LAS CRUCES, N.M. - Reggie Theus` office consists of two remodeled dorm rooms. His New Mexico State players are practicing in an auxiliary gym that`s too small, and the coach still hasn`t acquired a taste for chili.

So is Rick Pitino`s former assistant having second thoughts about his decision to trade Louisville`s blue grass scenery for the sagebrush and sand in this southern New Mexico college town?

That diamond currently has some rough edges. The Aggies had to use Rentfrow Gymnasium for most of their preseason practices while a $23 million renovation of the Pan American Center was being completed. The problem is Rentfrow`s floor measures 84 feet long, 10 feet shorter than regulation.

The Aggies, who open the season Tuesday night at UCLA in the preseason NIT, are hoping Theus can do what Lou Henson accomplished 40 years ago: take the Aggies from obscurity to national prominence.

Henson took over a New Mexico State program that finished 4-22 in 1965-66 and turned it into an overnight success. The Aggies went 15-11 in Henson`s first season and earned the first of five straight NCAA tournament bids, including a trip to the Final Four in 1970.

The Aggies, under Neil McCarthy, played in five straight NCAA tournaments in the `90s. Henson, who returned to NMSU after McCarthy was fired just before the start of the 1997-98 season, led the Aggies to a 23-10 record and an NCAA bid in 1999, but the school hasn`t been back to the tournament since.

Unable to coach last year because of health problems, Henson retired in January without coaching a single game and the Aggies finished 6-24 under interim coach Tony Stubblefield.

Theus, who spent 13 seasons in the NBA but has never coached at the Division I level, was hired in March after spending two seasons on Pitino`s staff. Theus may be short on major college coaching experience, but not on confidence.

Ingram sat out last season after leaving St. John`s in the midst of a strip club scandal that rocked the program in 2004. Ingram and five teammates broke curfew after a loss at Pittsburgh on Feb. 4, 2004, and a 38-year-old woman told police she had been raped by St. John`s players she met at a strip club.

No criminal charges were filed against the players and according to court documents, the woman later told police she had made up the story after the players refused to pay her $1,000 for sex.

Ingram, a former McDonald`s All American at New Jersey`s St. Anthony`s High School, was averaging a team-high 13.3 points a game for St. John`s when he left. He said he`s adjusted to the move to New Mexico State and is looking forward to playing for Theus.

Davis played his freshman season at Pepperdine and averaged 8 points a game. He spent last season at the College of Southern Idaho, where he averaged just under 10 points a game.

Four players who transferred to New Mexico State this summer and are sitting out this season should help make the Aggies a formidable bunch in 2006-07. They are former Utah forward Justin Hawkins, 7-foot center Iti Martin from UNC-Charlotte, former Kansas State guard Fred Peete and former Northern Colorado forward Trei Steward.

Theus left the NBA in 1993, then spent a decade as a TV sports commentator and basketball analyst. He also did some acting. He sees his latest career move as a chance to ``reinvent`` himself and the New Mexico State program.

Theus grew up in South Central Los Angeles and played his collegiate ball at UNLV. His NBA career included stops in Atlanta, New Jersey, Kansas City, Chicago, Orlando and Sacramento. Adjusting to little Las Cruces, he says, has been no problem.

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