Stevens: Lobos Need To Be Defensive At Wyoming

January 23, 2015

New Mexico Lobos Men’s Basketball – On The Mountain West Road

When/Who: 2 p.m., Saturday – New Mexico (13-6 5-2 MW) at Wyoming (16-3, 5-1 MW)

On The Air: ESPN3 (www.ESPN3.com); 770-AM KKOB/Lobo Radio Network

GoLobos.com: Game Story, Complete Stats, Live Stats at www.LoboStats.com

By Richard Stevens – Senior Writer/GoLobos.com

Laramie is not what you would call a “fast” town. This is not Las Vegas. This is not the Runnin’ Rebels.

And there is a good chance the Lobos once again will hold a team under 70 points, but that isn’t necessarily a good thing with Larry Shyatt’s Cowboys.

In their past 13 games, the Cowboys have gone over 70 points only one time. The Cowboys probably look at the 70-point mark like some teams eye the 100-point mark.

If the Cowboys are in the 60s, Shyatt usually is pretty happy because that means the tempo is to his liking on both ends of the court.

Wyoming will try to beat UNM something like 65-60 and a score like that might be considered a barnburner when these two defensive-minded teams go at it in Laramie’s Arena-Auditorium.

The Lobos are one of the best defensive teams in the Mountain West – heck, the nation. The Cowboys might be better – at least in the yield category. The Lobos give up 58.9 points per game. The Cowboys give up 53.3 points per game. Joe Furstinger

A lot of that is tempo. The Lobos are more inclined to dash up and down the court while they are hammering on a team defensively. Oh, the Cowboys will run, too. But Shyatt likes his ‘Pokes to pick the right moments.

UNM averages 63.9 points on offense. Wyoming averages 63.8 points. The first team to 60 might be the winner. We’ll see.

“It’s a tough place to play,” said Lobo Coach Craig Neal, probably referring both to the Arena-Auditorium and also to Laramie. The Lobos had to play a late game Wednesday night in Las Vegas and then Saturday’s game at Wyoming was moved from the evening into a 2 p.m., start.

There is no question the Cowboys will be hot for this game – and so will the AA. The Lobos have won eight straight games over Wyoming including two overtime games last season.

The AA is always a hostile gym and the Cowboys appear to be an exceptional team in 2014-15. They are 16-3. They are 5-1 in the Mountain West with the loss coming off the hands of the San Diego State Aztecs.

Obviously, this would be a huge road win for Neal’s young Lobos. This also might be a test similar – while different – to what the Lobos faced vs. Air Force. The Falcons try to beat you with a system – the Princeton offense. The Cowboys also work on a team’s patience with tempo – and fundamentals, fundamental, fundamentals.

The Cowboys do a lot of the little things properly. They block out. They take good shots. They rebound. They find the open man. And they usually take their time doing it. The Cowboys use tempo and defense to take opposing teams out of their offense. They want teams to fall into impatient decisions – rush things, push too hard, and take bad shots.

“It’s always a challenge when you go to Laramie,” said Neal. “It’s always a fight because his (Coach Shyatt) teams play great defense and they value possessions. We’ll have to go up there and play our best basketball. They limit possessions by the pace they play on offense and how they guard you.

“They will try to limit the number of chances we have to score.”

The Cowboys have one of the top players in the conferenced in 6-8 Larry Nance Jr. He averages 16.2 points and 7.0 boards heading into the UNM game. The Cowboys have nice balance after that with four players averaging 7.9 to 11.5 points. Josh Adams, a 6-2 guard, is the main threat on the edge with the 11.5 average.

“Nance causes problems because of his athleticism and his length,” said Neal.

The Lobos are led by Deshawn Delaney at 12.6 points per game and Hugh Greenwood at 11.3. Delaney is a slasher and a rim rocker while Greenwood does most of his damage from the perimeter. Greenwood hit six treys in UNM’s win at UNLV.

Editor’s Note: Richard Stevens is a former national award-winning Sports Columnist and Associate Sports Editor at The Albuquerque Tribune. You can reach him at rstevens50@comcast.net.

New Mexico Lobos 2014-15 Roster

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