Around the Mountain: Lobos, Mountain West proving winning starts with player retention, even in transfer portal era

Richard Pitino was on the College Hoops Today podcast with Jon Rothstein on Monday.

And, like he did when he was on the Field of 68’s Mountain West Insider podcast last week with Jeff Goodman, he started telling a more national audience what he thinks has been a big part of this season’s success for the UNM Lobos — but a message that is also holding true nationwide in an era of transfer portal domination.

“I think at the end of the day, the retention piece of Donovan Dent, Tru Washington, Mustapha Amzil and Nelly Junior Joseph — those four key pieces with some good players off the bench who had been in the program was important,” Pitino said when asked about being in first place after losing from last year’s team stars like Jaelen House (playing in the NBA G-League), Jamal Mashburn Jr. (now the leading scorer in the American Athletic Conference for Temple), and J.T. Toppin (a projected first-round NBA Draft pick now playing with Texas Tech).

“It’s hard to retain. There’s so many factors that go into it, but those key guys were ready right away, helped us beat a really good UCLA (and) a USC team early, a VCU team early. And then bring the others along a little bit slower and then they’ve all got acclimated really well.”

The retention component has been huge for UNM, but also for the Mountain West (and really every conference in the country).

On KenPom.com, the analytics site has an algorithm that creates a fluid top five ranking of players in each conference called the “all-KenPom” team for each league. There is a unique top five list for each of Division I’s 31 conferences.

In reviewing the “all-KenPom” lists for each of the top 10-ranked conferences in the country, the majority of top players are guys in at least the second year at their current school. The Mountain West is one of three leagues (along with the Big East and West Coast Conference) with all five of its “all-KenPom” players being in at least their second year with their current team. And in the MW’s case, the current top five on KenPom doesn’t even include other top returners like Utah State’s Mason Falslev and Ian Martinez, UNLV’s Dedan Thomas and Nevada’s Nick Davidson.

Here is the breakdown of the 50 players who make up the top 5 “all-KenPom” lists for the top 10 conferences (as of Monday afternoon):

70% — 35 returning players (at least in 2nd year in program)

26% — 13 first-year transfers

4% — two freshmen

Also of interest, and a nod to the recruiting efforts of the Mountain West and its knack of finding under-recruited players and developing them, 11 of the 50 players (22%) started their Division I careers in the Mountain West.

They are the five current players ranked and six others who transferred elsewhere:

Mountain West’s KenPom Top 5

(including their current KenPom individual ranking in the league race)

1. Donovan Dent, UNM

2. Nique Clifford, Colorado State

3. Tyson Degenhart, Boise State

4. Miles Byrd, San Diego State

5. Nelly Junior Joseph, UNM

Former MW players in Top 5 of new league:

• Big Ten: John Tonje, Wisconsin (formerly Colorado State and Missouri)

• Big 12: Darrion Williams, Texas Tech (formerly Nevada)

• Big East: Steven Ashworth, Creighton (formerly Utah State)

• West Coast Conference: Graham Ike, Gonzaga (formerly Wyoming)

• Atlantic 10: Max Shulga, VCU (formerly Utah State)

• American: Jamal Mashburn Jr., Temple (formerly New Mexico)

Players of the Week

UNM’s Nelly Junior Joseph won his second-consecutive Mountain West Player of the Week award, and fourth of the season.

In a pair of UNM wins vs. Colorado State and at Air Force, Junior Joseph averaged 16.0 points, 16.0 rebounds, 3.0 blocks and 2.5 steals.

Fresno State forward Elijah Price win his second Freshman of the Week award, averaging 15.0 points and 5.5 rebounds in close home losses to San Jose State and Utah State.

Poll position

No Mountain West team was ranked in Monday’s new Associated Press Top 25 men’s basketball poll, but two — New Mexico and Utah State — kept their spots in the “others receiving votes” section of the poll.

• UNM Lobos: 40 points, five spots away from No. 25 (Maryland, 196 points), appeared on 14 of 61 voter ballots. High vote of No. 18 by Dave Borges of the New Haven (Connecticut) Register.

• Utah State: Eight points, eight spots away from No. 25, appeared on three of 61 voter ballots. High vote of No. 21 by Zach Klein of WSB in Atlanta.

Three for me

Here are three games I’m looking forward to watching this week around the Mountain West (listed chronologically):

• Colorado State (15-8, 9-3 MW) at Utah State (21-3, 11-2 MW): Tuesday, 9 p.m. MST (FS1) — No. 2 vs. No. 3 in the standings, and the first of two meetings in 18 days for these two teams. Also, for Utah State, it begins a stretch of having to play five of its final seven games against teams in the top half of the MW standings. For CSU, getting a first Quad 1 win could keep slim at-large NCAA Tournament hopes alive.

• Boise State (17-7, 9-4 MW) at San Diego State (15-6, 8-4 MW): Saturday, 8 p.m. MST/7 p.m. PST (CBS Sports Network) — The Aztecs picked off the Broncos in Boise earlier this season, but the Broncos are playing much better than the Aztecs right now. Neither team — Boise State as the preseason favorite nor SDSU as the consensus midseason favorite when conference play started — could have thought they’d be facing a fifth league loss with three more weeks still to go.

• Utah State (21-3, 11-2 MW) at New Mexico (20-4, 12-1 MW): Sunday, 2 p.m. MST (CBS Sports Network) — Round 2 is already a sold-out game like the Feb. 1 contest in Logan, Utah,which was sold out well in advance of the Lobos coming to town. The Lobos probably can’t expect to hold Utah State to 16.1% shooting from 3-point range again, but the Aggies probably can’t expect to hold UNM to zero fast break points again, either. The Pit awaits.