After being nice and allowing the men’s team to play their exhibition first, the Lady Lobos start their season tonight with an exhibition game against Western New Mexico. This is the first time these two teams have ever played, which is kind of amazing in its own right, so we’ll be able to see something tonight that we’ve never seen before.
The Mustangs, like CSU-Pueblo last night, are a D-II school in the Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference. Last season, they finished 8th out of the 14 teams by going 11-11 in conference play, 14-13 overall. This year, they were ranked 10th out of 16 teams in the RMAC preseason poll. The reason for this drop is likely due to how senior-laden the team was last year. The Mustangs had seven seniors, five of which were in the starting lineup for most of the season. Because of that, they added five transfers to the team this season, four of which are projected to start. The lone returning player in the starting lineup is sophomore forward Jade Botello, who started 11 games for WNMU last season and averaged 7.7 points and 4.7 rebounds. So, with all of the new players, the Mustangs will likely be using the exhibition to figure out their rotation and see which lineups are effective.
The Lobos, on the other hand, are returning most of their players from last year’s team, which had a somewhat surprising second place finish in the Mountain West Conference. Because of that, expectations are as high as they’ve ever been for the program under Coach Sanchez. Four starters return this season along with seven other letter-winners. To top that off, Coach Sanchez brought in the program’s most impressive freshman class in years. All three freshmen have a good shot to be in the rotation this season and potential see some time in the starting lineup. This team feels like it has a shot to make the NCAA tournament for the first time since 2008.
Tonight, I’d expect to see Coach Sanchez try a few different lineup combinations and also try to work the freshmen in as much as possible. She knows what she’s going to get out of the more experienced players, like Khadijah Shumpert, Bryce Owens, and Cherise Beynon so figuring out how the new players are going to do in game situations will be a focus. Eyes will certainly be on freshman wing Jannon Otto, who was selected to be the MWC Preseason Freshman of the Year, and her living up to that will really help the team have an excellent season. Freshman center Jaisa Nunn might have also been on the shortlist of candidates for that award and if she impresses during these exhibitions, it’s not farfetched to think that she could be in the starting lineup sooner than later. The third freshmen, wing Emily Lines also comes in with the potential to be a solid player off of the bench who will help the team right away. Lobo fans will get their first look at all three players tonight and I would expect Coach Sanchez to make that look a pretty long one.
Like in the men’s game, because this is an exhibition, it will be hard to get a good sense for what the rotation will ultimately be as the season goes along, as the bench will likely be emptied out a few times tonight. That said, last year’s team had an 11-woman rotation, so everyone who steps on the court tonight has to feel like they have a chance to make the rotation. I expect the Lobos to win comfortably tonight, making this game a nice kick-off to what could be a memorable season.