Lobos bank on chance for do-over within MWC tourney
The NIT is, historically speaking, a four-letter word around the University of New Mexico’s south campus.
The ultimate goal for most Division I programs is, of course, the NCAA Tournament. For the 68 teams not fortunate enough to land a bid to the Big Dance, the lower-tier National Invitation Tournament is always an option.
It’s just not always embraced, especially when an NCAA ticket seemed like a sure thing for most of the season.
“I look at football and they get 60% of the teams in bowl games and we get 19% that go to the NCAA Tournament,” said
Lobos men’s basketball coach
Richard Pitino. “I know it’s awesome. I’ve been lucky enough as a head coach to be in it twice, I’ve been several times as an assistant coach but I see no shame in it [an
NIT bid].”
The Lobos can erase all the debate by winning four games in four days this week at the
Mountain West Conference
Tournament, which starts with
Wednesday’s opening round at the Thomas & Mack Center in Las Vegas, Nev.
UNM (21-10) faces last-place Wyoming (9-21) in the last of three games Wednesday. The winner advances to Thursday’s quarterfinals against No. 3 seed Utah State (24-7). While Utah State has played its way into a solid place as an NCAA at-large candidate, the Lobos have fallen off the radar after losing seven of their final nine games to finish sixth in the final MWC standings.
Once a lock to make the Dance, UNM is now staring down the harsh reality that anything less than a MWC title run leaves it hoping for an invitation to the NIT. Any kind of postseason appearance would end the program’s extended absence in that regard; not since the 2013-14 team made the NCAA Tournament has a New Mexico squad participated in any kind of postseason event.
Winning the MWC title will be no easy task. The Lobos have lost at least one game to all but one team in the league, and that includes perhaps the lowest point of the season when they were humbled at home by Wyoming on Valentine’s Day.
“That’s the beauty of our league,” Pitino said. “I mean,
1 through 11 it’s just remarkable how much, just, stability top to bottom there is. It should be a fun tournament.”
The Lobos learned this week that three players, guards Jaelen House and Jamal Mashburn Jr., as well as graduate transfer power forward Morris Udeze, earned all-MWC honors. Both Mashburn and House, Pitino noted, were recruited via Zoom while COVID-19 restrictions were still in place while Udeze was sold on the idea of him serving as a one-season cornerstone for a rebuilding project that would take years to finish.
“My goal was never set on NCAA Tournament or bust in year two of one of the biggest rebuilds in all of college basketball,” Pitino said. “Now, the goalposts kind of moved a little bit due to our guys’ credit for winning at Saint Mary’s, winning at San Diego State, being undefeated in the nonconference, starting 5-2 or whatever it was in conference. Our guys did that.”
As well as it started, it fizzled as MWC play unfolded. An injury to House coincided with the Wyoming loss.
The other losses had more to do with poor defensive play down the stretch.
This week, however, offers the chance to hit the reset button and start from scratch. It’s a new season, Pitino said, and Wednesday is an opportunity to keep the momentum of December and January going deeper into March — even if that means a trip to the four-letter NIT.