Lobos fans, you are where you’re supposed to be

It’s just as it should be, Lobos fans. Your basketball team’s inclusion in the NIT isn’t where you thought they’d be when they were 14-0 and ranked in the Top 25, but it should feel just like home, considering where you were and where you’re headed.

And, yes, we busted you for doing your happy dance when Rutgers lost in overtime to Hofstra in Tuesday night’s opening round and can totally see you mapping out the Lobos’ path to the NIT final four as the highest remaining team in their eight-team bracket.

See? The NIT ain’t so bad. Chances are, UNM will still be playing longer than anyone from the Mountain West currently in the NCAA Tournament — unless, of course, Steve Alford leads Nevada on a Sweet 16 run, signs a 10-year extension and leaves for the Texas Tech job two hours later.

Brighter days are ahead for Lobos basketball. Should UNM lose a player or two this offseason, then go out and find a 6-foot-10 rim protector and maybe another 6-7 guard, the Big Dance isn’t out of the question next season.

It’s been well-publicized — and repeated over and over all season by coach Richard Pitino — that the low point for the University of New Mexico program came at the end of the COVID-19 season when Paul Weir was fired after a six-win campaign that saw the Lobos spend the entire slate on the road due to health restrictions here at home.

Players were quitting, attendance was on a steady decline and the financial chasm that separated UNM from the rest of its conference brethren seemed to be getting wider by the second.

Funny what a few creative Zoom calls can do to turn things around. Pitino rebuilt the roster in two years; the only holdovers from Weir’s time are senior Emmanuel Kuac and junior Javonte Johnson.

He also managed to win most of Lobo Nation back, as attendance at home games in The Pit skyrocketed starting in mid-December. In two short seasons, he has restored the hope of fans starving for a chance to feel the true emotion of what it’s like to be a Lobo lover: Pain.

For all its glorified history, the Lobos have never reciprocated for their fans by making a deep run in March. They’ve never become the media darlings, sur

viving into the second weekend of the tournament with shocking wins over big-name teams. The Pit, for all its otherworldly lore, has never had a team that, even once, didn’t fall flat on its face when the spotlight was on.

Those days (all together now) are just around the corner.

Next year, that’s the one. They’re just a player or two short, then it’ll be UNM’s turn to burst onto the big stage and capture the nation’s attention.

Stop me if you’ve heard that before.

Thing is, none of it’s even possible without years like this one. The pieces were in place to get this program headed in the right direction and, with luck, most of those pieces will return next year to form the nucleus of a team with the potential to be special.

To say this particular group let everyone down by failing to reach the NCAA isn’t warranted. The Lobos aren’t ready for that stage — not yet. They’re good, but not quite good enough. Teams of that caliber don’t lose at home to last-place Wyoming or on the road to Fresno State and Air Force, they don’t get kicked around by teams that simply can’t match up.

But this one did, and the NIT is the soft landing spot UNM needs to begin the launch sequence for bigger and better things in the years to come.

Now about that Hofstra win, how much fun would it be to somehow see the Lobos survive the NIT’s first two rounds and then somehow convince the NIT that a home game in Johnson Gym is in order?

We’ll save that for another day.