Back to reality for Lobos at SDSU
UNM faces tough matchup on road
One win against San Jose State does not a rebuild complete.
Nobody in the Lobo locker room believes that.
So, as relieved as the UNM players, and their fans, were to get a victory in the Pit on Friday to end the excruciating sevengame skid to open Mountain West play, the weekend after the win wasn’t much different than the weeks prior to it.
“It’s the same process. It really is,” Lobos coach Richard Pitino said. “As I’ve said a million times, we’re rebuilding. And going to play at San Diego State is a huge challenge. … I’m just not a big too high, too low guy. I’m gonna give the same approach every single day.”
Just in case it was needed, Monday’s road game in Viejas Arena against a San Diego State team coming off an 18-point loss should pretty much provide the short-handed Lobos a pretty quick reminder that the massive rebuild their coach has been talking about is still very much a work in progress.
Sure, the Lobos (8-13, 1-7 Mountain West) have been playing well of late despite the outcomes suggesting otherwise, and they are coming off the type of feelgood win that checked several boxes that have been points of emphasis lately, like better ball movement, getting multiple players involved in the scoring and improved rebounding.
Well, the Lobos did have five players score in double figures against SJSU, dished out a season-high 21 assists and point guard Jaelen House had 18 points, seven rebounds and his 13 assists were the most by a Mountain West player this season.
As for the rebounding, the Lobos plus-15 rebounding margin (38-23) was a season best and even brought out some clapping from House in the postgame press conference when he noticed it on the stat sheet.
“We did them how other teams do us,” House said. “We got to keep trying to do that — attack the glass.”
But here’s the problem the Lobos face now.
San Diego State (11-5, 3-2 MWC) is still San Diego State.
That means a team with good size that plays elite defense
(SDSU ranks fourth in the country in defensive efficiency out of 358 D-I programs) that can cut the court in half and make it hard to move the ball and they remain an elite rebounding team.
So, pretty much all the things that have been problems for the Lobos are strengths of the Aztecs.
Which Jamal Mashburn Jr. says only helps the team keep focused on the long road ahead. “I think it puts a little bit more weight on for us to just keep going, just to keep this rolling,” Mashburn said when asked if last week’s win was a weight off the team’s shoulders.
“We’re in the right direction right now. We got to clean up some stuff on the defensive end, but, overall, we’re in the right direction. So we just got to keep moving forward.”
CLIMBING THE MOUNTAIN:
As of Sunday evening, 10% of the NCAA’s NET Top 50 was filled by Mountain
West teams:
■ 32 Boise State ■ 35 Wyoming ■ 36 Colorado State ■ 49 Utah State ■ 50 San Diego State
The league is flirting not just with multiple NCAA Tournament teams, but there are five with a solid case to be made for the Big Dance as January is coming to a close based on their computer ratings.
And the league overall is enjoying its best season since 2013 when it sent five teams to the NCAA Tournament.
Those positives about the league aren’t lost on Pitino, who has joked he picked a hell of a year to take on a rebuild in this league.
“It’s hard for teams like us and San Jose State, who are two of the youngest teams in the league and two teams going through a rebuild,” Pitino said. “You’re playing some programs that are terrific. And there’s no easy nights. No easy nights.
“There’s four or five teams that will play in the postseason. Will they play in the NCAA Tournament? I don’t know. We’ll see in February, but they’re going to either be NCAA or maybe NIT.”
AS FOR UNM: UNM finished the 2020-21 season with an NET of 303 and was at 154 on Sunday night.
It started the season ranked 287 in the KenPom. com rankings and, like the NET, is now at 154.
“It’s not where we need to be,” Pitino said, “but there’s drastic improvement. There really is . ... As boring as it sounds, it is about the process.”