As basketball practice starts, Heiar, Aggies prepare for grueling non-conference schedule

Mike Peake dribbles during a drill on New Mexico State's first day of men's basketball practice Sept. 27. Peake was shot during an incident on the University of New Mexico campus on Saturday, Nov. 19, 2022.

LAS CRUCES – New Mexico State’s men’s basketball team is 41 days from its season opener – one of two non-conference home games against a Division II opponent – and 46 days from the start of a daunting non-conference schedule.

But don’t tell first-year head coach Greg Heiar and the Aggies that their non-conference schedule is a tall task for a program that only returned two scholarship players from a season ago. NMSU wanted the challenge. And the Aggies are here to win, regardless of the opponent.

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“I feel good about our camaraderie, our bond and our belief in each other and moving forward to sacrifice and do what it takes to win, because that’s what we’re here to do: we’re here to win” Heiar said. “On all of our office doors, every coach, it doesn’t say what their title is; it says ‘win’ under their name, because that’s what we’re here to do – we’re here to win. And it’s hard. You hear (football coach) Jerry (Kill) talk about it all the time. Winning is hard, at any level, and it’s going to be hard. And our togetherness and our bond is what can take us over the top.”

Although NMSU won’t play a Power Six opponent in non-conference play, the Aggies’ schedule beginning Nov. 7 through Dec. 22 is nothing short of loaded. NMSU plays nine of its 13 non-conference games away from Las Cruces, and the Aggies only play two home games against Division I opponents – UTEP and New Mexico. NMSU will also face an 11-day stretch from Dec. 3 through Dec. 14 which features a home game against a greatly-improved Lobos team and three road contests at Santa Clara, Duquesne and St. Mary’s. The Aggies will log more than 5,000 miles on the 11-day swing.

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But Heiar, even though he would prefer a few more home games outside of the Aggies’ annual home-and-home contests with the Lobos and Miners, is adamant NMSU’s schedule is nothing short of great.

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“This schedule is going to be definitely challenging, but it’s what (the players) wanted. I asked what schedule you wanted to play, and they said, ‘Coach, we want to play the best,’” Heiar said. “I’m with them I would trade playing a non-DI for a Division I home game any day. It’s just very difficult to get home games.”

The non-conference schedule also features the Las Vegas Invitational Tournament and Don Haskins Sun Bowl Invitational at the Don Haskins Center in El Paso. NMSU will take on San Diego and either UC Irvine or Nicholls State in Las Vegas and Kent State and either North Carolina A&T or UTEP in the Sun Bowl Invitational.

But the Aggies have no doubt they’ll be just fine.

“This is one of the most talented teams I’ve been on,” said junior Northwest Florida State College transfer Deshawndre Washington. “Everybody competes for each position. If you take a day off, somebody else is stepping in and filling your role, so it’s like we’re not missing a piece. That’s a big part of being a good team: knowing that if somebody goes down, it’s a next-man-up mentality.”

NMSU’s offseason foreign tour to the Bahamas helped the Aggies gel and find cohesion for a team only returning two players who received minutes last season and lost more than 90% of its minutes and scoring from last year. Junior forward Mike Peake and sophomore forward Marchelus “Chi Chi” Avery were the only players who received minutes to return to NMSU from last year’s team.

The Aggies will also spend the next several weeks developing a rotation and establishing individual roles. Senior LSU transfer guard Xavier Pinson, junior Missouri transfer DaJuan Gordon and Washington will likely start for NMSU – assuming any waiver issues Pinson may have are cleared by the beginning of the year – and Heiar would like for NMSU to 11 or 12 guys to the rotation.

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The Aggies also added Miami (OH) redshirt senior transfer forward James Beck and redshirt senior Arizona transfer forward Kim Aiken Jr. since summer workouts began. Heiar said the Aggies are also working on clearing transfer obstacles for Aiken but anticipates Aiken being available at some point this season.

NMSU will play one exhibition contest against Western New Mexico Nov. 2 in Las Cruces before officially beginning its season.

“I think it could be crazy,” Gordon said. “We can really do something special we’ve got behind us and the rest of the team – we can really do something special.”

This article originally appeared on Las Cruces Sun-News: As NMSU basketball practice starts, Heiar, Aggies prepare for grueling non-conference schedule