LAS CRUCES, N.M. – The defending undisputed Western Athletic Conference Champion and four-consecutive WAC Tournament Champion NM State Aggies (1-1) open their part of the Air Force Classic multi-team event on Wednesday night as they host the Tennessee Tech Golden Eagles (1-1) at 7 p.m. in the Pan American Center. After opening the season with wins, both teams dropped the next game with NM State falling to New Mexico 83-74 Sunday night and Tennessee Tech losing at Air Force 80-70 Monday night in Classic play. Fans are urged to bring peanut butter or canned foods to help fill the Aggie Cupboard, the campus food pantry for needy students and members of the campus community.
 
SERIES RECORD: Wednesday night's contest with Tennessee Tech is just the fourth game between the Aggies and the Golden Eagles, with NM State holding a 3-0 advantage. However, it's the first time that TTU has faced NM State since the 1960s. The last time NM State played Tennessee Tech was Jan. 25, 1969 when Lou Henson's Amazin' Aggies posted an 81-65 triumph over the Golden Eagles in the brand new Pan American Center. The Aggies had an 80-67 win on Dec. 27, 1968 in Cookeville, Tenn., as they went on to a 24-5 season and a berth in the NCAA Sweet 16. NM State also won at Tennessee Tech 95-72 on Dec. 30, 1967.
 
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 Plus (DirecTV 686-1, Dish 446/9516), Fox Sports Southwest Plus (DirecTV 676-2/Dish 446/9516),Fox College Sports, Altitude2 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.
 
THE AIR FORCE CLASSIC: The Air Force Classic is a multi-team event that allows the participants to add additional games to its schedule through an NCAA exemption as long as no more than four games are played by each participant and the event takes no more than two weeks to complete. The games may be played at any site. Joining Air Force and the Aggies are Tennessee Tech, Mississippi Valley State and Robert Morris. Air Force is the host of the event and has all four of its games at home, while NM State received three home games and will travel to Air Force for the fourth. The other three teams will visit the USAFA and NM State then go to Tennessee Tech where they play a round-robin against each other on the weekend after Thanksgiving.
 
ABOUT THE AGGIES: The Aggies host three of their four games in the Air Force Classic multi-team event, before visiting Air Force on Nov. 28.
 
This is the third game of a five-game homestand for the Aggies, marking the first time since the 2003-04 season (under Hall of Fame Coach Lou Henson) that the Aggies have opened the season with five consecutive home games.
 
The Aggies begin 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 had its 11-game winning streak at the Pan American Center snapped with the 83-74 loss to New Mexico on Nov. 15. It was the first loss on the parquet floor since a 58-57 overtime loss to No. 24/25 Colorado State on Dec. 27, 2014. Still, since the start of the 2012-13 season, the Aggies sport a 45-5 record at the Pan Am..
 
In the last 57 contests played by NM State at the Pan Am, the Aggies are 52-5.
 
Sophomore Pascal Siakam was named the first WAC Player of the Week this season after a super first two games that left him leading the league in scoring (25.5 ppg), blocked shots (3.5 bpg) and minutes played (35.5 mpg).
 
Sophomore Pascal Siakam was named by 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.
 
NM State had 11 of its 12 suited players score against Houston Baptist. The last time the Aggies had 11 players in the scoring totals was on Nov. 26, 2014 in a 78-33 win over Florida A&M.
 
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: Now in 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 of 176-101, 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 passed UNM's Bob King (1962-72) for ninth on the WAC all-games win list at 176 with Friday's win. 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 last November.
 
SIAKAM THE WAC PLAYER OF THE WEEK: Sophomore Paschal Siakam opened the 2015-16 season in grand fashion and was rewarded as the WAC Player of the Week for his performance. The 6-9 forward from Douala, Cameroon, averaged 25.5 points, 9.5 rebounds and 3.5 blocks in the first two games of the season. Agains Houston Baptist, Siakam collected a career-high 28 points, 20 in the second half, and grabbed 11 rebounds for his first double-double of the season and his eighth career double-double. He had five dunks against the Huskies as well. Then against New Mexico he tallied 23 points, eight rebounds and four blocked shots. Selected the WAC Preseason Player of the Year by the media, Siakam leads the WAC in scoring (25.5 points), blocked shots (3.5 per game) and minutes played (35.5). The league's Freshman of the Year in 2014-15, Siakam averaged 12.8 points a game last season, 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: Junior Ian Baker has been rock steady running the team and had another big scoring night against New Mexico. He scored 19 points, just missing his career high of 21 set against the Lobos last season. He has a 5.0 assist-turnover ratio so far this season at the point and is the Aggies second leading scorer at 13.5 points a game. The 6-0 guard from Washington, D.C., had eight points against HBU in the opener with three assists. Last season he 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.
 
ELI'S COMING: Redshirt freshman Eli Chuha has definitly made some noise in his first official game as well as the exhibition game. On Friday night against Houston Baptist, Chuha tallied 11 points hitting 5-of-8 shots from the floor along with his only fre throw. Chaha also pulled down four rebounds and notched two steals. In the exhibition against Western New Mexico, Chuha scored nine points, but led all rebounders with 13 boards. The 6-8 forward from Redlands, Calif., was a two-time All-CIF Southern Section performer at Redlands East High School before redshirting last season for the Aggies.
 
HENSON INDUCTED: Friday is the day when Aggie Legend Lou Henson is officially inducted into the National Collegiate Basketball Hall of Fame. He is part of a class of eight individuals, including three coaches, who form the NCB Class of 2015 to be inducted at the College Basketball Experience in Kansas City, Mo. Henson had a 41-year career as a collegiate head coach, all at the NCAA Division I level, posting a record of 779-412 with a 65.4 winning percentage. He's the all-time winningest coach at both New Mexico State and Illinois, and started his career at Hardin-Simmons. Henson, a 1955 graduate of NM State, coached 16 years in two stints for his alma mater, posting a 289-152 record. He also tallied a 423-224 mark in 21 years at Illinois and amassed a 67-36 record in four seasons at HSU. He is currently 11th all-time in career Division I victories, and was sixth on that list when he fully retired from the floor in January of 2005. Henson is one of only 12 coaches to take two different schools to the Final Four.
 
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: The New Mexico State Aggies fell victim to the hot shooting of New Mexico Lobo Elijah Brown as UNM invaded the Pan American Center and grabbed an 83-74 win on Sunday night.
 
Brown scored 31 points to doom the Aggies, who got an outstanding 23 points, eight rebounds and four blocked shots from Paschal Siakam. Ian Baker added 19 points and Braxton Huggins 14 points. Tanveer Bhullar nearly double-doubled with nine points and nine rebounds.
 
The Lobos bettered the Aggies from the field 45 percent to 40 percent. UNM also edged NM State 37-34 on the boards, while the Aggies suffered only nine turnovers to UNM's 12.
 
ABOUT THE GOLDEN EAGLES: Tennessee Tech is 1-1 on the season after opening with a 110-72 win over Piedmont College Saturday and an 80-70 loss at Air Force on Monday night. The Golden Eagles are led by guard Torrance Rowe (6-1, Sr., Atlanta, Ga.) who is leading the team with 16.5 points and 2.5 assist per game. Guard Hakeem Rogers (6-1, Jr., Elizabeth, N.J.) averages 15.5 points, while guard Aleska Jugovic (6-3, So., Leskovac, Serbia) tallies 14.0 points and 4.0 assists. Forward Anthony Morse (6-9, Sr., Lawrenceville, Ga.) chips in 13.5 points and 7.0 rebounds an outing. Tennessee Tech averages 90.0 points after two games, while allowing 76.0 per game.
 
LOOKING AHEAD: The Aggies continue their season-opening homestand as they take on Mississippi Valley State on Saturday night in the second of NM State's four games in the Air Force Classic multi-team event.
 
The Delta Devils opened the season last Saturday with a 97-51 loss at Nebraska and will play at Air Force on Thursday night. The Delta Devils are led by forward Damian Young (6-3, Jr., Grayson, Ga.) who scored 13 points with six steals against the Huskers.  Guard Kylan Phillips (5-11, Fr., Memphis, Tenn.) tallied nine points, while forward Ta'Jay Henry (6-4, Jr., Queens, N.Y.) chalked up five points with a team-high five rebounds.
 
WILKINS OUT: New Mexico State sophomore forward Johnathon Wilkins will not play pending an appeal due to an administrative error concerning his academic eligibility. The NCAA ruled that Wilkins has not met course requirements to remain academically eligible. Due to no fault of his own or the men's basketball program an administrative error prevented him from taking the proper course load. NM State is appealing the decision and Wilkins cannot play while the appeal process is on-going.