Lobos, while not boring, continue to disappoint
While all the talk of budget cuts and deficits with the state government dominating New Mexico, the topic also seeps into the athletic realm.
And that has The University of New Mexico in quite the conundrum.
A talented men’s basketball program underachieves for several years, which puts more pressure on its head coach — in this case, Craig Neal — to turn things around.
Amid another disappointing, albeit injury-plagued, season, rumblings of said coach’s job security mount.
Here’s the rub: The school can’t really remove the coach because of a $1 million buyout clause, and its athletic department is running its own deficit. Kinda hard to create change (coaching) when there’s no change (money) hidden between the athletic department’s seat cushions. So it appears that the school, coach and fans are stuck with one another for at least another season.
What’s a Lobo fan to do?
Well, you can always hope that “maybe next year” will really be the year. Or, you can wish upon a star for a run in the Mountain West Conference Tournament to restore some luster to a trying season. The Lobos, though, haven’t won a tournament game since winning it all in 2014.
Perhaps the return of senior post Tim Williams will be the magical cure, but UNM was only 6-4 in conference play with him. Still, this team has shown the ability to surprise its fan base, like when it won five in January after losing three in a row in mind-numbing fashion. Considering this team’s ability to do the unexpected, you shouldn’t expect anything.
Should you be surprised if the Lobos run the table in the tournament? No.
Should you be surprised if they go one-and-out? No.
Actually, Lobo fans should be surprised if this team did the expected — like beat San Diego State on Saturday, win its quarterfinal game in the conference tournament before bowing out in the MWC semis. Because that’s what boring, normal 10-8 teams do.
But New Mexico doesn’t do boring.
An old adage suggests that a team takes on the personality of its coach, and, boy, do the Lobos do that. Neal and the Lobos can be intense, feisty and combative one moment; quiet, introspective and docile the next. Inconsistency is their consistency.
Also consistent, though, is the drop in attendance, which means the fans aren’t buying into the product. In the 51st season of The Pit (forget that Wise-Pies stuff ), UNM’s average attendance of 11,612 will place the program outside of the Top 25 nationally for the first time. It’s also the program’s lowest attendance level this century, and adds another level to UNM’s conundrum.
A program in need of a boost is stuck in neutral because of a financial crunch, made worse by the shrinking number of butts in the seats of its prized revenue generator. What’s a Lobo fan to do?
There’s always Vegas. Or next year.