Lobos assistant coach jailed in suspected DWI
UNM suspends Mason indefinitely
ALBUQUERQUE — No news is good news for the University of New Mexico these days.
As dawn broke Friday morning, the athletic department was again making headlines. UNM men’s basketball assistant coach Brandon Mason had been suspended by the university following an aggravated DWI arrest at a busy northeast Albuquerque intersection.
According to a criminal complaint, Mason was pulled over near Paseo del Norte and Louisiana Boulevard just past midnight. He refused a breath-alcohol test and was placed into custody. Deputies noted that Mason had shown signs of impairment and conducted a field sobriety test.
UNM released a brief statement Friday morning saying it was aware of the incident and that Mason had been suspended from coaching duties until further notice.
“When the timing is appropriate, the department will provide an update on the situation,” the statement read.
His arrest bookended a busy week in which UNM and the Mountain West Conference announced they were suspending fall sports as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. Speculation has circulated about the impact the pandemic will have on the 2020-21 college basketball season that is set to begin its preseason workouts in October.
Mason has spent the last four seasons on the Lobos’ coaching staff. It is his second stint at UNM, having served as the program’s video coordinator from 2012-14 under former head coaches Steve Alford and Craig Neal. Mason came back to the team after head coach Paul Weir was hired in 2017, taking a role as an assistant coach.
A native of Chicago, Mason was a four-year standout player at New Mexico State. Recruited to NMSU by legendary coach Lou Henson, he started 75 of the Aggies’ 89 games his final three years there.
He averaged 11.7 points and 4.2 rebounds as a junior and senior, parlaying that into a brief professional career that included a stint with the Albuquerque
Thunderbirds of what was then the NBA Development League. He helped the Thunderbirds win the D-League title in 2006 before wrapping up his playing days in Lebanon.
Mason remained close with Henson over the years, lauding the Hall of Fame coach for shaping his formative period in college by coaxing him to move across the country to attend college in Las Cruces.
“It was an honor for me to even be considered to go play for him,” Mason said shortly after Henson’s death on July 25. “Lou was a legend and it was an honor to be able to go to New Mexico State and play for him.”
Henson’s passing was followed less than a week later by the shooting death of Santa Fe High graduate J.B. White, a nationally ranked player whom Mason helped recruit to be a part of UNM’s team this coming season. Those losses, combined with a personal health issue, the COVID-19 shutdown and the departure of three players projected to have a big role on next year’s team have made for a tumultuous offseason for Mason and the UNM staff.
The school announced earlier this week that guard Zane Martin has elected not to return to the team. He joined transfers Vance Jackson (Arkansas) and Tavian Percy (Weber State) as untimely exits from an already depleted Lobo roster.
Neither Mason nor Weir were available for comment Friday.
Mason’s initial stint as the video coordinator with UNM was followed by one year at New Mexico Highlands. He followed then-Lobos assistant Craig Snow out the door when Snow was hired as NMHU’s head coach in 2014.
Mason rejoined his alma mater as an assistant to Marvin Menzies in 2015, then went with Menzies to UNLV as the director of player personnel for the Runnin’ Rebels in 2016.
His circuitous route to New Mexico brought him back to The Pit when Weir was hired at UNM in 2017.