Despite ugly defeat, lots to like about Lobos
In September 2016, a television series called “The Good Place” debuted on NBC.
I was eager to watch the premiere, since Ted Danson, a longtime favorite of mine from his performances as Sam Malone on “Cheers,” was one of the stars. I came away giving “The Good Place” neither thumbs-up nor thumbs-down — not disliking it so much as not getting it.
So, what does any of the above have to do with Tuesday’s Boise State-New Mexico men’s basketball game at the Pit?
Full disclosure: In part, this is a ploy, cheap or otherwise, to lay in some paragraphs in advance of an 8:05 p.m. tipoff with a tight deadline on the other end. But here’s the segue: Tuesday’s final score aside, I get it. So does Lobo Nation. Monday, at his pre-game news conference, first-year UNM coach Paul Weir told the news media he didn’t feel the Lobos were in a good place when they played the Broncos in Boise on Jan. 3.
This was sort of like saying the Washington
Generals weren’t in a good place for any of their thousands of lopsided losses against the Harlem Globetrotters.
Boise State blasted the identity-challenged Lobos that night, 90-62. The Lobos left Taco Bell Arena with a 6-10 record, 1-2 in Mountain West play, and a bad taste in their mouths that had nothing to do with naming rights.
Entering Tuesday’s rematch, though, things had gotten better: six wins in eight games, third place in the MWC. Through as many lineup changes as “The Good Place” has had plot twists, progress kept getting made. So, yes, a good place. But how good? Not quite good enough, it turned out. Boise State, trailing by 11 points at halftime and by as many as 13 in the second half, rallied to take a 73-71 victory at Dreamstyle Arena — the Pit.
The Lobos couldn’t keep the Broncos off the offensive boards, and key turnovers hurt.
An exciting game was marred by some ugliness between the teams at the buzzer.
Weir was unforgiving about his players’ part in the postgame eruption and only a bit less so about his team’s secondhalf performance.
“That’s really not how a game like this should end,” he said of the melee.
“Just a really bad half of offensive basketball,” he said of, well, the bad half.
Nonetheless, what Weir brings is working. That hasn’t changed as a result.
Fuller disclosure: Because of other responsibilities, Tuesday was my first visit to Dreamstyle Arena this season. I’d seen the 2017-18 Lobos only on television.
It took the Broncos only the first few minutes to realize this would be no repeat of their cakewalk in Boise — and me only that long to see why the Pit is once again a good place for the Faithful.
The Lobos’ manic effort at both ends of the court extended well into the second half.
If I didn’t know better, I might think you actually can coach effort.
The Lobos’ downfall, principally, was their inability to deal with the Broncos’ burly duo of Chris Sengfelder and Zach Haney in the paint. Boise State star Chandler Hutchison, an NBA player in waiting, got his: 23 points and 12 rebounds.
Weir is still missing some parts. The Lobos (12-13, 7-5 Mountain West) are not quite ready for prime time.
Yet, evidence they’ll get there, and soon, abounds. Weir’s Lobos, with Ohio State transfer JaQuan Lyle, UConn transfer Vance Jackson and Kansas transfer Carlton Bragg sitting behind the bench, have an enticing future.
Oh, about “The Good Place:” It has become one of NBC’s biggest hits. People like it, and they get it.
And Lobo Nation, as disappointed as Tuesday’s outcome might have been, is liking it and getting it.