Pitino: Mashburn, House are team guys
Lobos coach is confident transfers will contribute to success
On the one hand, there is no question that starting the recruiting portion of the Richard Pitino era by landing a pair of high-profile former four-star transfers from two power conference programs was a definite tone setter for Lobo basketball.
On the other hand, a new coach can’t keep preaching a “Team! Team! Team!” mantra and then go overboard with the individual praise for the first two pieces he added to the roster.
“It’s not going to be just about one guy or two guys,” Pitino said Wednesday when talking publicly for the first time about last week’s additions — Arizona State transfer guard Jaelen House and Minnesota transfer guard Jamal Mashburn Jr.
“It’s going to be about the team. The beauty of Jamal and Jaelen, and I also believe on our current roster, we’ve got versatility. And that’s what I’m looking for. They can absolutely play together. They can play with the current guys on the roster. And I think they can help contribute (to) winning.”
With those formalities out of the way, Pitino also gave hype-starved Lobo fans plenty to chew on, too.
First, on Mashburn Jr., the 6-foot2 guard who, via a brief stay in the NCAA transfer portal, follows Pitino from Minnesota to UNM following last month’s coaching change.
“Obviously with Jamal, I have a great history with him — recruited out of high school, seen him play a bunch, know what he’s all about as a basketball player, as a person, as a student athlete,” Pitino said. “(I) just know that he fits exactly what we need to turn this thing around. He’s a fierce competitor and was, I believe, one of the better freshmen in the Big Ten as the season progressed.”
Mashburn Jr. is the son of former NBA All-Star Jamal Mashburn who was an All-American at Kentucky while playing for Rick Pitino, Richard’s father. The younger Pitino and younger Mashburn forged their own bond over the past couple years through both the recruiting process and with the Gophers this past season,
“And he wanted to continue to run
this race together,” Richard Pitino said. “So I’m grateful that him and his father have entrusted in me and believed in what we’re doing and what we’re all about.”
Like Mashburn, House is the son of a former NBA player in Eddie House, who also happened to be the all-time leading scorer at Arizona State, where the younger House played the past two seasons. Unlike his dad, who was a walking bucket for the Sun Devils, defense is what comes to mind first for the 6-1 Jaelen House — who has a high-intensity, in-your-face style that has Pit fan-favorite potential written all over it.
“He’s about competing. He’s fearless. He loves basketball. He is an elite level on ball defender. I mean, he can change a game with his defense,” said Pitino,
before making sure not to paint the new Lobo into a one-dimensional corner.
“He’s very, very good with the basketball. He makes others better. And again, like Jamal, a terrific person who I know others are gonna want to play with.”
MORE 3s, PLEASE: The UNM Lobos ranked 337th out of 340 Division I teams this past season in 3-point shooting, hitting at a 27.5% clip.
That’s not acceptable for the program moving forward, says Pitino.
Of course Pitino’s Minnesota team this past season was pretty much occupying the same space at the bottom of the NCAA barrel this past season on 3-point shooting, ranking 334th at 28.4%.
The big difference is Paul Weir’s Lobos knew they couldn’t shoot from the outside and pretty much quit trying to force that square peg into the round rim, attempting just 17.4 3-pointers per game, making 4.8.
Pitino, meanwhile, was committed to the style, results be damned. His Golden Gophers this past season attempted 25.2 3-pointers per game, making 7.1.
“That’s very, very important to what we do — shooting the 3,” Pitino said. “New Mexico was not very good last year at it. They made, I think, four a game. I had a team at Minnesota that was not very good, either, but we shot a lot of them. Maybe I was crazy. … It’s too important of a shot in this game.”
Skill development is part of that equation, but emphasizing 3-point shooting in recruiting will be of high priority.
In fact, one-dimensional players, Pitino says, could be rare for the program no matter how good the one dimension may be.
“I want to have (on the court), at all times,” Pitino said, “five guys that can dribble, pass and shoot.”