Five Lobos are within range of 1,000 points
Work at other schools help most get near the mark
The New Mexico Lobos are off to one of the program’s better starts in the 21-year history of the Mountain West.
In fact, only two Lobo teams in the MWC era — the 2012-13 and 2009-10 teams that each started with 12-1 records — had better records through 13 games than Paul Weir’s Lobos, who are 11-2 overall and 2-0 in MWC play.
But as solid a start as the Lobos are off to (five other Lobo teams started 11-2 as well in the MWC era), there are individual milestones on the horizon as well.
Five current Lobos are within striking distance this season of reaching the 1,000-point scoring plateau for their Division I college basketball careers — though just one, Makuach Maluach — has done so entirely in a Lobos uniform.
UNM has 34 members of the 1,000-point club for players who scored at least that many playing for the Lobos. The most recent addition is Elijah Brown, who scored 1,969 points in his college career with Butler, UNM and Oregon. Of that total, 1,276 points came in the two seasons (2015-16 and 2016-17) he suited up for Craig Neal and New Mexico.
As for the current Lobos, two are within 80 points of the milestone, including Ohio
State transfer JaQuan Lyle. He could achieve the feat as soon as Sunday’s game against Houston Baptist, the team’s final game before the holidays.
Lyle has scored 975 points in his college career — 743 in two seasons at Ohio State and 232 so far at UNM. While his current scoring average of 17.8 points per game this season would suggest he might not get there until the team’s Dec. 29 home game against UC-Davis, Lyle has had two 31 point games this season, so with him, he could get to 1,000 points by Christmas.
Not far behind Lyle in career points is junior guard Zane Martin, who has 923 career D-I points — 815 at Towson and 108 this season for UNM.
UNM has a minimum of 19 more games this season (18 more regular season games and at least one Mountain West Tournament game, not counting any other potential postseason tournament games). At Martin’s current scoring average of 8.3 points, he would reach 1,000 points for his career in nine to 10 games.
Quietly, Lobo junior wing Makuach Maluach has already accumulated 766 career points, all at UNM. He would need to average 12.3 points over 19 games (assuming the Lobos don’t play any other postseason games) to get to 1,000 points this season. He is averaging 9.5 points per game this season.
Transfers Vance Jackson (also at 766 points scored with 234 remaining to 1,000) and Carlton Bragg (734 points scored with 266 remaining) will have a harder time getting there this season.
Jackson could if he returned to last season’s scoring average of 13.1 ppg.
Bragg has been on a tear of late, averaging 17.8 points and 13.8 rebounds through five games in December. But his season average of 13.5 ppg would leave him a few points shy of 1,000 for his career, which started at Kansas, if UNM plays just 20 additional games this season.
NET GAINS: It’s still too early for these to matter too much, but good news is good news. And the Mountain West on Wednesday got a little bit of good news in the form of the new NCAA-based NET (NCAA Evaluation Tool) rankings. For men’s basketball, they replace the RPI and are the new primary ratings system used for sorting out teams by the NCAA Selection Committee.
No. 20 San Diego State (10-0) on Wednesday moved up to No. 1 in the new NET rankings, an interesting rise considering the Aztecs hadn’t played a game between its needing a 3-pointer at the buzzer to beat San Jose State at home on Dec. 8 and Wednesday night’s game against non-D-I San Diego Christian. (Non D-I games don’t count toward the NET rankings.)
As for the Lobos, they’re enjoying some upward trajectory, too. UNM on Wednesday ranked No. 49 in the NET, the second best in the Mountain West, passing Utah State (51). Boise State (99) is the only other league team in the Top 100.
NMSU is at 100 in the NET, and UTEP is at 60.