Jan. 3, 2010
Tuesday: Lobos at San Diego State, 8:30 p.m. (MT).
On The Air: The Mtn (Comcast 276, DirecTV 616); 770-AM KKOB
Online: GameTracker, game story, stats on GoLobos.com
By Richard Stevens — Senior Writer/GoLobos.com
As much as anything, all Season One did was add another team to the list of Mountain West teams which are good enough, tough enough, to race to the 2010 MWC throne.
At the start, it was Brigham Young, San Diego State and the UNLV Rebels and those MWC teams did nothing to change their status during their non-conference slate. This trio is way good for a variety of reasons.
But when the 2010 MWC race opens Tuesday in San Diego, that trio has to be looking up at the No. 1 surprise team in the Mountain West and maybe the nation — New Mexico.
“We’re playing one of the hottest, best teams in America,” said SDSU coach Steve Fisher. “We will have our hands full and we will need our crowd.”
The Aztecs are not playing Kansas, North Carolina, Duke or the Lakers come Tuesday in the SDSU Viejas Arena. The Aztecs open with a Lobo team that has to go down as the league bully based on record, ranking and RPI.
In a way, this is an ironic twist. Lobo coach Steve Alford entered the season with one of the youngest teams in America and somewhere along the way these baby-faced Lobos turned into baby-faced assassins.
They have gunned down 14 teams, falling only on the road to Oral Roberts. The 14-1 Lobos, picked fifth in the MWC preseason poll, had a chance to enter the MWC wars under the radar, but instead decided to grab a spot among the Top 20 teams in America.
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MWC RECORDS |
The target on the Lobos’ back probably hasn’t widened that much. Alford’s Lobos already have a reputation as being MWC road warriors. But any MWC team that thought this young Lobo team might not be road rugged in 2010, has had a chance to reevaluate. And prepare.
UNM has won at Hawaii, at San Diego and at New Mexico State. The Lobos will be taken seriously by the Aztecs.
The Aztecs are good, too. Coach Fisher has reloaded for 2009-10 and SDSU is off to the school’s best start in 25 seasons. The Aztecs are 11-3, with road wins at Hawaii and UC Riverside. They are 7-0 in Viejas Arena.
The Aztecs join BYU (14-1), UNLV (12-2) and UNM (14-1) as the league’s cream going into a 16-game season with a time-tested formula for deciding a champion: Win at home, win at least half your road games. Do that, and you must might be MWC champs.
That formula held true in the 2009 MWC race as New Mexico was joined on the MWC throne by BYU and Utah — all at 12-4. The Lobos and the Utes went 8-0 at home and 4-4 on the road. BYU made a mistake losing in Provo to UNLV, but made up for that stumble by pulling an upset at SDSU.
You can bet Fisher will be reminding his Aztecs how that home loss cost them a share of the MWC title. And here comes arguably the MWC’s best team: Lobos.
Junior Darington Hobson |
“We’ll find out real quick where we are in this league,” said Alford. “Now, it’s going to be a grind.”
The grind definitely begins for the Lobos at SDSU against an Aztec team that likes to grind you up inside. The Aztecs are monsters of the paint.
“Anytime you talk about San Diego State, you talk about board play,” said Alford.
Said UNM`s Darington Hobson: “They have a lot of bigs (posts/forwards). They are a very athletic team and very strong.”
In the past, the Aztecs often were an undisciplined bunch that simply out-scored you, out-jumped you, out-muscled you, out-quicked you. They do all these things again this season, but seemed to have picked up on this defensive concept, too.
Maybe they have been watching the Lobos.
The Aztecs’ tempo influences the score, but SDSU has the No. 1 scoring defense in the MWC at 59.6 points per game. The Aztecs also have the No. 1 field goal percentage defense at .391 percent. This probably translates into a long, athletic SDSU team that intimidates the trey, while not yielding too many high-percentage shots inside.
“They aren’t the shooting team they were a year ago, but they are bigger,” said Alford. “This is a team that’s very scary under the boards. We are going to have to really play well.”
The Aztecs aren’t purely a run-and-gun team this season and like to pound the ball at teams off the athletic attacks by 6-8 Billy White, 6-7 Kawhi Leonard, 6-9 Malcolm Thomas and even 6-6 Tyrone Shelley. These Aztecs, if given a chance, or a lane, will drive the ball down your throats.
The point is run by 6-foot D.J. Gay, who is experienced and quick. Gay gives up about 40 pounds to UNM’s Dairese Gary. This might be an advantage UNM can exploit.
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LOBO ROSTER |
For sure, UNM’s outside shooting will be a key. The Lobos lean to the trey with the main guns being Hobson, Roman Martinez and Phillip McDonald. It might not be easy to pound the ball inside on the Aztecs. It also would be helpful for UNM to drive and get to the foul line. The foul line could be to UNM’s advantage down the stretch run.
It’s interesting how some of the MWC teams prepared for their MWC debut. The Lobos played, and beat, Texas Tech and Dayton last week. The Aztecs are coming off a win over Pomona Pitzer. BYU just beat Eastern New Mexico. Wyoming pounded D-II Adams State.
The Lobos definitely have been prepared for the grinder. The league games on Wednesday are CSU at Wyoming, UNLV at Brigham Young and Air Force at TCU. All teams play on Saturday with BYU out of conference at UTEP.
“We banked the 14-1 record,” said Alford. “We want them (Lobo players) to go forward with momentum and confidence. Our league has done really, really well. Now, it’s going to be a grind and it just gets tougher from each month on.”
Said Hobson: “What we did in the non-conference helped us, but it has nothing to do with what we do in conference.”