Lobo guards impress rival coach
5-1 New Mexico gets ready to face Auburn
A year ago, two New Mexico State guards — A.J. Harris (31 points) and Terrell Brown (20) — combined for 51 points in the Aggies’ first win against New Mexico, and senior guard JoJo Zamora scored 27, including going 6-for-6 from 3-point range.
This year, in Thursday’s 78-77 win in Las Cruces for UNM (5-1), there was, for a night, a changing of the guard, or guard play, so to speak.
“It was more about the ability to score,” NMSU coach Chris Jans said of UNM’s new-look guard rotation of primarily JaQuan Lyle, J.J. Caldwell and Zane Martin.
“I thought that was the ability to score. I thought that was the biggest difference out front for them.”
Senior Lobo guard JaQuan Lyle scored a game-high 24 points while J.J. Caldwell’s nine points and seven assists were only part of his successful night. Both give the Lobos playmaking from the primary ball handler they didn’t have a season ago, something Jans believes Martin also will be able to do most games for UNM.
“JaQuan Lyle is going to be a problem for most teams he plays all year long,” Jans said. “He’s got a brilliant skill set. He’s got experience, size. And the thing about him is his feel. He’s just so comfortable on the floor, no matter if he’s on the ball, off the ball, up front, in the paint. He’s a load. He’s a challenge.
“Caldwell brings a whole other element to the game with his speed and his quickness and his ability to just eat paint. He doesn’t shoot the ball — he doesn’t really look to shoot the ball — but he’s very effective even though he doesn’t shoot the ball. And, certainly, Zane Martin didn’t do a lot tonight, but he’s very, very capable. They’ve got a lot of good players.”
MUST WIN: Fans and media love the “must win” question. And while November rarely brings a mustwin scenario for college basketball, Thursday seemed to have that feel for the Lobos.
But you wouldn’t know it by asking UNM head coach Paul Weir.
“I don’t know,” Weir said. “I’ll probably be able to answer that in March. You know, along the way, everyone always says, ‘Hey, was this the turning point? Was this, this? Was this that?’ You don’t really know until the next one. We beat Nevada last year (when the Wolf Pack was undefeated) and turned around and lost to UNLV three days later.
“You hope it does, but unfortunately, we’re only gonna be as good as our next one. We have to get ready for (Monday vs. No. 19) Auburn. We have to go to New York on another road trip and go out and compete as best we can.”
TIMEOUT: Weir has said his general thought on late-game timeouts is to let players play and trust his players to make a play rather than over-coach them at every turn.
It hasn’t sat well with some fans, but he’s not alone in the general idea.
Jans was asked by a reporter Thursday why he didn’t call a timeout when Caldwell missed a free throw with 4 seconds left, leaving NMSU to rebound, advance full court and get
a shot off.
“Yeah, my philosophy on that is I’d much rather play against a broken court, you know, on a missed free,” said Jans.
“They aren’t matched. They can’t set the defense. I’ll have to look on the video, but Terrell (Brown) got it, normally he’s got good speed and he just couldn’t take the edge on that defender, and (Caldwell) kind of got up in him and he eventually gave it up. That hurt us in a chance to get a better look ... we just couldn’t clear that the first defender.
“Certainly in hindsight, we can talk about that. Should’ve, could’ve, would’ve, but we’ve been very successful in those situations in the past when it’s a missed free throw and again they’re not set — they can’t jump in some sort of 2-2-1 zone or a soft press and they’re not really matched up. Obviously it didn’t work out for us this time.”
BEEN AWHILE: After Thursday’s game in Las Cruces, New Mexico bumped up in KenPom.com’s rankings to No. 89 while NMSU dropped to 93.
It is the first time UNM has been rated higher than New Mexico State in KenPom since Dec. 17, 2016.
That was when UNM was 115 and NMSU, coached then by Paul Weir, moved from 121 to 111 after a win at Arizona State.