The Lobos (7-4) return to action tonight, kicking off Mountain West Conference play by facing Nevada (1-10) in Reno. The Lobos look to regroup after a tough third quarter against NMSU that cost them the game against the Aggies. The Lobos finished out their non-conference slate with a solid 7-4 record with no bad losses and a great road win against Minnesota. The Lobos will look to build off last year’s 2nd place finish in both the conference regular season and tournament, with the ultimate goal to make the NCAA Tournament. The Lobos look to get off to a great start against a struggling Nevada Wolf Pack team. If the Lobos want to win the regular season title, the Lobos need to sweep the weaker teams in the conference and the Wolf Pack fit that bill.
Category: Lobo Basketball
Men’s Basketball: Players of the Game Update
The Lobo men’s basketball team wrapped up its non-conference schedule last week (I guess that’s a nice way to describe last week), giving us a chance to take a step back and see how things have gone so far for the players by looking at our Players of the Game awards, which also gives us an idea of where the team stands. The team has mostly been carried on the backs of a couple of transfers, for good and bad, but there is still a lot of talent on the team that makes us think that this team can get back to being who we thought they were two weeks ago.
Mountain West Men’s Basketball Reset
After an up and down (mostly down) non-conference season for the Mountain West teams, it’s finally time for the teams to start playing each other. Conference play starts on Wednesday and this year seems even more up in the air now than it did before the season started. So with that, we thought that it would be worthwhile to check back in with the conference and reset our expectations for how the season will play out.
Men’s Basketball Stats Glossary
(This page is a summary and description of the statistics used in our men’s basketball posts.)
Men’s Basketball vs. BYU Recap
The Lobos lucked out when a couple of other favorites in the Diamond Head Classic lost their first round matchups as well, which meant that they potentially still had the opportunity to collect a couple of quality wins. They got their first shot against BYU on Wednesday morning. It did not go well.
Women’s Basketball vs. NMSU (Game 2) Recap
The third quarter was not kind to the Lobos (7-4), in their Sunday afternoon game against NMSU. The Lobos managed to only score 3 points in the quarter with no field goals and saw their seven-point halftime lead turn into an eight-point deficit by the end of the quarter. The Lobos played great in the first quarter, where they jumped out to a 17-6 lead, and it appeared the Lobos were building off the Minnesota game. However, the Lobos went ice cold for the rest of the game, scoring only 30 points over the final three quarters, and went on to lose the game 52-47. After all the starters played great in the Minnesota game, they struggled to get going, as the starting back court combined for 12 points (on 4-24 shooting), 11 rebounds, 5 assists, and 16 turnovers. Hopefully, this game was just a blip on the radar and the Lobo backcourt will be able to lead the Lobos to a conference championship. One thing that I am sure Coach Sanchez pointed out to her team is that Khadijah Shumpert only had 4 shot attempts, which is far too few for her to really get going. If the Lobos want to be the team they have the potential to be, Shumpert, Beynon, Owens and Nunn have to be very productive. In this game Nunn and Shumpert both played well, but only had 9 field goal attempts between the two of them.
Men’s Basketball vs. Auburn Recap and BYU Preview
The Lobos’ first round game of the Diamond Head Classic against Auburn was a game of runs. This was due in large part to the sheer number of turnovers in the game, 39 total, and the three point shooting by both teams, 20 made threes. Combined, this meant that there would be multiple runs of 6 or more point swings. There were many times it looked like one of the teams would run away with the game, only to have the other team make a similar run and take the lead back. In the end for the Lobos, there were too many turnovers and too much Canty, ultimately falling to Auburn 82-78. This sends the Lobos to the loser’s bracket to face BYU tomorrow at 12:30 MT.
Men’s Basketball vs. Auburn Preview
After a disappointing loss, to say the least, to Rice at home on Saturday, the Lobos now turn their attention to their holiday tournament: The Diamond Head Classic in Honolulu, Hawaii. Their first opponent is Auburn, a team that they’ll need to get past if they want a chance at the other good teams in the tournament.
Men’s Basketball vs. Rice Recap
So that happened. Fresh off of convincing wins against Northern Iowa (who just beat #5 Iowa State) and NMSU, the Lobos welcomed in a struggling Rice team with full expectations of a blowout. Instead, the Lobos allowed the Owls to storm back from a late 16-point deficit to win on a technical free throw with 0.1 seconds remaining. The Lobos now need to regroup, as they’ll have a lot of work to do to recover from this one.
Men’s Basketball vs. Rice Preview
With a sweep of NMSU now under their belt and having gained a little momentum, the Lobos now turn their attention to their final tune-up before their holiday tournament in Hawaii. That tune-up comes in the form of the Rice Owls, which would make this an interesting matchup if this were baseball, but alas, they’re playing basketball tonight.