Now that the NCAA Tournament is over and the dust is starting to settle, it seems as good a time as any to start looking back on this Lobo basketball season to take stock of the highs and lows they experienced, and ultimately start to get an idea of what the future might hold. First things first, we spent the entire season giving out points to the top players of each game, so it seems like we should probably see how that ended up going.

Player of the Game Totals

In each of our recaps, we had a “Players of the Game” section where we identified the top three Lobo players in each game – or more, if we were indecisive – and we assigned those players points for their performance. First place got three points, second got two points, and third got one point. Below, we’ve plotted the cumulative point totals for each of the players, which gives us a little idea of how the season played out.

As we can see, this ended up being a two-man race for the top spot – and a pretty close race at that. In fact, the top two found themselves tied for first place going into the last game of the season. However, the top prize ultimately went to…

Lobo Lane Player of the Year: Elijah Brown

For a guy who was assumed be fighting for a spot in the starting lineup going into the season, he did alright. EB exploded onto the Mountain West scene, proving to be one of the most exciting offensive players in the league and ending up with first team all-MWC honors from both the media and the coaches. Rather than just being the three-point shooter that he was sometimes billed as, he showed the ability to score at all three levels and a talent for drawing fouls at an elite rate. This breakout season turned him from being thought of as the son of an NBA coach, to a guy who might be able to play in the NBA himself. If, as expected, he doesn’t end up going pro this year, I think we’ll end up seeing an even more improved version of EB next season, which has to be a scary thought for Lobo opponents.

Runner-Up: Tim Williams

The big question that we had about Tim was whether or not his great numbers at Samford would translate when he found himself facing stiffer competition. Well, here are his stats over the past three seasons:

That is remarkably consistent. Tim came to New Mexico to prove that he was capable of playing at a higher level, and he did exactly that, picking up first team all-MWC honors in the process. The great thing is that we get to watch him for another year, where hopefully he can finish his college career with a conference championship under his belt. On a side note, Tim finished just one point behind Elijah, which is pretty amazing over the course of the season.

Other Thoughts

• One thing you’ll notice about that plot is that the starters took the top five spots and the sixth man, Xavier Adams, was next. There are a couple of ways you can read this, probably depending on your level of cynicism about the program. The first way to look at it is that of course those guys took the top spots. After all, that’s why they were the starters and the first off the bench. The second way is that they took the top spots simply because they played the most and thus had the most opportunities to have big games. I’m partial to the first way, personally, but I’m sure that with more opportunities, some of the other guys would have ended up with much higher point totals. Plus, limiting the points to just three players means that some people are going to be left off, even when they play well. Might be something to think about for next year. Or not, whatever. It’s just for fun, anyway.
• Sometimes, narratives are just that; a story and not much more. In Cullen’s case, however, his season’s narrative was very real, and the plot shows it. After a pretty good start to the season, things started to peter out around the UNLV game in Las Vegas. From that game through the Air Force home game, a span of 11 games, he showed up as one of the top three guys just once. Things clearly weren’t going well for him during that stretch, but it was good to see him returning to form towards the end of the season, when he was back to picking up player of the game points at a similar rate to what he was doing at the beginning of the year. His departure is a bummer on a lot of levels, and whichever team he chooses to play for is getting a really talented player.
• One thing that I was encouraged by this plot was how well Sam Logwood finished the season. I think that Sam’s contributions to this team are sometimes overlooked, or overshadowed, but he tends to work hard on defense and on the boards. However, towards the end of the year, he started to be more assertive on offense, which ultimately led to his 16 point performance in the final game of the season. If he can build on that and carry it forward to next year, he could end up being a huge part of a very good Lobo team.
• All three freshmen ended up tied, which is kind of fun. They all had their ups and downs this year, but I liked that each one of them had a game that showed that they could not only hang at this level, they can be really effective. Lots of players take a big step forward from their freshman to their sophomore years, so with a whole summer to develop, I’m looking forward to seeing what they do next year.
• Go Lobos