The Lobos had a nice bounce-back game on Wednesday to start their conference season, beating Nevada 88-76 to snap their four-game losing streak. Things don’t get any easier though, as they travel to Fresno, CA to take on the Fresno State Bulldogs, another team with conference championship aspirations who just knocked off UNLV in Las Vegas. Although a loss likely won’t be devastating to their hopes of winning the conference, a win would give the Lobos a huge leg up on the competition and put the rest of the league on notice that they’re a team to be reckoned with.
Author: Jono
Men’s Basketball vs. Nevada Preview
A few years ago, I went to Hawaii for a friend’s wedding, expecting to spend time hiking, snorkeling, fishing, and otherwise enjoying all that the island had to offer. Instead, I stepped on a sea urchin my first day out there and was stuck on the couch for most of my trip. That still might have been a better Hawaii experience than what the Lobos just had. That holiday tournament ended their non-conference schedule with a thud, leaving them at 7-6 heading into conference play. They’ll look to regroup tonight against Nevada, hopefully righting the ship and getting the season back on track.
Men’s Basketball: Players of the Game Update
The Lobo men’s basketball team wrapped up its non-conference schedule last week (I guess that’s a nice way to describe last week), giving us a chance to take a step back and see how things have gone so far for the players by looking at our Players of the Game awards, which also gives us an idea of where the team stands. The team has mostly been carried on the backs of a couple of transfers, for good and bad, but there is still a lot of talent on the team that makes us think that this team can get back to being who we thought they were two weeks ago.
Mountain West Men’s Basketball Reset
After an up and down (mostly down) non-conference season for the Mountain West teams, it’s finally time for the teams to start playing each other. Conference play starts on Wednesday and this year seems even more up in the air now than it did before the season started. So with that, we thought that it would be worthwhile to check back in with the conference and reset our expectations for how the season will play out.
Men’s Basketball Stats Glossary
(This page is a summary and description of the statistics used in our men’s basketball posts.)
Men’s Basketball vs. BYU Recap
The Lobos lucked out when a couple of other favorites in the Diamond Head Classic lost their first round matchups as well, which meant that they potentially still had the opportunity to collect a couple of quality wins. They got their first shot against BYU on Wednesday morning. It did not go well.
Men’s Basketball vs. Auburn Recap and BYU Preview
The Lobos’ first round game of the Diamond Head Classic against Auburn was a game of runs. This was due in large part to the sheer number of turnovers in the game, 39 total, and the three point shooting by both teams, 20 made threes. Combined, this meant that there would be multiple runs of 6 or more point swings. There were many times it looked like one of the teams would run away with the game, only to have the other team make a similar run and take the lead back. In the end for the Lobos, there were too many turnovers and too much Canty, ultimately falling to Auburn 82-78. This sends the Lobos to the loser’s bracket to face BYU tomorrow at 12:30 MT.
Men’s Basketball vs. Auburn Preview
After a disappointing loss, to say the least, to Rice at home on Saturday, the Lobos now turn their attention to their holiday tournament: The Diamond Head Classic in Honolulu, Hawaii. Their first opponent is Auburn, a team that they’ll need to get past if they want a chance at the other good teams in the tournament.
NM Bowl Recap: UNM’s Comeback Falls Short
The Lobos, after a 7-5 regular season, were given the opportunity to stay home to play in the New Mexico bowl, their first bowl game since 2007, and host an old rival, Arizona. With the Lobos coming off of a long stretch of mediocrity, meaning that there were still plenty of people out there who didn’t think that this team was for real, and the Wildcats coming out of the Pac 12, there was a general impression nationally that this game wouldn’t be much of a contest. However, this is not the same Lobo team that only won 3 games in 3 seasons, this is the one who marched into Boise to beat the Broncos on their blue turf, the one that was one win shy of winning the Mountain division, and the one that seemed to get better as the season went on. Sure, they lost the game 45-37, but they proved to the 30k people in the stadium and whoever was watching on TV, this program is for real and on the rise.
Men’s Basketball vs. Rice Recap
So that happened. Fresh off of convincing wins against Northern Iowa (who just beat #5 Iowa State) and NMSU, the Lobos welcomed in a struggling Rice team with full expectations of a blowout. Instead, the Lobos allowed the Owls to storm back from a late 16-point deficit to win on a technical free throw with 0.1 seconds remaining. The Lobos now need to regroup, as they’ll have a lot of work to do to recover from this one.