The 2014 New Mexico Lobos Howl – Friday Night – The Pit
By Richard Stevens – Senior Writer/GoLobos.com
It was a gathering of Lobos that had a little bit of a lot of stuff. You had Craig Neal’s Lobos stuffing with the win in the dunk contest going to 6-foot-7 freshman Sam Logwood, who was really amazing in the win. He went high. He got creative.
Heck, if there had been an NBA dunking contest in Friday night’s Lobo Howl in The Pit, Logwood might have won that event. Let’s just put it this way: He beat 6-5 Deshawn Delaney, who can dunk with the best of them.
“He’s very athletic. He has great size, a big athlete,” Neal said of Logwood. “He has some intangibles that he doesn’t show because he is so athletic, but he understands basketball.
“I really like our freshmen group. We have three talented freshmen who are physically ready to play.”
The Lobo Howl also featured the cutting of Neal’s golden, well gray, locks, a 3-point contest for the Lobo men (winner Elijah Brown) and Lobo women (winner Jayda Bovero) and enough basketball to show off Neal’s and Yvonne Sanchez’s talent for the 2014-15 season.
“We didn’t do a lot,” said Neal, “But I think you see we have some guys who are pretty athletic. We have some pieces. We have some guys who play hard.”
The Lobo men and the Lobo women were the stars of the show – maybe.
But when you consider the thousands of Lobo fans who gave up a Friday night to watch what amounts to a glorified scrimmage, well, you share the stage and the spotlight with that special crowd.
“Some of these guys have never played in front of a crowd like that,” said Neal. “You are talking about a practice with six, seven thousand people (7,213) there for a practice. It’s different for some of these guys. It’s overwhelming.
“That’s why I like The Howl. It’s good because I like to get our guys in that environment.”
The environment isn’t intimidating because it’s Lobos loving Lobos. But it does make an impression.
“It’s such an awesome crowd, such great support,” said Cherise Beynon, a Sanchez freshman from Las Vegas, Nevada. “It wows me to see this many people come out just for a practice situation. You get a crowd like this and it makes you so eager to play your first college game in The Pit.”
Said freshman Laneah Bryan, from El Paso: “I’ve never been in front of a crowd like that. It was exciting to get our first look in front of so many people. The feeling of going down the ramp was surprising, when you come out in front of that many people. I can’t wait to play in front of all that.”
Bovero, a freshman from Utah, might have been a surprise winner for Sanchez’s Lobos in the 3-point contest. She had to beat out junior Brea Mitchell, who is well known as a 3-point sharpshooter.
“I think I’m supposed to do that (shoot well from outside) because that’s my role coming in here,” said Bovero. “That’s what I’m here for.
“The crowd was very impressive. I knew there were a lot of people here, but it didn’t hit me until I was introduced and went out to center court and then it was ‘Wow, there are a lot of people here.’”
The talent on both squads was apparent in The Howl. Sanchez’s Lobos had the court for about 45 minutes and threw in a team dance number at the conclusion of their workout.
“We put in a little bit of everything,” said senior Ebony Walker. “We put some country in there, some hip-hop, some line dancing. It was fun.”
Said junior Bryce Owens: “We all just let it out. We didn’t care who was watching.”
Said Beynon: “I messed up a couple of dance steps but I played it off.”
Neither the Lobo men nor the Lobo women scrimmaged on Friday, but there were enough full-court drills to expose a lot of talent and a lot of depth.
One standout for Neal’s Lobos was 7-foot-1 Obij Aget, who will be one of the Lobos called upon to fill the holes left by 7-foot Alex Kirk and 6-9 Cameron Bairstow. Aget was active, confident and productive under the glass.
“A lot more than he has ever done,” said Neal of Aget’s production. “He can do a lot of things. He is long and he has good hands. He does some good things for a guy who is 7-1.”
Said Coach Sanchez. “It (Howl) was phenomenal. These girls were so nervous and you could tell with some of the shots and the passes, but they enjoyed it so much. This was for them and they enjoyed it.”