The Coach Bradbury era tips off for real on Saturday afternoon when the Lobos take on Fairleigh Dickinson in both team’s season opener. The Lobos will be heavy favorites in this game, but that doesn’t mean they can just show up and expect to win. Last season, Fairleigh Dickinson went 11-22 and had an RPI of 314. In comparison, the Lobos went 17-15 with an RPI of 171. This will be a good opening game for the Lobos before things get a little tougher in a couple of days, when they will take on NMSU.

Stat Comparison:

	Lobos	Knights
Points Per Game	61.3	64.8
Points Allowed Per Game	57.6	71.3
Rebounds Per Game/Margin	39.2, +3.3	39.6, +.5
Assists Per Game	13.5	11.5
Turnovers Per Game	14.6	18
Steals Per Game	8.8	7.5
Blocks Per Game	2.9	3.3
Field Goal %	37.7%	39.7%
3 Point%	27.7%	30.1%
Free Throw %	.651%	71.5%

These stats are from last season and there are quite a few changes for both teams, so it will be interesting to see how different the two teams are from last year.

Fairleigh Dickinson:

This could be tough year for the Knights, as they lose 3 of their top 4 scorers, including two players that averaged over 16 points per game. The top returning player for the Knights is Brianna Thomas, who averaged 6.8 points and 4.5 rebounds, if the Knights want to be good this season, Thomas must take a step forward and become a player that averages 12 points and 8 rebounds a game. The Knights will need newcomers and returning players to fill the void left by their star players from a year ago. In my opinion, Fairleigh Dickinson is one of the two most winnable games this season, so the Lobos need to make the most of this opportunity.

What to Watch:

• It will be interesting to see Coach Bradbury’s rotation early in the year. In his press conference earlier this week, Bradbury said he would like to use a 7-player rotation, which means a lot of players could get left out.
• How quickly will the Lobos be able to get comfortable playing this up-tempo style of basketball? If the Lobos can find good shots early in the shot clock and can keep turnovers to under 13 a game, the transition shouldn’t be too rough.
• How well will the two centers in the game at the same time play together? Kianna Keller and Rachelle van der Keijl will be the starting front court early this year for the Lobos, so it will be interesting to see how well that works.
• Is Cherise Beynon able to take the step forward and become the star of the team? Beynon shared the role with Shumpert as a sophomore last year and will be counted on for a lot of the Lobos’ success this season.
• The point guard position will be worth watching at all yea. How much will the lone true point guard Laneah Bryan play and who are the other players that will play the lead guard position?

Schedule Breakdown:

All records and RPI are from last season results, so while these will change from year to year, they will give us some understanding of who is good and who the Lobos should beat.

Fairleigh Dickinson	11-22	314
NMSU H/A	24-5	94
@ Texas Tech	13-18	143
Tulsa	12-19	190
BYU/St. Joseph’s	25-7, 14-15	22, 123
SMU	13-18	197
Minnesota	20-12	86
UTEP	28-5	36
Eastern Illinois	3-25	339
@ Marquette	14-16	105

 

The Lobos will play eight of their eleven non-conference games at home this season, which could allow the Lobos to get confidence going into the conference schedule.

Bold Predictions:

• Cherise Beynon will average 17 points, 7 rebounds, 5 assists and 2 steals a game.
• Mykeil Burleson will average 8+ point and 3+ assists per game
• Kianna Keller and Rachelle van der Keijl will combine for over 5 blocks a game.
• Jaisa Nunn and van der Keijl will both average 8+ points and 8+ rebounds a game.
• Emily Lines will lead the Lobos in 3 Point % and average two 3 point makes a game.
• Lobos will finish in the top 4 of the conference.
• Lobos will win 20 games and make great strides as a team come January.
• Cherise Beynon will be named MW Player of the Year.
• van der Keijl and Nunn will make an all-conference team.
• Coach Bradbury will win coach of the year.
• Lobos will average 77+ points per game.
• Lobos will make a run in the conference tournament.

Game Prediction:

I have the Lobos winning the game against Fairleigh Dickinson easily. If the Lobos can play their style of play, you could be looking at a 20+ point win. I put the odds of the Lobos winning this game at 85% with the Lobos winning this game 85-63.

Game Info:

Who: New Mexico Lobos (0-0) vs. Fairleigh Dickinson Knights (0-0)

When: Saturday, November 12, 2 PM MT

Where: WisePies Arena AKA The PIT, Albuquerque, New Mexico

Steam: LoboTV

The Lobo women’s basketball team went 2-0 during their exhibition season, winning games against two Division II schools in Fort Lewis (101-48) and Eastern New Mexico (89-70). The Lobos will officially kick off the Coach Mike Bradbury era Saturday afternoon against Fairleigh Dickinson. While there is little that we can take away from the first two exhibitions, we can look at the numbers each player had last season and try to guess what kind of growth we could see in each player. It will be difficult to see what the impact of Coach Bradbury’s system will be on each player, since his system is completely different to what Coach Sanchez ran, so each stat should be taken with a grain of salt.

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As I am sure you are well aware by now, Yvonne Sanchez was let go after five years as the head coach of the UNM women’s basketball team. She had her share of detractors when she was hired and later when she was extended, but I believe that it was simply a good hire that didn’t work out and that it was the right call to give her an extension. Clearly, the last five years haven’t gone as planned, neither for us as fans or for Coach Sanchez herself, which is what led to AD Paul Krebs deciding that a change needed to take place. While we don’t know what the future holds for the team right now, it is clear that Coach Sanchez helped mold the program to where it is today and helped create high expectations for both herself and every coach who follows her.

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