Hawaii vs New Mexico State (-1.5) - 8:20pm Pacific - Game #691-692

It has been a great season for the Aggies and first year head coach Reggie Theus has quickly become a hot commodity.  He is one of the favorites to win conference coach of the year and the school is said to have "restructured" his contract earlier this week.  The team even had a pep rally on Tuesday as the team was leaving for Nevada.  New Mexico State is second to only Nevada as the hottest team in the conference.  The Aggies had won six straight games including road wins at Pacific and at Utah State, before losing at Hawaii in the season finale.  However, they played that game without their top guard Elijah Ingram due to a hamstring injury.  Ingram could have played but Theus opted to rest him for this week.  The team still almost pulled off the upset.  Hawaii used an effective zone defense to slow down the game and rally from an early deficit.  However, NMSU should do much better the second time around against the zone.  Ingram's ability to shoot over and/or penetrate the zone will make a big difference, as will not playing in Hawaii.  The Warriors lost starting center Ahmet Gueye for the season two games back.  Gueye led Hawaii in rebounding, was third in scoring, and led the conference in blocked shots.  Hawaii was very thin to begin with and now have zero frontcourt players off the bench.  Foul trouble and fatigue will be major issues for them.  Without their top inside scoring threat, Hawaii scored only 12 second half points in home loss to Louisiana Tech last Saturday.  If New Mexico State can figure out a way to speed up the tempo of this game they will cruise to victory.  

 

RAS Official Play:  New Mexico State -1.5  1 UNIT