Is Davie really happy to be with the Lobos?
You can say you’re relaxed and insist that everything’s chill, but there’s no denying that body language says an awful lot.
Forget the words; watch the nonverbal stuff and let it do the talking.
Anyone who happened to watch the video feed of UNM football coach Bob Davie’s media forum with athletic director Eddie Nuñez on Friday may have noticed how Davie started the sit-down gab session looking like a man who’d rather be whale gutting in the Arctic than in that setting.
For the first 11 minutes, 10 seconds of the 49-minute gab session, Davie sat almost perfectly still with his arms crossed and his feet planted firmly the floor. The only exception was when he briefly put his hand to his chin explaining how it wasn’t about him, that he felt if he weren’t the best man for the job then he still wouldn’t be here.
Aside from that, virtually zero facial expression until it got to a point where he started to defend himself against rumors that he doesn’t actually live in Albuquerque and his family isn’t fully invested in Lobo football.
In a way, his animation about his family was one of the few times Lobo fans have ever seen their coach break the stoic mold and not be like such a robot. Maybe that’s the leader UNM has been waiting for all this time.
Tessa Ortiz had herself quite the Saturday. The Las Vegas Robertson girls basketball player woke up at the crack
of dawn in her own bed, battled a stomach bug that — ahem — forced her to deal the effects of esophageal gravity with her latest meal, then took her ACT exam.
After that was an hourlong bus ride to Santa Fe, where she helped the Lady Cardinals pound Portales by 20 points to win the Bobby Rodriguez Capital City Tournament. She was named all-tournament and Robertson is now 4-0 and clearly one of the favorites in Class 3A.
How was your Saturday?
The Roswell Coyotes left Santa Fe with the boys runner-up trophy of the Capital City Tournament, but the Nava family got its reward the week before. Dominic Nava, a junior guard for the Coyotes, just returned to the team after a successful run with the football team that resulted in a Class 5A state title when Roswell beat Los Lunas, 42-6 on Dec. 1.
It was the second state title the Navas enjoyed in the last four years. His older brother, Cesar Nava, was a member of Roswell’s Class 4A state championship boys basketball team. The opponent in the championship game? None other than the Los Lunas Tigers, who lost 56-41.
New Mexico State’s near-upset of No. 2 Kansas on Saturday night would have been a first for the Aggies. Never have they beaten a team ranked No. 1 or 2.
As much as NMSU is stealing the state’s hoops spotlight, don’t ignore what looks like an amazing season in the works in Las Vegas. At 7-1 and a perfect 3-0 after three straight wins at the Wilson Complex to open Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference play, the New Mexico Highlands men’s basketball team is in the early discussion for the Division II version of the Big Dance.
The Cowboys are fun to watch. They press teams into 17.5 turnovers a game, average 11 3-pointers and 92 points, and they have senior Gerad Davis leading the team in scoring, rebounding, steals and happens to shoot 100 percent at the free throw line (so far).
Currently ranked No. 8 in the South Central Region, Highlands has four of its next five games on the road and doesn’t play an Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference game at home for another month. Even so, a trip to the Wilson Complex would be worth it.
The last time Santa Fe High won the boys title of its own Capital City Tournament came on Dec. 12, 1998, when it defeated St. Michael’s 65-58. The coach at the time was current Horsemen head man David Rodriguez, the son of Bobby Rodriguez, for which the tournament is named. The tournament MVP was 6-foot-7 forward Ben Ellsworth, who ended up playing at Adams State College from 1999-2003.
The Demons finished the 1998-99 season with a 17-7 that season, and were the runnerup in District 2-4A to eventual state champion Albuquerque La Cueva. However, the Demons lost to Albuquerque West Mesa in the District 2-4A Tournament semifinal and missed the state tournament because only the two teams that played for the district tournament title made the postseason.
As for the team Santa Fe High beat that day? The Horsemen went on to win the 3A state title for their first championship in 30 years.