Emptying the Notebook: Dominant Lobos scoring run 'deflates' yet another conference team

Here are a few extra notes, quotes, videos, stats, trends and odds & ends I managed to empty out of the ol' notebook after Wednesday's 87-65 Lobos win vs. Colorado State in the Pit.

'They just kind of deflated us'

Donovan Dent dribbled to his left, and Colorado State guard Jalen Lake followed.

The Lobo point guard, as he does, got to his spot near the free throw line, stopped on a dime, dribbled behind his back to the right as Lake's momentum took him just about a step past his man.

Dent gathered the ball, pulled up for a midrange jumper on the right side of the lane, maybe 14 feet from the basket with Lake recovering nicely on the close out, arm fully extended to contest the shot that had already sailed by his hand, ripping nothing but the bottom of the net.

At the other end of the court, Colorado State coach Niko Medved with arms crossed, looked down to the ground and slowly turned around and took a few steps back toward the Rams bench — full of players and assistants sitting silent in a then-deafening arena.

There was just nothing they could do in that moment.

"It felt like it was really a kind of a heavyweight fight. I mean, we weren't making a lot of shots, but we were doing enough to kind of answer some punches," Colorado State coach Niko Medved told the Journal after UNMs 87-65 win over his Rams on Wednesday night. "And then, yeah, that last 10 minutes or whatever it was, it just got away from us. ...

"When they needed it, they made a lot of big shots to stretch it (the lead). And then they just kind of deflated us down the stretch. ... The scoreboard's the scoreboard. You got to play 40 minutes, and it's hard to do that (vs. UNM)."

In that moment, the Lobos were in the midst of yet another one of their increasingly common flurries of domination at both ends of the court that have overwhelmed opponent with regularity over the past two months as UNM has won 11 of its last 12 games since that embarrassing Dec. 7 home loss to the New Mexico State Aggies.

The Rams are hardly alone. In fact, what the Lobos did to them to close out Wednesday's game was actually a little less dominant that what they did to Utah State on the Aggies' home court on Saturday night in Utah.

Dominant Lobo stretches in MW play:

• 22-8 run to close out their Dec. 4 win over San Jose State after the Spartans went up 69-61 with 8:47 left in the game.

• 21-0 run in the first half at Colorado State on Dec. 28, turning a 16-16 tie game into a 37-16 Lobos lead in just under seven minutes.

• 17-1 run to start 2nd half at Wyoming on Jan. 7 after trailing 32-18 at halftime.

• 23-2 run to close out the first half vs. Boise State on Jan. 17, taking a 48-21 lead into halftime.

• 25-4 run to start their Jan. 20 game vs. Fresno State, which ended up being a 28-point victory.

• 43-15 run to close out Saturday's game in Logan, Utah, after Utah State took a 48-39 lead with 15:24 left. UNM gave the Aggies their worst home loss (19 points) since November 1996.

• 38-15 run to close out Wednesday's game in the Pit after Colorado State took a 50-49 lead with 12:51 remaining in the game.

And to be clear, the Lobos haven't been doing this vs. only the bottom of the standings teams. In fact, the Lobos have held at minimum a 19-point lead in all five games they have played against the other top four teams in the standings, who are all still vying for postseason berths: Utah State, San Diego State, Colorado State (twice), and Boise State.

The gamer...

Here is the gamer I filed from the Pit late Wednesday:

• Dent, Junior Joseph, Noland shine as UNM Lobos throttle Colorado State in the Pit

Woah Nelly!

Nelly Junior Joseph, the reigning Mountain West Player of the Week who has had four-consecutive double-doubles, is on an absolute heater during UNM's current five-game winning streak.

So much so, he's now, for he first time in two seasons as a Lobo, listed as one of the five players on the KenPom.com Mountain West Player of the Year list (based entirely on a computer formula that is designed to judger player performance based off statistics).

First, let's appreciate Wednesday's stat line for the Lobos center:

• 18 points

• 11 rebounds

• 4 assists

• 5 blocks

• 3 steals

• 7 fouls drawn

• 10-13 FTs

Throw all those numbers into the old stathead.com database and what do we find?

Here is a list of every Division I basketball player who has had a game of at least 18 points, 11 rebounds, 4 assists, 5 blocks, 3 steals and 10 made free throws in the past 21 years (since the 2004-05 season):

• Nelly Junior Joseph, UNM (Wednesday vs. Colorado State)

• Mike Muscala, Bucknell (Dec. 19, 2012 vs. Marist)

Two of Junior Joseph's steals on Wednesday led to fast break buckets, including this one early in the game in which he sets up his point guard for Dent's only first half bucket, a layup:

Just an insane stat sheet stuffing there from the big man, who also happened to miss several shots close to the rim, or it would have been his fourth 20-point double-double of the season.

Over the past five games, all wins for UNM (vs. Boise State, vs. Fresno State, at UNLV, at Utah State and vs. Colorado State), here is what Junior Joseph is averaging:

• 16.2 points

• 13.2 rebounds

• 3.4 offensive rebounds

• 1.6 blocks

• 1.0 steals

• 4.6 fouls drawn

• 29-of-52 FGs (55.8%)

• 23 made FTs (4.6/game)

He's also the reigning player of the week. In case you missed that news from Monday...

Steve Kirkland Stat of the Game!

With the Nelly Junior Joseph recent dominance in mind, here is this ETN's edition of the Steve Kirkland Stat of the Game, brought to you by UNM hoops sports information director Steve Kirkland:

Only two Lobos have had four-consecutive double-doubles in the past seven seasons:

• Nelly Junior Joseph: Jan. 20 - present

• Morris Udeze: Jan. 7, 2023 - Jan. 17, 2023

NET gains...

Here's the updated NET rankings for Mountain West team on Thursday morning:

40 — Utah State

41 — New Mexico (up from 46 on Wednesday)

49 — Boise State

50 — San Diego State

75 — Nevada

82 — Colorado State

111 — UNLV

162 — San Jose State

165 — Wyoming

276 — Fresno State

305 — Air Force

C.J. Noland's perfect (shooting) game...

C.J. Noland may not be on quite the heater Nelly Junior Joseph is on, but what he's done in back-to-back games (11 points Saturday, 19 on Wednesday), and especially with his perfect shooting night on Wednesday, has been a leading example of why the Lobos have looked so much better than the rest of the field in the Mountain West at the moment.

Wednesday's C.J. Noland stat line:

• 19 points

• 7-7 FGs

> 4-4 2FG

> 3-3 3FG

• 2-2 FTs

• 2 assists

• 2 rebounds

• 1 steal

And as crazy as this stat is, it's true. He and Junior Joseph have now given the UNM Lobos back-to-back perfect 7-of-7 shooting performances (Junior Joseph had his vs. Utah State on Saturday).

Most FGs w/o miss for MW player this season:

• 11-11 — Aubin Gaterestse, Utah State, vs. Alcorn (Nov. 6)

• 8-8 — Wesley Celichowski, Air Force, vs San Diego State (Jan. 22)

• 7-7 — C.J. Noland, UNM, vs. Colorado State (Wednesday)

• 7-7 — Nelly Junior Joseph, UNM, at Utah State (Saturday)

• 7-7 — Magoon Gwath, SDSU, at Nevada (Jan. 25)

• 7-7 — Tyson Degenhart, Boise State, vs. Utah Tech (Def. 3)

The Lobos have a bench?!

It was just a few games ago (UNM's 75-73 road win at UNLV) when it was clear as day, the Lobos just didn't have a bench, right?

One game if it vanishing (it was 3-points form the bench vs. the Rebels) led to widespread panic among the Lobo Nation masses.

Then...

Saturday at Utah State, led by Noland's 11 and Jovan Milicevic's 8, the Lobos' bench score 24 points on the road in Saturday's huge win in Logan.

Wednesday, led by Noland's 19 and Milicevic's 6, the Lobos' bench outscored CSU's bench 25-14.

Now, the Lobos bench may just be a two-player strong bench right now, but we're talking a pretty strong 1-2 punch in Noland and Milicevic.

The freshman big man hit two of Wednesday's nine Lobo made 3-pointers and his lone assist set up Noland for one of his three.

Pitino on Wednesday played his top seven players 196 minutes, 39 seconds of a possible 200 minutes.

Asked if this was the plan moving forward to cut the rotation down and play just seven deep, as many coaches start to do this late in the season, Pitino said it was not.

"I think it was a feel thing," Pitino said. "I just really liked Nelly and Donnie the second half (so he didn't pull them much for back up point guard Kayde Dotson and back up center Atiki Ally Atiki). That's not my desire (every game), by any means, but I just thought Nelly was phenomenal, and then Donnie started going, getting rolling a little bit. So no, I mean, I want those guys ready. I'd like to go a little deeper than that for sure."

Eleven and won ...

OK, so as the Lobos keep winning at a high rate to start conference play, some variation of this one-of-the-best-conference-starts-ever note in ETN keeps progressing.

UNM's best 12-game conference starts:

• 12-0 — 1944-45 (Border Conference)

• *11-1 — 2024-25 (Mountain West)

• 11-1 — 1997-98 (WAC)

• 11-1 — 1977-78 (WAC)

• 10-2 — 2013-14 (Mountain West)

• 10-2 — 2012-13 (Mountain West)

• 10-2 — 2009-10 (Mountain West)

• 10-2 — 1993-94 (WAC)

* = active.

Wait, they can hit 3s now, too?!

The UNM Lobos still shoot among the fewest, and make among the fewest 3-pointers per game in the Mountain West.

But based on what they did Wednesday, maybe things will start changing.

UNM's 9-of-14 3-point shooting game (64.3%) was the highest percentage the team has shot from beyond the arc since going 6-of-9 (66.7%) at Colorado State on Jan. 14, 2017.

Wednesday was the sixth best 3FG% for the Lobos in the 26-season history of the Mountain West.

UNM's highest 3-pt percentage games in MW play:

1. 80.0% (8-10) — W, 76-64 vs. Fresno State (Dec. 31, 2014)

2. 77.8% (7-9) — W, 69-52 at TCU (Jan. 24, 2009)

3. 70.0% (7-10) — W, 83-64 at San Jose State (Jan. 23, 2016)

4. 68.4% (13-19) — W, 91-72 vs. BYU (Feb. 19, 2005)

5. 66.7% (6-9) — W, 84-71 at Colorado State ( Jan. 14, 2017)

6. 64.3% (9-14) — W, 87-65 vs. Colorado State (Wednesday)

7. 63.6% (7-11) — W, 96-68 at San Jose State (Feb. 17, 2023)

8. 63.0% (17-27) — L, 93-91 at Utah 2OT (Feb. 24, 2007)

t9. 62.5% (10-16) — W, 75-49 vs. San Diego State (Feb. 21, 2009)

t9. 62.5% (5-8) — L, 64-62 at Air Force (Jan. 15, 2005)

Home sweet home?

Now, this is an interesting home/road split for the Mountain West over the past week and a half...

Last week's 10 Mountain West games:

• Home team: 9 wins

• Road team: 1 win

(The one road outlier was UNM's win Saturday at Utah State.)

This week's five Mountain West games so far:

• Home team: 1 wins

• Road team: 4 wins

(The one home outlier was UNM's win Wednesday.)

Lobo baseball team strikes again!

Someone should have warned Boise State. That Lobo baseball team win back in the Pit on Wednesday.

The Rams do have the Lobos number here...

Richard Pitino prides himself in being a great coach at teaching free throw defense. The Lobos rank No. 3 (out of 364 Division I teams) in free throw defense as opposing teams this season are hitting just 65.6% of their free throws vs. UNM with the national average being 71.8%.

Only Wichita State (65.0%) and Lipscomb (65.1%) are holding teams to a worse free throw percentage.

EDITOR'S NOTE: No matter how much I write about free throw defense, let me clear, there is no such thing as free throw defense. Free throws remain the one shot in basketball that can't be defended.

Then there's the Colorado State Rams, who clearly have a great gam plan for attacking the Lobos' free throw defense.

CSU's FT shooting vs. UNM:

• 8-8 (100%) — Dec. 28 in Moby Arena (Fort Collins)

• 20-24 (83.3%) — Wednesday in the Pit (Albuquerque)

• 28-32 (87.5%) — 2024-25 season (two regular season games)

So, to recap...

Opponents FT shooting vs. UNM: 65.6%

National avg. FT shooting: 71.8%

CSU FT shooting on season: 78.7%

CSU FT shooting vs. UNM: 87.5%

Attendance...

The announced attendance for Wednesday's late-starting CSU Rams at UNM Lobos game in the Pit: 13,436

It's about time ...

Wednesday's 13,462 was plenty loud and energetic. But it wasn't a sellout that Lobo fans (often ones on social media not at the game) say they expect.

Late starts, as they have for years, continue to hurt the Lobos at the gate.

Here's a look at the start times for Lobo home games in the Pit this season, both in nonconference and in league play when TV essentially dictates the start time as eight of UNM's 10 home conference games are televised and the two that aren't got a normal 7 p.m. weeknight start time and the other a noon start time for a Saturday game:

UNM's start times for seven nonconference home games:

• 7 p.m. (five times)

• 6 p.m.

• 2 p.m.

UNM's start times for 10 conference home games:

• 9 p.m. (two times)

• 8:30 p.m.

• 8 p.m. (two times)

• *7 p.m.

• 3 p.m. (on a Monday)

• 2 p.m. (on a Sunday)

• Noon

• 11 a.m.

* = non-televised Mountain West game played on Dec. 4.

Plus/minus...

Here are the plus/minus numbers for Wednesday's game with minutes in parenthesis:

NEW MEXICO

+23 Donovan Dent (37:20)

+22 Jovan Milicevic (18:02)

+20 Tru Washington (31:21)

+17 Nelly Junior Joseph (37:46)

+13 C.J. Noland (22:10)

+8 Filip Borovicanin (28:02)

+5 Atiki Ally Atiki (2:14)

+2 Kayde Dotson (1:07)

0 Mustapha Amzil (21:58)

COLORADO STATE

+4 Kyle Jorgensen (11:01)

-4 Nikola Diapa (2:07)

-4 Ethan Morton (12:27)

-5 Kyan Evans (24:54)

-11 Bowen Born (13:47)

-14 Nique Clifford (37:33)

-17 Jalen Lake (33:06)

-18 Jaylen Crocker-Johnson (27:33)

-19 Keyshawn Williams (10:40)

-22 Rashaan Mbemba (26:52)

Line 'em up...

The UNM Lobos played nine players and used 10 unique lineup combinations. The CSU Rams played 10 players and used 17 unique lineup combinations.

That's a season-low for total number of lineup combinations the Lobos used in a game, and while he did tell me after the game this was just a "feel" sort of decision, I would tell you it certainly looks like Richard Pitino is settling in on a primary seven-man bench now as the season winds down, something most coaches do late in the season.

I'm sorry. That means not only is not everyone going to play, but some are going to be playing even less as the season goes on.

Here's a look at some of the Lobos lineup combinations from Wednesday, starting with the starters.

STARTING LINEUP

• WHO: Donovan Dent, Tru Washington, Filip Borovicanin, Mustapha Amzil, Nelly Junior Joseph

• POINT DIFFERENTIAL: +1 (23-22)

• TIME ON COURT: 12:45

• NOTE: The starters only out-scoring Colorado State by one was a little surprising to me when I first saw it, but it makes sense when you realize the impact both C.J. Noland and Jovan Milicevic had when they were in the game. Hasn't been written in this space often this season (ever?) but the bench made UNM even stronger than its starting five on this night.

BEST LINEUP (Take 1)

• WHO: Donovan Dent, Tru Washington, C.J. Noland, Jovan Milicevic, Nelly Junior Joseph

• POINT DIFFERENTIAL: +9 (16-7)

• TIME ON COURT: 5:05

• • •

BEST LINEUP (Take 2)

• WHO: Donovan Dent, Tru Washington, Filip Borovicanin, Jovan Milicevic, Nelly Junior Joseph

• POINT DIFFERENTIAL: +9 (14-5)

• TIME ON COURT: 4:39

• NOTE: There were two lineups that played about 5 minutes on Wednesday with both outscoring CSU by 9 points in their time on the floor together, the only difference being at the "3" spot — one group having C.J. Noland in it, the other with Filip Borovicanin. The Noland group scored 1.9 points per possession while the Borovicanin group was at 2.2 points per possession. Both defended well, too. In all, these two lineups "won" their time on the court 30-12 in 9:44 on the court.

WORST LINEUP

• WHO: C.J. Noland, Tru Washington, Filip Borovicanin, Mustapha Amzil, Nelly Junior Joseph

• POINT DIFFERENTIAL: -3 (1-4)

• TIME ON COURT: 1:33

• NOTE: This group was on the court just 99 seconds together and didn't have one assist or one rebound.

VIDEO: Postgame with Pitino and Noland...

Here is the postgame media sessions with UNM coach Richard Pitino and guard C.J. Noland...

VIDEO: Pregame from the Pit...

Here was my pregame show from the Pit on Wednesday night...

Around the Mountain...

There were four games from Tuesday and just one Wednesday night around the Mountain West.

TUESDAY

• Utah State 71, Wyoming 67

• Nevada 74, Air Force 60

• San Jose State 94, Fresno State 91 (2OT)

• Boise State 71, UNLV 62

WEDNESDAY

• New Mexico 87, Colorado State 65

FRIDAY

• San Jose State at Boise State, 6 p.m. PST/7 p.m. MST (FS1)

• Utah State at Fresno State, 7 p.m. PST/8 p.m. MST (TheMW)

SATURDAY

• New Mexico at Air Force, 1 p.m. PST/2 p.m. MST (TheMW)

• UNLV at Wyoming, 1 p.m. PST/2 p.m. MST (TheMW)

• San Diego State at Colorado State, 7 p.m. PST/8 p.m. MST (CBS Sports Network)

Mountain West standings...

Through the midweek slate of games:

11-1 New Mexico

10-2 Utah State

8-3 San Diego State

8-3 Colorado State

8-4 Boise State

5-7 Nevada

5-7 UNLV

5-7 San Jose State

4-8 Wyoming

1-11 Fresno State

0-12 Air Force

Mountain West home/road standings...

A team gets plus-1 for a road win, minus-1 for a home loss:

+5 New Mexico

+4 Utah State

+3 Colorado State

+2 San Diego State

+2 Boise State

-1 Nevada

-1 UNLV

-1 San Jose State

-2 Wyoming

-5 Fresno State

-6 Air Force

Stats and stats...

Here is the postgame stat sheet I posted late Wednesday night: New Mexico 87, Colorado State 65

And if you prefer the digital version, here you go: New Mexico 87, Colorado State 65

Grammer's Guesses...

The coin lost! Of course so did I, but who cares? The coin lost!

Grammer's Guesses are now at 31-34 on the season and my daughter's coin flip picks are 38-27 on the season.

Up next...

For New Mexico: The Lobos play at the U.S. Air Force Academy on Saturday at 2 p.m. The game will be streamed on TheMW.com.

For Colorado State: The Rams host San Diego State at 8 p.m. Saturday in a game being broadcast on CBS Sports Network.

Lobo schedule/results...