Daunting schedule awaits Bradbury
Marquette, Sooners among opposition
The University of New Mexico women’s basketball team will have its hands full in 2017-18.
That’s coach Mike Bradbury’s appraisal of the Lobos’ schedule, which was released Tuesday. UNM will play six games against NCAA Tournament qualifiers from last season, five against foes that made the postseason WNIT and one against a WBI qualifier.
“In our preseason schedule we won’t be favored very often,” Bradbury said. “If we go into the Mountain West at .500 or better, we’ll really have pulled a rabbit out of our hats.”
The Lobos’ steepest challenges include an early home game against Marquette (25-8, NCAA qualifier last season) and a mid-December visit to Oklahoma (2310, NCAA second round). UNM also faces its usual home-andhome series with New Mexico State (24-7 NCAA) and will play Mountain West tournament champ Boise State (25-8 NCAA) twice.
Regional rival Texas Tech will visit the Pit this season,
and the Lobos will take on UTEP in El Paso. The home slate also includes Navy (24-10 WNIT) and Lamar (22-8 WBI) teams with strong cores returning. The Navy game will be a homecoming for Volcano Vista High alum Hannah Fenske, who started 33 games for the Midshipmen last season.
Wichita State, Illinois and UC Irvine will compete in the Lobos’ Thanksgiving Tournament. All three finished under .500 last season.
Overall, the schedule is a tall order for a New Mexico squad that figures to be athletic but young in Bradbury’s second season. The Lobos have six returning players, two eligible transfers and five incoming freshmen. Four of the returnees are coming off season-ending injuries.
Still, Bradbury’s first recruiting class is highly rated and UNM’s 2017-18 roster is better suited to the up-tempo style he prefers.
“It’s only June but I like what I’ve seen,” Bradbury said. “We’ll see how it looks in October, but so far I’m encouraged.”
Bradbury and his staff inherited roughly half of this season’s schedule, including the games against Marquette and Oklahoma. The Sooners will visit Albuquerque as part of a home-andhome series in 2018-19.
“We’ve got six or seven games that are absolute bears,” Bradbury said, “but we’ll get after it and try to get at least a few of them. Hopefully, we’ll be ready to go at conference time.”
The Lobos open conference play at Air Force on Dec. 28, the seventh straight season they’ll start Mountain West play on the road. Because of the league’s unbalanced schedule, UNM will face Nevada and San Diego State only once. The Lobos will not travel to Reno, and SDSU will not visit Albuquerque.