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Thursday, January 08, 2009
Which Lobo Team Is for Real?
By Mark Smith
Journal Staff Writer
In a span of 72 hours, the University of New Mexico men's basketball team looked as good — and as bad — as it has all season.
And the end result was two losses and a boatload of questions as the Lobos (9-7, 0-1) return to Mountain West Conference play on Saturday against Air Force.
Last Saturday, UNM gave streaking UNLV (13-2) all it could handle on the Rebels' home floor before losing 60-58. But in its return home Tuesday, the Lobos shot a dismal 28.8 percent from the field in a 73-60 nonconference loss to UTEP (9-5).
The latter was New Mexico's worst shooting performance in nine years.
So which game is closer to what Lobo fans can expect for the remaining 15 games of the MWC season?
Good question.
“We need to refocus and dig down deep,” says UNM junior Roman Martinez. “Our intensity went down against (UTEP). I think, on the offensive end and defensive end, we got frustrated. We've got to really dig down; we've got some tough games left; no games will be given to us from here on out.
“If we don't give it 110 (percent), we're going to lose a lot of games.”
But even if the Lobos give 110 percent (which, by the way, is apparently mathematically possible only in sports), they will still lose a bunch of games if they shoot 28 percent.
While defensive intensity likely will determine the Lobos' ultimate success or failure, they are still desperately searching for an offensive leader in the crunch.
Thus far there have a been a few candidates, but haven't found that one player to really take over.
â– Senior post Daniel Faris has come the closest of late, showing the ability to score or get to the foul line on big possessions. But Faris also has the tendency to get into foul trouble, like against UTEP when he played just 24 minutes.
â– Senior Tony Danridge leads the team in scoring at 13.2 points a game, but has trouble from 3-point range (4-of-15), which allows teams to sag off of him on crucial possessions, thus cutting down his driving lanes.
â– Senior Chad Toppert was second in the nation in 3-pointers a year ago, but has had trouble connecting in the clutch, as witnessed by his last-second miss at UNLV. He was 3-of-9 from 3-point range against UTEP, but hit his final two attempts after the game was out of hand.
â– Junior wing Martinez and sophomore point guard Dairese Gary also have contributed big games, but have not taken over down the stretch.
â– The freshman class of Phillip McDonald, Nate Garth, Will Brown and A.J. Hardeman has shown flashes of what made it a top-10 rated recruiting class. But more often, it has shown why fans shouldn't put so much stock in Internet recruiting gurus.
So what's the answer? That's what this coaching staff gets paid more than $1.5 million to figure out.
TRIVIA TIME: Who was the Lobos' last victory against, other than New Mexico State?
WATTS OF ENERGY: UTEP senior Tavaris Watts, who hadn't made more than one field goal in a game this season, made the most of his season-high 27 minutes on Tuesday. The 6-foot-8 forward was 5-of-8 from the floor and had season highs in points (12), rebounds (six) and smack talk (countless).
“He was tremendous,” Alford said. “He talked to our guys all night, and he backed it up. You've got to respect somebody who's going to talk stuff and back it up, and he definitely did that.”
Most of Watts' banter was directed at Faris, who can talk a pretty good game himself. But Watts also drew the ire of UNM assistant coach Craig Neal, who tossed a few obscenities at Watts from the bench.
Alford laughed when asked about the exchange, then said “the official did a good job of handling it, and it stopped right there.”
After Faris was called for a personal foul the next possession, Watts was called for a technical for taunting Faris.
Asked if he thought he got into the Lobos' heads, Watts said, “You never know. I got so much into the heat of the game, just got so into it. That's not the caliber of player I am, but in a game like this, with the crowd getting into it, it just happened. The technical kind of set me back.”
TRIVIA ANSWER: Oral Roberts, 66-63, on Dec. 17 in the Pit.
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