Analyzing differences between NM State basketball’s strong CUSA start, recent cold spell

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New Mexico State is looking to get its high back.

The Aggies (11-9, 4-3 Conference USA) are on a three-game losing streak after starting conference play 4-0. There’s never an easy day in CUSA, and NM State’s next game against conference co-leader Middle Tennessee (14-6, 5-2) at 5:30 p.m. Thursday on the road won’t make things easier. The Blue Raiders have CUSA’s third-highest scoring offense at 77.6 points per game and MTSU’s Essam Mostafa leads the conference with 8.9 rebounds per game.

Aggies coach Jason Hooten has pinpointed some of the reasons behind their recent run of losses, including offensive and rebounding issues. The most recent loss came in a 65-59 loss to Jacksonville State last Saturday after falling 69-56 to Kennesaw State last Thursday. NM State previously defeated Sam Houston, Louisiana Tech, UTEP and Florida International to start conference play.

Here’s what’s behind the Aggies’ recent cold spell, and the differences between their last three games compared with their 4-0 start in CUSA play:

More: New Mexico State men’s basketball looks to get offense going in upcoming road trip

Offensive regression

Since last Saturday’s loss to the Gamecocks, Hooten has spoken at length about improving his NM State’s shooting.

The Aggies shot above 40% in all four conference wins this season, and over 50% in wins against LA Tech and UTEP. They haven’t hit that mark in their three conference losses though, including a season-low 30.8% mark against the Owls.

Hooten believes offensive execution improved against JSU, but wants to start seeing more shots fall down.

“The difference in us winning and losing right now is the shots going in,” Hooten said on Monday. “We’ve shot 30-something percent for four straight games. I thought (against) FIU and I thought (against) Liberty, I thought it was maybe even a little (against) Kennesaw, I thought it was execution. But Saturday night, I thought we executed pretty well. You just got to make shots.”

The Aggies also haven’t scored more than 60…

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Source link : https://sports.yahoo.com/analyzing-differences-between-nm-state-110145845.html

Author : Las Cruces Sun-News

Publish date : 2025-01-30 11:01:00

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