Making strides
The Lobos have been playing better lately despite missing a couple of key players
Troy Simons practiced Monday. Sam Logwood did not.
When either actually returns to the Lobos’ lineup after a threegame hiatus remains undecided, said University of New Mexico coach Paul Weir. However, neither is expected back for Wednesday’s game at UNLV.
And, while Weir won’t say it — though his continued praise of “the eight guys playing right now” over the past 10 days or so seems to hint at it — the reality is that the Lobos (8-11, 3-3 Mountain West) have been a better team statistically without them. That makes taking time to work on whatever non-basketball issues those players might be going through that much easier.
While Weir says the term “suspension” for Simons seems “too harsh,” he didn’t offer a more suitable alternative. Weir continues to hold the junior shooting guard out while he works
through some on-court anger issues after he was suspended by the Mountain West for the Jan. 6 vs. San Jose State. That was the result of being ejected from games twice over UNM’s first 16 games.
“Troy is a tremendous teammate,” Weir said. “His teammates are all very supportive of him. Love having him in the locker room and love having him on their team and I feel that way. Troy just has some moments where his anger gets the best of him. It’s happened in practice. It’s happened in some games. It’s happened at some inopportune moments.”
As for Logwood, who earlier this season missed a game to work through some “personal issues” off the court so they did not hurt the team, he technically missed the past three games with a left shoulder injury.
But Weir said the return of Simons and Logwood is something he’s talked about a few times with the rest of the team to see how they feel it would affect the team’s current energy and continuity.
“I’ve met with them quite frequently about how do they feel about these guys coming back to the team,” Weir said. “... They’ve earned that right.”
The reality is, the style UNM plays likely can’t be sustained with just eight players. But if non-basketball issues might be affecting on-court production, Weir hopes now is the time to figure those things out while the other eight players are performing well.
Of the 11 Lobos who have played this season (10 on scholarship, one walk-on), only Simons and Logwood have negative plus/minus figures, a statistic showing the what happens to the score during the time a player is on the court.
In Simons’ 21.2 minutes per game, opponents have outscored UNM by nine points, giving Simons a plus-minus figure of minus-0.56 points per game or minus-1.05 points per 40 minutes.
In Logwood’s 24.7 minutes per game, opponents have outscored UNM by 24 points, giving Logwood a plus-minus figure of minus-1.60 points per game or minus-2.54 points per 40 minutes.
“It’s really hard to kind of pick on certain guys or say that other guys are better or not,” said Weir. “The reality is, numbers wise, Sam and Troy were our lowest plus-minus ... As a team, even to this day, the plus-minus is what it is. Now, it’s a small sample size. Things can change over the course of a season, but that argument holds water from just a pure analytical standpoint.”
That doesn’t mean Weir and the Lobos don’t want the two players back.
“I don’t sit here and say that Sam Logwood isn’t a very good player or Troy isn’t a very good player (or) they can’t potentially help us,” Weir said. “But maybe given how things were going, or where things were at mentally, maybe they weren’t helping us to the degree that everyone would hope for at that point.”
In the meantime, Weir emphasized that the program is doing what it can to be successful now, not merely sending messages to build for the future.
“With these eight, I want to win basketball games,” Weir said. “... What can these (eight) guys handle? Do we get a ninth guy back or not? Do we get a 10th guy back or not? How does that impact this whole thing?”
MINUTES FOR MIKE: At the other end of that plus/ minus chart for Lobo scholarship players is Makuach Maluach (17.5 minutes per game), who has a plus-9.87 points per 40 minutes figure. Joe Furstinger (25.7 minutes per game) is second at plus-7.90.
Walk-on Mike Mondragon, who has played 4 minutes, 32 seconds this season, has a per-40 minute average of plus-17.65 points.