Feb. 3, 2009
Lobo Basketball
What: Lobos vs. Wyoming
When/Where: 8:05 p.m. tonight, The Pit
On TV: CBS College Sports (Comcast 274, DirecTV 613, Dish 152)
On Radio: 770-AM KKOB
Online: GameTracker on GoLobos.com
By Richard Stevens — Senior Writer/GoLobos.com
To run or not to run with the Wyoming Cowboys, isn’t the question. The Lobos will run. But they will run smart, shoot smart and not let the Cowboys do the same on their end of the gym.
Well, that’s the plan.
“We’ll be running,” said Lobo center Daniel Faris. “We’ll push the tempo. We are effective in transition and we want to take advantage of that part of our game. We just have to make sure we are getting good shots out of transition.”
Oh, the Lobos probably will be getting good shots out of the run-and-gun segment of their offense because bad shots aren’t an option. One thing that sets UNM basketball apart from most of the other teams in the Mountain West Conference is that Steve Alford (and Don Flanagan) doesn’t let his players just jack up the ball.
It has to be a good shot with purpose.
The Cowboys’ last MWC outing hints of a team shooting too many shots without purpose. Wyoming was smoked 84-60 at BYU, but Lobos Coach Steve Alford knows this is a `Pokes’ team with lots of fire power and lots of normally straight shooters.
What the score in BYU suggests is that the Cowboys might have trouble against a team committed to taking away Wyoming’s transition game and forcing the ‘Pokes into a half-court affair while that team still gets its points on the run.
That’s Alford’s plan, too.
“You have to be who you are and we’re going to run because that’s who we are,” he said. “We’re not a walk-it-up team. We’re going to transition right with them. We just have to hope we do it better than they do.
“The thing about up-tempo is that we have to take good shots. When Wyoming is in transition, we have to make sure we are matched up and they aren’t getting open looks because they like to shoot a lot of threes in transition.”
The Cowboys are not hesitate to launch from afar. They have shot 381 treys in 21 games. UNM has shot 402 treys in 22 games. To give these numbers a little perspective, UNLV has shot 470 3-pointers in 21 games and BYU has 425 long attempts in 21 games. So, the Lobos and the Cowboys look for the shorter shots, too.
Wyoming has four of the league’s top guns in Brandon Ewing (18.2), Afam Muojeke (15.6), Tyson Johnson (15.5) and Sean Ogirri (14.7). Those four Cowboys also are in the top five for MWC games in minutes played. The Wyoming team is second in the MWC in scoring at 79.3 points a game
“They have four guys in the top nine in league scoring and that puts a lot of pressure on our defense,” said Alford. “Three of them are guards and one of them is a post player. It’s a scary team because of how potent they are on offense. They can always be in a game because of the way they can score.”
Said Faris: “It`s going to be all about our defense. Our offense has to come from us getting stops on the defensive end and creating some easy stuff in our transition game. And we have to limit their scorers from getting the easy looks they seem to be getting. They have a bunch of scorers.”
Obviously, Ewing is the Cowboy with the hottest gun. He leads the league in scoring, assists (5.38) and minutes played (38.29). His 1,939 career points for Wyoming is No. 2 in MWC history. However, if Ewing played all his games in The Pit, he might be No. 2000 in MWC scoring.
You can’t help but wonder if the Wyoming senior will try to sneak into The Pit early and bring an exorcist or maybe some sort of magic man to cast a spell on The Pit rims. Ewing has been haunted by his three visits to The Pit. He has scored a total of 13 points (4-of-31) in his three games in Albuquerque. His season lows in 2007 (four points) and 2008 (six points) came on the Bob King floor.
The Wyoming game marks the halfway mark of the MWC race for UNM. The Lobos are 4-3 in league play and tied with TCU and BYU. The league leaders are San Diego State, UNLV and Utah at 5-2.
In other words, the Lobos are in the thick of this congested race. UNM is coming off a heart-wrenching 69-69 loss at Utah, but this Lobos team doesn’t seem to be fazed by frustrating losses that were a few plays shy of a win.
“We know we are a good team and if we want to be around in March, we have to put losses behind us and concentrate on winning the next game,” said Faris. “I think another thing that helps us is that we are committed to getting better every day.”
Said Alford: “We’ve been a very resilient team. We are big on toughness and we’re big about moving on to the next game. That means whether you are coming off a win or coming off a loss, you move on to the importance of the next game.”
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