Many of you may be familiar with Reggie Theus.  OK, some of you may know him.  After spotting him at a local IHOP recently, I tried to point him out to my brother.  My brother simply looked at him and said, "Reggie who?".

Hopefully, the rest of you know coach Theus.   Reggie Theus played in the NBA for 14 years, and was a 2 time All-Star with the Chicago Bulls.  So you don't remember the early 80's.  Well, maybe you remember him from TV as an NBA analyst a few years ago.  Still don't remember?  Perhaps you remember Theus patrolling the sidelines with Rick Pitino in Louisville.  Still nothing?  How about his brief stint on a Saturday morning sitcom?  OK, OK...I'll stop.

Whether you know him or not...you probably don't know what he's up to now.  In my opinion, he's facing his toughest job yet...trying to turn around the basketball program known as the New Mexico State Aggies.

Unless you've been looking through a list of the worst college programs in recent history, you're probably not too familiar with New Mexico State (NMSU) either.  Just last season, the Aggies finished with a record of 6-24...hardly national news.  However, the NMSU Aggies used to be good.  Really.  In the 90's, the Aggies played in 5 straight NCAA tournaments.  That may not much at Chapel Hill, but deep in the heart of New Mexico...that's a big deal.

The NMSU Aggies last appeared in the big dance in 1999.  They haven't returned since, or even been close.  Call me an optimist, but I think Theus is going to change that trend.

Since signing a 5 year contract earlier in the year, Theus has been hard at work.  This summer he recruited 6 players, which included 4 transfers.  In June, he was named as one of the top 25 recruiters by Rivals.com.

This season, the Aggies have only a modest 3-5 record.  However, one of the wins came against in-state rival New Mexico Lobos.  Though they have yet to begin conference play, it is evident that this team is already an improvement from last season.  They need only 3 more wins to match last season's total, which should be a mere formality.

Though NMSU may not see huge results this year, Theus has laid the ground work to turn this program around.  NMSU has not been on the national radar for several years, but Aggie fans have hope for the first time in a long while.

2 things to watch out for in the near future:  NMSU Basketball, and Reggie Theus.