Well, the Lobos’ opening game against Texas Southern went about as well as any of us could have hoped. The Lobos shot well, played good defense, and ultimately blew out a team that has a good chance of winning their conference. The team doesn’t get any time to rest on their laurels, though, as they head down south to take on New Mexico State Sunday night.

Texas Southern Recap

About three minutes into the game, TSU’s David Blanks hit the Tiger’s third three to put them up 11-6 on the Lobos. At that point, the crowd was pretty quiet. After all, there was an air of uneasiness going into this season after last year’s disappointments and that uneasiness was starting to be justified. 10 minutes later, Xavier Adams tipped in a missed fast break layup to cap off a 30-5 run and last year started to feel like it was where it belongs: in the past.

That first half by the Lobos was as good of a half as they have had in recent memory. On offense, they scored 54 points, shot 72.4% from the field, and made 9 of their 11 free throw attempts. On the defensive end of the ball, they only allowed TSU to score 27 points on 34.6% shooting. After those first three minutes, the Lobos simply overpowered the Tigers on both ends of the ball. The Lobos had a huge advantage in just about every statistical category and beyond that, they just looked like the much better team. They were moving the ball well, getting open shots, grabbing rebounds and loose balls, and forcing the Tigers to take bad shots. In short, they looked like the Lobos we want them to be.

After such domination in the first half, the game started to feel more like an exhibition than the exhibition games did. While it seemed like Noodles was planning on using a smaller rotation of maybe 9-10 guys, 13 guys saw minutes. In fact, even after specifically saying that Nikola Scekic wasn’t going to play, Noodles was able to let him make his Lobo debut in front of the home crowd. Because of that, it seems hard to judge the team’s performance, but I thought they looked okay in general. Towards the end of the game, things got a little bit sloppy at times, but it never felt like there was the danger of TSU getting back into the game. Perhaps the best thing about the second half is that the starters were able to get a little rest before the quick turnaround between games.

Players of the Game

I’ve seen other places do this and it seemed interesting, so I thought it would be fun to name my top three choices for player of the game. I’ll award points to each player who makes this list (3 for first, 2 for second, and 1 for third) and see who ends up with the most points at the end of the season. That player will then be deemed the Official Lobo Lane Player of the Year ™, which of course means nothing.

1. Elijah Brown (3 points on the season): Elijah had a really impressive Lobo debut last night and instantly became a fan favorite. With his 16 points, 6 assists, 3 rebounds, a block, and a steal in only 24 minutes, Elijah made it clear that he is more than just a shooter. He is a smart player on both ends of the court and has a really good feel for the game, which shows why he has staked his claim at the starting off-guard position. A big season out of Elijah could be just the thing the team needs to jump back up to the top of the conference.
2. Cullen Neal (2 points on the season): We already knew this from the exhibitions, but Cullen is clearly back to full strength. He dropped 22 points on the Tigers along with four assists and a couple of steals. He’s also getting smarter with the ball, in general, which is a really good sign for his development as a point guard. When he has the ball in his hands, he’s electric, which means that both his successes and failures are really noticeable. Because of that, I’m still hearing groans behind me from some fans who, for whatever reason, still have some issues with him. Maybe at some point, they’ll take a look at what he brings to the table and realize that he’s one of the best players in the conference.
3. Tim Williams (1 point on the season): Tim Williams also made his official Lobo debut last night and sort of casually put up a 17 point, 5 rebound game. He did a really good job of getting open on the backside when someone was driving, which led to several easy buckets for him, and he also showed that he could run the court for a fast break dunk. He doesn’t have a particularly flashy game, so I think that there might be a couple of games this season when we don’t realize until after the fact that he scored 20 points.

New Mexico State Preview

Because of some weird scheduling issues, the Lobos are having to travel down to face the Aggies on the Sunday of the first weekend of the season. It’s not ideal, but I guess that I prefer it to the two games in the series happening during the same week. Anyway, the Aggies should provide the Lobos with a good test on the road and help us all to get a better sense of where the Lobos currently are.

Unlike Texas Southern, NMSU has plenty of size to match up with the Lobos. In their first game, they started 6’9” F Pascal Siakam, 7’3 C Tanveer Bhuller, 6’5” G Matt Taylor, 6’5” G Braxton Huggins, and 6’0” G Ian Baker. The main guy to watch out for is Siakam, who was selected as the WAC preseason player of the year. He is the Aggies leading returning scorer and rebounder and, after just one game if we’re being fair, is currently the team’s leading scorer and rebounder. He had a big game against Houston Baptist, scoring 28 points and collecting 11 rebounds, so the Lobos look to have their hands full with him.

As for the other players, Baker was the Aggies’ best shooter last season, making 44.9% of his three point attempts, so it will be important for the Lobos to not lose track of him on the perimeter. The other starters, although on the team last season, weren’t major contributors, as they were all freshmen and blocked by other players. Bhuller is, of course, huge, but it remains to be seen how much skill he has developed since last year and he doesn’t have quite the same size advantage that his older brother did. In their first game, the Aggies actually got more production out of their bench through Eli Chucha, Rashawn Browne, and Jalyn Pennie than they did out of their other starters. But, that was a blowout game, so it remains to be seen how they’ll fare against tougher competition.

This Aggie team is, in general, a really young team. On Friday, they played no seniors, two juniors, five sophomores, and five freshmen. Really, they had very few guys who saw significant minutes for them last year, so the Lobos actually have a significant advantage in experience, as weird as that seems. It will be interesting to see how both teams are able to handle playing in an emotional rivalry game, especially so early in the season.

Scattered Thoughts

• We got our first sense of where the rotation currently stands on Friday and I don’t think there are any big surprises right now. After the starting five, Devon is the first big off the bench and X is the first wing. Right now, it looks like Tim Jacobs is the backup point guard and that Anthony Mathis is currently edging Dane Kuiper for the second reserve wing spot. Still, I wouldn’t be surprised if some of those things change a few times during the season, especially depending on the matchup. Devon checked into the game almost immediately, which shows me that Noodles is more than willing to mix things up if need be. I feel like in the past we might have seen Big O chase some of those smaller guys around the perimeter for a while, which never seems like an effective plan, especially until he is able to just abuse smaller guys on offense.
• The defense looked really good after the first three minutes and I think a part of that was that the Lobos kept switching things up. They play some in man, in a 2-3 zone, and a 1-3-1 zone. They didn’t do a lot of pressing that I remember, but that’s likely because of how large their lead became. I wouldn’t be surprised if they show some more looks against the Aggies.
• The freshmen all made their debuts against TSU and they all looked okay. I think that, especially in the early season, none of them will be called on the same way that the freshmen were last season, but that’s not because of their ability, it’s because the team is much deeper than it was last season, so Noodles has the luxury of being patient with them. Each of them showed flashes of what makes them so exciting, so I’m looking forward to seeing all of them develop as the season goes on.

Prediction

Both teams played inferior opponents in their first games and both teams ended up with blowout wins. So, I don’t know how much we can take from those results, leaving both of these teams as enigmas for the time being. I think that it will be a fairly close game, as these tend to be, but I do think that the Lobos have an advantage in experience and talent. So, I’ll pick the Lobos to win 75-70.

Game Info

Who: New Mexico Lobos (1-0) at New Mexico State Aggies (1-0)

Where: Pan American Center, Las Cruces, NM

When: Sunday, November 15^th at 7pm MT

Radio: 770 KOB

TV: Fox Sports Southwest