Competition heats up for Lobo all-star game
Past stars reminisce, get intense on court
Roman Martinez’s face never cracked a smile.
Asked Saturday for a prediction for Sunday night’s 3-point contest that will be a part of the “Enchantment” alumni all-star basketball game in the Pit, the 33-year-old former UNM star fired back with a deadpan stare and the same sort of confidence he and his 30-win 2009-2010 Lobos carried on the
court most nights.
“You mean who’s going to finish second?” Martinez asked.
Moments later, the Lobo fan favorite who had three seasons of better than 41% 3-point shooting in the cherry and silver admitted his money is on Chad Toppert, a former Martinez teammate who is also No. 2 all-time in Lobo history with 266 3-pointers in his UNM career.
The two are among the 20 former Lobos participating in Sunday night’s alumni all-star game that is one part trip down memory lane for players and fans of the UNM men’s basketball program and one part preparation for “The Enchantment,” the name of the team playing in the July 16-Aug. 3, $1 million winner-take-all TBT (The Basketball Tournament) event.
Saturday was the first time most of the players on the TBT team began their week-long training camp in Albuquerque and began to play along
side one another. One player, Drew Gordon, did not arrive until Saturday night.
Once on the court, the friendly family reunion vibes were quickly wiped clear, even requiring the occasional pulling apart of heated players (Darington Hobson and Anthony Mathis, in one case).
“It’s good to see guys fired up like this — chirping back and forth. It’s all good,” said Tim Williams, who played two seasons for the Lobos from 2015-2017.
Head coach Kenny Thomas, the former Lobo great and NBA player who is coaching the Lobos in TBT, enjoyed seeing his roster play together for the first time.
“I love the vibe. There’s a lot of chemistry. A lot of these guys know each other, which is key,” Thomas said. “... It’s really going to come down to who’s going to hold each other accountable. I can only do so much, and me being who I am (having played in a different era at UNM than all other players on the roster), you never know how that’s going to be received.”
FORMAT TWEAKS: Sunday’s game will have several tweaks to prepare for format changes used in TBT, such as fewer timeouts and the Elam Ending — a format described on the TBT website this way:
“Designed to preserve a more natural end of game finish, the Elam Ending calls for the game clock to be shut off at the first dead ball under four minutes in the fourth quarter or second half. A target score is then established by adding eight points to the leading team’s score. For example, if the score is 80-72, the two teams will play until someone reaches 88. With no game clock in play, trailing teams are allowed to focus on getting stops and buckets, rather than intentionally fouling.”
The format also ensures every game ends on a game-winning basket, never just as time expires.
3-POINT CONTEST: Mathis has been invited to participate in the TBT’s 3-point contest in Wichita for $33,333. Like the Elam Ending, the TBT 3-point contest has a twist that Sunday’s all-star game, and Mike “Papa” Brown 3-point contest will implement. Each participant has one rebounder, and two shooters compete at the same time with the winner being the first to 11 made 3-pointers from any spot on the court. There are no ball racks on the court.
The field for Sunday’s “Papa” Brown
3-point contest includes: Mathis, Martinez, Toppert (who played for the late Mike Brown at Albuquerque Academy), Elijah Brown, Antino Jackson and Phillip
McDonald. The field for the Miranda Sanchez dunk contest, named in honor of the late Lobo women’s player hasn’t been finalized, but will also take place at halftime.