LAS CRUCES, N.M. – The defending undisputed Western Athletic Conference Champion and four-consecutive WAC Tournament Champion New Mexico State Aggies open the 2015-16 season with the first of five straight games at the Pan American Center as they host Houston Baptist on Friday night at 7 p.m.
 
SERIES RECORD: Friday night's season opener with Houston Baptist is just the third game between the Aggies and the Huskies, with NM State holding a 2-0 advantage. The Aggies opened the 1974-75 season on Nov. 29, 1974 with an 82-53 win on the way to a 20-7 season and an NCAA Tournament bid in Lou Henson's last season before leaving for Illinois. The Aggies also got a win in game two of the 1975-76 season with a 129-97 win on Nov. 29, 1975 under Ken Hayes.
 
MEDIA COVERAGE: Friday's game can be heard live on the Aggie Sports Network and over the Las Cruces radio airwaves on KWML, 570AM with NM State Hall of Famer Jack Nixon on the call.
 
The game will be televised by AggieVision with Adam Young (play-by-play) and Patrick Knapp (analyst). The telecast will be carried by Comcast Cable in New Mexico and also air live on Fox Sports Arizona (DirecTV 686, Dish 415/5415), Altitude2 (DirecTV 681-1) and ESPN3
 
LIVE STATS ON THE WEB: Live stats are available for most games at www.nmstatesports.com at no cost all season long and.
 
ABOUT THE AGGIES: NM State begins the 2015-16 season after posting a 23-11 campaign in 2014-15 that included a 13-1 WAC record and the outright regular season championship.
 
The Aggies are also coming off winning a record fourth consecutive WAC Tournament. No other program in the history of the Western Athletic Conference has ever won more than two straight tournaments.
 
The Aggies are also coming off appearing in four consecutive NCAA Tournaments, and five in the last six seasons. The Ags are aiming to match the school record of five straight appearances set first from 1967-to-1971 under Lou Henson and then again from 1990-to-1994 under Neil McCarthy.
 
NM State enters the season with 10 straight wins on the parquet floor of the Pan American Center. The Aggies haven't lost since a 58-57 overtime loss to No. 24/25 Colorado State on Dec. 27, 2014. Since the start of the 2012-13 season, the Aggies sport a 44-4 record at the Pan Am.
 
In the last 55 contests played by NM State at the Pan Am, the Aggies are 51-4.
 
Sophomore Pascal Siakam was named the media as the WAC Preseason Player of the Year. Last season's WAC Freshman of the Year, Siakam averaged 12.4 points, leading the WAC in field goal percentage (.572) and blocked shots (61, 1.8 per game). Siakam was named to the Preseason All-WAC First Team by both the coaches and media.
 
Junior Ian Baker was named to the Preseason All-WAC First Team by both the coaches and media. Baker led the WAC in 3-point field goal percentage (34-58, .457) last season and was third in the league in steals.
 
Of the Aggies eight returning lettermen, only one didn't play in at least 26 of the teams 34 games (or 76 percent of the games) last season. Tanveer Bhullar saw action in just 10 games after missing most of the season with a foot injury.
 
Of the 14 players on the NM State roster, nine are from countries other than the United States.  Four players are from Toronto, Canada, with two from France, one from Cameroon, one from Colombia, and one from Mexico.
 
MENZIES MARKS: Starting his ninth season at New Mexico State, head coach Marvin Menzies is the Dean of WAC Coaches. Menzies is writing himself into the annals of NM State history. With a record entering the season of 175-100, Menzies is third on the all-time win list for NM State Coaches. He's reached the 175 win mark faster than the two men in front of him on the win list: Hall of Famer Lou Henson and Neil McCarthy. Henson (1966-75, 1997-2005) leads the group with 289 wins on the Aggie bench (289-152, 16 years). McCarthy (1985-97) has 229 victories (229-114, 12 years). He's tied with UNM's Bob King (1962-72) for ninth on the WAC all-games win list with 175. He's ninth on the win list for WAC only games with 90, and his third in WAC only winning percentage at .714 in front of the late Jerry Tarkanian at Fresno State (1995-2002). Even with all the winning, Menzies collected his first Don Haskins WAC Coach of the Year Award last year when the Aggies won the regular season by five games. Menzies was named one of Forbes' top 25 college coaches for the money in November.
 
SIAKAM THE SUPER SOPHOMORE: The Aggies head into the 2015-16 season behind sophomore Paschal Siakam. The 6-9 forward from Douala, Cameroon, was selected by the media as the Preseason WAC Player of the Year after winning the league's Freshman of the Year in 2014-15. Siakam averaged 12.8 points a game, ranking eighth in the WAC. He was second in the WAC in rebounding with 7.7 boards a game and led the WAC in field goal percentage (57.2 percent) and blocked shots (61, 1.8 per game). Siakam was a first team All-WAC selection as a freshman and was honored as a first team NABC All-District VII performer last season.
 
ICE, ICE BAKER: Though slowed, but not stopped, by a late season injury last year, junior Ian Baker is ready for another great run with the Aggies. The 6-0 guard from Washington, D.C., led the WAC in 3-point field goal percentage, hitting 45.7 percent of his treys. He averaged 9.3 points a game with 2.4 rebounds, but was third in the WAC with 1.5 steals per game and ninth in the WAC with 2.7 assists. He is a clutch shooter late, having either won or sending to overtime three games in the final five seconds or less with his scores. He is the elder statesman of the team.
 
THE FAVORITE: New Mexico State is the prohibitive favorite to win the Western Athletic Conference by both the league's coaches and the media.  The media went on to name sophomore forward Pascal Siakam as the league's preseason player of the year.
 
The Aggies received seven of the eight first place votes and 49 points from the coaches, the most they could receive since they couldn't vote for their own team or players.  Grand Canyon was second with 39 points and CSU Bakersfield third with 36 and the other first place vote.
 
The media, with no voting restrictions, picked up 13 of the 14 first place votes and was third on the ballot that gave CSU Bakersfield a first place vote for a total of 110 points.
 
The media gave Grand Canyon second with 88 and Missouri-Kansas City third with 87.
 
Siakam and junior guard Ian Baker were the Aggies selected on both the Coaches and Media's Preseason All-WAC first team. Siakam was the media's preseason player of the year, while UMKC's Martez Harrison was the coaches preseason player of the year.
 
WELCOMING NEW FACES: NM State has six new faces on the floor in 2015-16, five of them redshirt freshmen. New to the Aggies is junior transfer Rene Esparza from Juarez, Mexico/El Paso Faith Christian Academy. A guard, Esparza came to NM State from New Mexico Junior College. He joins five redshirt freshmen who grew physically and academically at NM State over the last year. The Aggies welcome forward Harold Givens of Norcross, Ga./Faith Baptist Christian; guard Rashawn Browne of Toronto, Ontario/Crothers Secondary; forward Jose Campo of Riohacha, Colombia/West Oaks Academy; guard Sidy Ndir of Cosne-Cours-sur-Loire, France/West Oaks Academy; and forward Eli Chuha of Redlands, Calif./Redlands East HS.
 
LOOKING BACK: New Mexico State jumped out to a 10-0 advantage and never trailed in handily defeating Western New Mexico 80-39 in exhibition play on Nov. 2. The Aggie defense locked up the Division II Mustangs as they faced a team in a different colored jersey for the first time this season.
 
NM State played all 12 Aggies suited for the game, rotating them throughout the contest. The Ags were paced by Paschal Siakam's 17 points, while Eli Chuha came off the bench for nine points and 13 rebounds and Braxton Huggins collected nine points.
 
The Aggies shot 47.5 percent from the floor (28-of-59), but suffered from 21 turnovers. WNMU hit just 24.2 percent from the floor (15-of-62) as the Aggies more than doubled the Mustangs 62-23 on the glass.
 
ABOUT THE HUSKIES: Houston Baptist is opening the season after going 12-16 overall in 2014-15, including a 7-11 record in the Southland Conference. Houston Baptist returns three starters and 11 letterwinners from last season's squad. The top two scorers return for the Huskies, led by guard Anthony Odunsi (6-4, Sr., Sugar Land, Texas) who averaged 12.3 points, 3.0 rebounds and 2.6 assists a game. Forward Colter Lasher (6-7, Jr., Anchorage, Alaska) added 10.6 points with 3.7 boards and a .329 3-point percentage. Guard Reveal Chukwujekwu (6-3, Jr., Houston, Texas) was the fourth leading scorer on the team, averaging 6.3 points and 4.3 rebounds. In 2014-15 the Huskies scored 72.4 points an outing, while allowing 73.7 per game.
              
LOOKING AHEAD: The Aggies play host to the first of two Rio Grande Rivalry games as they welcome the New Mexico Lobos to the Pan American Center on Sunday night. The game will be the second of the season for both teams, as the Lobos host Texas Southern on Friday night.
 
The Lobos welcome back guard Cullen Neal (6-4, So., Albuquerque, N.M.), the son of head coach Craig Neal, who was granted a redshirt season after injuring his ankle in the third game of the year. He averaged 17.0 points and 3.7 assists in those three contests. Neal had 33 points against Colorado State-Pueblo and 20 against Rogers State in exhibition play this season. Also back is center Obij Aget (7-1, Jr., Joba, South Sudan) who averaged 6.8 points, 5.4 rebounds and 1.4 blocks a game in 2014-15. Forward Sam Logwood (6-7, So., Indianapolis, Ind.), who averaged 6.1 points and 2.7 rebounds last year, also returns. Last season the Lobos 62.0 points an outing, while allowing 60.2 per game.