March Madness starts in Vegas

Accompanying the calendar’s turn to March is the most important basketball weekend for UTRGV. The 2017 Western Athletic Conference tournament will again be held in Las Vegas and both Vaquero teams are revving up to make a run at a title.

Women

Larry Tidwell’s team is in its third consecutive season of being legitimate WAC championship contenders. In 2014-15, its breakout season, the team reached 19 wins for the first time in program history. This year, Tidwell matched the program record of career victories with 70 wins. He’ll hope to break it and extend the team’s season.

This year has been more turbulent, with the injury bug affecting the team early and players being dismissed from the team in the midst of conference play.

Despite those roadblocks, the women have managed to stay near the top of the standings, never losing more than twice in a row in conference.

Nichele Hyman, a sophomore guard, said the season should be reason enough to believe they can make a run.

“I would say you have to have a strong mentality, you have to come in thinking you’re going to win,” Hyman said. “You got to take it one game at a time, you can’t really look ahead, especially when it comes to the tournament, just because anything can happen.”

Hildur Björg Kjartansdóttir is a junior forward who has settled nicely into her role as a captain and leader. The 6-foot-2-inch player has had an excellent season rebounding the ball.

It will be her third trip to the Orleans Arena. In her first two, the team reached the championship game, falling to New Mexico State both times.

“It’s a lot of fun going to Vegas because every game matters, anybody can beat anyone,” Kjartansdóttir said. “It’s just one game and you’re in or out.”

She has surpassed 200 rebounds for the second season in a row. She’s also started in every game for her second year in a row.

“I have way more experience now than last year and definitely the year before,” Kjartansdóttir said. “So I think the biggest thing is for everyone to add on, to get better every year. I’m really happy that’s what I’m doing.”

Hyman said she wants to help senior guard Shawnte’ Goff win the conference championship.

“To help Shawnte’ out and win the WAC Championship would mean the world,” she said. “She’s actually like my best friend. I came here, she put me under her wing. So, for me, that definitely means a lot to win for her last year.”

UTRGV’s opponent was not set as of press time Friday. Its possible opponents are Utah Valley University or University of Missouri-Kansas City. UTRGV has a 4-0 record combined against those teams.

Men

The men’s basketball team will have a more uphill battle in Vegas, just based on its season and seeding. Men’s hoops are sitting on just two conference wins this season.

A quick glance at the record might seem like regression from last year’s four-win conference record. A closer look at the Vaqueros will reveal many narrow defeats.

Five of UTRGV’s 12 conference losses came by 10 points or less.

In its two matchups against first-round opponent UMKC, UTRGV lost by four and 13 points. The closer loss was on the road. At halftime, the Kangaroos led by only two points.

Head Coach Lew Hill said his team can do better with details that impact the final score. UMKC scored 21 points off Vaquero turnovers in an 83-79 loss on Jan. 7.

“We just felt that both times we had a chance to win the game,” Hill said. “It was the things we didn’t do to finish the games. UMKC has something to do with that, but sometimes it’s self-damaging and not the opponent.”

Hill is taking plenty of positives in his first year courtside as a head coach. The Vaqueros are not just undergoing the first season under the new coach, there’s personnel change and systematic differences.

The head coach said challenges pertaining to changes, such as switching from zone to man defense is no small task.

“Sometimes, that just doesn’t happen right away,” he said. “It takes time and you really have to mentally understand it.”

Hill said more wins obviously would have been ideal, but the culture has been set.

“Very happy with the effort of our guys,” he said. “That’s what I told people before, ‘You have to crawl with us.’ It’s not just going to change overnight. It’s recruiting, it’s the players that you have here changing their mentals.”

One player having a consistent season filling the score sheet is Nick Dixon. He’s the team-scoring leader with 18.4 a game, and 20.3 in WAC games. Antonio Green is second in scoring with 15 points per conference contest.

Dixon said the tournament is an opportunity to correct mistakes from earlier meetings.

“Like Coach says, ‘Basketball is forgiving,’” Dixon said. “We’ve played these teams before, so it’s not going to be a total blind side. Hopefully, we’re going to learn from the mistakes from our conference games.”

A game that is reason for optimism was Feb. 18’s 107-101 loss to New Mexico State University, the team that has won four of the last five conference championships.

Dixon said offense is rarely the issue. Defense has to step up to secure wins.

“Our scoring can keep us in a lot of games,” he said. “That shows we’ll have enough points to stay in a game. Our defense will give us that to take us overboard to win those games.”

UTRGV will face UMKC in the first round of the WAC tournament Thursday. If the Vaqueros win that game, they will face the winner of New Mexico State vs. Chicago State University.