Emptying the Notebook: Inside job led Lobos to dominant Mountain West win

Here are some notes, quotes, stats, trends and other odds & ends I emptied out of the old notebook after Saturday's 88-65 UNM Lobos win over San Jose State in the Pit:

Inside job

The Lobos always want to attack the rim first.

Rim pressure, as Eric Olen often refers to it, is the key to the spacing his offense operates with.

Saturday, even without two starters out due to injury, one of whom is their best inside presence, the success the Lobos had at the rim in an 88-65 win over San Jose State was as dominant as it has been all season.

The Lobos made 20-of-24 (83.3%) 2-point shots against San Jose State.

"Wait, 20 for 24?" a surprised UNM point guard Deyton Albury interrupted a reporter in a postgame press conference as the stat was recited.

Yes. UNM was 20 for 24 on 2-point shots

"I guess it was just one of those nights the shots was falling from the from the 2," Albury added, almost in disbelief at the stat. "So, can't be mad at it."

Eight Lobos took shots on Saturday, not a one missing more than one 2-pointer:

• 5-5 2FG — Uriah Tenette
• 4-5 2FG — Jake Hall
• 4-4 2FG — Milos Vicentic
• 3-4 2FG — Deyton Albury
• 2-3 2FG — JT Rock
• 2-2 2FG — Luke Haupt
• 0-1 2FG — Antonio Chol
• 0-0 2FG — Tajavis Miller (he was 2-4 on 3s)

It was the second-highest 2-point field goal percentage game for UNM since at least 1997, second only to the 27-31 (87.1%) game UNM had in a Feb. 28, 2018, win at Colorado State.

"I don't think you ever go in expecting to go 20-24, but we feel like we're a team that can finish around the basket," Olen said. "We felt like we could get in the paint. They did some things differently that they hadn't been doing, just relative to ball screen coverages and a lot less hard-hedge than we were kind of expecting. But I think a lot of that just comes from the ball movement, sharing the basketball.

"Deyton has seven assists, I think anytime we touch the paint and kick it out and drive it again, like we have the opportunity to really get depth on our drives, and I thought we made some good end-of-drive decisions. That's where everything starts, is putting pressure on the rim."

On the outside, UNM started Saturday's game 1-of-11 (9.1%) from 3-point range before a complete flip of that script, hitting 10 of the team's final 19 (52.6%) from beyond the arc (UNM was 11-of-30 — 36.7% — for the game).

Whether it was the commitment to those 3s even with early struggles that helped opened up the inside game or the success of the inside game that opened up the 3-point shooting, the Lobos pretty much went on a couple stretches where they just couldn't miss at all.

On three consecutive possessions after the 1-11 3-point start, the Lobos hit triples — Milos Vicentic, Antonio Chol then Vicentic again.

To end the night, UNM had its second-best shooting night of the season at 57.4% overall (second to the 59.6% game in another 20-plus point blowout of a California school in the Pit, 98-71 over Santa Clara on Dec. 6).

"We are preparing each game to be focused. Especially around the rim, when there's a physical game, you need to be mentally strong, not only physically," Vicentic said of the team's success near the basket and the way it opened up the rest of the floor. "I think we made a great advantage in pick and roll situations, where Deyton had amazing drives and assists to everybody on the court."

The gamer

Here's the gamer I filed from the Pit media room on Saturday:

• Lobos demolish Spartans in Mountain West opener

They're still streaking

Another home win for the Lobos means the home win streak is up to 19 in a row — 8-0 this season plus the last 11 home games of last season. That is still tied for the fifth longest active home win streak in Division I.

• 24 — St. Thomas (Summit League)
• 23 — Duke (ACC)
• 22 — Akron (MAC)
• 21 — Miami (Ohio) (MAC)
• 19 — New Mexico (Mountain West)
• 19 — Louisville (ACC)
• 18 — Utah Valley (WAC)
• 16 — McNeese (Southland)
• 16 — Saint Mary's (WCC)

'Lobos do not lose at home'

Honorary Albuquerque Mayor Jason Eck, who also happens to be the UNM Lobos football coach, had another fan-frenzied appearance at a Lobos game on Saturday night, this time accompanied by his football team.

Eck asked fans to show up in Phoenix at the Dec. 26 Rate Bowl in which the Lobos are playing Minnesota and closed his remarks by asking fans to back Eric Olen and the Lobos and threw in this:

"The Lobos do not lose at home!"

For 2025, he's absolutely right. In fact, UNM is the only Division I school undefeated in both football (6-0) and men's basketball (17-0 — 9-0 last season, 8-0 this season) for the calendar year.

In the past decade, that's happened just six other times, and only one other time by a program outside of a power conference:

• 2022 — Tennessee
• 2021 — Alabama, Baylor, Houston
• 2020 — Liberty, Oregon

As for Mountain West history, UNM is just the third school to ever do it, though BYU not only did it four times, they did it for three consecutive years at one point:

• 2014 — San Diego State
• 2008 — BYU
• 2007 — BYU
• 2006 — BYU
• 2001 — BYU

And has UNM ever done this before? Of course. You remember that 1926 season, don't you? That was when the Lobo football team went 4-0 at home and the men's basketball team was 8-0.

Future Lobo

Tavid Johnson, a 6-foot-2 high school junior from San Diego's Francis Parker School who is rated as a four-star recruit by 247 Sports.com, announced on his Instagram page Saturday night shortly before tipoff that he is committed to play for the Lobos.

A number to know: 10

The Lobos had 10 second chance points on Saturday off a season-low (by a lot) four offensive rebounds.

That's a crazy-efficient 2.5 points per offensive rebound, the Lobos best of the season.

In a game without your best rebounder, and in a game you shoot 57.4%, it's not unexpected to have a lower than normal offensive rebound number, although four is absurdly low for a game. Nevertheless, the Lobos made the most of the ones they did get, converting their offensive boards into 2.5 points apiece, easily the best of the season for UNM.

Here's how they did it, according to the play-by-play in the official game book:

Offensive rebound No. 1:

• 14:43 — Luke Haupt offensive rebound
• 14:41 — Luke Haupt layup
• NET: — 2 points — 2 second chance pts. total

Offensive rebound No. 2:

• 10:21 — Uriah Tenette offensive rebound
• 10:19 — Uriah Tenette layup and foul (made FT)
• NET — 3 points — 5 second chance pts. total

Offensive rebound No. 3:

• 6:44 — Milos Vicentic offensive rebound
• 6:37 — Milos Vicentic 3-pointer
• NET: 3 points — 8 second chance pts. total

Offensive rebound No. 4:

• 10:55 — "TEAM" offensive rebound
• 10:47 — JT Rock basket in the paint
• NET: 2 points — 10 second chance pts.

(sorry, no video clip for this one)

Steve Kirkland Stat of the Night

From UNM hoops Sports Information Director Steve Kirkland:

Milos Vicentic became the first Lobo to score at least 19 points while playing 17 or fewer minutes against a Division I opponent since 2012, when Demetrius Walker had 19 points in 17 minutes vs. Air Force in the 2012 Mountain West Tournament.

The only other time a Lobo accomplished that feat in any game between Walker and Vicentic was just a few weeks ago when Jake Hall scored 21 points in 16 minutes against Division II New Mexico Highlands.

More on Milos

While his minutes wouldn't have suggested it, what Milos Vicentic did Saturday night offensively wasn't a surprise to the Lobos coaches or his teammates.

"I seen it my first day here in the summer when we were playing pickup," Albury recalled. "I seen how was skillful he was and it blew my mind."

With his 19-point explosion, Vicentic became the 11th Lobo to score in double figures this season in just the 12th game.

It's the first time since the 2017-18 season the Lobos had 11 players score in double figures in a season.

Those little guys

My Saturday preview article in the Journal led off with pointing out the success UNM has had this season when playing its two shortest players — Uriah Tenette (5-11) and Deyton Albury (6-3) — together on the floor at the same time.

Saturday, it was more of the same with the two appearing on the court together for a total of 17 minutes, 10 seconds. In that time, UNM outscored San Jose State 34-21 for a plus-13 differential.

While this is not with Saturday's game factored in, here's the graphic I put together for the preview article, with the help of CBB Analytics, showing the Tenette/Albury duo had the best plus/minus number (plus-59) of any two-man combination for the Lobos this season.

Injuries

Chris Howell and Tomislav Buljan were held out of Saturday's game against San Jose State, but both will likely be back for the Dec. 30 game against Boise State.

'High Knees' in the House!

Royalty was in the Pit on Saturday night.

That's right, one of the top-rated (rated No. 6 in the country by KenPom.com), busiest (Saturday was already his 37th game officiated since Nov. 3) and most well-known (he's got his own fan account on X with more than 20,000 followers!) referees graced the Pit with his presence on Saturday night.

The one and only, Jeffrey Anderson. Known affectionately by college basketball junkies as "High Knees".

I know of only one other game Anderson has called of the Lobos since I've been covering the team. Coincidentally, he also officiated last season's UNM/San Jose State game in California.

For openers...

UNM coaches who won their first Mountain West game:

• Eric Olen — New Mexico 88, San Jose State 65 (Saturday in the Pit)
• Paul Weir — New Mexico 87, Air Force 58 (Dec. 27, 2017, in the Pit)
• Craig Neal — New Mexico 80, Colorado State 73 (Jan. 4, 2014, in the Pit)
• Steve Alford — New Mexico 99, Wyoming 92 in 2OT (Jan. 5, 2008, in Laramie, Wyoming)
• Fran Fraschilla — New Mexico 71, Colorado State 70 (Jan. 10, 2000, in Fort Collins, Colorado)

UNM coaches who lost their first Mountain West game:

• Richard Pitino — Nevada 79, New Mexico 70 (Jan. 1, 2022, in Reno, Nevada)
• Ritchie McKay — Colorado State 74, New Mexico 58 (Jan. 13, 2003, in Fort Collins, Colorado)

Kill shot tracker

The Lobos added "Kill Shot" No. 10 to their season total with the 17-0 second half run that turned a 68-55 lead after SJSU's Colby Garland hit a 3-pointer with 7:45 remaining into an 85-55 lead on a Jake Hall 3-pointer with 2:13 remaining.

It was the game's only kill shot — scoring run of 10-0 or better for a team.

For the season, per EvanMiya.com, the Lobos have had 10 kill shots vs. DI teams (they also had three vs. DII New Mexico Highlands, but we're not counting those here) and have allowed just one.

UNM's 0.82 kill shot margin is more than double the second best margin in the Mountain West.

MW kill shot margin per game (Top 3)

• 0.82 — New Mexico (10/1 — 11 DI games)
• 0.40 — Utah State (8/4 — 10 DI games)
• 0.36 — Grand Canyon (8/4 — 11 DI games)

At the other end of the spectrum, UNLV remains one of only eight teams (out of 365) yet to register a single kill shot.

Attendance

The announced attendance for San Jose State at New Mexico on Saturday in the Put: 12,785

• 13,614 — Dec. 6 vs. Santa Clara
• 12,785 — Saturday vs. San Jose State
• 12,204 — Dec. 14 vs. Florida Gulf Coast
• 12,037 — Nov. 26 vs. Alabama State
• 11,689 — Nov. 11 vs. UC Riverside
• 11,513 — Nov. 8 vs. UT Arlington
• 10,726 — Nov. 5 vs. East Texas A&M
• 10,164 — Dec. 1 vs. D-II New Mexico Highlands

Series notes

The Lobos now lead the series 24-6, including 13-1 in the Pit. But don't let the records fool you. Since 2019, it's been a far more respectable (for SJSU) 10-5 UNM advantage overall with SJSU winning a game against the Lobos in five of the previous seven seasons, including 2019 when they had just a 1-17 in Mountain West play, 2020 when they were 3-15, 2021 when they were 3-13, 2022 when they were 1-17 and last season when they were 7-13.

Basically, even when the Spartans have struggled to beat anyone else in the league, they've still found success against the Lobos for some reason.

Last season, the teams split the regular season series with UNM winning a close 83-77 game in the Pit and the Spartans upsetting the Lobos 71-70 in San Jose. Then the Lobos took care of business against SJSU in the Mountain West Tournament quarterfinals, 63-52.

Plus/minus

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

NEW MEXICO

• +26 Antonio Chol (26:30)
• +25 Deyton Albury (26:33)
• +14 Luke Haupt (26:38)
• +13 JT Rock (22:52)
• +13 Jake Hall (31:35)
• +11 Tajavis Miller (15:29)
• +10 Milos Vicentic (17:08)
• +7 Uriah Tenette (30:37)
• -4 Timeo Pons (2:38)

SAN JOSE STATE

• -1 JaVaughn Hannah (11:59)
• -2 Douglas Langford (12:30)
• -4 Japhet Moupadele (16:34)
• -11 Jermaine Washington (32:02)
• -12 Adrian Myers (8:22)
• -13 Yaphet Moundi (30:22)
• -14 Pasha Goodarzi (18:55)
• -15 Sadraque NgaNga (12:12)
• -19 Melvin Bell Jr. (26:14)
• -24 Colby Garland (30:50)

Line 'em up

The UNM Lobos played nine players and used 13 unique lineup combinations on Saturday. The Spartans played 10 players and used 18 unique lineup combinations.

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

STARTING LINEUP

• WHO: Deyton Albury, Jake Hall, Luke Haupt, Antonio Chol, JT Rock
• POINT DIFFERENTIAL: +3 (5-2)
• TIME ON COURT: 3:15
• NOTE: This is probably one of the lowest total time I recall seeing a starting five play together, barring injury. I mean, this starting five was only THIS starting five because of injury (or two of them), but the point is, all five of these players were available for 40 minutes, started the game on Saturday, and yet spent less time on the court together than the time it takes to go get another beer at the Pit.

BEST LINEUP

• WHO: Uriah Tenette, Deyton Albury, Jake Hall, Antonio Chol, JT Rock
• POINT DIFFERENTIAL: +7 (7-0)
• TIME ON COURT: 2:42
• NOTE: This is one of those on any given night sort of deals. Luke Haupt has been great for the Lobos lately, especially in the +/- stats and how the team overall has ben performing while he's been on the floor. Well, on Saturday, the only difference between that starting five and this was Uriah Tenette in for Haupt and this bunch scored 1.47 points per possession and didn't give up a single point. Small sample size to read much into this, but good run for this bunch.

WORST LINEUP

• WHO: Uriah Tenette, Deyton Albury, Jake Hall, Luke Haupt, JT Rock
• POINT DIFFERENTIAL: -8 (6-14)
• TIME ON COURT: 6:03
• NOTE: Here's another oddity. In a 23-point win, the five-man lineup that spent the most time on the court for the Lobos (6 minutes, 3 seconds) was outscored by the most points (-8) out of any lineup used in the game. That means UNM outscored San Jose State 82-51 (+31 points) in the 33:57 this specific lineup wasn't on the court. This bunch went just over six minutes of court time without a single assist, had three turnovers and scored just 0.53 points per possession. Here's my top notch analysis: That's bad.

VIDEO: Eric Olen, Milos Vicentic and Deyton Albury

Here's my postgame video with UNM coach Eric Olen, Milos Vicentic and Deyton Albury:

Meanwhile, in Logan

In the game of the day in the Mountain West, or so we thought heading into the weekend, the Utah State Aggies didn't just beat the previously hot shooting Colorado State Rams, they destroyed them.

If that wasn't bad enough, here's some literal adding injury to insult for the Rams. Starting forward Kyle Jorgensen left the game early with a left leg injury he couldn't put weight on and returned to the bench on crutches. (there was no major update on the injury as of Saturday night)

New Kids on the Block

Grand Canyon won its Mountain West debut on Saturday, 82-70 at Wyoming.

Good first win in league play for the preseason No. 4 against the surprise team of nonconference play, who was brought back to reality a bit on Saturday.

But here's the real big news:

Grand Canyon currently has the best Mountain West conference winning percentage of all time!

All-time top win pct. MW games

• Grand Canyon — 1-0 — 1.000
• BYU — 126-54 — 0.700
• San Diego State — 275-152 — 0.644

NOTE: I'm not good enough at math to do this again. I can figure out what one win in one game means, but then all bets are off. So, congrats GCU.

Around the Mountain

There were six games around the Mountain West on Saturday — five league games and one big nonconference game. Here's a look at some recent games and others that are coming up around the league.

WEDNESDAY

• San Diego State 81, Air Force 58

SATURDAY

• Utah State 100, Colorado State 58
• Grand Canyon 82, Wyoming 70
• UNLV 84, Fresno State 72
• New Mexico 88, San Jose State 65
• Nevada 81, Boise State 66
• (nonconference): No. 1 Arizona 68, San Diego State 45

MONDAY

• Division III Whittier College at San Diego State, 2 p.m. MT (TheMW)
• IU Indianapolis at Grand Canyon, 6 p.m. MT (TheMW)

Mountain West standings

Here are the conference standings through Saturday's games:

(listed alphabetically where records are same)

1-0 Grand Canyon

1-0 Nevada

1-0 New Mexico

1-0 San Diego State

1-0 UNLV

1-0 Utah State

0-1 Air Force

0-1 Boise State

0-1 Colorado State

0-1 Fresno State

0-1 San Jose State

0-1 Wyoming

The latest pod!

I received great feedback about Episode 123 of the Talking Grammer podcast with Wyoming coach Sundance Wicks. And since it may be the last time he ever comes on my show again (Wyoming did lose its Mountain West opener on Saturday at home after he was on the show!), you should give it a listen now!

Stats and stats...

Here is the postgame stat sheet I posted after Saturday's game: New Mexico 88, San Jose State 65

And if you prefer the digital version, here you go: New Mexico 88, San Jose State 65

Up next

For New Mexico: The Lobos play at Boise State on Tuesday, Dec. 30, at 9 p.m. MT in a game that will be televised on FS1.

For San Jose State: The Spartans host San Diego State on Tuesday, Dec. 30, at 8 p.m. MT in a game that will be televised on CBS Sports Network.

Grammer's Guesses

Grammer's Guesses go 2-3 on Saturday and so did my daughter's coin flip picks.

We're both 3-3 heading into Christmas, which means I won't ground her for having a better record than me. Not until the new year, at least.