Can the Lobos rediscover their D in time for a Mountain West Tournament run?

The UNM Lobos posted the best record in the Mountain West in January — an 8-1 mark that showed the program’s potential to make a run at a league title.

While that spark didn't entirely go away in February and early March — UNM was, after all, playing for a share of a Mountain West regular season championship on Saturday — there is no denying the Lobos are slightly limping into this week's Mountain West Tournament, where as the No. 3 seed they’ll face either No. 6 Boise State or No. 11 San Jose State in Thursday night's quarterfinals.

Defense, or a lack thereof, has been the main culprit for UNM.

In the first half of league play, the Lobos had a penchant for picking the right poison — taking away one offensive strength of an opponent at the expense of risking a big game from another component of the offense. That strategy seemed to flip halfway through the league season. 

According to BartTorvik.com, over the last 10 games of the season, the Lobos ranked 176th nationally (out of 365 Division I teams) in defensive efficiency. Over their first 10 games, they were ranked 24th in that statistic.

"We're gonna continue to make some of those choices about what we're gonna sort of give up, for lack of a better word," UNM coach Eric Olen said. "I don't think we're a perfect defensive team where we can take away everything. So some of the better offensive teams do put you in situations where you have to make choices about, if you're going to give something up, where what do you want that to land on? ...

"You can take one thing away; typically, that means you're going to give up something else. So there's sort of a decision matrix in that of, well, what do we want to live with?"

While it seems giving up 3-pointers — especially from opposing big men — might be the biggest flaw as of late, it's really been about the Lobos' inability to protect the rim.

The top two-ranked Mountain West teams in 2-point shooting are Utah State and Colorado State — the two teams UNM lost to in the last week of the regular season. CSU and USU combined to make 69.8% of their 2-point shots against the Lobos — a team that has let teams hit just 53.6% of their 2s overall this season.

"We've got to do a better job of limiting efficiency from 2 and around the rim," Olen said. "We haven't been able to get the stops we needed from there. Teams are making some shots, but that's really a secondary issue to our ability to control the ball, depth of drive, make finishes more difficult, get to help early enough where it's not a layup, it's a more difficult shot."

Albury's aggression

Starting point guard Deyton Albury's aggressive on-ball defense has won games for the Lobos this season.

It's also gotten the best of him at times, as was the case when he fouled out at Utah State on Saturday, with several of his fouls coming 30 feet from the basket, pressuring an opposing ball handler.

"There is a point of diminishing return there," Olen said of Albury's approach. "The last (foul against Utah State) probably wasn't the best decision relative to the gamble there. There's some give-and-take with that because his ball pressure is super impactful. Trying to balance that pressure and disruption with avoiding fouls, specifically once we get into the bonus, where those fouls get trips to the free throw line."

What happens if ...

Should the Lobos not win three games in three days and get the automatic berth to the NCAA Tournament, and assuming the NCAA Tournament Selection Committee doesn't come through and put them in the field as an at-large team, what's next?

Well, the NIT, which is no longer run by the NCAA, is a possibility according to UNM Athletic Director Ryan Berryman.

He said the Pit would be available for the Lobos to host NIT games, if selected to do so, for the first round and one of two dates of the second round.

The NIT's first round is March 17-18. Second-round NIT games are on March 21-22, but the Pit is unavailable on March 22 because it is already rented out by the New Mexico Activities Association for the state spirit competition.

Berryman said the Pit is unavailable for any games after that point due to the PBR Ty Murray Invitational bull riding event.

The Journal asked Olen about his interest in continuing play beyond the Mountain West if not the NCAA Tournament.

"Absolutely," he said.

Reach Geoff Grammer at ggrammer@abqjournal.com or follow him on Twitter (X) @GeoffGrammer.