Emptying the Notebook: Lobos' league leading defense needs more love

LAS VEGAS, Nev. — Here are some notes, quotes, stats, trends and other odds & ends I emptied out of the old notebook after Tuesday's 89-61 UNM Lobos blowout win over UNLV in the Thomas & Mack Center:

It's all about the D

It's time to give some love — more than it's often given — to the UNM Lobo defense.

UNM was up 38 points with 4:39 left in the game when every available Lobo on the bench was put in the game and UNLV went on a 13-0 run. Had it not been for garbage time, the final margin would have been even worse.

For most of the game, the Lobos used their typical defense — protect the paint, clog the passing lanes, confuse the other team with frequent off-ball switches and elite communication — to, frankly, embarrass the Rebels offense.

UNM didn't allow a single Rebel to scored in double figures — the third time this season an opponent failed to produce a double-digit scorer against the Lobos (the others being Division II New Mexico Highlands in the Pit on Dec. 1 and Florida Gulf Coast on Dec. 14).

In the first half, UNM forced 11 turnovers while shooting 51.7%.

The Rebels, meanwhile, well they didn't shoot nearly as well — 29.6%.

UNM ended the game scoring 15 points off 16 UNLV turnovers.

And the steals (UNM had eight of them) came from six different players and all seemed to set things up well for the offense at the other end.

The Lobos are currently ranked 18th in the country in defensive efficiency according to KenPom.com. UNM has finished a season with a Top 25 defensive efficiency just four times in the KenPom era (starting in the 1996-97 season).

UNM Top 25 Defensive Rating (KenPom.com):

• 91.4 (15th) — 2011-12
• 90.9 (16th) — 2012-13
• 97.7 (18th) — 2025-26*
• 95.1 (19th) — 2024-25
• 96.6 (23rd) — 2023-24

*season still active

This season, UNM leads the Mountain West in defensive efficiency overall (97.7) and in league games (92.7).

What's somewhat remarkable about that No. 1 rating in league games is that the Lobos don't lead the league in a single other specific defensive metric on the KenPom chart, but rank between 2 and 5 in every one.

UNM has finished a season leading the Mountain West in defensive efficiency during league play twice: with a 93.2 rating in 2013 and a 91.0 rating in 2012. (SDSU edged UNM by less than a 10th of a point for the top spot last season).

If the next 10 league games are going to be as good as the first 10 for the Lobos, who are sitting at 8-2 in conference play and in second place, the defense will be every bit as much of the story as the offense that continues to get most of the attention.

The gamer

Here's the gamer I filed from the Thomas & Mack Center on Tuesday night:

• Lobos blast Rebels in largest win over rivals

Biggest beatdowns

Tuesday night marked the 72nd time UNM and UNLV have played a men's basketball game against each other. UNLV has won 43, UNM is at 29.

It was the first time the Lobos won by as many as 28 points and, by far, the largest win the Lobos have had in the Thomas & Mack Center.

UNM's 5 biggest wins over UNLV

• 28 points — UNM 89, UNLV 61 — Thomas & Mack (Tuesday)
• 20 points — UNM 65, UNLV 45 — The Pit (Feb. 18, 2012)
• 19 points — UNM 71, UNLV 52 — The Pit (March 4, 2008)
• 19 points — UNM 75, UNLV 56 — The Pit (Feb. 19, 2001)
• 18 points — UNM 79, UNLV 61 — The Pit (Jan. 15, 1998)

Before Tuesday, UNM had beaten UNLV by double digits in the Thomas & Mack just three other times, and never once was it by more than 12 points.

UNM's double-digit UNLV wins in Thomas & Mack

• 28 points — UNM 89, UNLV 61 — Thomas & Mack (Tuesday)
• 12 points — UNM 68, UNLV 56 — Thomas & Mack (Feb. 19, 2014)
• 11 points — UNM 77, UNLV 66 — Thomas & Mack (Feb. 28, 2005)
• 10 points — UNM 76, UNLV 66 — Thomas & Mack (Feb. 10, 2010)

And for completeness, it's worth pointing out UNLV has had not only the better of the head-to-head series overall, but also in the blowouts.

There have been seven UNM/UNLV games decided by 20 points more more, with UNLV having five of them and the Lobos having just two (Tuesday being the second). The biggest two wins in the series in terms of point differential were done by UNLV — a 32-win in 1982 and 29 points in 2022.

About those freshmen

As UNM Sports Information Director Steve Kirkland has been keeping us aware of this stat for much of the season: The Lobos are the only Division I team in the country with three freshmen (Tomislav Buljan, Jake Hall and Uriah Tenette) averaging double-digit points.

What's fairly remarkable is that over the course of the first 18 games, the trio had EACH scored double-figures in the same game just once — the Nov. 20 loss to Nebraska in Kansas City.

Now they've done it in three consecutive games — wins vs. Fresno State, vs. Nevada and at UNLV.

Here were the statlines for Tuesday:

TOMISLAV BULJAN

• Points: 18
• 2FG: 6-10 (60.0%)
• 3FG: 2-3 (66.7%)
• Rebounds: 11 (four offensive)

Also worth noting for Buljan, the double-double was his fourth in a row, becoming the first Lobo freshman to ever have four-consecutive double-doubles).

But did you see those 3s? (He was 2-of-12 from deep before Tuesday, 2-3 from deep on Tuesday).

JAKE HALL

• Points: 16
• 2FG: 5-5 (100.0%)
• 3FG: 2-6 (33.3%)

URIAH TENETTE

• Points: 15
• 2FG: 2-3 (66.7%)
• 3FG: 2-2 (100%)
• FT: 5-5 (100%)
• Assists: 3
• Steals: 2

The article previewing Tuesday's game highlighted each team's outstanding first-year players.

• Fantastic freshmen highlight Tuesday's UNM vs. UNLV game

It turned out, the Lobos freshmen dominated the matchup, in part due to an injury to UNLV's Tyrin Jones and in much larger part to the dominance of the Lobos on both ends of the court throughout the game.

Familiar face

Speaking of one of those UNLV freshman, guard Issac Williamson was not just committed, but signed to be a Lobo one year ago at this time.

Then came the offseason upheaval — Richard Pitino and the entire coaching staff and all players gone and in comes Eric Olen and a whole new staff.

With Olen bringing in Jake Hall and Uriah Tenette, there wasn't going to be a lot of opportunity for another freshman guard. Williamson ended up at UNLV and has been playing well, averaging almost 10 points a game and was the team's leading scorer, along with fellow freshman Naas Cunningham, with nine points, including these two off the glass ...

And their other freshmen?

Tyrin Jones, UNLV's starting freshman star who has been tremendous at times in league play, hurt his left shoulder and played just 94 seconds of Tuesday's game.

Pastner said in his postgame press conference they won't know the full extent of Jones' injury until an MRI, likely on Wednesday.

Naas Cunningham, the one-time five-star high school recruit who was at Alabama last season but redshirted and never played a game, also scored nine points off the bench for UNLV in 10:58.

Gillen is rollin' with Olen

College basketball coach turned CBS Sports Network analyst Pete Gillen, who was in the Pit for last week's Red Panda Lobos game against Fresno State, was back east on Tuesday night and in the CBS Sports Network studio doing the postgame show after the Lobos win.

And he didn't hold back on the praise for UNM coach Eric Olen.

Streaking 3s!

We don't have a clip of either make, but Antonio Chol was 2-of-4 from 3-point range on Tuesday, extending his season-long streak of being the only player in the Mountain West to have hit a 3-pointer in every game.

UNLV was 0-9 from 3-point range when they finally hit a 3-pointer with 11:59 left in the game — an Al Green triple — that brought relief to the crowd as one of the program's most cherished things (you know, other than having won a national championship, and all) remained in tact.

UNLV has now hit a 3-pointer in 1,280 consecutive games — every game played since the 3-point line was put into the college game.

This graphic was the only one posted to the team's X account in the second half of Tuesday's blowout:

UNM, meanwhile, has hit double digit 3-pointers in four consecutive games. 

Welp, there goes that stat

I thought I found a good one over the weekend. A stat so telling of the Lobos successes and failures there would be no denying its greatness.

Through the first nine league games UNM played, the Lobos were 7-0 when its bench outscored the opponents bench and 0-2 when the opponents bench outscored UNM.

Then came Tuesday.

Bench scoring UNM vs. UNLV:

• Rebels — 37
• Lobos — 32

Welp, there goes that. Back to the drawing boards.

And when I told Eric Olen of my disappointment in his team screwing up the stat I thought explained his team's wins and losses, he didn't exactly let me down easily.

"I'm into the numbers," Olen told me. "But some of those stats, yeah, they just really don't matter."

Can you spot them?

My 6-year-old daughter has a lot of books and computer games that ask her to try to find the hidden object in a picture or the person who might not belong for whatever reason.

When I saw UNM's social team post something after Tuesday's game that included a crowd shot of the Lobos fans celebrating behind the team bench after a second half 3-pointer, I zoomed in on some of the faces in the crowd and thought it might be fun to try and identify which of these fans just might be UNLV fans.

Warning, it's really, really hard!

First, the UNM post on X:

Now, for the post I made showing just the photo to play the "Can you spot the Rebel Fan?" game followed by an answer key I thought might be helpful.

(OK, so it's not really that hard, and I clearly wasted a good 30 minutes doing this overnight instead of getting this ETN column done in time for me to get a couple hours of sleep at least).

Credit given to those fans, as miserable as they looked in this picture, for at least being among the few who actually stayed at the game in the second half. 

Give 'em a hand

The Lobos assisted Tuesday 21 times on 33 made field goals. The 63.6% assist rate is the third best of the season.

• .692 (18 assists/26 FGs) — Nov. 20 vs. Nebraska
• .652 (15 assists/23 FGs) — Nov. 8 vs. UT Arlington
• .636 (21 assists/33 FGs) — Tuesday at UNLV
• .630 (17 assists/27 FGs) — Nov. 26 vs. Alabama State
• .625 (14 assists/24 FGs) — Saturday vs. Nevada

Here's a clip of the rare Timeo Pons bucket — a corner 3 assisted by Deyton Albury (he had a team-high five dimes in the game).

It's also worth noting on that assist rate list that the Lobos have had back-to-back games with assist rates over 60% after not having one since Nov. 26.

10 down, 10 to go

Here's a look at the best 10-game records for UNM in Mountain West history with the final standings result listed in parenthesis):

• 9-1 — 2024-25 (regular season champion)
• 9-1 — 2013-14 (2nd place)
• 8-2 — 2025-26 (TBD)
• 8-2 — 2012-13 (regular season champion)
• 8-2 — 2011-12 (regular season co-champion)
• 8-2 — 2009-10 (regular season champion)
• 7-3 — three times (co-champion, 4th, 5th place)

Attendance

The announced attendance for Tuesday's New Mexico game at UNLV in the Thomas & Mack Center: 5,642

DURING A FIRST HALF TIMEOUT:

LATE GAME VIDEO:

UNM's true road games 2025-26:

• 12,414 — Jan. 17 at San Diego State
• 9,980 — Dec. 30 at Boise State
• 8,106 — Nov. 15 at New Mexico State
• 7,637 — Dec. 10 at VCU
• 5,642 — Tuesday at UNLV
• 3,640 — Jan. 6 at Colorado State
• 2,017 — Jan. 10 at Air Force

OK, one more. I know this 10 minutes before game time, but with the "Here come the Rebels!" intro after rolling out the red carpet and having the cheerleaders run the U-N-L-V flags out and playing the big intro must with the spotlights ...

Ugh. This was hard to see at the arena that was sold out with 18,000-plus for my first ever Mountain West Tournament championship in 2013 when UNM and UNLV squared off in this place.

Plus/minus

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

NEW MEXICO

• +33 Jake Hall (27:25)
• +28 Luke Haupt (22:48)
• +28 Antonio Chol (27:09)
• +25 Tomislav Buljan (21:38)
• +19 Uriah Tenette (19:55)
• +12 Deyton Albury (27:01)
• +10 Tajavis Miller (26:28)
• +3 JT Rock (18:22)
• -8 Milos Vicentic (4:56)
• -10 Timeo Pons (4:18)

UNLV

• +4 Jacob Bannarbie (9:17)
• 0 Naas Cunningham (10:58)
• -4 Tyrin Jones (1:34)
• -12 Issac Williamson (28:02)
• -13 Walter Brown (26:37)
• -20 Howie Fleming Jr. (34:35)
• -20 Dra Gibbs-Lawhorn (26:19)
• -22 Kimani Hamilton (19:23)
• -22 Al Green (13:42)
• -31 Emmanuel Stephen (29:33)

Line 'em up

The UNM Lobos played 10 players and used 12 unique lineup combinations on Tuesday. The Runnin' Rebels played 10 players and used 20 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, Tomislav Buljan
• POINT DIFFERENTIAL: +12 (22-10)
• TIME ON COURT: 10:12
• NOTE: The starters set the tone early and could very well have been the best unit in the game (for the sake of getting a look at another group, I'll say the starters were just the second best unit on Tuesday night). Offensively this group did well, with seven assists and 22 point scored in the 10 minutes played.

BEST LINEUP

• WHO: Uriah Tenette, Jake Hall, Luke Haupt, Tajavis Miller, JT Rock
• POINT DIFFERENTIAL: +8 (11-3)
• TIME ON COURT: 7:04
• NOTE: I'm giving this unit the nod for my "BEST" lineup of the game for this simple number: 3. They allowed UNLV to score 3 points in a little more than seven minutes on the court together. That's fantastic defense.

WORST LINEUP

• WHO: Deyton Albury, Tajavis Miller, Timeo Pons, Milos Vicentic, JT Rock
• POINT DIFFERENTIAL: -10 (5-15)
• TIME ON COURT: 4:18
• NOTE: In a game the Lobos won by 28 points, this group, with deep bench players Milos Vicentic and Timeo Pons, was outscored by 10 points in just over four minutes. That means the Lobos without this group beat UNLV by 38 in the other 35 minutes, 42 seconds played.

VIDEO: Eric Olen and Uriah Tenette

Here's my postgame video with UNM coach Eric Olen and Uriah Tenette (in one of the louder postgame settings around because I'm there recording interviews while two radio teams are recording their postgame shows all in a tight space UNLV has for media for some reason):

Pregame in the Thomas & Mack

Here's a look back at the pregame show, for those interested in watching/hearing how wrong I probably was about everything that was about to happen in the game.

Meanwhile, in Reno

They couldn't all be blowouts.

There was drama in at least one of three Mountain West games on Tuesday night.

Grand Canyon was up three with 1.3 seconds remaining in the game against Nevada and fouled a Wolf Pack shooter attempting a 3-pointer.

And, you guessed it, he made all three to force overtime.

And, you guessed it, Nevada rolled in overtime to the win, 66-60.

Around the Mountain

There were three games around the Mountain West on Tuesday with two more coming on Wednesday. Here's a look at recent scores since the last Lobos game and some upcoming games around the league:

TUESDAY

• Boise State 89, San Jose State 58
• Nevada 66, Grand Canyon 60 (OT)
• New Mexico 89, UNLV 61

WEDNESDAY

• Wyoming at Utah State, 7 p.m. MT (TheMW)
• Colorado State at San Diego State, 8:30 p.m. MT (FS1)

FRIDAY

• Boise State at Grand Canyon, 7 p.m. MT (FS1)
• UNLV at Nevada, 8 p.m. MT (CBS Sports Network)

SATURDAY

• San Diego State at Utah State, 11 a.m. MT (CBS)
• Fresno State at Air Force, 1 p.m. MT (TheMW)
• Colorado State at Wyoming, 7:30 p.m. MT (FS1)
• New Mexico at San Jose State, 8 p.m. MT (CBS Sports Network)

Mountain West standings

Here are the conference standings through Tuesday's games:

(listed alphabetically where records are same)

• 8-1 San Diego State
• 8-2 New Mexico
• 7-2 Utah State
• 7-3 Nevada
• 6-3 Grand Canyon
• 5-4 UNLV
• 5-5 Boise State
• 3-6 Fresno State
• 3-6 Colorado State
• 3-6 Wyoming
• 1-9 San Jose State
• 0-9 Air Force

• • •

Here are the home/road standings through Tuesday's games with road wins counting as a +1 and home losses as a -1:

• +4 San Diego State
• +3 New Mexico
• +3 Utah State
• +2 Grand Canyon
• +2 Nevada
• 0 Boise State
• 0 UNLV
• -2 Fresno State
• -2 Colorado State
• -2 Wyoming
• -4 Air Force
• -4 San Jose State

Stats and stats...

Here is the postgame stat sheet I posted after Tuesday's game: New Mexico 89, UNLV 61

And if you prefer the digital version, here you go: New Mexico 89, UNLV 61

Grammer's Guesses

Take that, coin!

It was a 3-0 night for the Guesses and an 0-3 showing for my daughter's coin flip picks. Can't wait to get home and talk trash to her about it!

SEASON STANDINGS:

• Grammer's Guesses: 31-25
• My daughter's coin: 29-27

Up next

• For New Mexico: The Lobos play at San Jose State on Saturday at 7 p.m. PT/8 p.m. MT. The game is being televised on CBS Sports Network.
• For UNLV: The Rebels play at in-state rival Nevada on Friday night in Reno at 7 p.m. PT/8 p.m. MT in a game being televised on CBS Sports Network.

Until next time

Until next time, Thomas & Mack Center, on the campus of UNLV in Las Vegas, Nevada ...

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