It’s time for the Lobos’ annual trip to a holiday tournament, and this year they’re headed to Orange County for the Wooden Legacy. It’s a stacked field with a lot of good opportunities for wins, so hopefully the Lobos can take advantage. Because it’s a holiday and I’ll be in a cabin in the woods, instead of individual game previews, I’m just going to take a look at the tournament as a whole.
Wooden Legacy Preview
The bracket for the tournament can be found here.
Teams
This tournament features a really strong field, which is good for the Lobos, as it provides them the opportunity to greatly improve their non-conference strength of schedule. In fact, by some metrics, the Lobos are the sixth-best team in an eight-team field. And, it’s worth mentioning, the Lobos are a pretty good team this year. If things shake out well, the Lobos could play three top-50 teams, and wins in those games would put the Lobos in a really good position for the NCAA Tournament. Here’s a look at the teams in the field, along with their kenpom.com ratings for offense, defense, tempo, and overall (which is the difference between the offensive rating and the defensive rating):
| Team | Overall Rating
(Rank) |
Offensive Rating
(Rank) |
Defensive Rating (Rank) | Tempo
(Rank) |
| UCLA | 18.42 (23) | 115.6 (7) | 97.2 (60) | 76.2 (13) |
| Texas A&M | 16.01 (33) | 108.5 (62) | 92.5 (13) | 67.7 (323) |
| Dayton | 15.34 (38) | 110.7 (36) | 95.3 (39) | 69.7 (237) |
| Virginia Tech | 14.01 (45) | 112.2 (27) | 98.2 (75) | 72.6 (89) |
| Nebraska | 7.53 (78) | 104.1 (125) | 96.6 (56) | 68.9 (281) |
| New Mexico | 6.77 (81) | 106.7 (83) | 99.9 (101) | 71.4 (149) |
| Portland | 1.11 (145) | 104.2 (122) | 103.0 (167) | 72.6 (95) |
| Cal St. Northridge | -1.28 (186) | 104.2 (123) | 105.4 (237) | 77.1 (5) |
UCLA
Record: 4-0
Coach: Steve Alford
Conference: Pac 12
Key Players: Isaac Hamilton (6’5” Senior Guard), TJ Leaf (6’10” Freshman Forward), Lonzo Ball (6’6” Freshman Guard)
Strengths: Shooting in general, limiting turnovers
Weaknesses: Three-point defense, forcing turnovers
Quick Summary: The Bruins are off to a fast start, and I mean that literally. They like to push the tempo and initiate a fast break pretty much whenever they can. Because of that, they’ve scored over 100 points in three of their four games thus far. It’s a make-or-break year for Steve Alford, who, you may have heard it mentioned, used to coach at UNM. He’s relying on a couple of talented freshmen to carry him this year, and so far, the early returns have been good.
Texas A&M
Record: 2-1
Coach: Billy Kennedy
Conference: SEC
Key Players: Tyler Davis (6’10” Sophomore Center), Admon Gilder (6’4” Sophomore Guard), DJ Hogg (6’9” Sophomore Forward)
Strengths: Defense, offensive rebounding
Weaknesses: Three-point shooting, free throw shooting
Quick Summary: The Aggies are coming off a Sweet Sixteen run last season, but as there were four seniors on that squad, this year’s team looks considerably different and considerably more inexperienced. However, they’re looking like one of the best defensive teams in the country right now and, with their solid offense, they should be looking at another trip to the NCAA Tournament. They tend to play slow and grind it out, so it will be interesting if any of the teams in this field are able to speed them up to see how they can handle it.
Dayton
Record: 2-1
Coach: Archie Miller
Conference: Atlantic 10
Key Players: Charles Cooke (6’5”Senior Forward), Scoochie Smith (6’2” Senior Guard), Sam Miller (6’9” Sophomore Center)
Strengths: Shooting from the field, limiting turnovers
Weaknesses: Free throw shooting, rebounding
Quick Summary: The Flyers have turned into a perineal NCAA Tournament team under Archie Miller, and this year looks to be no different, as they return several players from last year’s tournament team. They can shoot the ball well, play good defense, and have an experienced roster, which will make them dangerous in any matchup.
Virginia Tech
Record: 3-0
Coach: Buzz Williams
Conference: ACC
Key Players: Zach LeDay (6’7” Senior Forward), Ahmed Hill (6’5” Junior Guard), Seth Allen (6’1” Senior Guard
Strengths: Two-point shooting, defensive rebounding
Weaknesses: Free throw shooting, offensive rebounding
Quick Summary: The Hokies are in a similar position to the Lobos right now, in that they seem to have the potential for a really great season, but have yet to be tested. Because of the conference they’re in, they’ll have plenty of opportunities to prove themselves, but a good showing this week could make people start to take notice of them, and potentially put them on the fast track towards an NCAA Tournament appearance.
Nebraska
Record: 3-0
Coach: Tim Miles
Conference: Big Ten
Key Players: Tai Webster (6’4” Senior Guard), Glynn Watson (6’0” Sophomore Guard), Ed Morrow (6’7” Sophomore Forward)
Strengths: Holding opponents to a low shooting percentage, shooting free throws
Weaknesses: Two-point shooting, offensive rebounding
Quick Summary: The Cornhuskers are a team that keep improving year-to-year, but largely go unnoticed as they play in such a tough conference. Consider this: they would likely be a top-3 team in the Mountain West, but are expected to finish 12th in the Big Ten. However, because they play in such a good conference, if they manage to even go .500 in conference play, they have a good shot of receiving an auto-bid to the NCAA Tournament. They’ve yet to be tested much this year, but that will change over the next couple of weeks, as they have games lined up with Clemson, Creighton, and Kansas after this tournament.
New Mexico
Record: 3-0
Coach: Craig Neal
Conference: Mountain West
Key Players: Elijah Brown (6’4” Junior Guard), Tim Williams (6’8” Senior Forward), Sam Logwood (6’7” Junior Forward)
Strengths: Getting to the free throw line, offensive rebounding
Weaknesses: Three-point shooting, three-point defense
Quick Summary: The Lobos have gotten off to a good start this year, but haven’t been really tested yet. That will change this week, as not only will the Lobos be facing stiffer competition, they will be playing away from the Pit for the first time. A good performance in this tournament could be just what the team needs to show that they should be taken seriously as a potential NCAA Tournament team.
Portland
Record: 3-0
Coach: Terry Porter
Conference: WCC
Key Players: Alec Wintering (6’0” Senior Guard), Gabe Taylor (6’8” Junior Forward), Jazz Johnson (5’10” Sophomore Guard)
Strengths: Three-point shooting, two-point defense
Weaknesses: Offensive rebounding, forcing turnovers
Quick Summary: The Pilots look like they will be the best of the rest in their conference, behind Saint Mary’s, Gonzaga, and BYU, but they do have the potential to surprise some people. They’re a very good shooting team, particularly behind the three-point line, which means that if they get hot, they could end up with an upset in this tournament. They’re not a particularly deep team, so they could be susceptible to either fouls, or just fatigue in this sort of event.
Cal State Northridge
Record: 2-2
Coach: Reggie Theus
Conference: Big West
Key Players: Rakim Lubin (6’8” Sophomore Forward), Kendall Smith (6’3” Junior Guard, Darin Johnson (6’5” Junior Forward)
Strengths: Getting to the free throw line, two-point defense
Weaknesses: Rebounding, defense
Quick Summary: The Matadors games have been track meets so far this season, with teams getting 80-90 possessions regularly. For reference, the average is 71. They’ve been above average on offense, thanks, in part, to their ability to get to the free throw line, but they’ve been pretty bad on defense. No D1 opponent has scored fewer than 80 points against them so far this season, and they’re not quite good enough on offense to expect to just outscore the other team. If they can get their defense under control, they could end up competing for a conference title, though.
Predictions
UCLA is the favorite in this tournament, but it wouldn’t be a huge shock to see any of the top 6 teams win the whole thing. Here are my complete guesses for the tournament:
Day 1:
Texas A&M over CS Northridge
UNM over Virginia Tech ( I think the loser of this one ends up in 5th place)
Dayton over Nebraska
UCLA over Portland
Day 2:
Texas A&M over UNM
Dayton over UCLA
Virginia Tech over CS Northridge
Nebraska over Portland
Day 3:
Dayton over Texas A&M
UCLA over UNM
Virginia Tech over Nebraska
Portland over CS Northridge
Scattered Thoughts
- I didn’t get the chance to write up a recap for the Lobos game against the Aggies, so here are a few thoughts. First, the first 10 minutes of the second half were about as well as the Lobos have played this season on defense. In that time, the Aggies only scored 6 points, which allowed the Lobos to turn a 1-point halftime deficit into an 8-point lead. Second, there’s something to be said for a player coming in off the bench and playing with passion, as we’ve seen before with Xavier Adams. In this game, Joe Furstinger brought the emotion, and I think that the team responded to it. Joe is a little buried on the depth chart right now, but if he is ready to go like that for even a few minutes, he could provide an emotional spark for the team, if nothing else. Finally, it looked like Elijah was starting to shake of the rust in the second half, which could be a good sign for this weekend. With the way Tim Williams is playing right now, adding an effective EB will make the offense look dynamic.
Here are my players of the game: 1. Tim Williams, 2. Joe Furstinger, 3. Elijah Brown - This first game against Virginia Tech could end up being the most important game of the tournament for the Lobos, as a win will likely put them on the side of the bracket with Texas A&M, UCLA, and Dayton, while a loss would leave them with Nebraska, Portland, and CS Northridge. Now, there aren’t any terrible teams in the tournament, but you want to get the opportunity to play the best teams you can. That’s only going to happen with a win on Thursday.
Game Info
Who: New Mexico Lobos (3-0) vs. Virginia Tech Hokies (3-0)
Where: Titan Gym, Fullerton, CA
When: Thursday, November 24, 2016 at 2:30pm MT
Watch: ESPN
Listen: 770 KKOB