Emptying the Notebook: Jovan Milicevic's break out game was months in the making

Here are some extra notes, quotes, videos, stats and other odds & ends I managed to empty out of the old reporter's notebook after Saturday's 122-70 UNM Lobos win over the WNMU Mustangs in the Pit:

That was a fantastic freshman performance...

Jovan Milicevic thought he had been getting in pretty good shape the last few months, shedding around 30 pounds, getting quicker and adding muscle to the 6-foot-10 frame of a player who was obviously very skilled offensively coming out of Dream City Christian prep school in Arizona last season.

But then on Saturday night, the thin air in the Pit, or better yet the 14 minutes and 35 seconds of continuous playing time to close out the Lobos' 122-70 blowout victory over Division II Western New Mexico, changed his mind.

"You definitely felt it a little bit," Milicevic told Robert Portnoy and Hunter Greene on UNM's postgame radio show on KOB 770 AM/96.3 FM, joking about how exhausted he was on the court at the end of the game. "I wasn't so used to that."

Milicevic had, by far, his best college game on Saturday night, setting career highs in his young season in just about every stat that shows up on a box score — an achievement that should both be congratulated first and foremost, but also, considering the competition, taken with at least a small grain of salt when trying to analyze what it could mean for the Lobos the rest of the season.

Jovan Milicevic Saturday stats:

• POINTS: 21 (career high)

• REBOUNDS: 6 (career high)

• 2pt FG: 5-7 (71.4%)

• 3pt FG: 3-4 (75.0%)

• FT: 2-3 (66.7%)

• ASSISTS: 4 (career high)

• STEAL: 3 (career high)

• MINUTES: 18:36 (including last 14:35 of game, career high)

Coincidentally, his 21 points off the bench on Saturday night is the most a Lobo has had off the bench in just over one year since Tru Washington, then also a freshman, scored 21 off the bench against the New Mexico State Aggies on Dec. 2, 2023.

That game, like Saturday's vs. WNMU, was a blowout giving Richard Pitino plenty of opportunity to give the bench minutes. The Lobos beat NMSU that night last year in the Pit by 40 points, 12 shy of what they did Saturday to the D-II Mustangs.

But back to Milicevic, the Serbian player who is from Toronto and who played at the Arizona prep school last year. This summer, he arrived on campus at UNM at 266 pounds, something that wasn't going to work for Pitino's high-paced offense and attack the rim at all times style.

"Coach loves playing fast, as you guys see. He wants to play with pace. That's all he preaches, is playing with pace," Milicevic said. "So, slimming down definitely helped me a lot moving up and down the court, and especially because in our defense, we have to switch onto guards at the 4 position, right? So a lot of times, have to be able to stay in front of a guard.

"So, just losing those pounds and putting on a little bit more muscle and keep developing. I'm a little young. I'm a freshman, so my body's gonna come but it's something that definitely helped me a lot."

Gone was fast food. Gone was postgame pizza. Gone were sodas. And in was that pesky monitoring from strength coach Matt Flores.

Today, Milicevic is playing under 240 pounds and showed off his agility more than once Saturday night with Euro step layups in the lane and even running the fast break in transition a couple times himself.

Donovan Dent and fellow freshman Kayde Dotson probably don't have to worry about their point guard minutes diminishing because of Milicevic. Pitino's hope, though, is that opportunities like Saturday will help speed up the progress of getting Milicevic ready to play bigger minutes at the 4 spot behind Mustapha Amzil, something Pitino acknowledges he wished he had done more of last week in the NMSU loss with Amzil shooting so poorly.

"He can learn a lot from Mustapha. They're similar in a lot of ways from a skillset standpoint," Pitino said. "He's just young, and we've had some really hard games, schedule wise.

"... Hopefully those guys, Kayde and Jovan, see that they're gonna have a big role in the future here."

Top frosh?

Something else to look to the future about, albeit the far more immediate future, is Monday morning's Mountain West announcement of player and freshman of the week.

A quick skim at both his eye-popping stat line and then those of all the other freshman in the conference and it would seem Milicevic has a very good chance of wining Freshman of the Week on Monday.

One could argue his biggest competition for the week is teammate Dotson.

Now, UNM playing a non-Division I opponent will be considered, but really San Diego State's Magoon Gwath's line against Cal Baptist is the only other stat line worthy.

Some top freshman weeks in MW:

• G Jovan Milicevic, UNM: 1 game (non-DI), 21 points, 6 rebounds, 4 assists, 3 steals

• G Kayde Dotson, UNM: 1 game (non-DI), 8 points, 6 assists, 1 steal

• F Magoon Gwath, SDSU: 1 game, 10 points, 2 rebounds, 2 blocks

• G Pasha Goodarzi, SJSU: 2 games (one DI, one non-DI), 7.5 points per game

• F Papa N'Diaye, UNLV: 4 pts, 10 reb, 2 blocks

• F Abou Magassa, Wyoming: 2 games, 3.0 ppg, 6.5 rpg

NOTE: An SDSU freshman has won the award three of the five times it's been announced in the league this season and the past two weeks.

Should Milicevic win the award, it would make for the third consecutive season the Lobos have had at least one player win Freshman of the Week. In 2022-23, Donovan Dent won it once. Last season, both Tru Washington and J.T. Toppin won it multiple times.

One last nugget on Milicivek's big night, it continued after the game. He and and Filip Borovicanin, the Lobos' two Serbian players who both had career-high scoring nights on Saturday, were very happy for each other after Saturday's game, with Milicevic handling the player portion of the postgame radio show down on the court while Borovicanin was talking to print and TV reporters in the media room.

Well, at least he was trying to talk to reporters when he wasn't being interrupted by an ecstatic Milicevic.

The gamer...

Here is the gamer I filed Saturday night from the media room in the Pit:

• Wake-up call: Lobos let out a week of frustration on D-II Mustangs

The most since...

There were a whole lot of "that was the most ________ since ________" kind of stats getting racked up for the Lobos on Saturday. Yes, it was against a Division II opponent, but the Lobos play one non-DI opponent every season, as do most Mountain West schools, often with other MW teams doing so against NAIA or D-III teams. The bottom line is Saturday checked a lot of happy boxes for the Lobos, no matter who it was against.

Let's rattle some off based on UNM's postgame notes:

• 122 points: Most for a Mountain West team in three seasons (UNLV scored 126 points vs. NAIA Life Pacific University from San Dimas, Calif.)

• 60 1st half points: Most for UNM in first half since scoring 74 vs. NAIA Northern New Mexico on Nov. 11, 2017, in the first regular season game of the Paul Weir coaching era.

• 31 assists: Second time this century UNM has reached 30 assists in a game (40 vs. Northern NM in 2017)

Pitino era highs:

• Points (122)

• Points in a half (62, 2nd half)

• FG% in a half (66.7%, 2nd half)

• Margin of victory (52)

• Field goals: 47

• Assists: 31

• Bench points: 74

Career scoring highs:

• 21 points: Jovan Milicevic

• 18 points: Braden Appelhans

• 13 points: Filip Borovicanin

For starters...

Pitino tweaked his starting lineup on Saturday, saying it had to do with trying to get Borovicanin going (he did score a career-high 13 points). He did not say it had anything to do with Tru Washington struggling of late or any disciplinary matters.

"It's nothing to do with Tru, C.J. (Noland), Braden (Appelhans). Everything to do with Filip. I'm trying to get him going," Pitino said. "... I kind of wrestled with (who to take out of the starting lineup) C.J., Tru. It didn't really matter to me, but I think I know what I have with Braden. I think I know what I have with Tru. And I know what I have with C.J. Filip is the one I think that's got the most room to grow and the most upside. So I just went with that."

Washington's previous two games weren't his best, though.

In fact, the defense-first guard posted his first two games without a steal all season last week in the narrow win over San Jose State and the overtime loss to New Mexico State. He also shot a combined 3-of-11 on 2-point shots, many of those misses being layups at the rim.

Saturday vs. WNMU, coming off the bench, Washington had 12 points, shot 5-10 overall (4-9 on 2s, 1-1 on 3s), had five rebounds, a career-high five assists and one steal.

The return of turning defense into offense...

UNM had 17 points off turnovers in an overtime loss to NMSU last Saturday and just six points off turnovers in a close win over San Jose State on Dec. 4.

In both cases, the Lobos were 20 point favorites and simply didn't have much flow or rhythm to their entire game — something they usually get when they loosen up with some fastbreak buckets and getting out and running in transition when they turn defense into offense.

That's not to say it's always a fast break. Sometimes, the Lobos just go ahead and do what Donovan Dent (steal and assist) does here with C.J. Noland (basket):

Saturday vs. Western New Mexico, UNM posted a season-best 45 points of 24 Mustangs turnovers.

Here are the updated points off turnover figures for the Lobos:

• UNM's average: 22.5 per game

• UNM's high: 45 (vs. WNMU)

• UNM's low: 6 (vs. San Jose State)

Sacko sighting...

He played just under seven minutes on Saturday and hasn't played double digit minutes in more than a month. But Ibrahima Sacko certainly made the most of this time on the court Saturday, tying a season high with four points, including this highlight reel dunk...

Steve Kirkland stat of the night...

Here's a two-fer of off the bench nuggets for this ETN's Steve Kirkland Stat of the Night from the UNM hoops SID.

• Jovan Milicevic (21), Braden Appelhans (18) and Tru Washington (12) gave the Lobos three players to score in double figures off the bench for the first time since Dec. 6, 2022, also against Western New Mexico when Donovan Dent (12), K.J. Jenkins (11) and Birima Seck (11) did so in UNM's 102-63 win over the Mustangs.

• Appelhans' five 3-pointers (he was 5-of-8 from 3 and didn't attempt a 2) off the bench was the most for a Lobo since Jan. 19, 2022 when K.J. Jenkins hit 5-of-9 from 3 (he also didn't attempt a 2) in an 80-74 road loss at Colorado State.

Bunnies! Oh, those beautiful bunnies!

Saturday's preview article in the Journal was about the way UNM, almost inexplicably, was dreadfully bad on layups (yes, layups) in two games last week — a close win over San Jose State and a close overtime loss to New Mexico State.

• Betrayed by the bunny: UNM hit fewer than half of its layups in both games last week

After dominating points in the paint and shooting well over 50% in every game this season on layups, the Lobos vs. SJSU (13-28 on layups, 46.4%) and vs. NMSU (14-38 on layups, 36.8%) were simply bad at the rim, and it was mostly their starting five with the issues.

Well, Saturday, against an out-matched WNMU team (remember, SJSU and NMSU were both supposed to be outmatched teams, too, as the Lobos were 20-point favorites), the Lobos were 26-33 (78.8%) on layups.

"I harped on it," Pitino said of the layup hiccup last week. "I was all over them about it, working on it. It’s not okay to miss layups, guys.

"Free throws are different. Free throws are a little bit mental. Layups are a toughness thing, get in there and go make the layup. We had two games in a row San Jose and New Mexico State of under 50% from layups. The NBA is trying to get above 70% from layups. Guys are good players. Do better."

Here is a look at the Lobos on layups this season:

• 17-30 (56.7%) — W, vs. Nicholls State

• 13-19 (68.4%) — W, vs. UCLA (neutral)

• 17-28 (60.7%) — W, vs. Texas A&M-Corpus Christi

• 17-32 (53.1%) — L, at St. John's

• 12-23 (52.2%) — W, vs. Grambling State

• 13-24 (54.2%) — W, vs. Texas Southern

• 11-21 (52.4%) — L, vs. Arizona State (neutral)

• 11-14 (78.6%) — W, vs. USC (neutral)

• 13-28 (46.4%) — W, vs. San Jose State

• 14-38 (36.8%) — L, vs. New Mexico State

• 26-33 (78.8%) — W, Western New Mexico

BLOBS! Oh, those beautiful BLOBS!

Now, don't forget, not all "layups" are created equal.

In the case of Atiki Ally Atiki, he showed Saturday for at least the third time this season (I'm pretty sure it's just been three, but maybe it's been four of these) that he is not only an elite leaper, but has a great feel for finishing at the rim, especially in these set plays.

For those who don't know, a BLOB (BaseLine Out of Bounds) play is a set play for a team when inbounding the ball from under their own basket.

Here's the Dent to Atiki BLOB dunk from the first half on Saturday night:

I asked Pitino about the Atiki BLOBs after the game, thinking I had seen them run this very play before.

"Two different ones," Pitino said of their BLOBs they have drawn up for Atiki. "But yeah. I mean, he's just such a good athlete. I mean, he is as good of a lob threat as I've ever coached."

Points per possession...

• 1.506 — UNM's points per possession vs. WNMU (season high)

• 0.886 — WNMU's points per possession vs. UNM (third worst for a UNM opponent this season)

Donnie's Dimes (and his sleeves)...

He finished at the rim again, he ran the show when he was on the court, he quietly dished out eight assists to go along with 11 points and a career-high four steals.

Donovan Dent was good on Saturday, and I'll update you more on that in a moment. First, the most pressing question of Saturday's game was what was the Lobos all-conference point guard wearing a long sleeve t-shirt under his jersey for the first time in his career?

It was the type of hard-hitting fashion question Richard Pitino absolutely loves hearing from me after a game:

The answer is, well, Pitino didn't really know. And I did not get a chance to talk with Dent.

But Pitino admitted he noticed it too, and his superstitious anxiety may have kicked in for a brief moment as for the second game in a row, one of his starters made a significant change to their in-game appearance with him not knowing about it until game a couple hours before game time, or in the case of Dent's sleeves, until game time itself.

"The more I do it, the more superstitious I get," Pitino said. "I'm coming in to the New Mexico State game (last Saturday), and also Nelly (Junior Joseph) walks in and he's shaved his head. And I'm just like, 'What the hell is this? What are you doing?' It's not why we lost.

"Then I walked down today, and Donovan's got a long sleeve shirt on, and I'm like, 'What the hell is he doing? What's going on?' So I don't know why. Maybe he was cold. I don't know. I asked one of the assistants, he said (Dent) wanted it to feel like practice (where Dent sometimes wears long sleeve t-shirts)."

The sleeves certainly didn't affect Dent's passing abilities. His eight assists on Saturday helped him moved past another Lobo legend on the all-time career assists list:

UNM Career Assists

1. Darrell McGee, 1987-90 — 684 (137 games)

—

12. Charles Smith, 1994-97 — 358 (126 games)

13. Hunter Greeene, 1984-88 — 354 (108 games)

14. Donovan Dent, 2023-present — 352 (80 games)

15. Mike Winters, 1984-87 — 351 (133 games)

16. Rob Robbins, 1988-91 — 350 (133 games)

17. Luc Longley, 1988-91 — 317 (132 games)

18. Royce Olney, 1995-98 — 312 (120 games)

19. Lamont Long, 1997-00 — 301 (124 games)

The new guy hired a new guy...

New AD Fernando Lovo and UNM on Saturday announced it hired Jason Eck as the new Lobo football coach.

Eck was still coaching as of Friday night, where he and the Vandals lost to No. 1 and undefeated Montana State (remember them?) in the FCS playoff quarterfinals.

Colleague Sean Reider has the coverage here:

• Entering the Eck era: New Mexico taps Jason Eck to be its next football coach

— AND —

• UNM AD reflects on Jason Eck's program building, 'infectious' personality and dance moves

And for those interested in such things, Eck will have a formal, introductory press conference at UNM on Tuesday morning.

Familiar faces (part 1)...

Former UNM Lobo Isaiah Marin held his one in his first game played in the Pit.

The 6-5 guard played for UNM in the 2020-21 season that, due to COVID-related health restrictions in New Mexico, led to the Lobos being forced to live, practice and play the entire season outside the state, never getting one home game.

Thus, despite his having 19 games as a Lobo under his belt, Saturday was the first time many Lobo fans saw him play and it was the first time Isaiah ever played in the Pit (he did practice a few times in the Pit in the fall of 2020 before the Governor's health order prevented that from happening anymore).

Here's a feature I wrote this past week on Isaiah's unexpected journey in college basketball that started with the Lobos and five teams and five seasons later saw him ply his first game in the Pit, scoring 13 points and hitting three of his team's seven 3-pointers.

• Isaiah Marin played a full season for the Lobos, but Saturday is his first game in the Pit

Familiar faces (part 2)...

WNMU guard Judah Casaus became the first graduate of ABC Prep to ever play a college game in the Pit on Saturday.

Casaus' stat line:

• 3 points

• 6 rebounds

• 1 block

• 12:30 minutes

Through 11...

Here is the Lobos' record through 11 games over the past 11 seasons:

Richard Pitino coach

• 8-3 — 2024-25

• 10-1 — 2023-24

• 11-0 — 2022-23

• 6-5 — 2021-22

Paul Weir coach

• 4-7 — 2020-21

• 9-2 — 2019-20

• 5-6 — 2018-19

• 3-8 — 2017-18

Craig Neal coach

• 7-4 — 2016-17

• 7-4 — 2015-16

• 8-3 — 2014-15

Attendance...

The announced attendance at Saturday's WNMU vs. UNM game in the Pit: 11,419

Clearly that was not the actual attendance. It was the number of tickets out for a variety of reasons, and every December in at least one ETN column I remind Lobo fans who say every season attendance isn't what it used to be are right, but also it is also still lightyears better in the Pit than in the vast majority of Division I arenas.

And lest you think UNM is alone in using the "announced attendance" or the number of tickets out for attendance figures, you're wrong. It is literally the number just about all of college basketball and all professional sports use and have used for years.

For some context, here are the announced attendances at every Mountain West home game the past week with SDSU being the only team (as is usual) announcing a sellout and teams like 10-0 Utah State not hitting 7,700 announced, let alone, actual attendance:

• 12,414 — Cal Baptist at No. 23 San Diego State (Wednesday)

• 11,419 — D-II Western New Mexico at New Mexico (Saturday)

• 7,644 — South Florida at Utah State

• 7,512 — Texas Southern at Nevada (Saturday)

• 7,440 — South Dakota State at Nevada (Wednesday)

• 4,325 — San Diego at Fresno State (Saturday)

• 2,134 — Cal Poly at San Jose State (Saturday)

• 1,659 — Lincoln (Calif.) at San Jose State (Monday)

Just the big boys now...

Saturday was the last of seven games scheduled by Mountain West teams in nonconference play against non-Division I opponents.

The league, not surprisingly, went 7-0 in those games and won by an average of 108-65

vs. DII teams (3-0):

• Utah State 117, 53

• Wyoming 108, 85

• New Mexico 122, Western New Mexico 70

vs. DIII teams (1-0):

• San Diego State 100, Occidental College 49

vs. NAIA teams (2-0):

• Boise State 100, Corban 65

• San Jose State 93, Life Pacific 56

vs. other, non-affiliated teams (1-0):

• San Jose State 117, Lincoln (Calif.) 80

(NOTE: Air Force, Colorado State, Fresno State, Nevada and UNLV did not schedule any non-Division I opponents this season.)

For the record...

UNM on Saturday improved to 20-3 all-time against Western New Mexico and 61-8 all-time in regular season games against the state's three Division II basketball programs: New Mexico Highlands, Eastern New Mexico and Western New Mexico.

UNM all-time vs. NMHU:

• Series record: 25-4

• Last NMHU win: 1929, 31-30 in Carlisle

UNM all-time vs. ENMU:

• Series record: 20-3

• Last ENMU win: 1991, 81-76 in the Pit

UNM all-time vs. WNMU:

• Series record: 20-3

• Last WNMU win: 1958, 85-75 in Johnson Gym

Then again, these are Lobo fans...

Lots of good things happened Saturday for the Lobos.

They did, at least I thought they did, pretty much everything and then some that you could possibly ask a team to do against a non-DI opponent.

Then again, there are Lobo fans who will always make sure even after 52-point win, they find some things to pick at. No, it's not all of them, so I'm not throwing this any higher in this ETN than right here, but it's almost so comical after a 52-point win that I can't help myself but to share.

And, I'll add, last Saturday, I get it. Fans of any program would be made about losing to an in-state rival, especially when you're a 20-point favorite. But this Saturday?

UPSET ALERT!

Exposing UNM’s front court

Fire Pitino!

Plus/minus...

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

NEW MEXICO

+40 Kayde Dotson (20:35)

+34 Jovan Milicevic (18:36)

+34 Braden Appelhans (22:34)

+26 Tru Washington (16:39)

+24 Atiki Ally Atiki (16:54)

+19 Nelly Junior Joseph (16:28)

+18 Mustapha Amzil (21:24)

+18 Filip Borovicanin (17:26)

+14 Quinton Webb (10:22)

+12 C.J. Noland (12:59)

+12 Donovan Dent (19:25)

+9 Ibrahima Sacko (6:38)

WESTERN NEW MEXICO

-1 Jalen Williams (2:42)

-13 Yves Nkomba (15:13)

-16 Isaiah Marin (20:56)

-20 Nathan Jones (17:04)

-21 Judah Casaus (12:30)

-22 Donovan Black (20:44)

-28 Carson Kelly (25:31)

-30 Marko Milivojevic (20:10)

-33 Wyatt MacKay (23:53)

-33 James McCallum (14:24)

-43 Aiden Wall (26:53)

Line 'em up...

The UNM Lobos played 12 players and used 12 unique lineup combinations in Saturday's game. The WNMU Mustangs played 11 players and used 22 unique lineup combinations.

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

STARTING LINEUP

• WHO: Donovan Dent, C.J. Noland, Filip Borovicanin, Mustapha Amzil, Nelly Junior Joseph

• POINT DIFFERENTIAL: +7 (28-21)

• TIME ON COURT: 9:24

• NOTE: Not particularly dominant, that's for sure. At least not in a game vs. a Division II opponent that the Lobos ended up winning by 52 points. The starting five, the first time this particular starting lineup has been used by Pitino, played nearly one fourth of the game and was up just seven. That means other lineups accounted for the other 45 point differential in 30 minutes. The 1.4583 PPP (points per possession) were fine for the Lobos, but this starting five allowing 21 points from WNMU wasn't.

BEST LINEUP

• WHO: Kayde Dotson, Tru Washington, Braden Appelhans, Jovan Milicevic, Atiki Ally Atiki

• POINT DIFFERENTIAL: +20 (25-5)

• TIME ON COURT: 6:19

• NOTE: Sure, Tru Washington is usually a starter. But he wasn't on Saturday, meaning this "BEST LINEUP" of the game (and it wasn't close statistically speaking), is comprised exclusively by bench players. That's pretty insane, even vs. a Division II team because a grouping of five reserves likely doesn't have much time on the court together.

WORST LINEUP

• WHO: Donovan Dent, Tru Washington, Braden Appelhans, Mustapha Amzil, Atiki Ally Atiki

• POINT DIFFERENTIAL: -3 (9-12)

• TIME ON COURT: 2:51

• NOTE: The only negative point differential for all 12 of the lineup combinations. This grouping scored fine when on the court, but couldn't stop anyone on defense, allowing about 4 points a minute in a game WNMU averaged less than two per minute.

VIDEO: Pitino and Borvicanin...

Here is the video of the postgame media sessions with Richard Pitino and Filip Borovicanin after Saturday's games:

VIDEO: Our ABQJournal Sports Live! (pregame show) ...

Including a brief guest appearance from assistant coach Dave Pilipovich, and then a lot of rambling by me as I watched pregame warmups, here is the ABQJournal Sports Live! Pregame show form inside the Pit on Saturday evening...

Meanwhile, in Idaho Falls...

This Saturday's scoreboard watching for the Mountain West sure was better than last Saturday's scoreboard watching for the Mountain West.

Best win of the night for the league was Boise State knocking off Saint Mary's in Idaho Falls, Idaho, 67-65, on Saturday night.

Around the Mountain...

There were nine games around the Mountain West on Saturday and things are winding down on nonconference play. Here's a look at Saturday's results and some upcoming games around the league...

SATURDAY

• Utah State 88, South Florida 67

• New Mexico 122, D-II Western New Mexico 70

• Fresno State 73, San Diego 65

• VCU 76, Colorado State 68 (Henderson, Nevada)

• Boise State 67, Saint Mary's 65 (Idaho Falls, Idaho)

• BYU 68, Wyoming 49 (Salt Lake City)

• San Jose State 107, Cal Poly 100 (OT)

• Nevada 105, Texas Southern 73

• UNLV 72, Pacific 65

MONDAY

• Air Force at Northern Colorado, 6 p.m. MST (ESPN-plus)

TUESDAY

• UNLV at Dayton, 5 p.m. MST (CBS Sports Network)

• UC San Diego at Utah State, 7 p.m. MST (TheMW)

• Radford at Colorado State (TheMW)

• Texas Southern at Boise State, 7 p.m. MST (TheMW)

WEDNESDAY

• VCU at New Mexico, 7 p.m. MST (TheMW)

Mountain West standings...

With the three early conference games that were played 10 days ago, the conference standings will look like this at least until a few more league games come along on Dec. 21.

I'm including overall record in parenthesis to the right, and while I sorted the tie breakers alphabetically last ETN, I'll go with overall record for tie breakers today (to be clear, neither alphabetical or overall record come into any actual tiebreaker scenarios for the Mountain West in standings).

1-0 Utah State (10-0)

1-0 No. 23 San Diego State (7-2)

1-0 New Mexico (8-3)

0-0 Nevada (8-3)

0-0 Boise State (7-3)

0-0 UNLV (5-4)

0-0 Colorado State (5-5)

0-0 Air Force (3-7)

0-1 San Jose State (6-6)

0-1 Wyoming (5-5)

0-1 Fresno State (4-7)

Time for some women's hoops...

The UNM Lobo women's basketball team is back at it on Sunday in the Pit at 2 p.m.

Here is colleague Ken Sickenger's preview of that game:

• Lobo women aim for high marks versus Pepperdine

Stats and stats...

Here is the postgame stat sheet I posted Saturday night: New Mexico 122, D-II Western New Mexico 70

And if you prefer the digital version, here you go: New Mexico 122, D-II Western New Mexico 70

Up next...

For New Mexico: The Lobos host VCU in their final nonconference game of the regular season at 7 p.m. Wednesday in the Pit.

For Western New Mexico: The Mustangs host Dallas Baptist at 7 p.m. in Drag's Court in Silver City.

Lobo schedule/results...