Open Announce

Lobo Men’s Basketball Conference Schedule Released

by Frank Mercogliano

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. — The Mountain West has announced the complete 18-game league slates for all 11 Mountain West teams, and the conference schedule sees the Lobos both open and close the ledger at home inside The Pit.

The league schedule solidifies the dates for nine games in The Pit for the first season under new head coach Richard Pitino.  Overall, New Mexico will play 18 regular season games and one exhibition at home in The Pit this season.

The announcement of the conference schedule represents the first phase in the 2021-22 men’s basketball schedule process. Mountain West national television partners CBS Sports and FOX Sports will now initiate a selection procedure which will include the shifting of particular games to any night of the week. That will be followed by the identification of network outlets and tipoff times.

The Lobos will not play any conference games prior to Christmas, but UNM will play one Mountain West game in the calendar year of 2021, hosting Colorado State in the Mountain West lid-lifter for both teams, that coming on Tuesday, December 28.

UNM’s first road trip in conference play will be a New Year’s Day outing in Reno, Nevada against the Wolf Pack in the only meeting between the two teams and UNM doesn’t host Nevada in 2021-22.

UNM alternates home and road over the first five contests before alternating two-game swings on the road and at home for five straight series.  The Lobos will host Saturday night contests against Utah State (Jan. 8), San Diego State (Jan. 15), San Jose State (Jan. 29), Air Force (Feb. 26) and UNLV (March 5).  The UNLV contest is the final regular season game prior to the Mountain West Tournament, which will be March 9-12 at the Thomas & Mack Center in Las Vegas, Nevada.

Fans can renew their season tickets right now, online at www.golobos.com/tickets to lock in their seats for all 19 home games of the 2021-22 season.

NOTES: It marks the second time in five seasons that Nevada is the lone MW team to not come to Albuquerque, missing The Pit in the rotation in the 2017-18 season … New Mexico will not travel to Boise State … UNM’s opener with Colorado State is slated for December 28, which is the same date as the women’s MW opener, but the men’s game has a chance to switch dates to Wednesday for TV purposes … UNM’s last Mountain West game at home was February 29, 2020, a 66-64 win over Utah State.