Already noted: Lobo bigs must come up bigger
UNM had difficulties inside in opening victory
The win was the key. Five players scoring in double figures in their first games as Lobos was a great introduction for the home fans.
And the large number of points the University of New Mexico men’s basketball team scored in Wednesday’s seasonopening 99-92 win over Florida Atlantic was nice, especially as the Pit began to wake up during a second-half surge that saw the Lobos lead by as many as 16 points in the closing minutes.
But for all the great offensive highlights in the debut game of the coach Richard Pitino era at UNM, one glaring deficiency was hard to ignore.
The Lobos did not defend very well, particularly in the front court, where the visiting Owls had their way against the Lobo big men. Florida Atlantic outscored UNM in the paint and on second-chance points thanks to a 42-25 rebounding advantage.
It’s an obvious hole New Mexico can expect the Colorado Buffaloes, Saturday afternoon’s opponent in Boulder, and opponents all season to try to exploit.
“That is a weakness, and it’s not just that we’re small on the perimeter,” Pitino said. “We got to be tougher. We got to be more physical. But that was a great eyeopener, because they manhandled us. They did.”
The three guys who played the “5” for the Lobos — Birima Seck (6-foot-11), Gethro Muscadin (6-10) and Sebastian Forsling (7-0) — combined to commit 10 fouls in 36 minutes. They also grabbed just a combined five rebounds.
While both teams shot 23 free throws — a stat some would look to and offer up as evidence of a rather balanced game in terms of the fouls being called — Lobo point guard Jaelen House’s amazing debut game of 30 points scored and six assists included his drawing 12 of the 24 fouls called on FAU — and he did so in more than 37 minutes. UNM’s three bigs nearly matched that with their 10 fouls, and they played fewer combined minutes
than did House.
Seck, the freshman who got the start in his first college game, picked up two fouls in the first three FAU possessions and was sitting on the bench just 1 minute, 26 seconds into the game. He ended with three fouls and two rebounds in 9:35 of floor time.
The foul trouble forced Forsling, the freshman from Sweden who didn’t arrive in the country until August, into some action before Pitino may have otherwise been ready to play him. He ended up committing two fouls and grabbing one board in 3:51 of spot duty.
Muscadin, the likely starter in the post, missed more than a week of practice time heading into last week due first to discipline, then travel issues trying to get back from a trip to Texas. He fouled out in 22 minutes on the floor. He displayed some brilliant offensive potential (18 points) and did have a pair of blocked shots. But on the defensive end of the court overall, he suffered the same fate as his fellow bigs: They couldn’t guard FAU’s front court without fouling and couldn’t keep them off the boards, allowing 17 offensive rebounds. FAU had an offensive rebound rate of 48.6% — a figure that would have easily led the nation a season ago (only one of 347 Division I teams in 2020-21 had a season-long average better than 40% last season).
“We made some talented offensive plays in the second half,” Pitino said, “but you can’t win on the road when you don’t rebound the ball. But it’s everybody. It’s a physicality that (Florida Atlantic) had over us, for sure.”
But Pitino emphasized that while the obvious attention to the three bigs is fair, the way the Lobos lost the battle of the boards on Wednesday was a group failing.
“I think it’s the bigs. I think it’s the guards. I mean, when you’re looking at guards who have one rebound, two rebounds — it’s everybody. I don’t think it was just one guy,” Pitino said.
In Colorado’s overtime win Tuesday night over Montana State, the Lobos’ Nov. 20 opponent in the Pit, the Buffaloes had a rebound advantage of plus-9. In an Oct. 31 exhibition game against the Big Ten’s Nebraska, CU, a 17-point favorite over UNM, held a plus-10 rebound advantage and scored 19 secondchance points in a game they scored just 67 overall.