At noon today, the Mountain West announced the conference schedule for the 2018-2019 season. While there are some conferences where the schedule doesn’t matter too much because of the round-robin system they employ, the MW has a conference slate that influence who wins the conference, or even who gets first-round byes in the MW Conference Tournament. Last season, it is impossible to deny that they Lobos benefitted greatly from the schedule, as they didn’t have to travel to San Diego and didn’t have to face Nevada at home. While there could be a debate on how much impact it had on their final standing, but there was an impact. With the Conference at 11 teams and an 18 game schedule, each team will play eight teams twice (home and road) and two teams once (one home, one road). For conference standing’s sake, you want to have your bye games to be games that you could lose, and don’t want games taken away that you should win. Also within the schedule, there will be periods of rough patches, which we will look at where these could pop-up for each team.
Category: Lobo Basketball
Men’s Basketball: 2018-2019 Roster Breakdown
As we hit the first full offseason of the Paul Weir Era of Lobo Men’s Basketball, wee see that a lot has changed in the last 13+ months. Just about everything from last March, from the general perception of the program to the roster makeup. Going into next season, there are only two players on the roster, Seniors Dane Kuiper and Anthony Mathis, that were recruited and played for Craig Neal. Mathis, for his part, was almost gone too, but thankfully ended up staying and playing a huge part in the 2017-2018 season. It is absolutely incredible that Weir has been able to turn the roster over in such a short period of time and end up with a team expected to be at the top of the Mountain West.
MW Tournament Quarterfinal: UNM Lobos vs. WYO Cowgirls
Every Lobo game during the Mountain West Tournament I will be adding thoughts throughout/after the game in a blog post. This will be the first of this experiment, which should be fun to do. Let’s have fun.
Lobos have hit two threes already tonight, one by Flye and another by Bryan. If you read my preview I said the Lobos need to hit 10+ threes tonight.
There is a good sized crowd tonight for both Wyoming and New Mexico, should be a fun atmosphere all night.
3:06 1Q: Lobos 10 Wyoming 8. The pace so far tonight is in between what the Lobos and Cowgirls want, no decided advantage right now. The Lobos need to find Beynon and Nunn in the offense
There is The Microwave heating up with a 3. Madi Washington will be huge in this game.
Playing Nunn and AT together this game could be a game changer.
End of the first: Lobos 13 Wyoming 10. The first quarter was played at Wyoming pace but the Lobos end the quarter with a 3 point advantage.
Washington and AF are already putting their fingerprints on this game, and are trying to make me look smart.
Nunn starting to dominate the offensive glass, she has 6 points and 6 rebounds already tonight.
AT with another blocked shot, she is playing so well on defense.
4:12 2Q: Lobos 22 Wyoming 16. Nunn will have a 2 Free Throws after the media timeout, looking for her 7 and 8th point of the night to go along with 7 rebounds.
AT now has 5 points, 2 rebounds, 4 blocked shots. Thanks for making me look smart.
After playing at Wyoming’s pace in the first quarter the Lobos have been able to turn up the speed of the game with their defense and have outscored Wyoming 20-6 in the quarter.
This lead has been built with the Lobos defense.
Halftime: Lobos 33 Wyoming 18. Lobos were led by their defense and got 11 points and 8 rebounds from Nunn, 6 points from Washington and AT had a big first half with 5 points, 2 rebounds, and 4 blocked shots. To build a 15 point lead at the half against this Wyoming team is very impressive.
Lobos did a great job of limiting MW Player of the Year Liv Roberts impact, holding her to 4 points, 1 rebound, and 1 assists in the first half.
7:16 3Q: Lobos 33 Wyoming 25. Lobos have come out flat in the 3rd quarter and Wyoming has taken advantage and has started the half on a 7-0 run. Lobos need to find traction soon or this one could slip away.
4:49 3Q: Lobos 39 Wyoming 29. After getting the pace they way they like in the 2nd quarter the tide has turned in the 3rd as the Lobos have only scored 6 points so far this quarter. The tone of the game has shifted.
Wyoming has dominated the 3rd quarter so far outscoring the Lobos 20-9 with 2:16 left in the quarter.
End of 3 quarters: WYO 43 Lobos 42. Lobos lost their 15 points halftime lead and will have work to do to pull this one out. The Cowgirls won the third 25-9. The Lobo starters besides Nunn are 4 of 26 from the floor.
6:28 4Q: Wyoming 50 Lobos 45. Wyoming has outscored the Lobos 32-12 in the second half. The Lobos need to find a way to get Nunn the ball and turn the tide of the second half.
Lobos fall 69-66 and will wait for the fate to see if they will be playing more basketball. Lobos had great performances from Nunn, Washington and AT.
There will be questions that need to be asked about this game, the Lobos had their chances to win this game and have a golden opportunity to make it to the Championship game. I am surprised by the lack of minutes of AT in the second half and the inefficiency of Beynon, Buck, and Flye (combined 7 for 34). The game change in the third quarter when the Lobos shot 1 of 14 from the floor while Wyoming was 9 of 13 which lead to Wyoming turning a 15 deficit into a 1 point win.
Women’s Basketball MWC Tournament: UNM vs. Wyoming Preview
The sixth-seeded Lobos (23-9) advanced to the quarterfinals of the MW Tournament with a dominating win against SJSU last night and will take on the third-seeded Wyoming Cowgirls tonight. In the two meetings during the regular season, the Cowgirls went 2-0 with an 11-point win in Wyoming and a 1-point win in The PIT. As we have seen in the past, it can be very difficult to beat a team three times in one year and this time it could help the Lobos. In the first two meetings, Wyoming was able to control the pace of play (both games they were in the 60s) and keep the Lobos from finding separation in either game. There are some adjustments that the Lobos will be looking to make, finding ways to take every single little advantage to position themselves with a birth in the semifinals on Wednesday.
2018 Men’s Basketball MWC Tournament Preview
After 10 weeks of Mountain West play, it’s finally time for the MW Conference Men’s Basketball Tournament in Las Vegas! Zach will be on the scene giving updates and reports all week, but before that happens, here is our preview of each of the 11 teams in the conference, including each team’s road to a championship, and what I think about their uniforms.
Also, if you haven’t already, be sure to enter our MWC Bracket Challenge! There’s even a prize this year!
A Look at MW Men’s Basketball Head-to-Head Records
We are hitting the home stretch for the 2017-2018 Mountain West Conference regular season, which means it is time to look at where teams are positioned to be seeded for the conference tournament. With the win at Boise State, Nevada has all but clinched the regular season title and the #1 seed for the tournament. Also, SJSU has already clinched the #11 seed, as they are 0-14 with 4 games left. Beyond those two, a few teams are already locked into a certain range of seeds, as Boise State is pretty much locked into the 2 or 3 seed, while Colorado State and Air Force are pretty much locked into the 9 or 10 seed.
Men’s Basketball vs. Boise State: What’s at Stake
The Lobos (12-12, 7-4) have a huge game Tuesday night against second-place Boise State (19-4, 9-2) at The PIT. The Lobos have positioned themselves well through 11 games of conference play, as they sit all alone in third place. During their first meeting in Boise, the Broncos jumped out to a huge lead in the first half, giving the Lobos only a small chance of winning the game. The interesting thing about the first game was that the Broncos didn’t hit a ton of three’s to claim their huge lead, instead relying almost fully on layups. It would not be a surprise to see them try to replicate that success tonight.
In my opinion, it is easy to see that Nevada and Boise State are the top two teams in the conference.That said, the group from 3-8 could end up in a lot of different ways. Because of that, there is a lot at stake for the Lobos tonight, with effects that could continue over the next few weeks.
MW Women’s Basketball Conference Preview
The non-conference schedule is finished for the Lobos (12-1) and the second season, Mountain West play, begins on Tonight. The Lobos have started the season on fire with good wins over Marquette, Western Michigan, UTEP, NMSU (rivalry games x2), Lamar, Illinois and Navy. The only loss on the Lobos schedule was against a very good Oklahoma team when they were without Jaisa Nunn. After being picked 4th in the preseason poll, the Lobos have inserted themselves as the clear favorite to win the MW this season. Looking back at the preseason awards, the Lobos had the Preseason Player of the Year (Cherise Beynon), Newcomer of the Year (Tesha Buck), and Rookie of the Year (N’Dea Flye). All three players have a good shot of winning those awards, with Beynon’s most likely challengers being teammates in Nunn and Buck. You could make a case the Lobos have the 3 best players in the MW this season.
Men’s Basketball Check-in (Pre-Conference)
It’s been a little while since we’ve check in with Men’s Basketball and, unsurprisingly, a lot has happened, both on and off the court. Given that today is the start of Mountain West Conference play, it’s worth taking a look to see how things are going on the court right now.
Men’s Basketball Check-in (11/28/17)
We’re now a couple weeks into the Men’s Basketball season and I think it’s fair to say that we’ve now learned a few things about this version of the Lobos. For one, anyone who was predicting a perfect season is already disappointed. But that was inevitable. However, this is a team that plays hard, doesn’t give up, and, in my opinion, will continue to get better as the season goes on. I’m still having fun, at least.