In a game that the Lobos entered with a few question marks (Can they win on the road? Are they recovered from last week? Can they get back to playing like they did when we thought they could win the conference?), they walked off the court having made a statement, winning at Fresno by a 77-62 final score. They’re now 2-0 in the conference, including a road win against another team thought to be in the upper-tiers of the conference, and should be back in the conversation as a title contender.
Category: Lobo Basketball
Women’s Basketball vs. Fresno State Preview
The Lobos (8-4, 1-0) return to action at home Saturday afternoon to take on the Fresno State Bulldogs (5-7, 1-0). Both teams are coming off conference-opening wins and are looking to improve to 2-0 in conference play. The Lobos look to play a better game than they played against Nevada and need Jaisa Nunn to make a return to action ASAP. If the Lobos get a great game from senior forward Khadijah Shumpert, I really like the Lobos chances to win this game.
Women’s Basketball at Nevada Recap
The conference opener was an interesting game for the Lobos (8-4, 1-0), as they had a tough time creating separation from the Nevada Wolf Pack (1-11, 0-1). If you read our preview, we highlighted how it should have been an easy road win for the Lobos and it was anything but that. The Lobos didn’t have the service of Jaisa Nunn and Alexa Chavez got hurt in the first half, which limited their interior depth. Without Nunn, the Lobos needed Khadijah Shumpert to stay out of foul trouble and the Lobos didn’t get that, as Shumpert fouled out in 20 minutes of action. With everything that happened in the game, I was proud of how the Lobos fought and never game up the lead in the game. I think this will be a lesson for this young Lobo team that you can’t take any team for granted, even more so on the road. Without Nunn playing and Chavez getting hurt, Kianna Keller was the only bench player to play over 10 minutes. The Lobos bench production needs to be better for the Lobos to be the team that they want to be.
UNM at Fresno State Preview
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.
Men’s Basketball vs. Nevada Recap
Conference play started Wednesday night for the Lobo Men’s Basketball team and they needed to get the bad taste out of their mouth from last week, when they went 0-4 with two very bad losses against Rice and Washington State. The game day didn’t get off to a good start, as freshman backup center Nikola Scekic announced that he was transferring an hour and a half before the game. With the departure of Scekic, the Lobos have only 3 true post players left on the roster with Obij Aget, Tim Williams and Joe Furstinger, which will force Coach Neal to use more four guard lineups than he has ever played. That might not be a bad thing, though, as parts of this game proved.
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.
Women’s Basketball Conference Season Preview
It looks like for the third straight year that the Mountain West Conference will be a one bid league in Women’s Basketball, which means that every team will be more focused on the conference tournament championship compared the regular season championship, which doesn’t come with the automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament. Last year, the Lobos finished second in the regular season and lost to Boise State in the championship game of the tournament last season. Since Colorado State won the regular season title, they were awarded the MW bid into the WNIT while the Lobos played in the Women’s Basketball Invitational. It will be interesting to see how the conference season shakes out and see if the Lobos can knock of Colorado State to win both conference titles.
Women’s Basketball at Nevada Preview
The Lobos (7-4) return to action tonight, kicking off Mountain West Conference play by facing Nevada (1-10) in Reno. The Lobos look to regroup after a tough third quarter against NMSU that cost them the game against the Aggies. The Lobos finished out their non-conference slate with a solid 7-4 record with no bad losses and a great road win against Minnesota. The Lobos will look to build off last year’s 2nd place finish in both the conference regular season and tournament, with the ultimate goal to make the NCAA Tournament. The Lobos look to get off to a great start against a struggling Nevada Wolf Pack team. If the Lobos want to win the regular season title, the Lobos need to sweep the weaker teams in the conference and the Wolf Pack fit that bill.
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.