Following a really nice win against a very good Northern Iowa team, the Lobos turn back around to face the NMSU Aggies in the return game of the Rio Grande Rivalry series. The Lobos won the game down south last month 83-74, so the Aggies will be coming up here hoping to avoid a sweep. The Lobos, on the other hand, have already grabbed their brooms.

A Little about NMSU

Because we already played them this year, Lobo fans should be at least somewhat familiar with this year’s Aggie team, so here I’ll just mostly focus on what has changed since these two teams played a month ago. First off, the Aggies have gone 4-3 since the Lobos beat them down in Las Cruces, including wins against Tennessee Tech, Mississippi Valley State, Robert Morris, and UTEP and losses to Air Force, Long Beach State, and Wyoming. That’s not exactly a murderer’s row of opponents, but their schedule does toughen up quite a bit over the next couple of weeks, where they’ll face the Lobos, UTEP, Baylor, Wichita State, and UC Irvine all on the road. If they want to make a case for themselves being higher than a 15 seed come tourney time (and yes, I’m assuming that they’ll win the WAC again), they definitely have their opportunities coming up.

For the players, the Aggies have seen a couple of changes in their starting lineup recently, with newly-eligible Johnathon Wilkins taking over for Tanveer Bhullar in the post and Rashawn Browne taking over for Braxton Huggins at shooting guard. The 6’10” Wilkins missed the first several games of the season while waiting for his waiver for eligibility to be approved and immediately started playing starter’s minutes once it did. So far this season, he’s averaged 5.2 ppg and 3.5 rpg. The main talent that he has shown is that he’s been a beast on the offensive boards, averaging 2.7 offensive boards per game. Browne is a 6’1” freshman guard who only saw 4 minutes against the Lobos last time out, but has seen his minutes increase as the season has gone on. On offense, he mostly looks to distribute the ball and shoot the occasional three-pointer.

The other three starters should be the same as last time out, with Pascal Siakam still being the obvious standout. He’s currently averaging 23.4 ppg, 13.2 rpg, and 2.2 bpg, completely justifying his preseason WAC Player of the Year selection. He is legitimately one of the best players that the Lobos will play against this season and it wouldn’t surprise me if he goes pro either next year or the one after. Ian Baker has been the Aggies other offensive threat, averaging 15.2 ppg, 3.8 rpg, and 3.3 apg while shooting 37.7% from three-point range. No one else on the team averages more than 6.3 ppg (Huggins), so Siakam and Baker have clearly been the focal points of the Aggie offense. The other starter has been Matt Taylor, who hasn’t been much of a scorer, but has done well on defense and on the boards.

Scattered Game Thoughts

• Elijah Brown has been on a tear for, well, basically this whole season, only scoring fewer than 15 points once. To me, the game that he really put everyone on notice was the last time the Lobos faced the Aggies. In that game, he scored 31 points, including a 13-14 performance from the free throw line. The Aggies had gone into that game hoping to stop Cullen from lighting them up, so this time I have a feeling that Elijah will get a bit more attention. That said, Elijah has been playing really well against some good opponents, who I’m sure made a concerted effort to slow him down, so I don’t know if tomorrow will be any different.
• There has been a lot made recently about the attendance this season, including an article by Geoff Grammer in today’s Albuquerque Journal, and for a good reason. There’s been over a 2000 person drop in attendance from this point last season, which makes sense, given what the Pit has looked like for most of the game. But it’s still kind of crazy. My best guess is that it’s due to the down season last year, which we know from looking at the football attendance records is fairly predictive of a decrease, but it still seems like a fairly large drop. This team is pretty good, though, so I think that some people will start picking up on that soon and we’ll see an increase for the rest of the season. It would especially help if the student section started filling out…
• To me, this game serves as a reminder of what happened the last time these two teams matched up. Seeing Devon Williams face-down on the court for so long was terrifying to watch and I am still so relieved that he is okay. I’m sure that this past month has been really hard for him as he adjusts, but I’m glad every time I see him sitting on the bench, laughing and cheering his teammates on.

Prediction

The Lobos already beat the Aggies once this season and I have to figure that they’re going to do it again tomorrow. Especially with the way the Lobos have been playing recently. I think that the Lobos will come out with an 80-65 win and maintain bragging rights for yet another season.

Game Info

Who: UNM Lobos (6-2) vs. NMSU Aggies (5-4)

Where: The Pit, Albuquerque, NM

When: Wednesday, December 16, 2015 at 7:00pm

Radio: 770 KKOB

TV: ESPN3