What will it take for NMSU basketball to win more away from home?

The New Mexico State men's basketball team is thriving in its home city. The Aggies feed off energy from their fans and feel more comfortable inside the Pan American Center.

Outside Las Cruces, NM State is still trying to figure things out.

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While the Aggies (9-6, 2-3 Conference USA) are 7-1 at home this season, they're 2-5 away from home and have yet to win a true road game. NM State has lost at Abilene Christian, Florida International and Missouri State, and trailed by double digits in each loss at one point in those games.

The Aggies can earn their first road win, or wins, when they travel to face Liberty and Delaware on Thursday, Jan. 15, and Saturday, Jan. 17, respectively.

NM State's game against the former is of particular importance, as the Flames (13-3, 5-0) currently lead CUSA and have yet to lose at home. The game will be nationally televised on CBS Sports Network, meaning the Aggies can make a statement on a larger stage.

"They have a system, and their system works very well for them and fits their players," NM State coach Jason Hooten said in a Jan. 12 press conference. "They're very skilled. They're very talented. Anytime you can put five people on the court, (and) they can dribble, pass and shoot, and it makes it for a hard guard. And you have to guard them differently than you do the other... teams in your league. It's gonna take a lot of preparation."

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Hooten's emphasis on defense this week is crucial, because the Aggies have lacked that away from home. All five of NM State's worst defensive games, by shooting percentage allowed, have come outside of Las Cruces. Three of them, including the two games opponents shot at or above 50%, came in true road games.

FIU shot 52.5% against the Aggies on Jan. 2, and MSU made 10 3-pointers on 46.3% shooting on Jan. 4. That contrasts with NM State's defense at home, where it hasn't allowed a team to shoot over 40% yet.

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Hooten said the Aggies got "back to the basics" defensively last week against Western Kentucky and Middle Tennessee at home, and hopes a similar style helps them against the Flames and Blue Hens.

"I think sometimes you have teams that you can overcomplicate things for, and I felt like, even with some of our coverages, maybe we were trying too many things or doing too many things, and I think our guys were trying to think too much instead of just playing," Hooten said. "We just simplified a few things. We got back to a little bit of our nature and who we are. I thought that brought a little bit more of our toughness out, maybe less thinking, and just a little bit more playing."

Hooten also stressed the need for greater toughness and execution on the road, the former being something he emphasized after the FIU and MSU games. NM State attempted to rally from a 53-41 deficit against the Bears on Jan. 4, but Hooten says critical mistakes cost his team down the stretch in an 89-82 defeat. It's not just on the road, as a play drawn by Hooten to tie the MTSU game at 58-58 in the final seconds was botched, leading to guard Jayland Randall taking the potential game-tying 3-pointer instead of fellow guard Jemel Jones.

Hooten holds himself accountable for both.

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"That comes down to me just doing a better job of getting across to our guys exactly what I want," Hooten said. "We drew a good play up, I thought, and we didn't run it correctly, and so (there are) two things that you do in order to correct that as a coach... You continue to work on that play until the guys completely understand it, or you get the personnel different in the game. I got to do a better job in those two areas."

The key is whether the Aggies can, in the words of forward Julius Mims after defeating WKU on Jan. 8, have the "atmosphere" travel with them.

"We've got to find a way to carry that over to our road games, because we're not going to win a championship if we don't win on the road," Mims said.

NM State isn't the only CUSA team to have issues on the road, as FIU and Louisiana Tech also haven't won a road game yet. In fact, Liberty is the only CUSA team that has a winning record on the road this season.

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But that presents an opportunity for the Aggies. If they can figure things out on the road, they can set themselves apart.

"(Conference USA is) a really good league, and it's hard to win on the road," Hooten said after NM State defeated WKU. "I think whichever team starts to figure that part out is going to maybe separate themselves a little bit."

This article originally appeared on Las Cruces Sun-News: NMSU basketball hits the road, looking for first away victory