As they finish the fall semester and get ready for their three games during their holiday schedule, the Lady Lobos find themselves sitting at 5-3. This will be their last stretch to get ready for conference play, which starts December 30th. While it is most likely the Mountain West Conference is once again a one-bid league, the Lobos have positioned themselves as one of the favorites to win the regular season championship, or at least end up with a high seed for the conference tournament. That said, I think that it is imperative for the Lobos to win their last three non-conference game, as I think that it would make it possible for them to become an at-large team if they ended up with two or less loses in conference play and end up with a loss in the conference championship game. I don’t think the Lobos want to put their NCAA Tournament chances in the hand of the selection committee, so the goal is clearly to win the MWC Tournament to get the automatic bid. But, before all that, let’s look back at the first eight games of the schedule and some scattered thoughts that I have had during the first month of the season.
Men’s Basketball at Purdue Recap
The Lobos went up to West Lafayette yesterday to play a toue team and played them even for 30 minutes before Purdue was finally able to pull away. It never feels good to lose, but their strong performugh Purdance against such a good team was a good sign for how this Lobo team is going to perform for the rest of the season.
Women’s Basketball at SMU Preview
The Lobos continue their Texas two-step road trip with their game Saturday afternoon at SMU in Dallas, Texas. The Lobos are coming off a tough road loss at UTEP, where the Miners shot 12-24 from three-point range in the game. That put the Lobos on a two game losing streak, which they hope to break against the 3-3 Mustangs. I bet Coach Sanchez and the coaching staff talked and preached to their team to limit the quality looks that they gave from three, as that has become a bit of an issue this season. A bright spot for the Lobos is that the Mustangs have struggled from three in the early part of this season, shooting below 30% at 29.5%. Still, the Lobos will have to defend well in this game to have a good shot of winning and they have to make sure not to foul, as the Mustangs are a great free throw shooting team at 84%.
Men’s Basketball at Purdue Preview
After a good win against a solid Oral Roberts team on Tuesday, the Lobos head out to West Lafayette, IN to take on the Purdue Boilermakers. Purdue sometimes gets lost in the shuffle, having to compete both on the court and for attention against the rest of the Big Ten elite, but make no mistake, this is one of the best teams in the country. A Lobo win tomorrow would likely catapult the team into the top 25 and put them on a good track towards an at-large bid in the NCAA Tournament.
A Definitive Ranking of the Lobos’ Helmet Combinations
Now that the Lobos have clenched a bowl game and we’re all just waiting to find out if they’ll get to play in the New Mexico Bowl or if they’ll travel elsewhere, I figured that now would be the perfect time to take a look back at the entire season. And by that, I mean look back at all of the different helmet combinations the team wore. In the 12 games that they’ve played so far, they’ve worn seven different combinations, which is near Oregon-esque. I’m a sucker for these kind of things, so I went through all of the combinations to definitely determine the rankings of what we saw the team wear out on the field, starting from the bottom and working our way to what might be the best helmets the team has ever worn.
Scattered Football Thoughts (End of Regular Season Edition)
Because we’re way late on actually doing a recap for the Lobos’ win against Air Force on Saturday thanks to holiday traveling, I figured that it might be better to just lump it in with some scattered thoughts that I have about the team at the end of the regular season. So, here we go!
Men’s Basketball vs. Oral Roberts Recap
As has been a recurring theme for UNM this season, this game was a tale of two halves. However, rather than the Lobos getting out to a slow start against Oral Roberts, the Lobos jumped out to an early lead with one of the best halves they’ve played in recent memory before allowing the Golden Eagles to claw their way back into the game in the second half. The Lobos were able to hold them off though, eventually ending the game with a 91-75 advantage.
Women’s Baseketball at UTEP Preview
The Lobos start a two-game road trip to the state of Texas today against longtime rival UTEP in El Paso. The Lobos are looking to rebound after a tough loss against Duquesne in the championship game of the Thanksgiving Tournament, losing 78-69. It doesn’t get any easier for the Lobos (4-2) though, as they face the undefeated Miners (5-0) Wednesday afternoon at 4:15. While the Miners haven’t played a great schedule so far this season, they haven’t even played a road game yet, they are undefeated and playing at home against a young Lobos team that has only played one road game this season, which they lost by 19 to NMSU. Already in this young season, both teams have played Houston Baptist at home, with the Lobos winning their game 65-57 and the Miners winning their game 98-63. While we can’t take too much out of those results, one thing we can take out is the Miners ability to score the basketball; they are averaging 77.6 points per game. For the Lobos to have a good shot to win this game they need to take care of the ball, take good shots, and force the Miners into bad shots.
Men’s Basketball vs. Oral Roberts Preview
After nearly getting caught napping against Nicholls State, the Lobos are hopefully well-rested and ready to take on their next challenge. That challenge comes in the form of the Oral Roberts Golden Eagles, who are currently 6-1 and are looking at the Lobos as an opportunity to pick up a solid road win. This is the first game of a really tough stretch for the Lobos, so they’ll be looking to build up some momentum for the next few games.
Women’s Basketball vs. Duquesne preview
The Lobos and Duquesne took care of business in the first round of the New Mexico Thanksgiving Tournament to set up a Championship game with two 4-1 teams. Duquesne beat North Carolina A&T 81-67, where they played very well in the second half, outscoring North Carolina A&T 47-30. The Lobos had a much easier time against Southern Utah, winning the game 70-48 and outscoring Southern Utah in each of the first three quarters. As I mentioned before the Southern Utah game, being able to rest your best players in the first game would be very important for the game Saturday and the Lobos did a great job doing that, with only Cherise Beynon (25) and Bryce Owens (28) playing over 20 minutes. On the other hand, Duquesne had three players play over 30 minutes and six players that played over 20 minutes.