February blues
February has not been a good month for the UNM men’s basketball team
It’s here. And the Lobos don’t seem to care.
The dreaded February that has been a thorn in the side of the University of New Mexico men’s basketball program in recent years starts Wednesday night in Las Vegas, Nev., with a road rematch against UNLV. And while history gives reason for Lobo fans to be worried about the road ahead, the schedule and recent play of the team offers reason for optimism.
“We’ve been playing really good, winning basketball,” Lobos coach Craig Neal said Saturday in Reno, Nev., after a loss that could have had his team sitting alone in first place in the Mountain West standings as the calendar changes to February.
UNM (13-9, 6-4 MWC) won four games in a row before Saturday’s loss to leagueleading Nevada and already has road victories at Colorado State, Boise State and San Diego State.
The month of February brings with it seven games — three in the Pit, four on the road — and the first of two bye spots in the schedule. Every other MWC program has already had at least one bye, some have had both.
Four of the seven games, and three on the road, are against teams with losing
league records.
“We’re still here,” Neal told the Journal about the program’s mindset despite falling behind Nevada by a game and a half in the standings. “We’re still right there. I’m proud of what these guys have done.”
Monday, back at his weekly news conference in Albuquerque, Neal seemed to know the questions were coming about how his team has performed in February’s past.
Under Neal, the Lobos’ league records show February as the most unforgiving month. In the past four seasons, UNM has winning Mountain West records in December (3-0), January (22-10) and March (4-2 regular season, 7-4 including the Mountain West tournament).
In February, however, the Lobos are just 9-14 with a 0.391 win percentage with losing records the past two seasons (0-8 in 2015, 3-5 in 2016).
“Or biggest thing is we just have to get better,” Neal said when asked about his approach to the second half of conference play knowing that there have been let downs the past two years.
“We had opportunities last year — if we win two of those games, we’re 5-3. I mean, it just happens. The year before that, we were just in a bad struggle. We had a hard time scoring baskets. This year, we’re going to have to make some adjustments. We’re going to have to have some guys play with maturity — some guys that aren’t freshmen anymore, some guys that aren’t sophomores anymore.”
Short of Saturday’s loss, the success in recent weeks for UNM has been that
Dreaded February
December January February March MWC Tournament Total 3-0 (1.000) 22-10 (0.688) 9-14* (0.391) 4-2* (0.667) 3-2* (0.600) *Still has February, March and MWC Tournament to play this season. it hadn’t been as reliant on one or two players. Jordan Hunter and Jalen Harris have been combining to give the Lobos a potent point guard threat. Connor MacDougall has returned from injury to show signs of big things to come in the frontcourt, helping Tim Williams. Damien Jefferson has done well in the few minutes he has played while still trying to learn the team’s offensive and defensive schemes.
Maybe most consistent on both ends of the court of all the “others” on the Lobos roster has been Dane Kuiper. The 6-foot-7 small forward has started the past seven games and averaged 8.3 points while also drawing the bulk of tough defensive assignments.
Unfortunately for UNM, Neal announced Monday, Kuiper will miss at least the next two games after suffering a broken nose and being placed in a mandatory 10-day concussion protocol after showing symptoms of a concussion Sunday morning after a collision in Saturday’s Nevada loss.
Kuiper ran into a Wolf Pack player’s shoulder on a screen early in the second half on Saturday, left the game to have his nose set back in place and was cleared to play. He didn’t show symptoms during the game or after, but did upon a follow up exam on Sunday. He will miss at least Wednesday’s game and Saturday vs. San Jose State. His status for the Feb. 8 game at Air Force is uncertain.
“It hurts a lot because that’s your starting forward who has been playing pretty good,” Neal said, adding former starter Sam Logwood will likely get the bulk of Kuiper’s minutes.
“Sam’s going to get an opportunity because Dane’s out 10 days.”
Kuiper is the third Lobo to miss time this season under the school’s concussion protocol program. Tim Williams in December and MacDougall earlier this month each missed 10-plus days of games and practices.
“We’ve got to take care of our student athletes,” Neal said, “but that’s a big deal losing 30 days of those guys.”
Leading scorers Elijah Brown and Tim Williams were held out of Monday’s practice as a precaution. Both have played a lot of minutes in recent weeks. Williams even wore a walking boot on his left foot, an injury that has been lingering for weeks but hasn’t led to his missing any game time.