Jan. 5, 2009
Lobo Basketball
What: Lobos vs. UTEP
When/Where: 7:07 p.m., tonight (Jan. 6) — The Pit
On The Air: 770-AM KKOB; No TV
Online: GameTracker on GoLobos.com
By Richard Stevens — Senior Writer/GoLobos.com
There’s something wrong with this picture. The New Mexico Lobos played the UNLV Rebs on Saturday. So, doesn’t that mean BYU, Utah, San Diego State or some other Mountain West Conference team should be in The Pit tonight instead of the UTEP Miners?
“I don’t like it,” said Lobos coach Steve Alford.
What Alford doesn’t like is wedging a non-conference game between the more meaningful MWC games. Oh, it’s not that Alford and his Lobos won’t be taking the Miners seriously. It’s just that there is a certain focus for MWC wars that gets blurred a bit when all of a sudden a non-MWC game is on tap.
“We’ve had a lot of frustrations with our non-league (schedule),” said Alford. “UTEP and ourselves couldn’t find anywhere else to put the game. We gave them four or five different dates and none of them worked. The only date that really worked was this date and, no, I don’t like it. I’d much rather be playing all league games.”
The first week of the MWC season has become sort of a hiccup week for league teams looking to fill out their non-conference schedule. The Lobos aren’t the only MWC team looking at a non-MWC team on Tuesday. TCU is at Texas Tech, LSU visits Utah and Western Oregon visits Brigham Young.
This scheduling problem popped up for MWC teams during the 2005-06 season when TCU was added to the conference and the number of games jumped up from 14 to 16.
The Lobos have played a number of non-conference foes in the first week of January, but usually that meant UNM was able to start league games a week later. The Lobos were at UTEP on Jan. 2 last season before opening at Wyoming on Jan. 5, 2008.
The last time UNM played a non-conference foe after league play began was in 2002-03 when Western New Mexico visited The Pit on Jan. 22 for a 107-49 spanking. The last time the Lobos played a major-college foe after league play opened was 2000-01 when UNM played Stanford on Jan. 20 and Georgia State on Feb. 12.
Last year, BYU, Utah, Colorado State and San Diego State played non-league games after the MWC season began.
“I don’t like this schedule,” said Alford. “I’m not pleased with playing this game when we have to play it. They (UTEP) know it. But it’s a big game. They split with New Mexico State and they are extremely talented. (Stefon) Jackson and (Randy) Culpepper are big-time scorers. We are going to need our crowd. (UTEP) is going to be a tremendous test for a lot of reasons.”
Alford said he is looking for The Pit to help keep the Lobos’ energy up because they burnt a lot of energy Saturday in their 60-58 MWC loss at UNLV. UNM is 9-6 on the season and the Lobos will be looking to even their 0-1 MWC slate when Air Force visit’s the Pit at 7:30 p.m. on Saturday. A win over UTEP would make UNM 10-5 in non-league games.
“Anytime you can get to double-figure wins in non-league, that’s big,” said Alford. “After starting 3-4, this team has a chance to finish 10-5 in the non-league and that would be a tremendous accomplishment for this young team.”
The Lobos have been playing solid defense lately and that aspect of the game should come in handy against Jackson, who is averaging 23.8 points, and Culpepper, who is averaging 19.1 points.
Those two Miners average almost as many points as UNM’s top four scorers: Tony Danridge (13.3), Daniel Faris (11.0), Roman Martinez (10.6) and Chad Toppert (10.3). UTEP also has a presence inside in 6-foot-11 freshman Arnett Moultrie, who averages 9.0 points and 7.0 rebounds.
The Miners are 8-5 and 0-2 on the road. They lost 90-78 at NMSU and beat the Aggies in El Paso, 84-69. UTEP also lost at home 80-67 to UNLV, but hammered Texas Tech 96-78 in El Paso. UNM holds a 25-9 edge over the Miners in Pit games and UTEP hasn’t won in Albuquerque since Dec. 18, 1999. UNM won 86-85 last year in overtime in El Paso behind 20 points and 19 rebounds from J.R. Giddens.
The Lobos should be challenged on the backboard by the Miners, whose starting lineup goes 6-5, 6-6, 6-7, 6-11 and 6-11. The UTEP bench includes players 7-foot, 6-10, 6-8 and 6-8.
The game is a big one for Lobo Roman Martinez, who played at Montwood High in El Paso. The El Paso native started last year’s game, but played only eight minutes and had one point and one rebound.
“These games are fun for me, but they also are very important games to win,” said Martinez, who did not score in UNM’s loss at UNLV.
Editor’s Note: Richard Stevens is a former Associate Sports Editor and sports columnist for The Albuquerque Tribune. You can reach him at rstevens50@comcast.net. Previous articles are available at The Richard Stevens Corner