More than anyone, Lobos need foul shots
There’s nothing easy in Viejas Arena.
And that might be the problem for the Lobo basketball team Sunday when it faces perennial Mountain West Conference contender San Diego State in a nationally televised game.
In Craig Neal’s offensive scheme, getting a high volume of points from the free throw line isn’t by accident. The Lobos (8-5, 1-0) try to run an aggressive, attacking offense that has them sitting at No. 1 in the country (of 351 Division I teams) in point distribution from the free throw line. UNM gets 28.8 percent of its scoring from the free throw line while the national average is 19.7.
“I’ve said it before,” says Neal of the rather matter-of-fact philosophy that guides his offensive plan. “There’s only one shot in basketball that every time you take it, there’s nobody guarding you. Why not try to take that shot as much as you can?”
It doesn’t hurt that the Lobos make them when they get there, too. New Mexico’s 75.9 percent shooting clip from the stripe
leads the MWC and is 27th in the country.
The problem come Sunday against SDSU (8-4, 0-0), however, is that the Aztecs just don’t foul much. The team’s defensive identity is as much about length and athleticism clogging passing lanes and pressuring shooters as it has been about not putting teams on the line. SDSU hasn’t ranked outside of the top 100 in defensive free throw rate since 2005, including eight top 50 finishes and a pair in the top 10.
This season, SDSU averages only 15.5 fouls per game, good for No. 15 in the country and tied with Nevada atop the MWC.
So, strength vs. strength will get top billing Sunday. New Mexico boasts two of only three Mountain West players averaging more than six free throw attempts per game in Elijah Brown at 6.8 and Tim Williams at 6.1. (Nevada’s Jordan Caroline leads the league at 7.3.)
Brown was 14-of-14 on free throws in Wednesday’s win over Fresno State and is now 29-of-29 in MWC openers. He went 15-of-15 in last year’s league opener against Nevada. The junior guard, who Neal says will return to the starting lineup on Sunday, scored 41 points against the Aztecs in two games last season with 24 coming on free throws.
“He is a scorer,” SDSU coach Steve Fisher said of Brown. “He did what he does against everybody — he draws fouls, he gets to the free-throw line and he never misses a free-throw . ... He’s a hard guard. He and Tim Williams are really a dynamite combination of inside-outside-type player that makes it hard.”
Trey Kell, SDSU’s junior shooting guard, said defending Brown isn’t a one-man job.
“One of the things he does best is he draws a lot of fouls,” said Kell. “Basically when he gets to the line, it’s automatic for him. I just try to contest to make him take hard shots and just know it’s not a one-on-one job, it’s a oneon-five job. You’ve got the whole team against him and not just me or Dakarai (Allen) or whoever the defender is guarding him.”
When teams have had success against this Lobos squad, it’s often been about keeping them off the line. UNM has attempted 23 or fewer free throws in each of its five losses. In all eight wins, UNM had at least 25 free throw attempts.
In a 13-point win over New Mexico State on Nov. 18, UNM was 23-of-37 from the line. In a 13-point loss at NMSU on Dec. 10, it was 15-of-23 — a statistic Aggies coach Paul Weir pointed to as a team emphasis in Game 2.
In a 77-46 loss at Arizona on Dec. 20, the Lobos were held to just 16 free throw attempts in easily its worst offensive showing of the season.
“New Mexico coming into the game was leading the nation in free throw points per game,” Arizona coach Sean Miller said after the Wildcats win in Tucson. “They got to the line an average of 28 times per game. For us giving them only 16 attempts — we’re learning to play without fouling.”
That’s something SDSU already does. And if it continues Sunday, the Lobos may be hard pressed in finding enough points to upset the Aztecs.