March 5, 2007
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The New Mexico Lobos (15-16, 4-12 MWC) meet TCU (12-16, 4-12 MWC) Tuesday in the opening game of the Mountain West Conference Tournament at the Thomas and Mack Center in Las Vegas. Tipoff is 8:35 p.m. MST with television coverage on The mtn, Channel 276 on Comcast Cable in Albuquerque. The winner will face regular-season champ and No. 1 seed BYU Thursday at 1 p.m. Mountain Time.
UNM is the No. 9 seed. New Mexico’s lowest seed in 23 previous postseason tournament was No. 7 in 2003. TCU seeded 8th.
The Lobos enter the tournament in a bit of a tailspin. After Saturday’s 76-67 loss at Wyoming, UNM has lost four in a row for the second time since Jan. 1 and is 1-6 in its last seven games. New Mexico has not lost five straight games in one season since 1995.
The Lobos need to win two games to avoid a rare losing season. UNM has had just one sub-.500 campaign since 1984, a 10-18 ledger in 2002-03.
Despite tying New Mexico for last place in the conference, TCU has played pretty well the past three games. The Horned Frogs took San Diego State to the wire Saturday before succumbing 56-51. Before the loss at San Diego, TCU beat Air Force and Wyoming at home.
New Mexico and TCU split the season series this year. TCU won 64-52 in Fort Worth while the Lobos prevailed 74-58 in The Pit. UNM has won four of the last five meetings against TCU.
New Mexico is 2-11 away from home this season, 1-10 in true road games. The lone win was 70-66 at Colorado State on Feb. 3.
The Lobos lost 12 conference games for the first time since 1959 when they finished 1-13 in the Skyline Conference.
New Mexico endured its fifth losing conference record in the past seven seasons. The Lobos’ only winning mark in league play since 2000 was 10-4 in 2005. UNM was 8-8 last year. New Mexico never had a losing conference record from 1984-2000, a span of 17 seasons.
NEW MEXICO’S POSTSEASON TOURNAMENT HISTORY
The Lobos have a 27-20 record in 23 years of conference tournaments. The breakdown is 22-14 with two titles in 16 years in the Western Athletic Conference, but just 5-6 and one championship in seven tries in the Mountain West.
UNM has never won an MWC Tournament game seeded fifth or lower. The Lobos are 0-3 in those contests.
The Lobos have exited the Mountain West Conference tournament after one game five times with three of those knockouts coming courtesy of UNLV. UNM lost to BYU in the 2001 title game and beat Utah to win the 2005 championship. Last year in Denver, the Runnin’ Rebels rallied from a 13-point second-half deficit to edge the Lobos 65-64 in the first round.
UNM AT THE THOMAS & MACK
Not the best venue for New Mexico is the Thomas & Mack Center. That’s because the Lobos are 3-11 in the facility since the Mountain West Conference commenced play in 2000. Two wins came over Colorado State and Utah in the 2001 MWC tournament. The other victory was over UNLV during the 2005 regular season.
NEW MEXICO-TCU SERIES
It’s the 12th meeting and the Lobos have an 8-3 lead. The two teams split the series this year. TCU won 64-52 in Fort Worth while the Lobos prevailed 74-58 in The Pit. UNM has won four of the last five meetings.
The two schools have met in conference tournament play before. It was the semifinals of the 1998 Western Athletic Conference in Las Vegas when 20th-ranked New Mexico upset the No. 13 Horned Frogs 80-73. The victory snapped TCU’s 16-game winning streak.
Kenny Thomas had 22 points and 12 rebounds while Clayton Shields added 18 points and 10 rebounds. Lamont Long chipped in with 20 points and 8 boards. David Gibson had six of the Lobos’ 15 steals. UNM only used six players with Long and Gibson playing all 40 minutes.
JAN. 3 IN FORT WORTH
Brent Hackett scored 20 points and TCU overcame a first half deficit to beat New Mexico 64-52. TCU trailed 33-28 at halftime, but took control by starting the second half with a 14-0 run.
The Horned Frogs improved from 38 percent field goal shooting in the first half to 57 percent in the second. For its part, New Mexico started strong but went cold, making only six of 24 field goal attempts in the second half, or 25 percent.
Hackett shot 60 percent from the field, including four 3-pointers on seven attempts. Kevin Langford added 14 points and Alvarado Parker had 12. J.R. Giddens led the Lobos with 16 points and Darren Prentice had 12. Aaron Johnson had a game-high 10 rebounds. TCU won the rebounding contest 37-25.
FEB. 17 IN ALBUQUERQUE
Chad Toppert tied his career-highs with 20 points and six 3-pointers in New Mexico’s 74-58 win over TCU. New Mexico used a 14-2 run late in the second half to hand TCU its 11th straight loss.
Toppert hit 6 of 9 3-point shots, several of them of coming off passes from point guard Darren Prentice, who had a career-high 8 assists and scored 16 points.
Kevin Langford, who gave the Frogs their only lead with a basket in the opening minute, led TCU with 23 points.
J.R. Giddens, the Lobos’ leading scorer, did not play after being suspended indefinitely by coach Ritchie McKay. His absence didn’t matter against a TCU team that had 20 turnovers and struggled to find a rhythm offensively.
The Horned Frogs’ troubles included a pair of airballed free throws by center Alvardo Parker in the first half. Still, TCU was within 45-41 with 13:33 left after a layup by Femi Ibikunle. It was mostly New Mexico after that.
New Mexico reserve Roman Martinez went to the floor while battling a TCU player for the ball and flipped it to Prentice for a layup. Jeffrey Henfield scored on an offensive rebound and Prentice hit a 15-footer. Ryan Kersten hit a 3-pointer and Prentice a pair of free throws.
Parker halted the Lobos’ run with a layup, but Lobo guard Jamaal Smith hit a 3-pointer to push the lead to 59-43 with 7:16 left.
Ritchie McKay IN POSTSEASON TOURNAMENTS
Lobo head coach Ritchie McKay is 3-4 in the MWC Tournament in his career, 3-3 while at UNM and 0-1 at Colorado State.
LAST SEASON FOR McKAY AT UNM
University of New Mexico director of athletics Paul Krebs announced Feb. 22 that the contract of head coach Ritchie McKay will be terminated at the end of the season. McKay and his staff will oversee the program through the final game of the 2006-07 season.
McKay was hired as New Mexico’s 18th head men’s basketball coach on March 28, 2002. He has an 82-68 overall record in his fifth season at UNM, 31-43 in Mountain West Conference play.
After records of 10-18 and 14-14 in McKay’s first two years at UNM, the Lobos finished 26-7 in 2004-05. They won the Mountain West Conference tournament title and advanced to the NCAA Tournament for the first time in six years. New Mexico was 17-13 last year, but lost in the first round of the MWC Tournament in Denver.
McKay is in his 11th season as a collegiate head coach. He has a career mark of 165-157, including two-year stints at Portland State, Colorado State and Oregon State.
WYOMING REVIEW AND NOTES
Brandon Ewing scored 20 points in leading Wyoming over New Mexico 76-67 Saturday in a rematch of two teams that were involved in a brawl during their first meeting in January.
Wyoming got well ahead in the first half and New Mexico came no closer than nine points after that.
Ewing hit all nine of his free throws, including four in the final minute to help keep the Lobos out of reach despite baskets by Tony Danridge and David Kanyinda. The Cowboys used an 18-4 run to go up 26-14 in the first half. The run began on a 3-pointer by Eric Platt that put the Cowboys ahead 11-10.
In the final minutes of the first half, Ewing made two baskets and three free throws to give Wyoming a 37-24 lead at intermission. Early in the second half, Ewing scored another basket and two free throws for the Cowboys’ widest lead of the game, 43-26.
After Ewing, Platt scored 14 points and James Spencer had 13. Ike Okoye had eight rebounds. New Mexico was led by J.R. Giddens’ 15 points. Giddens also had nine rebounds. Danridge had 13 points and Kanyinda 10 points. The Cowboys out-shot the Lobos 57 percent to 49 percent.
Wyoming has won 10 straight games against the Lobos in Laramie…UNM’s last win was 62-61 in 1995
New Mexico used its 17th different starting lineup of the season
The Lobos missed their first 11 3-pointers before Kellen Walter connected late in the first half…New Mexico finished 5 of 21 from 3-point for 23.8%…UNM came into the game averaging 9.57 treys a game and shooting 38.2% from long range…the five 3s are the fewest since 5 against Wyoming in The Pit on Jan. 30…the 23.8% accuracy from 3-point is the lowest in an MWC game this season and the poorest since 20% (4-20) against Kansas State on Dec. 23
UNM has hit 12 of 45 shots from 3-point the past 2 games, or 26.7%
Wyoming shot 57.4% (27-47) from the floor, the best against UNM since Colorado State converted 63% (31-49) in The Pit on Jan. 6…the Lobos allowed 49.4% shooting from the floor in MWC games this year
The past 3 games, UNM opponents are averaging 84.7 points and shooting 55.3% (83-150) from the floor and 49% (29-59) from 3-point
New Mexico was 8 of 15 from the FT line, or 53%…the season percentage for all games is now 66.2%, and it was 63.4% in MWC games…the past 6 games, the accuracy is just 59.4% (57-96)
UNM has made 292 shots from 3-point this year, the 3rd-highest total in school history…the record is 301 set by the 1997-98 team in 32 games followed by 300 in 31 games in 1993-94
J.R. Giddens scored a team-high 15 points and had a game-high 9 rebounds
Chad Toppert had 7 points, but was just 1 of 7 from 3-point for the second straight game…he has made at least one 3-pointer in 19 consecutive games…Toppert ranks 7th on UNM’s single-season list with 84 3-pointers made and 4th on UNM’s single-season list by making 46.9% (84-179) of his 3-point attempts…he is 2nd on UNM’s career list by making 44.1% (98-222) of his 3-point attempts
David Kanyinda scored a career-high 10 points on a pair of 3-pointers in just 9 minutes of action
LOBOS TIE SCHOOL RECORD FOR OVERTIME GAMES
New Mexico has tied a single-season school record by playing four overtime games, and they came in an 11-game stretch in Mountain West Conference play. UNM has a 1-3 record.
The Lobos edged Utah at home 86-82 on Jan. 13. Two weeks later, UNLV got past the Lobos 76-72. On Feb. 20, New Mexico had a chance to beat San Diego State in regulation but UNM missed a lay-up at the end of regulation. The Aztecs prevailed 81-74 in the extra period. The very next game, Utah got revenge with a 93-91 double-OT triumph in Salt Lake City.
UNM has played four overtime games in a season on three other occasions: 1989-90, 1994-95 and 2000-01.