In college basketball, March brings about something that can go missing in February: hope. Teams that underperformed and teams that were overmatched earlier in the season are given one last chance to fulfill a dream and to make the NCAA Tournament. However, for 283 teams, that dream dies and each program is left trying to figure out what went wrong and where to go from there. Unfortunately, the Lobos are one of those teams. With their 64-62 loss to Nevada, their season is over and what could be a tumultuous offseason begins.

Game Recap

This matchup featured two teams who had already faced each other twice and were both faced with having to win the conference tournament in order to make it to the Big Dance. Maybe it was the familiarity that made the teams play good defense or maybe it was the nerves that made the teams be sloppy on offense, but either way, the game started out really slow. The Lobos started off turning the ball over in their first three possessions and then missing their first four shots, which clearly wasn’t an ideal way to start the game. However, when Tim Williams made a layup off an offensive rebound to score the Lobos’ first points three and a half minutes into the game, the Wolf Pack had only scored four points themselves.

For the rest of the half, neither team was able to get an advantage, as Nevada never had a lead larger than 5 and UNM never had one larger than 4. The main reason for that was neither team was able to score effectively. The Wolf Pack only shot 33.3% as a team for the half, which still managed to be better than the 32.8% that the Lobos shot. Because of that, the teams tended to trade scoring droughts more than they seemed to trade runs. At the end of the half, their droughts coincided, leaving the score 29-28 for the last 2:34 of the half.

The second half at least saw the teams scoring with a little more regularity, but neither team was able to pull away. In fact, the largest lead of the game was when the Lobos were up 54-48 with 5:37 to go, which was good to see, but was clearly not an insurmountable lead. From that point on, the Lobos only made two more baskets and four free throws, which allowed Nevada to chip into the lead and eventually take advantage 63-62 with 34 seconds left. The Lobos still had some chances though, as Elijah was able to get off a three and the team had several attempted tip-ins off of the miss on the ensuing possession. Then, after Nevada missed the front end of a one-and-one, Elijah drove into the paint and then dished it out to Cullen in the corner for what looked like an open three. Unfortunately, Cam Oliver – who had decided to become Superman for this game with his 26-15 performance – flew over and rejected the ball out of bounds for his fourth block of the game. Somehow, a Nevada player was able to save it and get it into the hands of one of his teammates, which effectively ended the game. When the dust settled, the Lobos fell 64-62, which put an end to their season.

Players of the Game

For each game, I’m choosing my top three players of the game and giving them points (3 for first, 2 for second, and 1 for third). We’ll have a recap of the results soon.

1. Sam Logwood (17 points on the season): This was the Sam Logwood that I’ve been hoping to see all season. He was aggressive on both ends of the court, took advantage of mismatches to score, and fought hard on the boards. He ended up with 16 points (a season high), 5 rebounds, an assist, a block, and a steal, which hopefully is a sign of things to come. He’s a big talent with a really high ceiling, so if he’s starting to make strides towards reaching that ceiling, he could be a big part of a good Lobos team next year.
2. Elijah Brown (63 points on the season): Elijah did an awful lot of things well in this game, most obviously putting up a 26-7 line against a team that was doing its best to try to slow him down. He did have 7 turnovers, a sign that he was trying to do a lot by himself, which has become somewhat of a theme recently. I think that if things don’t implode this offseason, the offense should be more balanced than it has been, which will probably allow EB to still put up big numbers, just more efficiently.
3. Tim Williams (62 points on the season): Once again, Tim faced an opponent that was doing everything to make sure that he didn’t get the ball down low. Once again, he had a pretty good game in spite of that. He put up a 12-8 line with a couple of blocks, which is a testament to how good he’s been when that line seems a little disappointing. If he gets some help down low next season, he’ll be pretty much unstoppable.

Scattered Thoughts

• It’s no secret that this team has flaws in its roster – and I’m sure you have a couple in mind right now – so in some ways it’s not hugely surprising that the team struggled down the stretch when it was facing teams for the second or third time. After all, if we can point to areas where the team is weak, I’d expect other teams’ coaches to figure them out as well. If we take the team’s lack of interior depth, for example, it isn’t hard to see that if you can get Obij out of the game with foul trouble, the Lobos don’t really have a lot of size down low. Teams were able to take advantage of that, either by having their guards drive or their bigs posting up. To mitigate that, the best the Lobos could do is to run a zone, which is okay in small doses, but can start to be carved up once teams figure it out. If there’s a bright side to this, I do think that the coaching staff recognizes the weak spots on the team and will do what that can to address them before all of this gets rolling again in the fall. Hopefully they can help the team become more balanced across the board.
• This loss means that the offseason starts at least a little sooner than we would have liked it to, and it ends the season on a sour note. This year obviously didn’t go the way that any of us hoped that it would, which means that the torches and pitchforks have already been pulled out. At this point, there are a bunch of rumors about who is or isn’t leaving and who is or isn’t fired, along with plenty of opinions from the fan base about who should or shouldn’t be here next year. If I’m being honest, I actually have high hopes for next year if everyone on the roster stays, so I would be disappointed to see anyone transfer. There is a lot of talent and potential on the roster, so with a full offseason to improve, I’m excited to see how some of them perform next year. However, I know that these days it’s a pipe dream for everyone to return, so I’m already bracing myself for disappointment.

Up Next

Now that it’s been announced that the team isn’t going to pursue one of the lower level postseason tournaments, up next is the offseason. I have a feeling that it might end up being an interesting one, so we’ll definitely be keeping track of anything that happens. Besides that, we’ll just start dreaming about what could be next year…

Go Lobos.