by By Jason Groves/Sun-News reporter , Las Cruces Sun-News

"I can't sleep," said Young, the leading returning scorer for the New Mexico State men's basketball team. "I've got probably seven hours of sleep in the last five days. It's really bad but I'm really excited. I can't wait. All of the Aggies fans and Aggie Nation, we can get this thing on a roll."

Friday's opener tips off at 9:30 p.m. and is available on the radio at 103.9 KGRT-FM.

It's the first of two games for the Aggies in a five-day span, as the team returns to Las Cruces for their Tuesday night home opener against rival New Mexico.

"The two games that we are starting off with were scheduled that way because we want some good strong RPI teams on the schedule and we wanted to get the season off with some energy and some enthusiasm in the city and what better way to do that than to play your rival," said Aggie head coach Marvin Menzies, who is 1-1 in season openers since coming to NMSU.

Friday's matchup pairs teams who were picked to finish third in their respective conferences.

The Gaels were picked third in the West Coast Conference after a 28-7 season last year that ended in the NIT quarterfinals. NMSU was picked third in the Western Athletic Conference behind Utah State and Nevada after a 9-7 conference record a season ago.

Saint Mary's lost a key piece after the graduation of point guard Patrick Mills, but there are still five Australians on Randy Bennett's squad.

"They will different but they will run the same sets and play the same style of ball," Menzies said. "Randy is an excellent coach and has assembled a very good team. His young teams that come off the bench are very talented."

Mills led Saint Mary's with 18.4 points per game last year, missing nine games to injury in the process. Junior Mickey McConnell filled in for Mills last year, starting 13 games and averaging 5.4 points and dishing out 78 assists.

"Playing without Pat, we played a little different," Bennett said. "He got us so much in transition, so it took a while to adjust to it. I think that four weeks helped us to be a better team this year."

While they lost their backcourt leader, 6-foot-11 fifth-year senior center Omar Samhan returns as the focal point on the offensive end. Samhan was second behind Mills with 14.1 points per game last year to go with 9.4 rebounds. Samhan did lose his most experienced frontcourt mate in Diamon Simpson as the Gaels have seven freshmen on the roster.

Samhan will provide a good early test for NMSU's slimmed down redshirt sophomore center Hamidu Rahman.

"(Rahman) is more than ready," Young said. "I'm probably the toughest on him. I don't talk to him nice. He gets the message and he understands how big he is to this team. We need him so he's working very hard. It's a team game. We have help so he is going to be OK."

As Young has matured, he says he has taken on more of a leadership role this season.

"The main thing I have to work on is leadership," Young said. "Everybody (last season) was saying who is the leader? I wasn't worried about what everybody else said but I was trying to figure out who was the leader. I feel like my characteristics could take over that role."

As a junior and a preseason first-team all-WAC selection, Young has the resume to be a leader in a locker room that includes five scholarship freshmen.

"Going into the season, we need all of the confidence that we can get," Young said. "As the freshmen, once they build up they can help us more and more."

Jason Groves can be reached at jgroves@lcsun-news.com ; (575) 541-5459

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