It's Here! Lobos Open Season on the Road Tuesday
New Mexico at CSUN
Tuesday, November 6, 2018 – 8 p.m. MT (7 p.m. PT)
The Matadome (Capacity: 2,000)
TV: CSUN Sports Network (BigWest.TV)
Radio: 610 KNML-AM
UNM NOTES | CSUN NOTES | WATCH | LISTEN | LIVE STATS
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — After an exciting finish to the 2017-18 season, The University of New Mexico men’s basketball team is finally back in action as it takes on CSUN on the road on Tuesday to open 2018-19 regular-season competition.
Tuesday’s game will be available to watch live, for free on CSUN Sports Network (BigWest.TV).
The Lobos return four members from last year’s squad that advanced to the 2018 Mountain West Championship game for the first time since 2014 including seniors Dane Kuiper and Anthony Mathis. Mathis is coming off of a breakout junior season in which he finished fourth in the nation in 3-point shooting percentage (47.3%) and set a new program record for most made 3-pointers in conference play (66).
Kuiper marks the Lobos’ lone returning consistent starter from last season, starting 26 games, the most on the squad. Head coach Paul Weir’s Lobos posted the most starting lineups in NCAA Division I last season with 21, decided by deflection totals in previous games.
The other two letterwinners to return to the court wearing Cherry and Silver this year will be sophomores Vladimir Pinchuk and Makuach Maluach. They will be joined by redshirt-sophomore and 2018 Preseason Mountain West Newcomer of the Year Vance Jackson. Jackson sat on the Lobo bench last season due to NCAA transfer rules.
The Lobos have yet to compete against an opposing team in front of fans since the MW Championship game while CSUN enters Tuesday’s contest coming off of a pair of exhibition victories.
SCOUTING CSUN
CSUN enters its 2018-19 opener coming off of a pair of exhibition wins under first-year head coach Mark Gottfried, formerly of NC State. The Matadors have just four letterwinners from last year’s squad including 2017-18 Big West Freshman of the Year Tarrell Gomez who averaged 11.7 points, 3.6 assists and 2.4 rebounds per game while shooting 46.1 percent from behind the arc.
FRESH OUT OF THE LOCKER ROOM
While most squads take on another team in exhibition play prior to the season’s tipoff, the Lobos have not competed against another team in front of a crowd since the Mountain West Championship contest on March 10. So far to prepare for the 2018-19 season the Lobos have played just a Cherry & Silver scrimmage and a closed scrimmage, but do not have their first exhibition game scheduled until Nov. 10.
GET IT OFF THE SHOULDER
Last season, the Lobos dropped their first eight games away from Dreamstyle Arena – The Pit before executing an exciting 84-81 victory on the road at UNLV. Kicking off the 2018-19 season with a road win would knock away that road pressure carryover from 2017-18.
SERIES HISTORY VS CSUN
New Mexico leads 5-0
Date Winner Score Location
12-1-69 New Mexico 99-82 Albuquerque
1-5-76 New Mexico 81-73 Albuquerque
12-28-94 New Mexico 86-73 Albuquerque
11-24-08 New Mexico 85-74 Albuquerque
11-25-16 New Mexico 105-89 Fullerton, Calif.
ABOUT THE 2018-19 LOBOS
The 2018-19 Lobos have just four returning letterwinners from the 2017-18 squad, including leading-scorer Anthony Mathis (12.7 ppg) who finished fourth in the nation in 3-point percentage and broke the UNM record for most 3-point field goals in a conference season (66) as a junior. The squad also adds nine newcomers and returns a pair of sitting transfers to the team that finished third in Mountain West regular-season play last season.
In addition to Mathis, UNM’s returners include senior Dane Kuiper, who is the lone returning starter, and sophomores Makuach Maluach and Vladimir Pinchuk. Maluach finished his inaugural season averaging 9.6 points per game and ranks fourth all-time on the Lobo freshman single-season scoring list.
REMEMBERING LAST SEASON
The 2017-18 Lobos were picked to finish ninth in league play, but shocked everyone when they pulled off a third-place finish in regular-season play, earned the MW Tournament bye and took on San Diego State in the Championship game, falling by just seven points.
The Lobos also ranked 15th out of 351 NCAA Division I teams in turnover percentage last season.
RECORDS ARE MADE TO BE BROKEN
En route to their first appearance in the league championship since 2014, the Lobos broke the program records for 3-pointers in a season (367), most 3-point field goals attempted (979) and highest free throw percentage (77.7%). For reference, the previous records were 301, 782 and 75.7%, respectively.
As a team, the Lobos also broke the record for most points in a game (147 vs Northern New Mexico), most points in a conference game (119 at Wyoming) and most points in a conference season (1,507). Old records for the above: 136, 113 and 1,373, respectively.
STELLAR SCHEDULE
The Lobos are taking on a field of top-notch teams this season including five squads that advanced to the 2018 NCAA Tournament. Last season’s Big Dance squads include New Mexico State, Iona, Penn, San Diego State and Nevada. With UNM facing NMSU, SDSU and Nevada twice apiece, that makes for eight games against NCAA post-season opponents, not to mention a matchup with last season’s CBI tourney winner, North Texas.
UNDER THE RADAR
This offseason, the Lobos were ranked by the NCAA’s Andy Katz as one of five “under the radar” teams to watch this season.
SHARP SHOOTER
Senior Anthony Mathis blew expectations out of the water last season after more than fifthtupleing his career point production as a junior – that’s right, in two seasons at UNM, Mathis scored just 86 points in 228 minutes, and multiplied that total by five in his junior season. In 2017-18, Mathis took the term “breakout” to a whole new level, dropping 433 points in 760 minutes on the floor. His shot from 3-point range couldn’t be stopped as he finished the season with a program-record 66 3-pointers in conference play. He also fired from behind the arc at a clip of 47.3%, ranking fourth in the nation among other NCAA DI players.
THE STUDENT BECOMES THE MASTER
After posting a breakout inaugural season of his own last year, sophomore Makuach Maluach is expected to be a high-profile returner for the Lobos this year. He’s been ranked on several preseason lists and even made the cover of Lindy’s Sports Magazine in August. Most recently, the soft-spoken sophomore was ranked 19th on the Mountain West Wire’s Top 25.
CONSISTENCY IS OVERRATED
Last season, the Lobos debuted the most starting lineups in NCAA Division I with 21. Coach Weir made it clear in his first season that starting lineups would be determined by the numbers of deflections a player accumulated in the previous game, hence the sky-high number of lineup combos.
MW PRESEASON NEWCOMER OF THE YEAR
Redshirt-sophomore Vance Jackson was named 2018 Mountain West Preseason Newcomer of the Year following the league’s media poll in October. Jackson transferred from UCONN where he shot 40.9 percent from the field, 39.7 from behind the arc as a freshman in 2016-17. He reached double figures in 13 games and led the team twice in scoring in his inaugural collegiate season.
WE’RE NOT IN KANSAS ANYMORE …
The Lobos return a pair of transfers that sat out last year and also welcome five more, including the highly-anticipated Carlton Bragg (Kansas/ASU transfer) who is currently eligible for conference play. Joining Bragg will be Juco transfers Corey Manigault, Keith McGee and Karim Ezzeddine who are all set to play at the start of the season.
Redshirt-sophomore Vance Jackson (UCONN) will finally get his chance to don the Cherry and Silver this season and was named 2018 MW Newcomer of the Year. Jackson’s fellow bench-warmer last season, Ohio State transfer JaQuan Lyle, suffered an Achilles injury during practice in September and is expected to miss the 2018-19 season.
Two more transfers of note include Towson’s Zane Martin, who will be sitting out in 2018-19 due to NCAA transfer rules, and redshirt-freshman Clay Patterson. A native of Rio Rancho, N.M., Patterson transferred back home from NCAA DII Fort Lewis. He is eligible to compete in 2018-19.
BRINGING PEOPLE TOGETHER
The Lobo squad is as varied as it gets when it comes to hometown pride. Each player on the team is from not only a different town, but a different state or country entirely! With the late addition of walk-on Clay Patterson, the only exception is a pair of native New Mexicans. States and countries represented include: Pennsylvania, Maryland, California, New York, Florida, Australia, Indiana, Alaska, Germany, Georgia, France, Oregon, New Mexico and Ohio.
THERE’S NO PLACE LIKE HOME
The famous home of Lobo basketball enters its second year under the name “Dreamstyle Arena – The Pit” as part of an exciting renaming of both of UNM’s largest-capacity athletic venues.
This July, “The Pit” was tabbed #17 on the top-30 list of best arena atmospheres in college hoops by the NCAA.
“The Pit” has also been consistently recognized nationally as one of the nation’s top basketball venues. Sports Illustrated has ranked it as one of the top 20 sporting venues, of any sport, in the world for the 20th century. The Pit is truly a special place, and it has created an unparalleled environment for the New Mexico men’s basketball program. Since the Mountain West conference began in 1999-2000, New Mexico has ranked in the top two in home attendance among MW teams in every year except one, including 12 seasons as the top-ranked MW team in overall attendance.
WHAT’S THAT SOUND?
The new name for The Pit instated in 2017 is not the only change to come for Dreamstyle Arena in the Paul Weir era. This season, after popular fan demand, the sound system in the historic arena has been updated to feature an entirely new fan experience for the 2018-19 season!