Logwood’s return gives Lobos much needed boost
ALBUQUERQUE — A disappointing road trip to Logan, Utah, had a surprise ending when The University of New Mexico men’s basketball team returned home the following day.
That afternoon, the team gathered for practice in The Pit and, as always, there was senior Sam Logwood down on the floor with his teammates. For most of the last month or two, however, his participation had varied between mildly engaged to sitting off to the side nursing a sore shoulder.
This time things were different. For the first time in weeks the 6-foot-8 power forward was something he hadn’t been — and, frankly, something his team wasn’t sure he was capable of anymore.
“I thought it was Sam’s best practice of the year and I think all of us were just, like, wow; this is pretty impressive,” said Lobos head coach Paul Weir. “He defended, he talked. He was just engaged. I think, to varying degrees, that had been issues during the course of this year.”
The following morning the team gathered again for a brief workout before heading to the airport for a flight to the Bay Area for last weekend’s game at San Jose State. Logwood was again the feisty, energetic senior he’d been the day before.
Then something unexpected happened. As they prepared to leave, he asked Weir if he could travel with the team.
“I was good with that,” Weir said. “And then we kind of just started going down the road of, ‘Let’s talk about whether this will be a good opportunity to play.’ ”
A couple of teammates were involved in that discussion. During their travels, the determination was made to insert Logwood back into the lineup and give him his first opportunity to play since Jan. 3.
He did just that, reaching double figures and making a game-saving steal in the closing seconds of a 71-68 win over SJSU. What’s more, he graded out well in Weir’s plus/ minus system used to judge each player’s performance from game to game.
The lowest plus/minus scorer on the team before he fell off the radar in early January, he was a plus-9 against the Spartans thanks to the little things, like taking charges, like avoiding jump shots inside the 3-point line, like defending well in the post and in the full court press.
“He did all the things that, from the beginning until now, I was always asking him to kind of do,” Weir said. “He would have a great game, score 25 or 26 points and everyone would say Sam had a great game and I got back and I looked at the film, or I looked at the plus/minus or the defensive numbers or whatever, and I would go, ‘Well, it really wasn’t.’ Now he’s starting to do those things.”
With him finally back on the floor, UNM’s depth just got another boost as his inclusion gives the club 10 scholarship players — provided they’re all available. On Monday, Weir said he was not sure if freshman center Vladimir Pinchuk (concussion) and junior Jachai Simmons (bereavement) would be available for Tuesday’s critical Mountain West Conference game in The Pit against Boise State.
The Broncos (19-4, 9-2) trail only Nevada in the conference standings and are generally regarded as good enough for an at-large berth to the NCAA Tournament. They come into town having already hammered UNM in a 90-62 blowout back on Jan. 3 — Logwood’s last game before disappearing into Weir’s dog house for seven games, by the way — and are the league’s second-best 3-point shooting team behind the Lobos.
Weir spent the bulk of Monday’s practice preaching the importance of running Boise State’s guards off the 3-point line by switching assignments on defense and coming hard off ball-reversing screens and passes.
In the middle to help defend the paint was Logwood, a taller, more physical version of his replacement for the last month, 6-5 freshman Makuach Maluach. Weir said the key Tuesday is simple: Push the tempo to a breakneck pace with pressing and transition, and do the little things that don’t show up on the stat sheet.
“We are undefeated this year when we take over eight charges,” he said. “When we’re diving on the floor at least, I think, six times a game we’re, like, 7-2. When you add those things up, to me that impacts winning and Sam is a tremendously talented player that always could impact winning, but the way our season was unfolding he wasn’t doing that. I think now he’s committed and wants to do those things and hopefully we’ll see a different version for Sam, from my perspective, as a guy who can really help our team win.”
HOOPS NOTES
The Lobos opened their season with a recordsetting 147-76 win over Northern New Mexico. On Monday, the NAIA Eagles learned they had been selected as one of six teams to take part in the Association of Independent Institutions Championship Tournament to be held Feb. 23-25 in Lincoln, Ill.
NNMC (12-13) will join Fisk (16-10), Indiana Northwest (14-10), College of the Ozarks (17-10), Voorhees (12-9) and nationally ranked Stillman (20-3) in the field. The seeds will be announced on Feb. 12.
The Eagles close out their regular season with two road games at Johnson & Wales this weekend and one final trip to Texas A&M-Tarleton State on Feb. 17.