Stevens: Lobos To face Red-Hot Broncos in Boise

February 23, 2015

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

Who/When: 9 p.m., Tuesday – New Mexico (14-13, 6-9 MW) at Boise State (20-7, 10-4 MW)

On TV: ESPNU (Comcast 281/815, Dish 141, DirecTV 208)

On The Radio: 770-AM KKOB/Lobo Radio Network with Robert Portnoy and Hunter Greene

GoLobos.com: Game Story, Game Box, live stats at www.LoboStats.com

By Richard Stevens – Senior Writer/GoLobos.com

At a point in the season where the New Mexico Lobos would do almost anything for a victory, they visit one of the toughest gyms in the Mountain West Conference in which to find a victory.

A win over Boise State in Taco Bell Arena would go down as a crashing Mountain West upset. The Broncos have won 10 of their past 11 games and six straight at home.

They are a good team, a red-hot team on a roll.

And remember: the Broncos beat The Lobos in WisePies Arena on Jan. 18 when the Lobos were playing well having won nine of 11 games prior to the Broncos’ Pit visit.

The Lobos will walk into Taco Bell Arena on a losing streak this program has not seen in some time. UNM is 2-8 in the Lobos’ past ten games. The Broncos are thinking sweep.

“Boise State is very, very good,” said Neal. “They are playing well and they are at home and they are chasing a title. They have a lot of shooters and they can stretch a defense out.

“We let them get into a rhythm at our place and we had trouble getting them out of it. One of our challenges will be to disrupt their offense on Tuesday night and not too many people have been able to do that.”

The Broncos’ offense triggered off Derrick Marks in The Pit (31 points) and Marks is still the No. 1 trigger man for Boise. He averages 19.7 on the season and 22.1 points in league play. Marks and 6-foot-9 James Webb III combined for 54 points in Boise’s 69-59 win in Albuquerque. Webb is averaging 13.3 points per game followed by Nick Duncan at 9.0 points.

Webb is one reason the Broncos can stretch out a defense and create wider lanes for penetration by Marks and other Bronco slashers.

Webb is shooting .483 percent from 3-point range in MW action. You have to put a big man on Webb because he can score inside, but that big man has to follow Webb to the perimeter. Marks is shooting .482 percent overall from 3-point range. Boise also can pull two players off the bench who shoot above 42 percent from long range.

The Broncos went 11-of-26 from 3-point range in their Pit win, however, UNM was down only 58-57 with 3:17 to play. Boise outscored UNM 11-2 down the stretch. The Broncos have four players shooting above 78 percent from the free-throw line in league, so you don’t want to be in the position of having to foul the Broncos late.

The Broncos have good depth. They have eight players averaging 12.4 minutes to 32.1 minutes per game.

The Lobos’ defense has often been good during the current losing streak, but it hasn’t had the attacking fierceness shown in the earlier part of the season. The scoring in the past seven games has faded, too. UNM’s scoring has dropped by 6.5 points during the skid and the UNM shooting had dipped from 44.6 percent to 38.5 percent.

That creates an obvious solution: play better defense, shoot better. But in Boise the Lobos could do both and still lose. Coach Neal said another problem is confidence in shooting. He said a lot of Lobos are turning down shots.

“If you believe you are not going to make it, you are not going to shoot it,” said Neal.

The Broncos are 10-4 in Mountain West play tied with Wyoming and looking up at 12-3 San Diego State. The Mountain West has four teams with 20-win seasons: Colorado State (23-5), San Diego State (22-6), Wyoming (21-6) and Boise State (20-7).

However, NCAA bids probably will be determined at the MW Tournament in Las Vegas and all teams have a shot at the automatic NCAA bid that goes to the tourney winner

The Lobos are led in scoring by 6-foot-5 wingman Deshawn Delaney at 11.9 points per game. The senior is followed by 6-3 senior Hugh Greenwood with an 11.7 average. The Lobos have no players pulling down more than six boards a game. Devon Williams is next on the scoring charts with a 6.6 average.

Boise State came into The Pit with a 1-3 MW mark. Their Pit win probably was a catalyst for Boise. They are 10-1 in their past 11 league games. The Lobos are coming off a 76-68 loss to UNLV in The Pit.

“We are going to keep working and keep trying and maybe we can turn some things around, but time is running out,” said Neal.

New Mexico Lobos Men’s Basketball 2014-15 Roster

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