Lobos sorely miss recuperating forward MacDougall
Pain meds, stat. In a season that is quickly drowning in lost rebounds and second-chance scoring opportunities for the other team, The University of New Mexico men’s basketball team is in dire need of one of the biggest players on its roster.
Problem is, 6-foot-9 senior forward Connor MacDougall has set up shop at the end of the Lobo bench after injuring his foot and lower ankle in the team’s lone exhibition game more than three weeks ago. He went down early in the first half against Brigham Young on Oct. 27 and hasn’t been seen since.
UNM (2-4) enters Wednesday night’s home date with Evansville (5-1) riding a four-game losing streak punctuated by sheer dominance on the glass by the opposition. The Lobos have been outrebounded by an average of 13.25 per game during the skid.
Head coach Paul Weir said team doctors and trainers have cleared MacDougall’s return but the big man continues to sit out based solely on his own pain tolerance. Until MacDougall is able to work through the discomfort and get back onto the floor, the team’s glaring lack of size is perhaps the
biggest immediate issue.
“We just don’t have that big of a margin of error,” Weir said during Monday’s press briefing in The Pit. “That’s just not how our team is built. We’re not going to wow you with size, we’re not going to wow you with star power, we’re not going to wow you with a lot of things and we have to find a way to nickel and dime you all game.”
The Lobos opened the season with a pair of triple-digit outings and then discovered that not grabbing rebounds is a big factor in winning against Division I competition. It forces the team to press more than usual on offense, which leads to sloppy play, which leads to rushed shots, which leads to turnovers and ill-advised sets.
“I thought it just deflated us at the other end,” Weir said. “We have to do a better job of not allowing whatever happens on offense to dictate our defense, and the reality is when you don’t have a rim protector and you don’t have a lot of size it just, again, shrinks your margin for error on the defensive end. We have to be really good there because you don’t have anyone cleaning up the mess if there’s a miss.”
When MacDougall returns is anyone’s guess.
He spent more than a week in a walking boot and has since dressed in street clothes for the most recent games. In his place have been Joe Furstinger and true freshman Vladimir Pinchuk, a player Weir describes as the one prospect that could become a viable low post option — eventually.
“We’re going to need him,” Weir said. “To ever be a good offensive team you’re going to have to, you know, get the ball inside at times and there’s really only one guy, a true back-to-thebasket big man that can maybe create that for us. I think it’s him.”
While the losses have been tough to take, Weir did point out the level of competition the Lobos have faced. The four losses are against teams whose combined record is now 22-3, with TCU (6-0) cracking the various Top 25 polls Monday morning.
“As much as it’s painful to go through this from a win-loss perspective, it’s amazing from a teaching perspective,” Weir said. “To play these kinds of teams over and over again is really going to help our team grow and develop in the long haul.”
In short, the Lobos are learning more about themselves and their long-term potential by facing tough teams instead of gaining a false sense of security by beating one creampuff after another.
“We could be sitting here at 6-0 playing a bunch of 300-plus RPI teams thinking we’re something we’re really not,” Weir said. “I’d rather have it this way.”