Don't let the ice-cold shooting fool you, Lobos showed something in exhibition loss

Well, shoot.

Strike that. They didn’t shoot well. But Saturday night in Pullman, Washington was anything but a loss for the UNM Lobos.

Yes, Washington State beat the UNM Lobos in the Pacific Northwest, 74-66, in an exhibition game that not only doesn’t count, it wasn’t really even played quite like any regular-season game the Lobos will play this season. Ten players saw between 13 and 23 minutes — a rotation that clearly didn’t help the rhythm of the skill-heavy, shooting-capable roster Eric Olen put together for his first season coaching the program.

But shooting wasn’t what he was looking at. Thank goodness, because the final box score showed a dreadful 26.7 shooting percentage — 29.0% on 2-pointers and 25.0% on 3-pointers).

So, what was the point? And why was there plenty of positive signs for the Lobos?

Primarily, defense.

“I left tonight more encouraged than discouraged, for sure,” Olen told the Journal after the game. “There’s things that that we have to get better at and clean up, but I thought there were some good defensive possessions. There were definitely some plays where we were really connected on that side of the ball, where our disruption was good. We’ve got foul a little less. It was obviously an issue.”

Don’t let the Lobo half of the stat sheet distract you from the fact that Wazzou didn’t exactly light things up offensively against a Lobos defense learning a fairly complicated Olen zone defensive scheme that requires a lot of cohesion, chemistry and communication that usually only comes with time.

Olen’s UC San Diego team last season ranked third in Division I basketball in defensive turnover rate (23.3%) — 32 spots better even than the Richard Pitino Lobos, who were known for forcing turnovers (20.3% turnover rate, 35th nationally) and scoring in transition.

But that Tritons defense was built on returning players who had logged a lot of minutes together. This Lobos team is not that.

Still, the Lobos forced Washington State into 19 turnovers, converting those into 18 points. The Cougars shot just 40.8% and 22.7% from 3-point range.

Washington State didn’t make a field goal against the Lobos for the first 8 minutes, 13 seconds of the second half. To be clear, the Lobos’ foul-happy night didn’t exactly mean that drought turned the game around, since the Cougars hit seven free throws in that span in a game they attempted 43 free throws off 31 Lobo personal fouls.

But for a road game when a roster of 14 new players shot just 26.7% from the floor, something kept the Lobos in the game until the final minute.

“I wouldn’t say I’m happy, obviously, but I like what we saw out there,” Lobo forward Antonio Chol said after his 11 point, five-rebound game. “We could be disruptive. We’re a great team when we get out in transition (off of defensive turnovers). ...

“Things just weren’t falling and obviously we still had a close game. So I just think it’s a testament to coach. He really put a well put-together group. We were leading and still not doing the best offensively, we were still in the game. Nobody on our team was really too surprised, because we gel together, you know, we all like each other, and we’re just out there trying to win.”

Comparison is the thief of joy

No, we don’t need to forever compare this new Lobos team under Olen to his old ones at UC San Diego, but this new-look version of UNM’s premier program is still so much of an unknown to everyone.

In their Division I existence (just since the 2020-21 season), the Tritons shot worse than 29.0% on 2-pointers in a regular-season game just once — Nov. 4, 2024 in a 63-58 loss at San Diego State when a team that included current Lobos Chris Howell and Milos Vicentic hit just 10 of 35 shots (28.6%) inside the arc.

As for that three-point volume — 44 3-point attempts out of a total of 75 shots (a 3-point attempt rate of 58.7%), that would have ranked as just the ninth most for Olen’s Tritons in a regular season game.

3s galore

The 44 3-point attempts in Saturday’s game — 10 of 11 Lobos attempted at least one, with guard Luke Haupt the only player without a triple try — would have been a single-game UNM record had it been a regular-season game.

The record for most 3-pointers attempted by the Lobos in game is 42, in a Dec. 11, 1993, double-overtime home loss to NMSU.

COUGARS 74, LOBOS 66

NEW MEXICO (0-0)

Albury 1-11 4-4 6, Chol 3-7 3-3 11, Howell 1-7 0-1 2, Buljan 2-5 0-0 4, Hall 3-13 2-2 10, Patton 1-6 0-0 2, Miller 1-6 1-2 4, Haupt 1-3 5-5 7, Tenette 4-10 0-0 11, Vicentic 2-6 0-0 6, Rock 1-1 0-0 3. Totals 20-75 15-17 66.

WASHINGTON STATE (0-0)

Yalaho 3-6 2-6 8, Thrastarson 4-9 4-4 13, Morton 1-5 10-13 12, Rodriguez 1-3 0-0 2, Okafor 3-7 3-7 9, Ugbo 4-6 6-8 16, Hildebrandt 3-7 2-3 10, Gerrits 0-0 0-0 0, Glass 1-4 2-2 4, Wynott 0-2 0-0 0. Totals 20-49 29-43 74.

3-point FGs—UNM 11-44; WSU 5-22. Rebounds—UNM 45 (Buljan 9); WSU 51 (Okafor 14). Assists—UNM 12 (Howell 4); WSU 10 (Rodriguez 5). Steals—UNM 9 (Haupt 3); WSU 8 (Rodriguez 3). Blocks—UNM 3; WSU 6 (Okafor 2). Turnovers—UNM 14, WSU 19. Team fouls—UNM 31, WSU 17. Fouled out—Albury, Howell, Haupt, Tenette. Technical fouls—Vicentic, WSU bench.