New Mexico Lobos Men’s Basketball – On The Mountain West Road
Who/When: 8 p.m., Saturday – New Mexico (14-10, 6-6 MW) at Nevada (7-16, 3-8 MW)
On The Air: ESPN2 (Comcast 8, 253, Dish 144, DirecTV 209). 770-AM KKOB
GoLobos.com: Game Story, Final Box Score, Live Stats at www.LoboStats.com
By Richard Stevens – Senior Writer/GoLobos.com
The pressure for the New Mexico Lobos Saturday in Nevada’s Lawlor Events Center is not simply formed by a Lobo team looking to snap a three-game losing streak or to pick up a Mountain West road win.
There also is the pressure to do what other MW teams have done – beat the Wolf Pack on their home turf.
Fresno State did it. Utah State did it, UNLV did it. San Diego State did it.
The Lobos need to do it, too, if they want to start scratching their way up the Mountain West ladder and improve seeding for the upcoming Mountain West Tournament.
The Wolf Pack has lost eight of their past nine games – a streak that came after an impressive 64-62 win at UNLV.
“The guys are still fighting. The guys are still positive,” said Nevada Coach David Carter. “New Mexico is a new game. We just want to go out and play well.”
The Lobos would like to go out and play well, too. They need to break that losing skid and they also have lost five of their past seven games. The Lobos sit at 6-6 in the Mountain West race and the Wolf Pack is 3-8.
The Wolf Pack has a number of problems that have led to them losing eight of nine, but a key concern is the most basic denominator in determining the outcome of a basketball game – putting the ball in the basket. Nevada does not shoot that well from the field (.386 percent) and not that well from long range (.259 percent).
If they shoot badly, they can fall into a deep hole. They lost by 56 points at Colorado State.
They can be a good rebounding team and the Wolf Pack knows that UNM also likes to hit the boards.
“It will be a tough rebounding game,” said Nevada’s 6-foot-11 Lucas Stivrins. “They like to crash the boards. They are athletic.”
The Lobos have outrebounded their opponent by plus 9.4 rebounds in seven of their past eight games.
If the Mountain West was balanced in the number of teams, Saturday’s game with Nevada would be the second go-around for the Lobos and the Wolf Pack.
Instead, it’s the first meeting for the two teams in the 2015 MW season and maybe the last. Well, unless Lobos and Wolf Pack happen to collide in Las Vegas during the MW Tournament. The Lobos have fallen into seventh place in the league standings. San Diego State is on top at 9-3 followed by Boise State at 8-3. The Lobos have some climbing to do – not so much to charge at the 2015 crown, but to get better season for the run in Vegas.
Nevada is in tenth place in the 11-team league safely ahead of 0-11 San Jose State.
The Wolf Pack is lead in scoring by AJ West with a modest 12.6 average. The 6-9 forward hauls down 10.1 boards per game. You slow him down and the Pack is usually in trouble.
The enemies of the Lobos have been trying to take the 3-point shot away from Hugh Greenwood and take the drive away from Deshawn Delaney. The strategy has been to concentrate on those two Lobo guns – play a zone – and see if the other Lobos on the court can beat you.
The Lobos have not lost to Nevada since the Wolf Pack joined the Mountain West. UNM is 4-0 with the last win coming on March 2, 2014 in Reno, 72-58. The Lobos were down 14 points in that contest before rallying for the win.
The Lobos became the last team in the nation to concede 70 points after falling 70-59 at Colorado State. That score snapped the Lobos’ 26-game streak of allowing 69 or fewer points.
The Wolf Pack obviously will be looking to the 6-9 West to have a big game in the paint. However, Nevada’s Carter does not think the UNM middle has gone soft without Alex Kirk and Cameron Bairstow patrolling the paint.
“They still have some big guys,” said Carter. “I think it’s a good match up (inside). They are still talented and they are still long and they can block shots inside. Those guys inside can still change the game for them.”
Carter also knows what everybody else knows. You have to contain Greenwood and Delaney.
“We have to guard Greenwood,” said Carter. “If he gets hot, he gets going. (Delaney) is more aggressive now. He’s always on the attack.”