In their first weekend of the season, the Lobos hosted two teams that they were expected to beat comfortably. And while the games themselves weren’t always completely comfortable, the Lobos ended up coming away with two double-digit wins. In those games, we got to watch Tim Williams dominate, the new guys show their stuff, and Sam potentially take a leap. All in all, not a bad weekend.
Women’s Basketball vs. NMSU Game Preview
The Lobos (1-0) got their season off to a good start with a dominating win against Fairleigh Dickinson, winning 83-56. It was a good matchup for the Lobos to shake off some of the rust and start to understand Coach Bradbury’s style of play without having to think about it too much. In that matchup against Fairleigh Dickinson, the Lobos could use their size to their advantage and received great games from Rachelle van der Keijl, Kianna Keller, and Jaisa Nunn, with each player collecting 9 rebounds and combining for 33 points. The Lobos will need to keep getting great games from their front court and use their great size as an advantage. Things will get tougher for the Lobos when they face NMSU (1-0) on Tuesday night, as NMSU is coming off a great season in which they went 24-5, including a sweep of the Lobos.
Men’s Basketball Game 2: Houston Baptist
After picking up a win against Idaho State on Friday, the Lobos will look to stay undefeated on the season tonight, when they take on Houston Baptist. This should be a game where the Lobos are able to build a big enough lead to get some of the younger players solid game experience, but they’ll still need to execute if they’re going to get a comfortable win.
Men’s Soccer: C-USA Championship Preview
The stage is set for the Conference USA Conference Men’s Soccer Tournament Championship, as the Lobos (11-6-2) has advanced to the final with an exciting 2-1 win over #1 seed Charlotte. On the other side of the bracket FIU (10-6-2) advanced to the final with wins over #6 seed UAB and #7 seed ODU. In their win, the Lobos got production from their two leading scorers, with Chris Wehan scoring his 7th goal of the season to give the Lobos a 1-0 lead early in the second half, and leading scorer Niko Hansen gave the Lobos a huge 2-0 lead with 20 minutes left in the match. The Lobo backline played great, aside from the one misplay that led to the Charlotte goal. The Lobos will need to get production from both Wehan Hansen, and their backline once again to seal their bid to the NCAA Tournament.
Women’s Basketball Game 1: Fairleigh Dickinson
The Coach Bradbury era tips off for real on Saturday afternoon when the Lobos take on Fairleigh Dickinson in both team’s season opener. The Lobos will be heavy favorites in this game, but that doesn’t mean they can just show up and expect to win. Last season, Fairleigh Dickinson went 11-22 and had an RPI of 314. In comparison, the Lobos went 17-15 with an RPI of 171. This will be a good opening game for the Lobos before things get a little tougher in a couple of days, when they will take on NMSU.
Stat Comparison:
| Lobos | Knights | |
| Points Per Game | 61.3 | 64.8 |
| Points Allowed Per Game | 57.6 | 71.3 |
| Rebounds Per Game/Margin | 39.2, +3.3 | 39.6, +.5 |
| Assists Per Game | 13.5 | 11.5 |
| Turnovers Per Game | 14.6 | 18 |
| Steals Per Game | 8.8 | 7.5 |
| Blocks Per Game | 2.9 | 3.3 |
| Field Goal % | 37.7% | 39.7% |
| 3 Point% | 27.7% | 30.1% |
| Free Throw % | .651% | 71.5% |
These stats are from last season and there are quite a few changes for both teams, so it will be interesting to see how different the two teams are from last year.
Fairleigh Dickinson:
This could be tough year for the Knights, as they lose 3 of their top 4 scorers, including two players that averaged over 16 points per game. The top returning player for the Knights is Brianna Thomas, who averaged 6.8 points and 4.5 rebounds, if the Knights want to be good this season, Thomas must take a step forward and become a player that averages 12 points and 8 rebounds a game. The Knights will need newcomers and returning players to fill the void left by their star players from a year ago. In my opinion, Fairleigh Dickinson is one of the two most winnable games this season, so the Lobos need to make the most of this opportunity.
What to Watch:
- It will be interesting to see Coach Bradbury’s rotation early in the year. In his press conference earlier this week, Bradbury said he would like to use a 7-player rotation, which means a lot of players could get left out.
- How quickly will the Lobos be able to get comfortable playing this up-tempo style of basketball? If the Lobos can find good shots early in the shot clock and can keep turnovers to under 13 a game, the transition shouldn’t be too rough.
- How well will the two centers in the game at the same time play together? Kianna Keller and Rachelle van der Keijl will be the starting front court early this year for the Lobos, so it will be interesting to see how well that works.
- Is Cherise Beynon able to take the step forward and become the star of the team? Beynon shared the role with Shumpert as a sophomore last year and will be counted on for a lot of the Lobos’ success this season.
- The point guard position will be worth watching at all yea. How much will the lone true point guard Laneah Bryan play and who are the other players that will play the lead guard position?
Schedule Breakdown:
All records and RPI are from last season results, so while these will change from year to year, they will give us some understanding of who is good and who the Lobos should beat.
| Fairleigh Dickinson | 11-22 | 314 |
| NMSU H/A | 24-5 | 94 |
| @ Texas Tech | 13-18 | 143 |
| Tulsa | 12-19 | 190 |
| BYU/St. Joseph’s | 25-7, 14-15 | 22, 123 |
| SMU | 13-18 | 197 |
| Minnesota | 20-12 | 86 |
| UTEP | 28-5 | 36 |
| Eastern Illinois | 3-25 | 339 |
| @ Marquette | 14-16 | 105 |
The Lobos will play eight of their eleven non-conference games at home this season, which could allow the Lobos to get confidence going into the conference schedule.
Bold Predictions:
- Cherise Beynon will average 17 points, 7 rebounds, 5 assists and 2 steals a game.
- Mykeil Burleson will average 8+ point and 3+ assists per game
- Kianna Keller and Rachelle van der Keijl will combine for over 5 blocks a game.
- Jaisa Nunn and van der Keijl will both average 8+ points and 8+ rebounds a game.
- Emily Lines will lead the Lobos in 3 Point % and average two 3 point makes a game.
- Lobos will finish in the top 4 of the conference.
- Lobos will win 20 games and make great strides as a team come January.
- Cherise Beynon will be named MW Player of the Year.
- van der Keijl and Nunn will make an all-conference team.
- Coach Bradbury will win coach of the year.
- Lobos will average 77+ points per game.
- Lobos will make a run in the conference tournament.
Game Prediction:
I have the Lobos winning the game against Fairleigh Dickinson easily. If the Lobos can play their style of play, you could be looking at a 20+ point win. I put the odds of the Lobos winning this game at 85% with the Lobos winning this game 85-63.
Game Info:
Who: New Mexico Lobos (0-0) vs. Fairleigh Dickinson Knights (0-0)
When: Saturday, November 12, 2 PM MT
Where: WisePies Arena AKA The PIT, Albuquerque, New Mexico
Steam: LoboTV
Lobo Football vs. Utah State Game Preview
In a game that started on Saturday and ended on Sunday, the Lobos clinched bowl-eligibility last week with their win against Nevada. I’m not sure if there were more people in the stands or on the field when the game actually ended, but it was an exciting game, nonetheless. This week, the Lobos look to keep their hot streak going when they travel to Utah State in search of their fifth-straight game.
Men’s Basketball Game 1: Idaho State
It’s time for the first real game for the UNM men’s basketball team, as they take on the Idaho State Bengals in a Friday night matchup. After disappointing ends to the last couple of seasons, this looks like it might be a Lobo team that is worth getting excited about, so hopefully they’ll put on a strong performance to make people take notice.
Men’s Soccer: CUSA Tournament Semis Preview
The match of the day on the opening day of the Conference USA Tournament was, without question, the match between the Lobos (10-6-2) and Kentucky. The Lobos twice found themselves down a goal and twice were able to respond with an equalizer within a couple of minutes. The Lobos were able to get goals from Sam Gleadle and Nick Rochowski to end the match in a 2-2 draw. Since it was in tournament play, it went to the always-tense penalty shootout. Coach Fishbein put in backup goalie and PK specialist Ford Parker for the shootout. What Parker ended up doing is one of the most impressive feats I have seen, saving 4 of the 5 attempts and allowing the Lobos to win the shootout 2-1 to advance to the semifinals. It is strange to say that the man of the match was someone that didn’t actually play a second of the match.
Women’s Basketball Team Preview
The Lobo women’s basketball team went 2-0 during their exhibition season, winning games against two Division II schools in Fort Lewis (101-48) and Eastern New Mexico (89-70). The Lobos will officially kick off the Coach Mike Bradbury era Saturday afternoon against Fairleigh Dickinson. While there is little that we can take away from the first two exhibitions, we can look at the numbers each player had last season and try to guess what kind of growth we could see in each player. It will be difficult to see what the impact of Coach Bradbury’s system will be on each player, since his system is completely different to what Coach Sanchez ran, so each stat should be taken with a grain of salt.
Men’s Soccer: CUSA Tournament Preview
The Lobos (10-6-1, 4-3-1) head to Huntington, West Virginia for the Conference USA Soccer Tournament. In the seven team field, the Lobos are the #5 seed and will face Kentucky in the first round. The Lobos are in a situation where they could not make the NCAA tournament at all or could even get a national seed if they are able to win the tournament. As we have seen in the past with seeding, the Lobos can’t leave anything in the hands of the selection committee and must play this tournament like it is their last match of the season. There are two very good wins available for the Lobos in the first two rounds of the tournament, so they have a great chance to improve their resume.