We are back in PIT WEST in Las Vegas for the final MW Conference matchup between the 3 seed New Mexico Lobos (23-9) and the 2 seed SDSU Aztecs (21-10). The two teams split the two meetings this year with both teams winning close games on their home courts. SDSU was able to dominate the glass (something that isn’t normal with this team) and the foul line (they didn’t shoot well there) to get past the 7 seed CSU, the Lobos were able to impose their will against a short rotation 11 seed SJSU. This is an elimination game for the NCAA Tournament, as the team that doesn’t come away with the win will not be an at large team. The winner has a little hope if they lose the Championship Game with USU winning the first Semifinal Game tonight against the 5 seed Nevada, mean that the only “bid stealer” from the MW would be one of these two teams. The game will be starting in about 20 minutes (around 9:28 local time). I will be updating this as the game goes along, and of course will be keeping updates on Twitter and Bluesky.
Category: Men’s Basketball
Zach’s Running Blog: Lobos vs. SJSU MW Tournament Quarterfinals
The third seeded New Mexico Lobos (22-9) will finally get their week started in PIT WEST in Las Vegas, as they look to make a statement this week to get into the MW Tournament. They will be starting their week with a matchup against the 11th seeded SJSU (9-23) who is coming of a great win against sixth seeded Boise State in the last game of the Opening Round. The Lobos swept the regular season series this year, but this could be a tricky game. After watching what the Tim Miles led team did to Boise State last night, you know that his team will be ready to play.
Zach’s Running Blog: Lobos vs. UTA 11/8/25
We are back in The PIT for the second game of the season for the Lobos (1-0) as they are set to host UT Arlington (1-0). The Lobos are coming off a a 22-point win on Wednesday against East Texas A&M, as both High School Freshmen guards (Jake Hall and Uriah Tenette) scored 14 points in their College debuts. Also, of note, Tomislav Buljan grabbed 15 rebounds in his college debut. The Lobos are looking to find a complete game early in the season, they did hit 40% of their 3’s on Wednesday, but only attempted 20, which will likely be on the low end of the attempts they have this season. UTA is coming off a 51-point win over UNT Dallas an NAIA school in Dallas. We will get a better idea of how good UTA is early in this game. I will be updating this as the game goes along, as well as Twitter and Bluesky. I hope you follow along.
Zach’s Running Blog: MW Semi-final Lobos vs. Boise State 3/14/2025
We are about 30 minutes away from New Mexico Lobos (26-6) vs. Boise State Broncos (23-9). The two teams split the regular season matchups, with UNM winning the first meeting in The PIT 84-65, and Boise State winning the game in Boise 86-78. The Lobos didn’t have Mustapha Amzil and CJ Noland was a question mark heading to the game in Boise. Lobos were able to contain Alvaro Cardenas in the first matchup and limit the impact that Tyson Degenhart had in Albuquerque. Boise State was able to get a great game from Degenhart and from Freshman Pearson Carmichael. Should be an interesting game coming up in Las Vegas. Boise State is fighting to keep the NCAA hopes alive, while the Lobos are likely just deciding what jersey’s they want to wear in the first round.
Zach’s Running Blog MW QFs: UNM vs. SJSU 3/13/2025
We are about 15 minutes from the first game of the Mountain West Quarterfinals between the 1 seed New Mexico Lobos (25-6 and won the Conference with a 17-3 record) faces SJSU Spartans (15-18 and finished 8th at 7-13). The two sides split the regular season matchups with the Lobos winning in The PIT in December 83-77, and SJSU winning in The Event Center 71-70 on a putback in the closing seconds. I will be updating this as the game goes along, as well as Twitter (it’ll always be twitter to me), and Bluesky.
Zach’s running blog MW Tournament Championship: 6 Lobos vs. 5 SDSU
We have made it to Saturday for the Championship game between the 6-seed New Mexico Lobos (25-9) and the 5-seed SDSU Aztecs (24-9). This is the first Title Game for the Lobos since 2018 when they lost to SDSU. Lobos will have a sick Donovan Dent who will try to give it a go, so Jaelen House and Jamal Mashburn Jr. will be expected to carry a heavy load today. Very simple for the Lobos, win and you take all questions away before the selection show.
Zach’s running blog MW Tournament: Semifinals 6 UNM vs. 7 CSU
We are back for the third day in a row for the Semifinal match-up between the 6-seed New Mexico Lobos (24-9) and the 7-seed Colorado State Rams (24-9). The Lobos have handled both their first two games extremely well against two completely different teams in Air Force and Boise State. The game has become even more important than it looked like it would a few days ago with a lot of similar teams winning in their Conference Tournaments. Before everyone freaks out, we have no idea what the committee thinks about the teams after the top 20ish. We will be updating this as the game goes along.
Zach’s running blog MW Tournament 2024 Quarterfinals: 3 Boise State vs 6 New Mexico
We are back for the nightcap of the Mountain West Quarterfinals, in what should be a good one with the 3-seed Boise State Broncos 22-9 vs. the 6-seed New Mexico Lobos 23-9. Boise State has won the first two match-ups between the two teams this year, the Lobos are looking to change that and make it more likely for a NCAA Tournament bid for the first time since year one of the Craig Neal Era in 2014. It’s crazy to think that it has been a decade since the Lobos have played a meaningful game post-Mountain West Tournament. It is a different opponent and more talented team, but if the Lobos can play like they did on Wednesday against Air Force, it could be a fun night for the Lobo Faithful.
Zach’s running blog MW Tournament 2024: Lobos vs. AFA
We are live from media row, next to Albuquerque Journal’s beat writers for men’s and women’s basketball. Geoff Grammer and the radio guys have improved their seating from the regular season game against UNLV. I will update this blog throughout the game and do this for every game the Lobos play in the Mountain West Tournament.
Let’s talk MW Tournament Seeds
We are entering the last 5 games of the Mountain West Schedule, we have four games with potential seeding implications and one game that doesn’t matter for seeding in next week’s Mountain West Tournament in Las Vegas. Many different things can happen depending on the outcome of the different games. Let’s look at all the different scenarios that can happen on Friday and Saturday. (Editors note: We won’t touch on the Fresno State vs. Wyoming game in any scenarios since they are both locked into their seeds.)
Standing:
- Utah State 13-4
- Nevada 12-5
- UNLV 12-5
- Boise State 12-5
- SDSU 11-6
- New Mexico 10-7
- CSU 9-8
- Wyoming 7-10
- Fresno State 4-13
- AFA 2-15
- SJSU 2-16