Never in doubt, but Lobos win over Fresno State comes with frustration from coach

FRESNO, Calif. — Playing fast is fun. Scoring more than 100 points is entertaining.

And closing out 2024 with back-to-back Mountain West conference road wins in which the Lobos mostly led by double digits sure seems like a good thing.

And yet, there Richard Pitino was at the end of Tuesday night’s 103-89 win over Fresno State visibly frustrated with how his team closed out the host Bulldogs in front of a generously announced Save Mart Center crowd of 5,583.

“I hate thinking this way, but it is what it is,” Pitino told the Journal after the win. “Maybe it matters, maybe it doesn’t, but we’ve had opportunities that have been 13-, 14-point wins, that we could have won by 22, 23. I think Colorado State was that (on Saturday in Fort Collins). I think this was that. I think there was another.

“We are not finishing games the right way. Will it make our NET (rankings) look (good or not?) — I don’t know. ... I just don’t think we’re we’re taking advantage of 20-something point wins. And maybe it matters, maybe it doesn’t. But we did a lot of good things. I think once I settle down, I’ll realize we did a lot of good things.”

UNM improved to 11-3 overall and has its first 3-0 start to Mountain West conference play since the 2015-16 season. That was also the last time they won in Fresno (77-62 on Jan. 2, 2016).

Fresno State, rated as the third fastest-playing team in the country out of 364 Division I teams (UNM is fourth), falls to 4-10 overall and 0-3 in Mountain West play under first-year coach Vance Walberg.

There are, in fact, plenty of good things from Tuesday’s game that Pitino will likely come around to appreciate. Among them:

• Five Lobos scored in double figures, led by 23 apiece from Mustapha Amzil and C.J. Noland, tying the latter’s career high as he becomes the sixth Lobo this season to score at least 20 points in a game.
• Nelly Junior Joseph had a double-double — 12 points, 12 rebounds and four blocked shots.
• Donovan Dent filled the stat sheet with 18 points, six assists, five rebounds, five steals and two blocked shots.
• Tru Washington had 14 points and six assists.
• The Lobos shot 58.6% from the field.
• UNM snapped an eight-game skid in Fresno.
• The team’s 103 points is the most for UNM in a Mountain West game since beating Colorado State 108-87 and the 53 the Lobos scored in the first half (UNM led 53-26 at the break) are the most in a road game since the first half of that same CSU game.

A Washington layup with 14:10 showing in the first half gave UNM a 16-6 lead as they had held the Bulldogs to just 1-of-8 shooting at that point.

The game was never within single digits again.

Yet, the Lobos could never turn the game into the type of blowout that, like it or not, the computer rankings take into account.

UNM sits in the mid 60s of both the NCAA’s NET rankings and KenPom.com rankings.

Favored by 14.5 points at tip-off, the Lobos ended up on the wrong end of that predictive metric by a half point thanks to an otherwise relatively meaningless tip-in bucket by Elijah Price off an offensive rebound with 4.9 seconds left in the game, cutting the final margin to 14.

While the betting line isn’t the concern of Pitino and the Lobos, it is based on the same formula most of the computer rankings that do influence UNM’s national standing utilize, and it’s a reality of the modern game, like it or not.

“He thought we should have closed the game better the last four minutes,” Noland said of Pitino’s mood at the end of the game. “I think we need to grow, you know? Maturity-wise. And just finish the game. I mean, they’re a good team at driving and getting fouls. Ultimately, we have to slow them down and stop them because we are the better team.”

Geoff Grammer cover college basketball and other sports for the Journal. You can reach him at ggrammer@abqjournal.com or follow him on Twitter (X) @GeoffGrammer.