They said the right things.
They did.
But as a pair of UNM men’s basketball players, followed by their first-year coach, fielded questions in the Pit media room on Monday about the importance of Tuesday night’s rivalry renewal with the New Mexico State Aggies — an annual thing that COVID brought a halt to in 2020 for the first time since World War II — it was apparent there remains an almost awkward cloud of uncertainty surrounding this year’s Rio Grande Rivalry.
To add to the unusual feel surrounding the lead-up to the game, NMSU on Monday called off coach Chris Jans’ weekly news conference, where the Aggies would have talked about the game.