Isaiah Marin played a full season for the Lobos, but Saturday is his first game in the Pit

As the Western New Mexico Mustangs make that infamous descent down the Pit ramp to play the Lobos on Saturday night, there will be all the customary pregame emotions.

Nerves. Anxiety. Excitement.

For WNMU’s Isaiah Marin, the journey to Bob King Court — 37 feet below street level in southeast Albuquerque — is five years and several thousands of miles in the making.

“I’m looking forward to it,” Marin said Thursday. “I never got to play in there, so having this opportunity is something I’m really looking forward to. And it’s another big opportunity for this team to continue to build on our season.”

Marin was supposed to have played in the Pit in the fall of 2020. That was when the Phoenix prep star (who had signed to play at South Plains College, a junior college in west Texas) got a last-minute scholarship offer from the New Mexico Lobos.

Little did he know that while he would, in fact, play for UNM, Marin and his teammates that season would not once play a game in the program’s iconic arena, instead forced to live and play the entire 2020-21 season outside state lines due to New Mexico’s strict COVID-19 health restrictions.

“I was really excited to be anywhere (playing college basketball),” Marin said. “I was fresh out of high school, so just being Division I was enough for me, but everyone told me coming in the Pit was going to be an exciting place to play. It gets loud and I know the fans, they ride for the New Mexico Lobos.

“I was definitely looking forward to it, but it just didn’t happen for me.”

Sure Marin’s name sits among fellow former Lobos in the team’s media guide — page 110, between Mac Manzanares and Larry Markland. It shows he played 19 games, even starting eight of them for Paul Weir’s vagabond squad that struggled to a miserable 6-16 record and a first-round exit from the Mountain West Tournament.

Just not a single game in the Pit.

“It was tough. I mean, I was a freshman, doing this for the first time and I was just excited to be there, but yeah it was tough,” Marin said of the team living out of hotels in Texas, Utah and Nevada. “I just tried every day to step forward, just did what I could to get in the rotation.

“Honestly, I didn’t look at it at the time (as being as bad as it was). It was definitely a good experience in my college career.”

After that one-year stint with the Lobos, Marin has played for junior college Indian Hills Community College, Division I Texas Southern University, NAIA Texas Weslyan and now Division II Western New Mexico, where an old Arizona connection has provided a bit of a full-circle moment in his basketball journey.

“When Isaiah was making a college decision after high school, I was recruiting him pretty heavily as a junior college coach (at Scottsdale Community College),” said Mark Munker, WNMU’s second-year coach. “I developed a pretty good relationship with him. He ended up (going somewhere else), but I stayed in contact with him. At the end of the day, he’s a Phoenix-based kid. I was a Phoenix-based guy. You always kind of stay in touch and keep tabs on everybody.”

With one season of eligibility remaining, and with WNMU actually being the closest D-II school to Phoenix, according to Bunker, they thought they’d do what they first talked about five years ago.

Through nine games, Marin leads the Mustangs in scoring (12.6 points per game), rebounds (5.4), steals (1.6) and is second in assists (2.1).

And, for the player who still hopes to play professionally, he’s developed as much off the court as on it, including as a team leader.

“High school Isaiah is very different than senior year Isaiah,” Bunker said. “I mean, he’s matured tremendously. His communication skills have matured tremendously. ... He’s still a pretty soft-spoken guy. I think that’s just his personality, but he’s gotten so much better and it’s helped with relationships and on the court, too. He can go to teammates, communicate with coaches, be a leader for us. That’s made a huge difference.”

Marin doesn’t know what a normal college basketball experience would have been like. But he knows his own journey has been both challenging and unique.

And he’s grateful for that as he prepares for that long-awaited Pit debut.

“It’s definitely not what I envisioned, but every place I’ve been gave me a stepping stone and helped me build to get to where I am now,” Marin said. “I feel like ultimately, everything happens for a reason. I just continue to progress going forward.”

PIT STOP: This will also be Bunker’s first game in the Pit, though he’s at least seen other games in the arena.

Bunker was a prep star in Scottsdale, Arizona, in the early 2000s and a junior college All-American for Scottsdale Community College in 2004. He later served as head coach of the Artichokes, proud owners of one of college sports most intimidating mascot names, from 2014 through 2023.

Between playing for and later coaching the Artichokes, he had a brief stop in New Mexico where he was able to experience the Pit as a fan.

“I had a brief period of time where I had a small cup of coffee with the D-League team at the time, the Albuquerque Thunderbirds,” Bunker said. “It was when John Coffino was coach. ... So I was in the area — training camp and all that. So not much (experience) with the Pit, but I have been there.”

IT’S ABOUT TIME: Saturday’s original scheduled game time of 2 p.m. was changed last week to 5 p.m.