of a Western Athletic Conference basketball tourney semifinal.

During a time out with 7 seconds left and New Mexico State leading 70-69, Utah State mascot "Big Blue" the bull confronted the New Mexico State's cowboy mascot "Pistol Pete" and ripped off his fake mustache...

Go here for the remainder.

Chris Murray offers a plethora of articles on Nevada's win over Louisiana Tech:

Johnson, Babbitt power Pack to title game
Chris Murray
Reno Gazette-Journal
March 14, 2009

Chances are the rafters of Lawlor Events Center are still bellowing with the howls of Nevada Wolf Pack basketball fans this morning.

All thanks to a pair of local boys and a team that is one win away from an automatic berth in the NCAA Tournament.

Second-seeded Nevada dug out of an early hole to race past Louisiana Tech, the sixth seed, 77-68, in a semifinal game of the WAC Tournament on Friday night at a raucous Lawlor. The win set up a 7 p.m. championship game with top-seeded Utah State, the league’s regular-season champion.

The team sleep-walked through the first few minutes, but played one of its best halves of the season after intermission.

“The beginning of the game, I’m not sure we knew what planet we were on,” Nevada coach Mark Fox said. “We didn’t know if we were in the state of Nevada. We didn’t know where we were. We made so many mental errors. Things that we wanted to do, we did every one of them wrong. Offensively. Defensively. We just could not settle down.”

It was the local duo of Armon Johnson and Luke Babbitt who did the offensive damage, pouring in 24 and 23 points, respectively...

Go here for the remainder.

Here's Chris Murray with his quote-a-thon after the Nevada - LA TECH contest:

Post-game wrap from Pack's semifinal win over La. Tech
Chris Murray
Reno Gazette-Journal
3/14/2009

Two down, one to go for the Wolf Pack. It was duo night Friday at Lawlor Events Center with Nevada's Armon Johnson and Luke Babbitt trading blows with Louisiana Tech's Kyle Gibson and Magnum Rolle. Johnson and Babbitt combined for 47 points (on 18-of-29 shooting), 12 rebounds and six assists. Gibson and Rolle combined for 49 points (on 15-of-25 shooting), 10 rebounds and five assists. Pretty similar lines. The difference was the supporting casts and Nevada's torrid second half, in which the Pack shot 69 percent and held Tech to 28 percent shooting.

Next up is the championship game against top-ranked Utah State, which beat New Mexico State with a last-second shot Friday. The Pack-Aggie game is at 7 p.m. Saturday and is a rematch of the 2006 WAC Tournament final at Lawlor, which Nevada won in overtime. Now, this is where I would like to give you some quotes from Johnson and Babbitt about their huge nights, but neither were made available to the media despite a request to bring them to the interview room. Gibson and Rolle were made available and here are some quotes from them, the coaches and Lyndale Burleson, who knocked down three big threes...

Go here for the remainder.

Here's Joe Santoro/Nevada Appeal with his game report:

Nevada basketball in title game against Utah State
Joe Santoro
Nevada Appeal

Mark Fox looked around Lawlor Events Center early in Friday night’s Western Athletic Conference Tournament semifinal game and wasn’t sure he recognized the surroundings.

“In the beginning of the game I’m not sure we even knew what planet we were on,” the Nevada Wolf Pack coach said.

The Wolf Pack, thanks to 69 percent shooting in the second half, recovered from their slow start to roll over the Louisiana Tech Bulldogs, 77-68, setting up a WAC title-game match up with the Utah State Aggies tonight at 7 p.m. (ESPN2). Utah State, which lost to the Wolf Pack at Lawlor Events Center two weeks ago, also recovered from a sluggish first half to beat the New Mexico State Aggies, 71-70, in the other WAC semifinal.

“We couldn’t have started any slower,” said Fox, whose team improved to 21-11. “We were so unattached mentally...”

Go here for the remainder.

Our best wishes go out to Tech's Brandon Gibson, who suffered a knee injury during the game.