News on Williams expected today
Still, UNM coach Neal wants to temper whatever expectations may come if standout forward returns
For weeks, Lobo basketball fans have hoped the light at the end of the February tunnel was the return of Tim Williams.
No matter the February struggles — the Lobos went 3-4 as the 6-foot-8 power forward spent the past four weeks shuffling around campus in a walking boot to help the healing process for a stress reaction in his left foot — the University of New Mexico was going to be just fine come March if it could weather the storm until his return.
Since the senior leader has been on the bench, the Lobos (16-13, 9-8 Mountain West) have tried implementing a four-guard scheme with varying degrees of success.
But now, even if Williams’ much-anticipated X-ray and doctor’s visit today does clear him to play, Lobos coach Craig Neal is trying to temper expectations.
“To be honest with you, I’m not counting on him,” said Neal, not necessarily implying he doesn’t think Williams will be cleared to play, but that even if he does the team can’t assume all will run smoothly.
“He hasn’t played (in a month). I just don’t know how fair it is to him. How much pressure are you going to put on that kid after having 27, 28 days off and have to play at a high level? If he can come back, terrific. But I
have to be cautious about what we’re going to do with him. He hasn’t even run up and down a basketball floor.”
UNM has one regular-season game remaining — Saturday in the Pit against San Diego State — that appears likely to determine which team earns the No. 5 seed and a first-round bye in next week’s MWC tournament.
Williams’ absence in the lineup the past month has had three major implications on the Lobos:
UNM is missing Williams’ potential all-conference worthy stat line of 17.9 points per game, 7.0 rebounds and 57.9 field goal percentage.
Neal, without a consistent low-post scoring threat other than Williams, decided to shift to a four-guard lineup, meaning one of the youngest rosters in the league has been trying to learn a new scheme at a time the rest of the league teams are fine-tuning theirs heading toward the postseason.
Lobos leading scorer Elijah Brown has struggled mightily of late as teams not concerned about lowpost scoring have focused their double-teaming efforts on him. That’s led to his shooting percentage plummeting and his once-uncanny ability to get to the free throw line with regularity all but vanishing.
“It’s really weird he can’t get to the line,” Neal said Saturday.
Brown was averaging 7.5 free throw attempts per game before UNM’s current three-game losing streak. Two of the three opposing coaches — Fresno State’s Rodney Terry and Wyoming’s Allen Edwards — admitted their defensive approach was to guard Brown without sending him to the free throw line and take their chances that the rest of the Lobos wouldn’t score enough to make up for it.
In the past three games, Brown has shot a total of six free throws, including none in last week’s loss to Colorado State — the first time in his two-year Lobos career he didn’t attempt a free throw.
“It’s very difficult for him how people are playing him,” Neal said. “I have to go watch the tape. I just don’t believe he’s not getting fouled . ...
“I don’t know that he’s trying to (get fouled). There’s a difference between trying to and getting fouled. If you get fouled, you get fouled. It doesn’t matter who it is. It’s just hard for me to think sometimes that he’s not getting fouled.”
OH, GIVE ME A HOME (AND HOME): Neal confirmed to the Journal that UNM has secured a homeand-home series with the Pac-12’s Colorado Buffaloes starting next season.
The Lobos will play a game in Boulder, Colo., in the 2017-18 season and host the Buffaloes in 2018-19.
Along with the current home-and-home series with Arizona, this secures at least three seasons, and two with home games, with games against Pac12 opponents.
UNM will host Arizona in 2017-18 as the second part of a home-and-home series with the Wildcats and play at UTEP for the second half of that home-and-home series. The Lobos will also play their usual in-season home-and-home series with New Mexico State in 201718 and participate in the four-game Emerald Coast Classic tournament with two games in the Pit and two in Niceville, Fla.