There’s an old Rogers Hornsby quote that says, “People ask me what I do in the winter when there’s no baseball. I’ll tell you what I do. I stare out the window and wait for spring.” In general, Lobo fans are exactly the same way about basketball. Finally, the window-staring is over, as the Lobos play in the Pit for the first time in almost eight months tomorrow in an exhibition game versus CSU-Pueblo.
First off, let’s check in with Noodles and see how he’s feeling about the upcoming season:
Excellent.
Because this is an exhibition game against a D-II opponent, we’ll just stick to the basics for the preview, if for no other reason than there just isn’t a lot of information about them out there. CSU-Pueblo is coming off of a 4th place finish in the Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference, which Lobo fans might recognize as the same conference that Western New Mexico and New Mexico Highlands compete in. The ThunderWolves went 21-9 last season, including 16-6 in conference play. The team returns three starters from last season in F Odessa Lear, G Rico Spikes, and F Bronson Moton, who was selected to the RMAC preseason all-conference team. Last year, the ThunderWolves shot a ton of threes, averaging 28.2 attempts per game and making 35.7% of them, so we’ll get to see how good the Lobo’s three point defense is right away. As expected out of a D-II team, the ThunderWolves don’t have much size, with only a couple of players over 6’8”. My guess is that this will lead to even more three point attempts.
With that said, here are a few other things to look at in tomorrow night’s game:
A House Divided
The reason that CSU-Pueblo is on the schedule this year, rather than one of the in-state programs, is because they have Dane Kuiper’s older brother, Braydon, on the roster. So, because of that, the matchup between the two brothers is clearly the matchup to watch. Will Braydon do all of us older brothers proud and put the younger Kuiper in his place or will Dane stick up for younger brothers everywhere? I assume that the Kuipers love both of their sons equally, so this game might end up being the tiebreaker. In all seriousness, I think that this is a really cool move by Noodles to let this matchup happen and it’s awesome that the whole family will be there for Dane’s Lobo debut.
Looking at the Rotation
There is a lot of talent on the Lobos this year, which means that some guys are going to get left out occasionally. If tomorrow night goes to plan, though, it will not be one of those occasions. Just about everyone should get into the game at some point, so it’s going to be difficult to figure out exactly what the rotation is going to look like. However, we should be able to get a little sense of where things sit right now. The starting lineup will likely be Cullen, Elijah, Sam, Tim W., and Big O, which shouldn’t come as much of a surprise. There are some other things that I am a little more interested in right now. Namely, who looks like they’re going to be the primary backup point guard, Jacobs or Hunter? When Devon comes in, does he replace Tim W. or Obij? And what is the wing rotation going to look like? We’ll probably see Noodles try out all sorts of player combinations tomorrow and Friday, so if anything, the rotation might be harder to figure out until the actual games start next week. But, we’ll probably get some hints here and there in these exhibitions.
Shooters Wanted
Last season, the Lobos shot 30.8% from three point range in their exhibition game against WNMU and then 25.8% against Adams State. I didn’t think it at the time, but it definitely ended up being a preview of the shooting struggles the team would deal with all season. There has been a renewed confidence in the team’s shooting this year, though, with Cullen returning and the addition of Elijah and Mathis, so it would be nice to see signs that things are improved. It’s only a single game, and it’s against a D-II school, so it’s not a good idea to take too much stock in the results tomorrow, but a good shooting night would make me feel even better about this season.
Live Practice
Last season, Noodles basically just ran the team out there for the exhibition games with simple offensive and defensive game plans. The thought was that he didn’t want to show too much of the playbook to future opponents too soon, but what he did, by his own admission, was miss a chance for the new guys to run the offensive and defensive schemes against an opponent. He’s not planning on doing that this year, though, and we’ll see them running what they’ve been working on in practice. I’m all for this, as it is way different going through the plays in a game setting compared to practice. This should hopefully get the offense up to speed quicker this season, which would let the Lobos get off to a fast start.
RIP Stu Walker
As I was about to post this, the news came out that long-time P.A. announcer Stu Walker had passed away from cancer today. His voice was inseparable from Lobo games and the Pit will never be the same without him. Geoff Grammer tweeted this earlier and I fully endorse the idea:
Our thoughts and prayers are with his family.