Lobos arrive at key early juncture
Evansville game may not be must-win, but it is close
Odds are good a late November game on a Wednesday night against a school the University of New Mexico has never before played wasn’t exactly the one Lobo fans were looking to as a potential benchmark for the season. But here we are. In game seven of the Paul Weir era, and after four consecutive losses (oddsmakers would tell you only one of those was a bad loss on paper), the program is at a crossroads of sorts when it hosts Evansville tonight at 7 in Dreamstyle Arena as part of the annual Mountain West/Missouri Valley Challenge.
“We have to get back into a happy locker room on Wednesday,” Weir told the Journal on Saturday after a loss to Maryland. “Again, I’m not really into a lot of that stuff. It’s really about how we play as opposed to the outcome, but eventually things are outcome driven. We need one. It’s not a fun place to be for any of us.”
Today Evansville at New Mexico 7 p.m., AT&T SportsNet 770 AM/94.5 FM
Weir, who chose the term “must win” on Saturday, backed off that a bit on Monday when addressing local media. He isn’t a get-too-high or get-too-low kind of coach. But there’s no denying the urgency to get the minds right in his locker room again, especially as some players go through uncharacteristic shooting slumps. UNM is shooting just 32.3 percent overall and 31.4 from 3-point range in its four-game losing streak.
And the coach understands that with as physically demanding as Weir’s style is on his players, buy-in cashes out pretty quickly if the results aren’t coming.
“Record wise, we’re not where we want to be right now,” Weir said. “... (but) I don’t think we’re necessarily as far off as maybe our record indicates.”
The combined record of the four teams UNM lost to over the past 12 days is 22-4. And while Weir acknowledges the obvious — the shooting must improve — he isn’t anywhere close to thinking it’s time to scale back the intense, high-risk/high-reward style of defense and offense.
“I didn’t want to put this team together to beat the teams that are (picked) with us at the bottom of the Mountain West — Air Force and San Jose,” Weir said. “We put this team together to try and have a shot against Nevada. And we put this team to have a shot at TCU. And with all due respect to Tennessee Tech and anybody else, that’s why we’re doing this.
“We may have some slips-ups against some teams that maybe we’re not supposed to, but I can’t really think of any other way of coaching other than going out and trying to be the best or beat the best and hopefully we’ll be able to continue to grow this way and give some teams some trouble in March.”
ON VLAD: In the injury absence of senior forward Connor MacDougall, freshman post Vladimir Pinchuk has been thrown into a fire UNM was never anticipating he’d see this early in his career.
The German recruit who didn’t even arrive on campus until a couple weeks after classes began, is progressing as much as anyone, Weir said.
“His development is encouraging,” Weir told the Journal over the weekend. “He’s right there. To have a 6-10 freshman who plays as hard as he does and gives you what he has, it’s an exciting piece for the future of the program.”
ON JACHAI: Weir and the Lobos use statistics and various non-traditional metrics in their decision making on just about everything.
So far this season, Weir acknowledges there is probably one player — 6-7 forward Jachai Simmons — who has produced stronger numbers and statistics than his playing time has indicated.
“If there is a guy so far that maybe is getting hurt in this (time of) trying to figure out numbers and roles, it’s him,” Weir said. “His numbers flush out pretty well from a plus/ minus perspective, from a deflection perspective, from a charges (drawn) perspective. He does a lot of good things when he’s on the court.”