Lobo identity is anyone’s guess ahead of opener

Head coach Weir keeps rotations, style under wraps; expect organized chaos

ALBUQUERQUE — The latest chapter in the history of The University of New Mexico’s men’s basketball program opens Friday night in The Pit as Paul Weir coaches his first game for a program undergoing a major overhaul.

Gone is more than half the roster from last season, which includes all but one member of the coaching staff. Everything from the basic concepts to the overall direction of the program is new and somewhat mysterious.

What should fans expect?

Your guess is as good as anyone’s.

The Lobos will host Brigham Young in a charity exhibition Friday night with proceeds going to Hurricane Harvey relief in Houston. Tipoff is scheduled for 7:30 p.m.

Right around 7:35 p.m., fans should have a better feel for what lies in store.

In short, it means lots of running, lots of 3-point bombs and plenty of pressure defense. Weir said tempo and shooting are the keys, as is hockey-like shifts of maximum effort from anyone in uniform.

“It’s an exceptional opportunity for us to grow, to go against a quality opponent and hopefully get the fans rallied our program as well,” Weir said. “I know it hasn’t necessarily been the most optimistic, uplifting time around Lobo athletics the last three, four, five, six, 12 months or so, but I’m hopeful this is maybe a time where we can all rally together, we can all be positive, we can put some things behind us and enjoy a really fun basketball game against a terrific opponent that has a lot of history to it.”

What the Lobos have plenty of is guards and depth in the backcourt. What they lack is size to make a difference

in the paint. It leaves an undersized roster that’s completely reliant on speed and organized chaos.

The Lobos have spent time studying the 1996 Kentucky Wildcats and watching film of up-tempo teams like West Virginia and Golden State.

They’ve also spent a lot of time pushing the limits of mental and physical exhaustion. The Lobos spent last Saturday in Flagstaff, Ariz., scrimmaging Northern Arizona, then came back home and practiced Sunday and Monday.

Weir said the idea is to keep the foot on the gas pedal as long as possible because conditioning is paramount to making his team’s frenetic pace work.

“They’re fighting through it,” Weir said. “It’s not always smooth and it’s not always pretty and I know it’s not always happy, but I feel good about our growth and the development with regard to our stamina, our work ethic and our ability to persevere.”

Weir said the scrimmage at NAU produced positive results in that the Lobos forced doubledigit turnovers and did well maintaining the breakneck pace. The practice the following day had some players questioning why they were back out there the day after a game, but by time Monday rolled around they had their best practice to date.

The team, Weir said, is starting to take shape and buy into his system.

“Everybody has their peaks and valleys, everyone has those in life, so I think we’ve had stretches where someone hits a little bit of a wall and it takes him a few days and he doesn’t have a great few days but they’ve all battle back,” he said. “Every time we’ve had a situation where I’m either worried about a player or two or a group of guys, or even the whole squad we’ve always really bounced back.”

In keeping in step with his message throughout the preseason, Weir refused to discuss any one player or hint at who would be in the starting lineup. The only thing he did confirm was all 11 players on the active roster would play against BYU — and every game, for that matter.

“Our minutes are not going to be spread out maybe the way they’re used to or maybe even the way [the media is] used to,” Weir said. “They’re going to be a lot more condensed.”

He said he likes the play from his guards, saying he has faith in them not only as shooters but ball handlers. What concerns him is making shots on a regular basis and getting every player to stay in fast-forward mode from start to finish.

“I think as long as we get the game at our tempo and we can make shots, we have a chance to be a better team than people are thinking we’re going to be,” Weir said.