If New Mexico State (10-5) is going to make a serious run at the WAC regular-season title, it will have to find some offense to replace shooting guard Christian Kabongo, who is no longer with the team.
Kabongo was averaging 14.6 points per game, the backcourt scoring complement to power forward Wendell McKines, but missed four games in December for various disciplinary reasons, including making an obscene gesture during a Dec. 11 game against UTEP. Kabongo's long and lean build and athleticism made him a tough matchup for opposing backcourts.
With McKines and veteran point guard Hernst Laroche both seniors, this was expected to be a year that NMSU would be a major factor in the WAC race. But to do so, they'll have to have someone step up and replace the lost production of Kabongo.
NOTES, QUOTES
--New Mexico State split the season series against its two chief rivals -- New Mexico and UTEP. The Aggies won the opening game against the Lobos in Albuquerque, but New Mexico came back with an 89-69 victory in Las Cruces on Dec. 28. The game featured an epic frontcourt battle between NMSU's Wendell McKines (25 points, 15 rebounds) and New Mexico's Drew Gordon (23 points, 19 rebounds).
--The Aggies shot a miserable 33.3 percent (23 of 69) in the 20-point loss to rival New Mexico. NMSU was only 1 of 14 from 3-point range. Menzies was willing to chalk it up as one of those nights. "During the year, you are going to have bad games and we had our worst game of the season at an inopportune time," Menzies was quoted as saying in the Las Cruces Sun-News. "We missed a lot of shots and they made a lot of shots, especially 3-pointers."
--New Mexico State, which plays fast and often gets easy points off its defensive pressure, entered the week leading the WAC in scoring at 78.4 points per game -- about six points better than second-place Hawaii.
BY THE NUMBERS: 46 -- Team-high turnovers for Kabongo, even though he missed three of the first 14 games.
QUOTE TO NOTE: "The rivalry season is over and we would have liked to have been 3-1 or 4-0. That's our goal for next year but it's better than years past." -- Coach Marvin Menzies, in the Las Cruces Sun-News, after his team split vs. New Mexico and UTEP.
THIS WEEK'S GAMES:
--at Louisiana Tech, Jan. 7
KEY MATCHUPS: NSMU's week ends with the beginning of the conference season in Ruston, La. The Bulldogs don't have the kind of offensive firepower that NMSU has, so the Aggies are going to want to dictate the pace. The player to watch for Tech is freshman G Raheem Appleby, who had a recent stretch of three consecutive 20-point games. Tech doesn't have a dominant rebounder, though, so Wendell McKines and Hamidu Rahman should own the glass.
FUTURES MARKET: Freshman SG Daniel Mullings has been the replacement for Kabongo, who missed four starts in December. Mullings, who can also back up PG Hernst Laroche, entered the week averaging 5.9 points in 21.1 minutes per game. He doesn't provide the scoring punch that Kabongo does, but he can be valuable if he provides steady play. Mullings is one of six players on the team from Canada.
PLAYER NOTES
--Senior PF McKines enters the week third in NMSU history with 897 rebounds. It shouldn't be long before he reaches No. 2, held by Slab Jones (951). McKines is making a case for WAC Player of the Year, averaging 18.4 points and 10.7 rebounds through 14 games.
--Senior PG Laroche has improved his outside shooting, hitting 16 of 37 3-point attempts (43.2) through 14 games. He made 31.9 percent as a sophomore and 34.1 percent as a junior.
--Freshman G Terrel de Rouen suffered a torn ACL in the home win over McNeese State on Dec. 21 and is out for the season. He's a local product from Las Cruces who appeared in half of the team's first 12 games, averaging 2.2 points and filling some backup point guard minutes.
