LAS VEGAS – The main field has been set for the 2018 Continental Tires Las Vegas Classic as the New Mexico State men's basketball team joins Washington State, San Diego and Drake in Las Vegas, Nev., at Orleans Arena Dec. 22-23. FS1 will televise the third-place and championship games on Sunday, Dec. 23.
 
The tournament will consist of four games with the first two contests taking place at on-campus sites and the final two rounds taking place at Orleans Arena. The Aggies are quite familiar with the Orleans Arena, having won the Western Athletic Conference Tournament there in six of the last seven years.
 
Against the Vegas bound teams, NM State is 18-9 all-time against Drake, 1-1 against San Diego and will play the Cougars of Washington State for the first time at home on Dec. 1.
 
New Mexico State returns just five players, one of which was a starter, from last year's WAC regular-season and WAC Tournament Championship team. However, head coach Chris Jans has reloaded his roster with a pair of top-10 JUCO transfers in Ivan Aurrecoechea and Mohamed Thiam. In addition, the Aggies also added help on the offensive front after returning just 37-percent of their scoring from last year with freshmen Addison Wallace and Berrick JeanLouis as well as JUCO transfer Clayton Henry. On top of the new signees, NM State will have the services of four redshirts from last season in JoJo Zamora, C.J. Bobbitt, Robert Brown and Jabari Rice.
 
A.J. Harris, the team's lone returning starter, leads the crop of returners for NM State after averaging 9.4 points, 1.9 rebounds and 2.9 assists last season. Keyon Jones and Shunn Buchanan comes back to shore up the Aggie backcourt. Jones is the team's leading returner in 3-point field-goals made with 40 and shot a .417 clip. Buchanan will once again back Harris up as NM State's floor general after dishing out 55 assists last year.
 
The Aggie front court returns Eli Chuha and Johnny McCants. Chuha was fourth on the team in scoring in 2017-18 behind Harris with 8.3 points per game in addition to his 4.8 rebounds per game and .505 shooting clip. A dynamic player off the bench, McCants was critical in NM State's success last season averaging 4.0 points and 4.3 rebounds. His 146 total rebounds as a redshirt freshman was fourth-highest on the team while his .570 shooting clip was the best amongst players on the team with 100-plus field-goal attempts.
 
NM State is slated to take on Northern Colorado and CSUN in the Pan American Center as part of their two on-campus site contests before heading to Sin City. Northern Colorado finished last season 26-12 overall and claimed the Collegeinsider.com Tournament (CIT) under second-year head coach Jeff Linder. CSUN had a tough season in 2017-18, posting a 6-24 overall mark under former Aggie head coach Reggie Theus.
 
Washington State, whom the Aggies will be hosting at home earlier in the season, returns three of five starters and three of its top four scorers from last season. The Cougars finished the year 12-19 overall under fifth-year head coach Ernie Kent, but was able to snap an eight-year tournament championship drought when they captured the Wooden Legacy title in November of 2017.
 
San Diego, who handed NM State one of its six losses last year, finished 2017-18 with a 20-14 overall record and fell to Northern Colorado in the CIT Quarterfinals at home. The Toreros return four of five starters, including 11 letter winners from last year's team. The 20 wins was just the fourth time San Diego reached that plateau since joining the Division I ranks in the 1979-80 season.
 
Last, but not least, are the Drake Bulldogs – who will play under first-year head coach Darian DeVries. The Bulldogs were 17-17 overall last season, which was their most successful season in a decade and was third in the Missouri Valley Conference to go with a Collegeinsider.com Tournament appearance. Drake will have a good mix of five returners and eight newcomers – including a pair of grad transfers.
 
Past champions of the Continental Tire Las Vegas Classic include Kansas State (2008), Alabama (2009), New Mexico (2010), Baylor (2011), Colorado State (2012), UNLV (2013), Loyola, IL (2014), SMU (2015), Southern California (2016), and University of San Francisco (2017).
 
Tickets for the two rounds at Orleans Arena can be purchased at the Pan American Center ticket office or by calling 575-646-1420.