The Lobo Women’s soccer team looks to build on year one of the Heather Dyche era, where they finished 10-8-2 overall and 7-3-1 in Mountain West play. One of the more surprising things from last year was how much they struggled at the Lobo Soccer Complex, where they went 3-5-0, but they showed great resolve on the road, where they finished 6-3-1, including an unbeaten 5-0-1 in conference play. It will be important for the Lobos to continue the great play on the road and find a way to play better at home if they’re going to build on last year’s successes. To that point, the Lobos will only play one non-Conference home game against NMSU, meaning the Lobos will be on the road for the first month of the season, including games at Texas Tech and California. The Lobos need to keep their head afloat in that first month and find their top form in time for the conference tournament.
2016 UNM Men’s Soccer Preview
After two straight disappointing seasons, the Lobos men’s soccer team looks to bounce back, get back to the NCAA Tournament, and once again be a national title contender. This is a very important year for the program, since perception of a program can change very quickly and hurt scheduling and recruiting. A good thing for the Lobos is they have been young and unlucky the last two season, which shouldn’t be the case anymore. Although they can’t control the luck aspect, they will be an experienced squad. The Lobos will have multiple-year starters, key transfers, and a highly regarded recruiting class this year. All that makes me think that if the team can come together to fulfill their potential, it could be a very exciting and special season.
UNM to the Big 12?
The Big 12 is planning on expanding to, um, 12 teams soon, as reported by just about everyone. So the obvious question that people are asking is which universities, exactly, will be the lucky two to find a golden ticket in their chocolate, so to speak? Lots of names have been thrown around, but what makes this round of expansion so interesting is that the Big 12 has basically opened up the floor for interested parties to nominate themselves. It made it almost irresponsible for any athletic director from a non-Power 5 university to not express interest. Because of that, the Big 12 is reportedly going to listen to the pitches of a whopping 18 universities, including UNM, before making a decision.
The Summer of Cam
August is here, which means three things: school is about to be back in session, another year of Lobo sports is about to start, and we should probably start writing again. There’s a ground to cover that is either about to happen or that occurred while we were taking our semi-unplanned summer vacation, but I figured that I’d first focus on the Lobo that I’ve found myself thinking about the most over the last two months: Cam Bairstow. You see, while I haven’t done much more than alternating between loving and hating the summer weather, Cam’s actually been out doing things.
Here’s a (probably) incomplete list of things that camp has done in just the past couple of months:
- As he did last year, Cam hosted a basketball camp for local kids. He didn’t do it alone, though, as there were a lot of familiar faces involved:
So, not only is he giving back to our community, he’s also proving to be quite adept at bringing generations of Lobo basketball players back together.
- Speaking of local kids, Cam did something that at least slipped under my radar a little bit: he started sponsoring the AAU club formally known as the Danny Granger Hurricanes. I actually found out about this when I happened to be on the same plane as the club a few weeks ago as they were heading to their first tournament under their new, aussified name: the Bairstow Boomers. I think that we’d all like to see more high-level basketball players come out of our state, and Cam being a part of this will only help that cause.
- After the basketball camp, he organized the Battle of the Rio Grande, where Lobo and Aggie Alums played each other to demonstrate which one is the superior basketball program in the state. The Lobo Alums won, naturally, 102-97.
- Right before Cam did all of this in Albuquerque, he had a sudden career change when he was traded from the Chicago Bulls to the Detroit Pistons for Spencer Dinwiddie. It looked like he was going to have the opportunity to earn a spot on the roster until the Pistons signed the hilariously large man that is Boban Marjanović, which overcrowded their frontcourt and left Cam as the odd man out. He was released by the team shortly thereafter.
- That didn’t keep Cam down for long though. Just over a week later, and after apparently fielding several offers to play all over the world, he signed with his hometown team, the Brisbane Bullets. For their part, the Bullets seem almost beside themselves that they were able to get him, calling the signing “one of the biggest signings in National Basketball League (NBL) history” and “not only a massive coup for the club, but also the NBL” in their press release. I think that this is awesome for Cam, as not only does he get to play for the team he grew up watching, he’ll actually get to play a lot, which will likely do more for his development as a player, and be more fun, than sitting on the bench most games. As an added bonus, he gets to face his old coach later this month, when the Bullets play an exhibition game against UCLA. Go Bullets.
- Oh, and on top off all of this, he made the Australian Olympic team.
https://twitter.com/cbairstow41/status/761727663723712512
Not a bad way to cap off a busy summer.
There’s an underlying context to all of this that makes it somewhat amazing to me that I’ve paid so much attention to Cam this summer. After all, just five years ago, I’m not sure that any of this seemed likely to happen. Cam was that really tall Aussie who only managed to get limited action his first couple of seasons at UNM and was somewhat of an afterthought going into his junior year. We all know what happened after that. By the end of his senior year, he transformed himself into one of the best college basketball players in the country and muscled his way into being drafted by the Chicago Bulls.
Cam’s story is a perfect example of why I love college sports. We get to watch the players grow up, we get to know them, and then, when everything is said and done, we end up being so proud of them and celebrate all their successes. And while it’s great to root for a hometown kid, college sports somehow make it where even a kid from Brisbane, Australia can become a New Mexican.
Baseball Season Awards and Wrap-up
With the end of the College Baseball season, in which Coastal Carolina became the National Champions, it is as good a time as any to look back at the fun and exciting season that the Lobo baseball team had. While the ending of the season was a disappointment, it showed us how close we are to breaking through to Omaha. Beyond that, Coastal Carolina’s championship shows that college baseball is a much flatter landscape than basketball or (especially) football, where teams from smaller conferences and fewer resources can still compete with the big boys.
Premature Thoughts on the Men’s Basketball Schedule
As we’re in a bit of a lull in terms of Lobo news, the release of the men’s basketball schedule for next year is a welcome sight (you can find it here). Also because we’re in a bit of a lull, we might as well overanalyze the schedule now. Of course, these thoughts should be taken with the usual caveat that we’re still five months away from any meaningful basketball being played, so it’s anyone’s guess as to what any of these teams will really look like in the future. Will basketball even still be played in the future? Probably!
Track and Field Outdoor Championships Preview
Starting this afternoon, hundreds of athletes will converge on Eugene, Oregon to compete in the NCAA D1 Outdoor Track and Field Championships. Among those athletes will be 10 Lobos, all of whom will be looking to cap off their great seasons – and in some cases, collegiate careers – with a strong showing against the best that college track and field has to offer. Simply making to the championships is impressive enough in its own right, but several of these Lobos have good shots at earning a spot as a first-team All-American.
Mountain West Baseball Conference Tournament Preview
At last, the long, slow grind of the Mountain West baseball regular season is behind us, and the joy and agony of postseason play is about to begin. On Wednesday morning, here in Albuquerque at Santa Ana Star Field, the conference tournament kicks off with the 6/7 play-in game between San Diego State and San Jose State and won’t stop until a champion is crowned over the weekend. It is pretty simple for all but maybe one or two teams (Fresno State and possibly New Mexico): win the tournament or your season is over.
To Rest or Not to Rest? That’s Lobo Baseball’s Question
(Ed. Note: This article was meant to go up before the series started, so we already have a bit of an idea of what the team is planning on doing. Thanks to their 23-2 blowout win against Air Force today, the decision might be a little different, now that they only need two more wins to clinch a share of the regular season title. Hopefully they can keep it rolling tomorrow.)
The Lobos (33-20, 18-9) have a very interesting decision to make in their series against the Air Force Academy (27-23, 11-16) this weekend: should they play for the chance to be co-champions for the regular season, or should they rest some of their players to get ready for the Mountain West Tournament? There are pros and cons to both options, and I am sure that this is something the coaches are thinking about. The Mountain West will be a one-bid league again this season, meaning that the only way to make the NCAA Tournament field, which is absolutely the main goal for the Lobos, is to win the conference tournament. This wouldn’t have been a question if the Lobos hadn’t slipped the last few weeks, having lost their last three weekend series and winning only two of the nine games, as they were in decent shape for an at-large bid before that. But, seeing how things look right now, it might be worth losing a couple of battles to win the war.
Lobo Baseball vs Nevada Series Preview
The Lobos (32-18, 17-7) look to get back on track after dropping the last two weekend series. This will be the last home series for the Lobos this season, but not the last games played at Santa Ana Star Field, as it will play host for the Mountain West Conference Tournament in two weeks. The Lobos are still in first place in the Mountain West, but at this point will likely have to win the conference tournament to make the NCAA Tournament. This weekend, the Lobos will host third place Nevada (28-20, 16-8) in a key matchup for seeding for the MW Tournament. If the Lobos are able to sweep the series, they will most likely win the Regular Season Title, but if they don’t, next weekend’s games become even more important.