No vacation sites mean Lobos will go on a roll
Perhaps the New Mexico men’s basketball team would be wise to skip popular vacation destinations. After a disastrous holiday voyage to Hawaii, which had Lobos fans questioning their very existence, UNM had a similar trek to Vegas this week.
Former New Mexico great Danny Granger, from his post in New York as studio analyst for CBS Sports, expressed confidence in his Lobos at halftime. UNLV was up 34-28, but Granger figured the emotion the Rebels were riding would fade and his Lobos would regroup. After all, how much could the firing of UNLV coach Dave Rice a couple of nights earlier linger?
Turns out, it got worse. The Lobos had to rally late just to make UNLV’s final margin only 86-74. It left Granger having to duck barbs from his fellow analysts.
As they had done on that great island in the Pacific, the Lobos showed only a passing interest in playing defense and suffered small pangs of panic attacks on offense.
But fret not, UNM faithful. The Lobos’ itinerary does not include a true vacation hot spot until a Feb. 6 expedition to lovely San Diego to take on the dreaded Aztecs.
In between, New Mexico will have five very winnable games, beginning with Wyoming’s visit to the Pit on Saturday. Larry Shyatt is a respected coach and senior guard Josh Adams can fill up a stat sheet. But if they show any heart at all, the Lobos will not lose at home to the 9-9 Cowboys.
Then comes a trip to San Jose State (6-11). And that is followed by a game with Air Force (10-7) in the Pit.
A Jan. 30 trip to Boise State (13-4) will test UNM. But the Broncos will be coming off their own trip to Vegas and could be working on a hangover. Besides, only the hardiest of travelers would consider Idaho in January as an ideal tourist trap, so the Lobos won’t be distracted.
Then UNLV comes to the Pit for another CBS Sports Network production. For Granger’s sake, UNM has to win.
So the cherry-colored outlook has New Mexico 8-1 in the Middling West Conference heading to San Diego.
Of course, if Shyatt steals a win in the Pit on Saturday, all dreams are over. UNM fans can resume their great panic over the point guard position and their pleas for Mike Brown to come to the rescue.
LOBO FOR LIFE: Bob Davie is under contract to be UNM’s football coach through 2021. Presumably the 61-year-old has enjoyed his four years here so much that he can see himself spending another six years as a Lobo.
Although he told a Chicago Tribune reporter in November that he would like another crack at coaching Notre Dame, he quickly acknowledged it would never happen. But that wasn’t really his point.
Part of the advantage of being a veteran coach is that you have a freedom you might not have had as a younger coach trying to climb the ladder.
He seems to have fully embraced that attitude here.
“I’m past worried about perception and my record,” he told the Tribune, while recalling his decision to come to UNM. “Hell, I just wanted to coach.”
UNDAUNTED: Hue Jackson was named head coach of the Cleveland Browns on Wednesday. But in 2009, he was a finalist for the UNM head coaching job that went to Mike Locksley.
Jackson, then the quarterbacks coach with the Baltimore Ravens, apparently thought UNM was still in the WAC, which did not help his interview.
But in applying for both the UNM and Cleveland jobs, it does show Jackson has a flash of fearlessness in him.