‘No quick solution to this’ as Lobos walloped again
UNM remains winless in Mountain West as UNLV breezes to 77-54 victory
One of the worst seasons in the long and proud history of the University of New Mexico’s men’s basketball program took another step toward the abyss Saturday afternoon in a building once affectionately referred to as The Pit West.
Routed for the seventh straight time in Mountain West play, the Lobos were pounded 77-54 by UNLV in the Thomas & Mack Center in Las Vegas, Nev.
Like a broken record, the same issues that have turned this team into a giant mess again became an issue against a Runnin’ Rebels team playing just its second game in five weeks due to an extended COVID-19 layoff. Saturday’s loss extends the Lobos’ worst start in conference play with all seven losses coming by double digits.
The last three losses have been by an average of 30.3 points and UNM is averaging an anemic 54 points in its seven Mountain West games — a figure bolstered by their 74-point effort in a recent loss to Nevada, the only time they’ve surpassed the 54-point threshold.
“It’s frustrating and I get the scores, I get the losses,” said Lobos coach Paul Weir. “There’s no quick solution to this. It’s four freshmen; it’s the toughest schedule we’ve ever had here. There’s a lot of just things against them and we’ve got to find a way to keep working through it, keep trying be the best that we can be. I don’t have the magic to make this all feel better to everybody.”
The Lobos’ defense couldn’t stop UNLV’s transition game and was awful defending the 3-point shot. The Rebels made 10 shots beyond the arc and outscored the Lobos 34-16 in the paint.
“I feel like more importantly we didn’t defend well in the transition,” said UNM senior Makuach Maluach, the team’s leading scorer with 13 points.
“They got easy layups.”
He said the defense was in scramble mode. It showed as the Rebels opened the game with a 12-2 run that included UNM turnovers on two of its first three possessions due to shot clock violations.
The Lobos (4-7 overall, 0-7 in conference) never led, and after that initial burst, the game was essentially over. They did use a 10-0 run to get as close as 22-17, but that was it. The rest of the night was a coronation of everything UNLV could do right — and all the Lobos could do wrong.
The offense struggled badly, turning it over almost as many times (14) as it made shots (17) while getting another woeful effort from its combination of point guards. Starter Isaiah Marin didn’t score in nearly 17 minutes of playing time.
Backup Jeremiah Francis was 1-for-7 shooting. The pair had seven assists, but in the last half-dozen games they’ve totaled a pedestrian 22 assists compaired to 19 turnovers.
Other players have tried picking up the slack. Shooting guard Saquan Singleton said he is trying to assume a larger role in the offense and he’s starting to see himself being more assertive with the ball. He ended without a single shot attempt but got to the free throw line nine times.
“If I got the chance to go to the basket I’ll do it,” he said. “I’m not just going to force myself to the basket.”
Weir has tried to stress the role his big men should play, saying the team’s lopsided losses against the Mountain West’s premier big men at Boise State and Utah State had a negative impact on their mental approach. UNLV’s lineup was nowhere near as imposing but the Rebels still controlled the game in the paint as UNM low post threats Bayron Matos and Valdir Manuel combined for a respectable 18 points with 11 rebounds.
Getting things turned around isn’t as simple as diagramming plays, Weir said. It’s about aggression and figuring out how to convey its importance to his players.
Asked how he coaches aggressiveness, he paused for 9 seconds as he looked straight up while contemplating his answer.
“I’m working on it,” Weir said. “I think we’ve had some really good stretches of practice this fall. I thought we’ve had some really good stretches in games. I think, unfortunately, finding that aggressiveness in the midst of maybe not success on the court is our issue.”
With the season quickly getting away from them, the Lobos are staring down the barrel of a mark they haven’t hit in a generation. The program has won at least 10 games every season since the infamous Lobogate scandal of 1979-80 when the Lobos finished 6-22. Unlike this year’s team, that one had its roster stripped of several key scholarship players in the wake of a scandal that decimated the program and ended a celebrated run of nearly two decades under legendary coaches Bob King and Norm Ellenberger.
Of course, every team over the last half century had something this year’s doesn’t: The power of The Pit. Weir knows that and was hoping a visit to the ol’ Pit West would help.
It clearly didn’t.
Round two for these teams is Monday night in the Thomas & Mack Center.