Lobos not sweating questions about Weir’s attire
Kuiper, Mathis asked about new teammates
LAS VEGAS, Nev. — Donning a gray sweater over a collared shirt and red tie, second-year University of New Mexico coach Paul Weir was peppered with the same question Tuesday.
And it wasn’t about the season ahead.
Instead, television, online and newspaper reporter after reporter kept asking him about what he was wearing at Tuesday’s preseason Mountain West men’s basketball media summit at the Cosmopolitan Resort and Casino.
“I guess I had no idea anybody cared that much,” Weir said. “I didn’t really even think about it.” And he wasn’t the only one. Lobo seniors Dane Kuiper and Anthony Mathis, who accompanied their head coach to the annual preseason event, were asked more than once what they thought about their coach’s fashion statement, one that started during the hot-streak finish the Lobos had last season, including winning seven consecutive games in February and March to get into the league’s tournament title game.
“I just told everyone I think it’s classy,” said Kuiper.
“It’s his thing,” Mathis said. “I like it.”
Weir said he probably wouldn’t have worn the sweater had he thought it would generate so much conversation.
Aside from the questions about Weir’s attire, the Lobos fielded plenty of questions about some players who have not played a minute in the Mountain West.
“I’m getting asked about the new guys a lot, to be honest,” Mathis said, referring to teammates Vance Jackson, the Connecticut transfer who was voted the league’s preseason Newcomer of the Year, and Kansas transfer Carlton Bragg.
“How are they coming together with the team? The only answer I really have is they’re playing really well. Every player brings something
different to the table.”
The fact that two players who have yet to lace them up for a game as a Lobo were being talked about Tuesday, even more than the two Lobos who were actually at the media day event, didn’t seem to bother the pair of fourth-year program veterans who were representing UNM in Las Vegas.
“They deserve it,” Kuiper said. “They’re really good players. They come from really good programs. I love talking about other people more than myself.”
SCHEDULING TROUBLES: As always, two of the hot topics at Tuesday’s Mountain West media conference were: will the league return to being one that has multiple NCAA Tournament teams each season, and how hard is it to get quality opponents to play MWC teams in the non-conference.
“You’re not going to talk your way into the NCAA Tournament,” said Mountain West Commissioner Craig Thompson. “At large (berths to the tournament) are earned.”
But to do so, the league asks that every member spend at least $300,000 on guarantee games to lure attractive non-conference teams to play home games. The two problems there are that not all MWC programs spend that much in “buy games” and even those that do are rarely able to get power-conference schools to play on the MWC team’s home court, either for money or as part of a home-and-home contract.
Leon Rice, Boise State’s head coach, was complimentary of Oregon head coach Dana Altman for agreeing to a home-and-home series with the Broncos. Rice said power-conference coaches don’t even return the calls from MWC programs in the spring knowing it’s probably about scheduling. He said he’s seen other coaches out on the recruiting trail “turn and run” when they see him in the same gym fearing he might ask them to schedule a game in Boise.
A10 CHALLENGE? This is the final season for the Mountain West/Missouri Valley challenge series (for UNM’s part, the Lobos play Dec. 1 at Bradley). There won’t be a league-vs.-league challenge next year, but senior Associate Commissioner Dan Butterly acknowledged the league is in talks with the Atlantic 10 to get a challenge started in the 2020-21 season.
FIGHT CLUB RULES: San Jose State second year head coach Jean Prioleau, whose Spartans won four games last season (just three against Division I opponents) said bluntly, “We don’t talk about last year.”
FAMILIAR ROOKIES: The league’s three first-year head coaches — Justin Hutson at Fresno State, Craig Smith at Utah State and Niko Medved at Colorado State — are all very aware of what the Mountain West is about. All three coached in the league in the past, Hutson at both SDSU and UNLV over the past decade while Smith and Medved were on Tim Miles’ staff at CSU.