Logwood looks to diversify his offensive game
The final basket of the 2015-16 season for the University of New Mexico men’s basketball team was scored by Sam Logwood. The athletic 6-foot-7 forward for the Lobos sprinted down the court with supreme confidence, took an Xavier Adams assist, and laid in the ball to give UNM a 62-61 lead over the Nevada Wolf Pack with 47 seconds remaining in the quarterfinals of the Mountain West Conference Tournament in Las Vegas, Nev. The next 47 seconds didn’t go as UNM hoped in a 64-62 loss, but that play and that game — one in which an aggressive and confident Logwood scored a season-high 16 points and matched a career-high with 11 field-goal attempts — epitomized the potential the Lobos coaching staff has talked about with Logwood since he arrived on campus in August 2014. “(Logwood) showed great flashes in the Nevada game in the tournament,” UNM head coach Craig Neal said. “That’s the way we need Sam to play all year. Very capable. Athletic. Can be a great defender, but we’re going to need his offense to pick up a little bit for us.” After averaging 6.1 points and starting 16 games as a true freshman two years ago, Logwood started all 32 games for the Lobos a season ago. But while his minutes increased, his scoring barely budged. Logwood averaged 6.3 points per game last season. As the fourth and sometimes fifth scoring option, he often seemed unsure on offense — struggling with whether he should be settling for corner 3s or bull-rushing his way into the paint to try to attack the rim. It’s a struggle Logwood has no intention of carrying into his junior season. “I spent a lot of time in the summer with (assistant coach Terrence) Rencher figuring out ways I could be more effective offensively,” Logwood said. “We’ve come up with a lot of places where I can be more effective. More specifically, we really worked on my midrange shot this summer. That’s something I’ve added. I feel pretty confident with that. I feel like with the flow of the offense, the midrange will be something that is very effective for me.” Rencher isn’t a bad choice to turn to for help on that front. The second-year Lobos assistant, who also happens to be all-time leading scorer in Texas Longhorns history, said he “had a bit of a midrange game” in his college days. It’s something Rencher feels opens up the entire floor for a player. “I’d say that was probably 90 percent of (what we worked on over the summer),” Rencher said of midrange shooting. “Getting to his spots. I know in high school, he was a really good midrange shooter. Based on his role here and trying to figure some things out at the next level, I think he kind of lost that aspect a little bit. But it’s a shot he can get to whenever he wants and a shot he’s more than capable of making a high percentage of.” While Logwood reached double figures in scoring in only one of 18 MWC regularseason games, Neal nonetheless provided unwavering support. Neal often was quick to point out that the then-sophomore’s best contributions had little do with offense at all. Logwood’s athleticism and size allows him to defend multiple positions, making up, at times, for the defensive deficiencies of teammates. “The pressure a player puts on himself when he thinks he has to score for people to take notice of you or to think that you’ve improved or that you’re a good player — I think that’s where Sam was last year,” Rencher said. “I don’t think Sam is a bigtime scorer by nature. He can make shots. He can make baskets and he’ll have games where he scores well. But I think he put himself in that box so much last year that if he wasn’t scoring, he thought everyone assumed he wasn’t playing well or improving. “That’s not how it should be for Sam. He can bring so much to the table. The scoring has to be a complimentary part to his game, and if he figures that out, everything will fall in place.”