Is UNM’s logo in serious need of a facelift?
Lobos’ 2024-25 lineup, conference alignment, fry sauce in discussion
Monday’s National Championship game brought an end to the 2023-24 college basketball season.
To kick off the official start of the offseason, even if in these parts the season ended a couple of weeks ago in Memphis, we thought it’d be a good opportunity for a reader mailbag.
Journal staff writer Geoff Grammer solicited questions on X (@GeoffGrammer). A few of those questions appear here:
Q: Do you think this starting lineup will materialize (next season)? Dent, Washington, Amzil, Junior Joseph, Toppin — @morelobo GG: Yes. I think Amzil and Washington will both be sharing minutes with a big guard/wing type player the Lobos land in the transfer portal and I think Toppin and Junior Joseph will both share minutes with a big man from the portal who can play both roles.
But, as crazy as it sounds in the modern transfer portal world, I think there is a fairly decent chance (not 100%, of course) that the UNM Lobos come November will have a have a starting lineup of five returning players.
And if they do (meaning they don’t lose any of those five in the portal), UNM is a lock to be a top three team in the Mountain West next season.
Q: Do you think we will get a new UNM sports logo anytime soon? The shield just doesn’t hit the same as previous logos. — @Rolls_Roiz29
GG: No. The current forward-facing shield is here to stay for a while.
There was a tweak of the logo recently aimed at simplifying it and taking out some of the small white highlights in the silver Lobo forehead of the shield. But that was a move more for making it easier to reproduce and stitch on clothing than one most fans probably even noticed.
Fans always seem to want a new or
different logo, but at UNM, a place that still far too often gets the old #UNMSU mixup going on with national media, sticking to one logo is important. It’s branding 101. You can’t keep changing logos, colors and messaging and expect anyone to recognize you.
UNM did too much changing of its logo over the past decade or so.
Unless it’s that horrible version of UNLV’s logo a few years ago or the short-lived “Lasso Larry” version of Pistol Pete that NMSU rolled out about 20 years ago now, you need to stick with some branding for a while so people start actually recognizing it as your logo.
There are still secondary logos UNM Athletics might use, like the side-facing Lobo and some script “Lobos” logos, but the forward-facing shield is around to stay for a while as the primary one.
Q: Does the MWC end up in reserve merger with PAC 2 or do you think in two years from now they will have to backfill the losses? — @BlakeKrek
GG: I don’t know what it will be called, but my guess — and I wish I could tell you it was anything more than a guess at this point — is that in two years, there will be one large conference out West with all 11 current full-time Mountain West schools, Oregon State and Washington State and probably a couple of others to make it 16.
It won’t be whatever we think of as a Power Conference right now, but could position itself as the top one or two “other” conferences outside of whatever becomes the new “power conference” hierarchy in the next two years. We won’t really know that until current lawsuits by a couple of ACC members get resolved to see if they, too, can bolt to join the SEC, Big Ten or Big 12.
Long story short: There may be a new power structure of 2-3 rather large leagues in a couple of years, and the Mountain West/Pac-2 league won’t be in it. But it can be a top “other” if it handles the next few years properly, and that could be lucrative with media rights networks still needing a lot of west coast/late-night TV inventory to broadcast.
Do you think the Wilson ball was a factor in the ncaa tourney for UNM, being a Nike school? — @AZLobo480
GG: Yes. Did it rise to a reason-they-lost sort of factor? No. But enough players in the tournament said the Wilson balls were uncomfortable and problematic that I believe them.
It probably had something to do with the poor shooting, but not as much as Clemson had to do with it.
Q: Favorite Tony Snell memory from UNM? — @TheSnellyCat
GG: Three answers here (sorry, my rules!)
First, my favorite Tony Snell memory is now the one about him coming out publicly about being diagnosed with autism at the age of 31. Brave, courageous and with the potential of helping a lot of people by doing so.
Second, my favorite on-the-court memory was the 2013 Mountain West Tournament — one I knew NBA scouts were at and watching him (and UNLV’s Anthony Bennett) closely.
What did he do on that stage? Ran off about 5,000 screens in three wins that week, knocking down jumper after jumper, winning the MW Tournament MVP award and showing an NBA skill set that not only made him a first-round draft pick later that year, but gave him a decade-long NBA career.
Third, off the court, for some reason I still remember his mom, Sherika Brown, holding her “Tony Snell, The Silent Assassin” sign at games. Loved that bond between mom and son.
Why is fry sauce so popular in Utah, but nonexistent everywhere else? — @ FakeCoachMumme
GG: Shocker, but I’m not opposed to a good fry sauce, but the best ones have some New Mexico flair to them (that means green chile).
As for Utah’s fondness of what is often just a glorified Thousand Island sauce, I have no idea if what you’re saying is even true, but oddly sort of hope that it is.
Q: What do you think the chances are the MWC tournament relocates to T Mobile? — @ chrisosa32
GG: It’s very likely that the 2025 Mountain West Tournament will be in the Thomas & Mack Center.
But after that, I don’t know where it will be, other than to say the league is not leaving las Vegas.
While the Thomas & Mack is a very affordable option for the MW, and has always been a great place for a tournament in my mind, there is a growing consensus within the league, especially as it tries to position itself as a force out west, that the appearance of a league tournament at a school site is small time.
The Big Ten may look at T-Mobile for its tournament, so I’m not sure that T-Mobile will be the future home for the Mountain West, but I do think thousands of SDSU, UNM and Utah State fans will probably be flocking elsewhere (but still around the strip) in 2026.