From left, UNM’s Jamal Fenton, Hugh Greenwood (3), Alex Kirk (53) and Tony Snell leave the court after Thursday night’s loss to Harvard in the NCAA Tournament. (AP Photo/The Salt Lake Tribune, Chris Detrick )

New Mexico’s storybook season and quest to finally reach the Sweet 16 finished on a sour note

The question is simple.

Was the 2012-13 season for the New Mexico Lobos a success or a failure?

Yes.

Just as it would be a disservice to ignore the season of success for the 29-6 Lobos, it would also be naive to think that a program so demanding of national respect not be punished in the court of public opinion when it fails in such grand fashion to earn it.

The Lobos, ranked No. 10 in the nation as the Mountain West regular-season and tournament champions, asked repeatedly for the bar to be raised. And it was. They asked for attention, to be regarded as one of the elite programs in the nation. And they’ve got it.

A Thursday night loss to the No. 14 seed Harvard Crimson, on the biggest stage of the season, deserves to be viewed as it would for the big boys in college basketball – as a black eye for the program.

But head coach Steve Alford, who on Wednesday announced he had come to terms on a new 10-year contract with UNM, said the past six months were anything but a failure.

“It’s always a setback,” Alford said Thursday of his team’s early NCAA Tournament loss, the second time he has coached a No. 3 seed to an upset loss to a No 14 (he also did at Iowa).

New Mexico head coach Steve Alford said his team “had a tremendous year” despite Thursday’s loss. (AP Photo/Rick Bowmer)

“You never like ending your season. I’ve got a group of guys in the locker room that played extremely well all year long. We have had a tremendous year.”

Yes, it would be a wrong to completely ignore the positive of the season that was. The university sold more than 97 percent of tickets in the Pit. It cashed in on not only ticket and concession sales, but on unprecedented national attention from the CBS Sports Network and a plethora of national media outlets.

The squad had the No. 2 Ratings Percentage Index (RPI) against the toughest schedule statistically in program history.

The Lobo players showed the type of chemistry fans latched on to and embraced throughout the season.

And the week of the Mountain West Conference tournament in Las Vegas, Nev., in early March when an estimated 8,000-10,000 Lobos fans took over Sin City, was something special that a loss to Harvard can’t erase.

But you need not be merely a prisoner of the moment to believe the Harvard loss set the program back plenty in terms of that coveted national respect the team so desperately desires.

Even though these Lobos return every starter for the 2013-14 season and add a 7-footer in Obij Aget from the Sudan, by way of Indiana, and La Cueva High star Bryce Alford, the sharpshooting son of the Lobos coach, it will be hard for the national perception of the Lobos to get any better until one year from now. That’s when they get to prove whether they can make that first run to the Sweet 16, presuming they will earn another NCAA Tournament berth.

The Lobos also will have 6-7 freshman guard/forward Devon Williams, who showed promise in practice this season as a redshirt freshman. Kansas transfer guard Merv Lindsay also will be in the fold after sitting out per NCAA transfer rules.

A full season under the belt of 7-foot center Alex Kirk after back surgery could have him competing for national honors.

So there are plenty of reasons to be hopeful about the Lobos’ future. But if you don’t think Thursday night was bad enough to put a big stain on this season, just ask one of the two seniors who will never wear the Lobos uniform again.

“It’s just tough,” said senior Chad Adams. “Coach talked with me and Jamal (Fenton) towards the end of the season about putting the jersey on for the last time. It’s just real tough right now. I don’t know how to describe it.”

Disappointing seems to be the only way to describe it.

Read more Lobo Basketball:

Lobo Aftermath

Reactions to upset

— This article appeared on page D1 of the Albuquerque Journal