Feb. 1, 2010
Saturday: San Diego State at Lobos, 4 p.m., The Pit
Radio:770 KKOB-AM / Lobo Radio Network
TV: The Mtn. (Comcast 276, DirecTV 616)
Online: Recap, live stats at GoLobos.com
The New Mexico Lobos (20-3, 6-2 Mountain West) vaulted to No. 15 in this week’s Associated Press poll, a leap of eight spots. UNM is also back in the ESPN/USA Today rankings at No. 23. New Mexico won two games last week: 76-72 at home over (12/10) BYU and 73-57 at TCU.
New Mexico has just one game this week, at home Saturday against San Diego State and it’s already a sellout. Tip-off is 4 p.m. Mountain Time from The Pit / Bob King Court. The game will be televised nationally on The mtn., channel 276 on Albuquerque Comcast and 616 on DirecTV.
The Aztecs are 15-6 overall and 4-3 in the MWC heading into Wednesday’s home game against Air Force.
UNM expects to have its second straight sellout of 14,586 Saturday afternoon. That would be the fifth full house in the past seven home games and the sixth capacity crowd overall in 2009-10. It’s the most sellouts since UNM had seven in 1993-94. Capacity was 17,964 at that time.
After starting league play 0-2, which included a 74-64 loss at San Diego State on Jan, 5, New Mexico has won six in a row after the convincing victory at TCU. The last time the Lobos won seven straight conference games was 1997-98 when it had an 8-game streak.
The TCU win also provided UNM and head coach Steve Alford with a third straight 20-win season, a feat last accomplished by the Lobos from 1996-99 when they did it four consecutive seasons. It’s Alford’s 11th 20-win campaign in 18 full seasons as a head coach and New Mexico’s 23rd, all coming since 1964.
Alford has more wins in his first three seasons at UNM (66) than any previous Lobo coach. The next closest is Dave Bliss, who won 62 from 1989-91.
Some quick facts about the Lobos entering the second half of league play:
Through games of Sunday, Feb. 1, UNM was ranked No. 12 in the Rating Percentage Index (RPI), according to collegerpi.com. That’s the highest among the nine MWC schools. BYU was No. 17, San Diego State 36 and UNLV 41. Four other Lobo opponents were in the top-40: Cal (24), Texas A&M (31), Texas Tech (38) and Dayton (40). UNM went 4-0 in those games.
New Mexico has tied a school record with 4 wins (4-0) against ranked teams this season. UNM has beaten Cal, Texas A&M, Texas Tech and BYU
As the calendar goes, this year’s Lobo team has reached 20 wins quicker than any other…the previous best was 1977-78 when UNM got to 20 on Feb. 14, 1978
At 20-3, the Lobos have equaled their best 23-game record since the 1997-98 team began 20-3…this year’s team is the third-fastest to reach 20 wins…UNM started 20-1 in 1967-68 and 20-2 in 1977-78…the 1972-73 team also started 20-3
The Lobos are 20-15 in true road games under 3rd-year head coach Steve Alford. To put Alford’s road success in perspective, it took the Lobos 85 games over 8 seasons (2000 to 2007) to reach 19 road wins before he came to Albuquerque. UNM was 19-66 on the road in eight seasons before Alford arrived.
UNM is 7-2 away from home this season…dating to last year, the Lobos are 8-3 in their last 11 true road games and 9-4 in the past 13, including neutral sites
UNM has used the same starting lineup in all 23 games this season…all 5 starters have led the team in scoring at least once this season
It Has Never Happened, But…junior guard Darington Hobson leads New Mexico in scoring (15.0), rebounding (8.3) and assists (4.2)…assists have been tracked since 1969 and never has one UNM player led in all three categories for an entire season