Lobos slow it down, beat Wisconsin
UNM impresses in consolation game of Legends Classic
BROOKLYN, N.Y. — Forced patience. That’s what the slow, deliberate style of the Big Ten’s Wisconsin Badgers made the usually fast-paced UNM Lobos play with on Tuesday night. And it was exactly what the Lobos needed, leading to an impressive 59-50 win in the consolation game of the Legends Classic in the Barclays Center.
The win moved the Lobos to 6-2 and completed their toughest four-game stretch of the season — two rivalry games last week on the road that they bused to and two power conference opponents on a neutral court two time zones away that they flew to — with a 2-2 split. The Lobos answered the bell in the second game each time after what could have been a demoralizing loss in the first leg.
“Taking the first ‘L’ in the tournament (to Auburn on
Monday night) hit hard,” said Lobo junior point guard J.J. Caldwell. “But the thing coach kept telling us was just bounce back. No matter what, it’s just the next game. That was our mentality going into this game, and you could probably see it on the defensive end.”
And what a bounce back it was. Monday night, No. 18 Auburn blew the Lobos off the court, 84-59, with the same high-paced, high-pressure style the Lobos say they want to employ.
And Tuesday, instead of forcing that style into a game that wasn’t going to allow it, Weir had his Lobos beat Wisconsin at its own game, taking the slower paced approach and running with it, if you will, leading almost the entire game (32 of its 40 minutes) and by as many as 11 at one point.
“Yes. For sure,” Weir said when asked if Wisconsin’s game plan actually played into the Lobos’ hands by forcing them to play with more patience. “But I’d also like to hope that we used yesterday as a great learning experience. We watched clips this morning. Just our
turnovers and playing too fast and getting sped up. Hopefully it was a little bit of us growing and learning and becoming a better basketball team and, obviously, their system was going to make you do that anyway. Hopefully it was a healthy combination of both.”
Entering Tuesday’s game, Wisconsin ranked 325th out of 353 Division I teams in tempo, meaning they played with one of the slower paces in the country both on offense and using a defense that forced opponents into long possessions. UNM, on the other side, ranked No. 19 in tempo, a style it hasn’t exactly shown the ability to master quite yet — just one month into a season with seven new players on the roster, including all the primary ball handlers.
And whereas Wisconsin had played just one game with as many 71 possessions all season, UNM’s slowest game before Tuesday was played at 71 possessions. Tuesday, each team had 63 possessions.
Ironically, the game was too fast for Wisconsin’s liking, with 14 turnovers to just six assists in the game.
“I think, mostly, give New Mexico some credit,” Wisconsin coach Greg Gard said. “But I thought our decisions in the first half, I thought we played too fast at times in terms of getting sped up — a few travels that are uncharacteristic of us that we have to get cleaned up. But we have to continue to reduce the number of turnovers.”
The more patient approach for the Lobos, meanwhile, led to more passing and a shared scoring load with four players hitting double figures, led by JaQuan Lyle’s 14 points. UNM assisted on 13 of 22 baskets and cut down from 24 Monday night turnovers vs. Auburn to just 13 on Tuesday.
Wisconsin shot 34.0 percent and was just 2-of-26 from 3-point range (7.7 percent).
The Badgers (4-3) cut the lead to three with about five minutes remaining, but the Lobos’ defense held strong in the closing minutes, and their three new guards — Zane Martin, Caldwell and Lyle — scored 15 points, including hitting seven of nine free throws to hold off the Badgers’ rally.
“We’re so far from our ceiling,” said Martin, who finished with 12 points. “We’ve got a lot of talented guys. A lot of good guys. I feel like personally, we’re only at about 30 percent out of 100. There’s so much we can accomplish with this unit.”