Weir says new roster could rule front and back court
ALBUQUERQUE — The point of Tuesday’s state-of-the-program address by Lobos head coach Paul Weir was season tickets.
“They’re on sale,” the University of New Mexico men’s basketball coach said during his 38-minute give-and-take with the media in The Pit.
Just two months removed from a 19-win season that nearly produced an NCAA Tournament berth while making a late push to reinvigorate an increasingly apathetic fan base, the Lobos are already starting to make noise about the 2018-19 season. It will feature plenty of fresh faces and a 17-game home schedule that could soon include an 18th.
Weir loses seven scholarship players off last year’s team, including offseason transfers Jachai Simmons, Troy Simons, Chris McNeal and Connor MacDougall to go along with three seniors. On Tuesday, he announced the fourth recruit signed since March to replenish the roster, giving the team eight newcomers — or 10 if the two walk-ons from Albuquerque high schools are added in — who give the Lobos a dramatic makeover in the front court.
All the while, the message was tickets, tickets, tickets.
“Even if they don’t like me or they don’t like us, tell them to buy tickets and then they can come yell at us at the games,” Weir said. “We’ll take them any way we can get them.”
What the fans will see is a team that looks entirely different than the one that defied the odds and finished third in the Mountain West Conference regular season standings, then rolled into the championship game of the league tournament before fading in the final seven minutes with a trip to the big dance on the line.
Whereas that team had just two limited options in the post with 6-foot-10 true freshman Vladimir Pinchuk and 6-9 senior Joe Furstinger, it will have five players 6-8 or taller on the roster when the season starts. That includes much-hyped 6-9 transfers Vance Jackson (UConn) and Carlton Bragg (Kansas), as well as junior college transfers Karim Ezzedine and Tuesday’s signing, 6-8 Corey Manigault.
“Really excited about our roster, particularly up front with the depth and size that we have,” Weir said. “I think it’s going to allow us to play the way we want to play at both ends of the court and really impose our will on a game.”
On the job for just 13 months, Weir has nearly turned over the entire roster. Only two players on next year’s team, seniors Dane Kuiper and Anthony Mathis, were at UNM when he was introduced as the head coach on April 11, 2017.
Going into last summer he was dealing with an entire incoming freshman recruiting class that decided to go elsewhere, cobbling together a roster that featured just 10 healthy scholarship players when the season began.
This summer, he’ll have a full complement of players with all but one on campus for offseason conditioning starting next month. The lone exception is 6-2 sophomore Keith McGee, a transfer from South Plains College in Levelland, Texas. Weir said McGee needs to finish some academic requirements in Texas before coming to UNM.
Once he arrives, he’ll be penciled in as the presumed starter at point guard, a position that will be shared by Mathis and true freshman Drue Drinnon.
Weir said the team’s strong suit was its backcourt last season. Now it’s his chief concern given the strength of his lowpost brigade that gives the Lobos an entirely new identity moving forward.
“Very big team now with great size,” he said. “Mimics West Virginia a lot in that way, which is something we’ve always been trying to do.”
News has circulated recently about high-profile signings at Nevada and San Diego State, additions that make the MWC’s power programs that much better. Weir joked that Nevada’s announcement that it inked a five-star high school recruit on Monday drove him to break a six-month string without drinking a diet soda. “It was a sight to see,” Weir said. The idea of completely remaking his team in an attempt to keep up with the Nevadas of the world is something that sits well with Weir.
“We want to be one of those teams, too,” he said. “I would never want to say anything negative about last year’s team. Those kids, they fought their hearts out and I will always respect them and remember them and honor them, but the reality is we had a ceiling to last year’s team. I think we came pretty close to reaching it. Maybe it was one more game, maybe it was a little bit further. I think this year’s team has a little bit higher ceiling.”
Weir said there’s a slight chance MacDougall returns to UNM next season, although it’s a small one. The 6-9 senior has not found a school to transfer to, nor has Simons, a 6-5 guard who wants to spend his senior year closer to his home in Pittsburgh. … The addition of Manigault, a 6-8 sophomore who signed with Pitt out of high school, gives the Lobos 13 scholarship players, not including MacDougall or Simons. … Weir said UNM and Arizona State are still trying to iron out the paperwork regarding Bragg. After leaving Kansas he enrolled at Arizona State but never actually played. Once it’s settled, Bragg’s clock as a Lobo will officially begin. Weir hopes it will be done in time for the start of the season. … UNM will play St. Mary’s at the Staples Center in Los Angeles in November, one of at least five high-profile nonconference games on the schedule. The others are home games against Colorado, New Mexico State and UTEP, as well as a road game at NMSU. … UNM will again host the so-called New Mexico Classic in early November, a multi-tournament game featuring the state’s smaller schools like Highlands, Eastern New Mexico and Western New Mexico. Last year, Northern New Mexico College was part of that group although it’s unclear if the Eagles will return this time.