Neal planning to trim Lobos’ playbook
NORMAL, Ill. — The Lobos are frozen, and it has nothing to do with what they left behind in Albuquerque or the temperatures waiting for them on their annual nonconference trip to the Midwest.
As Craig Neal has realized heading into tonight’s game at Illinois State (3-2), he’s got some new, key players who aren’t yet ready to handle the offensive workload he’s piled on them. It leads to a “paralysis by analysis,” with players too often trying to read defenses and remember their roles in what is a rather complex playbook.
“I think some of our guys are overloaded,” said Neal, the fourth-year University of New Mexico coach. He is well known to have a thick offensive playbook that worked in seasons when his roster was heavy with veterans, especially in the backcourt (i.e. four-year starters such as Kendall Williams and Hugh Greenwood and three-year player Cullen Neal and now third-year player Elijah Brown).
Realizing his part in what has been a hesitancy on the court and a general lack of rhythm this season in several games, Neal is
doing something about it.
“For the first time in my career, I’m going to limit the menu offensively and kind of get situated on some things offensively that I know we can execute and I know we do well in,” Neal said.
“If you cut it down from 78 (plays or offensive sets) to 22, that’s a big cut. So I’m going to seriously do that because I think we have a lot of guys that are frozen, and it’s my job to figure that out and kind of release them and let them play.”
Truth be told, the offense (rated 79th out of 351 Division I teams in efficiency) hasn’t exactly been the problem as much as defense (136th of 351), but that doesn’t mean clearing player’s minds on either end of the court would hurt.
UNM’s three highest scoring games — wins against Idaho State, Houston Baptist and Cal State Northridge with point totals between 81 and 105 — were the three games with 70-plus possessions and the most transition offense for the team. Half-court offense, and setting up offensive plays and sets, has been when the Lobos bog down.
UNM (5-2) has two point guards — sophomore Jordan Hunter and freshman Jalen Harris — who have shown stretches of promising play, but also have been caught up at times trying to set up offenses with which they are still trying to get comfortable.
Helping on that front in Wednesday’s win over Abilene Christian was what Neal said was probably junior guard Brown’s best game of the season, a game in which UNM had 16 assists on 22 made baskets.
“I thought Elijah played really unselfish,” Neal said. “... I thought he was really good in attack mode. I thought he made some good cuts. But defensively, I thought it was by far his best game.”