Lobos gear up for busy stretch after NMSU loss exposes flaws
As dazzling as The University of New Mexico men’s basketball team looked in its first two games, it looked just as numbingly awful in its third.
Such is life with a new coach, several new players and a brand new system.
The Lobos (2-1) rolled to triple-digit point totals in winning their first two games but were knocked around in a 19-point loss Friday at New Mexico State. They head back to the growth chart Tuesday night when Tennessee Tech visits The Pit in the second round of the Emerald Coast Classic. The final two rounds will be Friday and Saturday in Niceville, Fla., with games against TCU and either Maryland or St. Bonaventure.
UNM head coach Paul Weir spent part of Tuesday’s news conference in The Pit taking the blame for everything from rebounding to not being mentally prepared for the team’s first road test. He said he would emphasize rebounding at practices but, given the fact that the Lobos will play four games in eight days starting Tuesday night, the transition will have to be made during live action.
“New Mexico State did a good job of slowing the game down and taking more traditional
offensive shots with good rebounding position and things like that,” Weir said. “In my defense, in our defense, we haven’t seen much of that this year.”
The Lobos were exposed for their lack of
size in the post, a fact that is only exacerbated by the continued absence of senior power forward Connor MacDougall. Weir said MacDougall isn’t that far from returning to the lineup after injuring his right foot during the exhibition game against BYU, but added that any talk of possibly taking a redshirt year are out of the question for at least the next week or two.
As for other players like point guard Antino Jackson and shooting guard Troy Simons, their progress is part of that growth curve that will provide plenty of ups and downs. Weir said Jackson’s erratic offense is just a product of his style while Simons drawing two technicals and an ejection at NMSU may be his lack of mental focus.
“Even in the games [Jackson’s] played well he makes tough shots and takes tough shots, plays a little bit out of the flow because that’s just kind of who he is,” Weir said. “He’s got a scoring mentality and there’s times I think it helps him and there’s times I think it hurts him.”
In his mind, Weir wants Jackson to keep doing what he’s doing.
“He’s not going to be Mr. 14-points-agame-for-32-games this year,” Weir said. “I think there’s going to be games where he has tremendous nights and scores a lot of points and some other times where he doesn’t.”
As for everything else, Weir said there’s no sense worrying about players he doesn’t have.
The lack of rebounding and consistent shooting aren’t going to get better by adding personnel now.
“I don’t think there’s a coach that will ever acknowledge that it’s a personnel issue,” he said. “You always just want to do the best with what you have and, right now that’s the guys we have and we have to do a better job boxing out.”