Aggies make final preparations before meeting Auburn in NCAA Tournament

The New Mexico State men’s basketball team got a chance to take the court in Salt Lake City on Wednesday about 24 hours ahead of their NCAA Tournament opener against Auburn.

Though it was just a practice, the band and cheerleaders were still out in full force, cheering on their team.

Many members of the Aggie faithful are optimistic entering the game Thursday at 11:30 a.m. MT on TNT against Auburn. They say the fact the Aggies won their last game by 32 points in the WAC title game against Grand Canyon gives them hope they can knock off the SEC Tournament champion.

“We’re going to win,” said NMSU cheerleader Martin Flores. “Our team did really well in the WAC Tournament. They were going off. Once they started up, they were just draining everything, you know.”

While NMSU is one of the deepest teams in the country, they are running up against an Auburn team that many feel presents matchup headaches for the Aggies.

“If we try to just step into the center of the ring and just duke it out with them, we’re going to have problems,” said NMSU head coach Chris Jans. So, we’ve got to try to control tempo as best we can and then pick our spots.”

NMSU has proven it has what it takes to compete with power conference foes this year. Earlier in the season, the team met Kansas in Kansas City and held an eight-point lead in the second half until the Jayhawks rallied for a three-point win.

Incidentally, NMSU could meet Kansas again in the next round if both teams take care of business in their openers in Salt Lake City.

“You don’t know which team’s shots are going to fall,” said NMSU Athletic Director Mario Moccia. “But I have no doubt they’ll step up in a big way tomorrow.”