Nov. 16, 2009
It’s Rio Grande Rivalry time as the University of New Mexico (1-0) and New Mexico State (0-1) hook up for the 203rd time Tuesday in Las Cruces. Tipoff is 7 p.m., from the Pan American Center. The game will be broadcast live over the Lobo Radio Network and televised live on AggieVision, which is Comcast channel 77 in Albuquerque.
Nov. 17 is the earliest calendar date for the first game of a season series since the two schools first squared off on Dec. 22, 1904, in Las Cruces, Prior to 2009-10, the earliest date was Nov. 19, of 1997.
PLEASE NOTE THE TIME CHANGE!!!!!!!!!!!
Next Sunday’s game against Miami (Ohio) in the Basketball Travelers Tournament has been changed to a 6:04 p.m. start. It was previously scheduled to tip at 4:34 p.m. The first game of the day between Nicholls State and Louisiana Tech will still start at 2 p.m.
LAST WEEKEND – The Lobos opened their 107th season Saturday with a 67-51 victory over UC Riverside in The Pit. Senior Roman Martinez scored a game-high 18 points on 4 of 7 shooting from 3-point. Junior Darington Hobson had 16 points, 7 rebounds and 6 assists in his Lobo debut while sophomore A.J. Hardeman set career-highs with 14 points and 3 blocks and tied a career-best with 6 rebounds.
The Aggies lost their opener 100-68 at St. Mary’s (Calif.) on Friday. Hamidu Rahman scored a career-high 22 points.
THE SERIES WITH THE AGGIES – It’s the 203rd game in a series that started more than a century ago. UNM has a 108-94 lead. After a season sweep last year for the first time since December of 2004, the Lobos have won 3 straight and 8 of 11, including 6 in a row in The Pit. UNM last took four in a row during a seven-game run from 1995-99.
New Mexico State has a 58-40 lead in Las Cruces, 27-14 in the Pan American. The Aggies have won 3 of the past 4 in Las Cruces.
ALFORD’S LOBO TEAMS HAVE BEEN SOLID ON THE ROAD – In his first two seasons at New Mexico, head coach Steve Alford’s teams set a school record for road wins in consecutive seasons. The standard is 14 victories, 8-6 in 2007-08 and 6-7 in 2008-09. The previous mark was 13 in 1972-73 and 1973-74. UNM was 14-60 on the road in the seven seasons before Alford arrived.
RIO GRANDE RIVALRY UPDATE – The winner of Tuesday’s game will receive 1.5 points in the Rio Grande Rivalry. UNM leads the 2009-10 standings 9-4.5 after winning the men’s and women’s cross country competitions last Saturday. NMSU took 1.5 points in women’s swimming on Saturday.
The Rio Grande Rivalry began in 2007-08. UNM and NMSU conduct competitions in 12 sports with points being awarded to the winner. The school with the most points is the winner. The Lobos won the trophy the first two years.
LAST YEAR IN LAS CRUCES – Daniel Faris hit a jumper with 40 seconds left to help New Mexico to the 68-66 win. Faris’ jumper gave the Lobos a 67-66 lead. New Mexico State’s Hernst Larouche missed a jumper with 18 seconds left that would have put the Aggies up by one.
New Mexico guard Dairese Gary followed with a free throw at 14.1 seconds to put the Lobos up 68-66. The Aggies had a chance to tie or win the game but missed two shots in the final seconds.
New Mexico was led by Faris’ 17 points and 11 rebounds. Roman Martinez added 16 points and Tony Danridge finished with 12 points.
The Lobos made 5 of their 8 3-pointers in the second half and outrebounded the Aggies 37-32. New Mexico also had a 24-15 advantage in points off turnovers.
New Mexico State got 22 points from guard Jonathan Gibson and 15 points from forward Wendell McKines. The Aggies stayed in the game by making 24 of 31 from the free throw line. New Mexico State shot just 39.6 percent from the field.
The first half was tight with six lead changes, but it was New Mexico that took a 30-28 halftime lead by scoring the final six points of the half. Neither team shot the ball well from the field–NMSU shot 29.6, while UNM was a notch higher at 34.4.
The two teams also combined for 21 turnovers in the opening 20 minutes.
LAST YEAR IN ALBUQUERQUE – Tony Danridge scored a game-high 22 points to lead New Mexico to a 76-62 victory.The Lobos had four players in double figures, with Roman Martinez adding 15 points and Phillip McDonald contributing 12. Jahmar Young led NMSU with 18 points.
The Aggies held the lead only once when they scored the opening basket. UNM responded with an 11-2 run and went on to take a 31-25 lead at halftime.
NMSU was able to cut the Lobos’ margin to 46-44 with 12 minutes remaining in the game when Young hit all of his free throws after getting fouled while shooting a wayward 3-pointer.
Chad Toppert answered with his second straight 3-pointer and a minute later, Martinez followed suit, pushing the lead back up to seven at 53-46.
A BRIEF LOOK AT THE LOBOS IN 2009-10 – The Lobos lost their top three scorers in graduating seniors Tony Danridge (14.9), Daniel Faris (12.1) and super-sub Chad Toppert (10.8). They were also three of UNM’s top-four rebounders, meaning New Mexico lost 51% of its scoring and 40% of its rebounding.
UNM returns six lettermen in Will Brown, Nate Garth, Dairese Gary, A.J. Hardeman, Roman Martinez and Phillip McDonald. One redshirt returns in freshman Curtis Dennis.
For the first time since 1985-86 (Johnny Brown), the Lobos have just one senior in Roman Martinez. There are only two juniors in Gary and junior college transfer Darington Hobson. The remaining nine players are all freshmen and sophomores.
LOBOS PREDICTED FOR 5TH-PLACE FINISH IN MWC – Like last year, New Mexico was picked to finish fifth in this season’s Mountain West Conference race during the league’s preseason media gathering in Denver on October 6. Voters were a combination of head coaches and media.
UNM AMONG THE NATION’S YOUNGEST TEAMS – According to a survey by the University of Central Florida media relations office, only two schools have fewer upperclassmen than New Mexico in 2009-10. St. Louis has one player in its junior-senior class while Toledo lists two. UNM, George Mason, UCF and Wyoming have three. There are 346 schools in NCAA Div. I this year.
The Lobos have one senior (Roman Martinez), two juniors (Dairese Gary and Darington Hobson), four sophomores and four freshmen on their 11-man roster in 2009-10.
My50-TV TO SHOW 6 MEN’S GAMES – UNM and Lobo Sports Properties announced Nov. 4 that KASY-TV (My50-TV) in Albuquerque will televise three home games and pick up the feed for three road games in 2009-10. That means 28 of the Lobos’ 31 regular season games will be televised.
My50-TV will show home games against Nicholls State (Nov. 20), Louisiana Tech (Nov. 21) and Miami, Ohio (Nov. 22). Scott Stiegler and former Lobo great Hunter Greene will call the action. My50-TV will also pick up the feed for road games at Hawai’i (Nov. 27), San Diego (Dec. 9) and Oral Roberts (Dec. 23).
HEAD COACH Steve Alford – Steve Alford, 44, is in his third season in charge of Lobo hoops and 19th year as a collegiate head coach. He was named UNM’s 19th head coach on March 23, 2007. Alford has never been an assistant coach is his career.
The 2008-09 MWC Coach of the Year after leading the Lobos to their first conference title in 15 seasons, Alford has a 355-204 (64%) career record, 47-21 at New Mexico. His teams have qualified for postseason play 13 times, produced 15 winning seasons and reached 20 wins on 10 occasions.
MARTINEZ ONE OF 30 FOR LOWE’S SENIOR CLASS AWARD – Lobo senior Roman Martinez is one of 30 NCAA Div. I student-athletes tabbed as a candidate for the 2009-10 Lowe’s Senior CLASS Award. To be eligible for the award, a student-athlete must be classified as an NCAA Division I senior and have notable achievements in four areas of excellence – classroom, character, community and competition.
Martinez is the only player on the list from the Mountain West Conference.
An acronym for Celebrating Loyalty and Achievement for Staying in SchoolTM, the Lowe’s Senior CLASS Award focuses on the total student-athlete and encourages students to use their platform in athletics to make a positive impact as leaders in their communities.
Lowe’s, an official Corporate Partner of the NCAA, will announce the Senior CLASS AwardTM winner for men’s basketball at the 2010 NCAA Men’s Final Four® in Indianapolis in April.
The list of 30 candidates will be narrowed to 10 finalists midway through the regular season, and those 10 names will be placed on the official ballot. Ballots will be distributed through a nationwide voting system to media, coaches and fans, who will select one finalist who best exemplifies excellence in the four Cs of classroom, character, community and competition.