Emptying the Notebook: Lobos shot chart turns Boise Blue in dreadful shooting night

BOISE, Idaho — Here are some notes, quotes, stats, trends and other odds & ends I emptied out of the old notebook after Tuesday's 62-53 UNM Lobos loss at Boise State in ExtraMile Arena:

Boise Blues

Red shows hot. Blue is cold.

The shot chart breakdown of Tuesday night's 62-53 Boise State win over the UNM Lobos, one can envision without even looking, looked as blue as the football field the Broncos play on across the parking lot from ExtraMile Arena.

Tuesday was a bad shooting night for both teams — there were 81 combined missed shots in the game, 96 if you want to count the missed free throws.

"That was a rock fight," Boise State coach Leon Rice said. "Some nights the game of basketball is just is like that. Now, credit their defense, credit our defense. Both teams did a real nice job defensively and both teams are really pretty tough defensively. But their good shooters missed some looks. Our shooters missed some. ... Credit to our guys, we just kept sawing wood defensively. We didn't let our offensive affect our defense, and we just kept getting stops."

Boise State, indeed, got enough stops to win — their third this season, in fact, when scoring just 62 points, their season low (62-58 over Montana State, 62-59 over Wichita State and now 62-53 over New Mexico).

"That's huge because that's what you have to be able to do (in the Mountain West)," Rice said. "If you're not a good enough defensive team to do that, you have no chance to be in the upper part of the league. You've got to be able to win games like that."

UNM, meanwhile, hadn't score fewer than 68 points all season, and had been averaging 87.8 points through its first five December games (all wins).

Counting on that offense through the course of a brutal 20-game Mountain West conference season where grind it out, ugly games become commonplace, is a risky proposition.

But you better be able to get SOME offense.

Tuesday, well, it was really bad.

UNM shot 3-of-25 from deep (12.0%), the worst the team has had in the Mountain West era in a game with at least 20 3-point attempts and tied for the third lowest 3-point percentage in school history in a game with a minimum of 20 attempts

• 9.5% (2-21) — vs. Utah in the Pit (March 10, 1995)
• 9.5% (2-21) — at San Diego State (Jan. 18, 1990)
• 12.0% (3-25) — at Boise State (Tuesday)
• 12.0% (3-25) — at UTEP (Feb. 20, 1997)
• 12.5% (3-24) — vs. USC in the Pit (Nov. 30, 2014)

The team's effective field goal percentage (a weighted statistic to credit 3-pointers more than 2-pointers) was 33.1% on Tuesday, the fourth worst in a Mountain West game for the Lobos

• 28.4% — L, 55-34 at San Diego State (Jan. 26, 2013)
• 28.4% — L, 55-43 vs. BYU in Las Vegas (March 9, 2000)
• 31.2% — L, 77-45 vs. Utah State in Lubbock (Jan. 6, 2021)
• 33.1% — L, 62-53 at Boise State (Tuesday)

The 53 points UNM scored were the fewest since a 72-47 loss at San Diego State on Jan. 31, 2022.

"It was a good opportunity for us, and maybe a little bit of a missed one for us in terms of not playing as well as we would like, specifically offensively," UNM coach Eric Olen said.

"I think when you play really good teams on the road, you don't have as much room for error. I love the way we competed defensively. I thought we did enough on that end, did a lot of the things that we felt like we needed to do to have success. Ultimately, we just didn't get it to go in the basket enough."

The gamer

Here's the gamer I filed from ExtraMile Arena late Tuesday:

• Lobos can't hit shots, squander solid defensive effort in road loss at Boise State

Going the ExtraMile

If that's the last time the Lobos play in ExtraMile Arena for awhile, which it very likely considering the league is splitting apart after this season with Boise State among the group of schools defecting from the Mountain West, the Lobos are going to have to live with its longest active road losing streak being at eight.

Yes, EIGHT! straight losses is what the Lobos now have in Boise, having held a 4-2 record in the gym formerly known as Taco Bell Arena, before the current skid.

ExtraMilestone for Leon

With Tuesday's game, Boise State head coach Leon Rice became the winningest coach in Mountain West regular season history, notching conference win No. 169, passing the legendary Steve Fisher of San Diego State.

Top 11 Mountain West wins (league win's only, record record in parenthesis):

1. 169 — Leon Rice, Boise State (169-100)
2. 168 — Steve Fisher, San Diego State (168-114)
3. 131 — Steve Alford, New Mexico/Nevada (131-73)
4. 108 — Brian Dutcher, San Diego State (108-38)
5. 78 — Niko Medved, Colorado State (78-54)
6. 78 — Dave Rose, BYU (78-18)
7. 72 — Lon Kruger, UNLV (72-38)
8. 60 — Steve McClain, Wyoming (60-56)
9. 59 — Rodney Terry, Fresno State (59-47)
10. 55 — Larry Eustachy, Colorado State (55-44)
11. 50 — Dave Pilipovich, Air Force (50-100)

NOTE: I went Top 11 on the list instead of the customary Top 10 that most lists are because I wanted to get Dave Pilipovich on the list because Dave Pilipovich is awesome and this is my column and I can make my lists however long I want!

Speaking of L-E-O-N 

Some of you follow my game coverage on social media. There, I'm a no-nonsense, just bring the hard-hitting, important information kind of guy.

Like this post early in the second half:

It's true. How did ESPN not lead its SportsCenter broadcasts all day Tuesday with the amazing anagram coaching matchup of:

L-E-O-N R-I-C-E vs. E-R-I-C O-L-E-N

You're welcome.

The new guy

OK, how about some red in this column.

It won't be the type that indicates hot shooting, but some cherry red for the Lobos, who named on Tuesday Ryan Berryman the school's interim Athletic Director, replacing the departed Fernando Lovo, who on Monday morning was officially hired to the same position at the University of Colorado.

Berryman isn't the only local, in-house candidate to be Lovo's permanent replacement, either.

Here is our Journal article on Berryman's appointment and the other candidate (Jalen Dominguez) also seeking the job:

• Ryan Berryman named UNM’s interim athletic director, one of two locals vying to replace Fernando Lovo

And for those who may have actually taken just a couple days off from social media and the news, you missed a lot.

Here are two stories on Fernando Lovo taking the Colorado Job and his telling fans thank you while also answering Journal questions about the timing of the move and hard feelings some fans have:

• It's official: University of Colorado hires athletics director Fernando Lovo

• Outgoing AD thanks fans, says he’s confident in future of Lobo athletics

Kill shot giveth, kill shot taketh

As bad as that first half was on Tuesday, when the Lobos opened the second half with an 11-0 run forcing a timeout by Rice, it looked like maybe they weathered the storm.

In fact, including the last basket of the first half and the next basket after Rice's timeout, the Lobos actually had a 15-0 "kill shot" (scoring runs of 10-0 or better) in the middle of the game that, in a game like Tuesday's seems like it should have been a decider.

Instead, Boise State later in the second half had runs of 7-0 and 10-0 — only the second kill shot UNM has allowed all season — to take its own 11-point lead late and eventually close with a nine-point win.

Missing assists

Hey, remember that time in the first two minutes of Tuesday's game when Deyton Albury had this assist on an alley-oop to Tomislav Buljan?

Yeah, that was nice, right?

It also happened to be UNM's ONLY assist of the first half and one of only four assists all game, by far the fewest UNM has had in a game this season.

Fewest assists by UNM this season:

• 4 — L, 62-53 at Boise State (Tuesday)
• 10 — L, 76-68 at New Mexico State (Nov. 15)
• 11 — W, 81-78 at VCU (Dec. 10)
• 11 — W, 80-78 vs. Mississippi State (Nov. 21)
• 11 — W, 82-68 vs. UC Riverside (Nov. 11)

UNM had 16 made baskets having to go one-on-one against defenders — a highly inefficient way to score. Buljan has six of UNM's 20 made baskets in the game having to score five of them pretty much all by himself. 

While it appeared the Lobos were unable to get the ball inside at all, Olen thought the lack of assists was more about just missing shots than an inability to make entry passes from the outside (though he didn't disagree that was lacking).

"That's a pretty low number (of assists), but we didn't make a lot of baskets," Olen said. ""It's hard to get assists if you can't put it in the basket."

Player updates

Tomislav Buljan (hamstring) was listed as questionable in Monday night's player availability report posted by the Mountain West the day before games. By the pregame update — two hours before game time for every league game — he was taken off the injury report.

Out for the Lobos were starting guard Chris Howell and reserve wing Timeo Pons, both of whom stayed in Albuquerque for the trip as they are sick with the flu. Howell is also battling an oblique injury and, combined with having been sick and not practicing recently, even a quick recovery from the flu makes me think he likely won't play Saturday against Wyoming, either.

Backup forward Kevin Patton remains away from the team for personal reasons.

Attendance...

The announced attendance for New Mexico at Boise State in ExtraMile Arena in Boise on Tuesday night: 9,980

That's the largest announced attendance for a game the Lobos have played outside the Pit this season:

• 9,980 — Tuesday at Boise State
• 8,106 — Nov. 15 at New Mexico State
• 7,637 — Dec. 10 at VCU

Asterisk!

It's been suggested to me in the past I should use percent capacity of an arena when posting attendance numbers. While that doesn't actually do anything to change the attendance, it seems to make some people happy and I'm nothing if not a man of the people, trying to make everyone happy with my attendance posts.

So, in terms of percent capacity as noted on KenPom.com for each road arena the Lobos have played in this season (not counting the two neutral site games in Kansas City), here is the ranking:

• 100% (of 7,637) — Dec. 10 at VCU
• 80.0% (of 12,480) — Tuesday at Boise State
• 64.9% (of 12,482) — Nov. 15 at New Mexico State

Series notes

The all-time series is now tied, 15-15. And the Lobos are just 4-10 in ExtraMile Arena.

Last season, Boise State got the best of the Lobos in two of their three games.

2024-25 season:

• UNM 84, Boise State 65 (Jan. 17, the Pit): Filip Borovicanin had nine points, 10 rebounds, five assists and four steals in the win for the Lobos.

• Boise State 86, UNM 78 (Feb. 19, ExtraMile Arena): Tyson Degenhart scored 32 points and Peanut Carmichael, in his first college start, scored 21 for the Broncos in the win.

• Boise State 72, New Mexico 69 (March 14, Thomas & Mack Center at UNLV): In the Mountain West Tournament semifinals, Alvaro Cardenas has 12 assists, R.J. Keene had 10 rebounds off the bench and Degenhart had 22 points in the nail-biter Broncos victory.

Plus/minus...

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

NEW MEXICO

• +5 Tomislav Buljan (24:11)
• +5 Luke Haupt (29:08)
• +3 Jake Hall (27:51 )
• +2 Deyton Albury (24:26)
• -4 Milos Vicentic (7:44)
• -8 Antonio Chol (32:50)
• -14 JT Rock (14:12)
• -14 Tajavis Miller (10:54)
• -20 Uriah Tenette (28:45)

BOISE STATE

• +25 Pearson Carmichael (30:18)
• +23 Aginaldo Neto (25:05)
• +17 Spencer Ahrens (20:35)
• +7 Dominic Parolin (19:12)
• +4 Drew Fielder (20:41)
• +1 Bhan Buom (00:41)
• 0 Andrew Meadows (21:57)
• -6 Dylan Andrews (28:51)
• -10 Javan Buchanan (19:32)
• -16 R.J. Keene (13:08)

Line 'em up...

The UNM Lobos played nine players and used 16 unique lineup combinations on Tuesday. The Broncos played 10 players and used 19 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: +14 (21-7)
• TIME ON COURT: 8:19
• NOTE: If only they could have stayed out of foul trouble, maybe this combination could have squeaked out just another minute or two of court time. If they had, the final minutes might have had a slightly different feel. When your starting five goes +14 in a game you lost by nine, that's very much a lost opportunity sort of game. I mean, think about how bad the Lobos offense was on Tuesday. This group scored 21 of UNM's 53 points, despite playing just eight of the game's 40 minutes. This was basically a 2.53 points per minute to 1.01 points per minute sort of break down between the starters' minutes and every other combination of players. Again, starters: +24 in 8 minutes. Every other combination of team: -23 in 32 minutes. 

BEST LINEUP

See above. The starting five was, by far, the best five on Tuesday.

WORST LINEUP

• WHO: Uriah Tenette, Deyton Albury, Tajavis Miller, Antonio Chol, JT Rock
• POINT DIFFERENTIAL: -14 (4-18)
• TIME ON COURT: 7:59
• NOTE: See what I wrote about how good the eight minutes with the starting five was? Pretty much flip that around and you've got how the eight minutes with this combination of five performed on Tuesday. This group managed just four points — FOUR! — in eight minutes together on the court.

VIDEO: Eric Olen, Tomislav Buljan

Here's my postgame video with UNM coach Eric Olen and Tomislav Buljan:

Pregame show with the new AD!

My pregame show, aside from fighting off the ExtraMile Arena pregame speakers, featured UNM's new interim AD, Ryan Berryman. It ended abruptly (my fault, of course), but basically the game was about to start so I needed to let Ryan go. Take a look:

Meanwhile, in Fort Collins...

Second verse, same as the first.

In last weekend's first round of Mountain West conference games, Nevada had a surprising (to many) double digit win and Colorado State suffered a pretty bad loss. Well, Tuesday's second round of Mountain West games brought on the same script.

Nevada went on the road and beat the Rams by 13 — a big win for Nevada, yes, but a really bad home loss for a Rams team that really needs to figure something out while their big man, Kyle Jorgensen, remains out with his ankle injury, which could be a couple weeks it sounds like.

Around the Mountain...

There were five games around the Mountain West on Tuesday and a full slate of six coming on Saturday.

TUESDAY

• Wyoming 68, Air Force 56
• Nevada 75, Colorado State 62
• Utah State 72, Fresno State 63
• San Diego State 81, San Jose State 68
• Boise State 62, New Mexico 53

SATURDAY

• San Jose State at Utah State, 2 p.m. MT
• Air Force at UNLV, 3 p.m. MT
• Nevada at Fresno State, 5 p.m. MT
• Colorado State at Grand Canyon, 6 p.m. MT
• Wyoming at New Mexico, 6 p.m. MT
• Boise State at San Diego State, 8 p.m. MT

Mountain West standings

Here are the conference standings through Tuesday's games:

(listed alphabetically where records are same)

• 2-0 Nevada
• 2-0 San Diego State
• 2-0 Utah State
• 1-0 Grand Canyon
• 1-0 UNLV
• 1-1 Boise State
• 1-1 New Mexico
• 1-1 Wyoming
• 0-2 Air Force
• 0-2 Colorado State
• 0-2 Fresno State
• 0-2 San Jose State

Stats and stats...

Here is the postgame stat sheet I posted after Tuesday's game: Boise State 62, New Mexico 53

And if you prefer the digital version, here you go: Boise State 62, New Mexico 53

Up next...

For New Mexico: The Lobos host Wyoming on Saturday at 6 p.m. in the Pit. The game will be televised on CBS Sports Network.

For Boise State: The Broncos play at San Diego State at 8 p.m. (7 p.m. PT start in San Diego) on Saturday, also on CBS Sports Network.

Grammer's Guesses

Here's the important stuff.

The Grammer's Guesses went 3-2 on Tuesday and I'm sitting at 6-5 on the season.

Though we didn't have the exact same picks, my daughter's coin flip picks again posted a matching record as me at 3-2, and she's also at 6-5 on the season.

Grammer vs. Coin standings:

• Grammer's Guesses: 3-2
• My daughter's coin flips: 3-2

Until next time

Until next time ExtraMile Arena, on the campus of Boise State University in Boise, Idaho…

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