Emptying the Notebook: Shots (finally) fall for Lobo PG1 while UNM's defense shines again early

Here are some extra notes, quotes, stats and other odds & ends I emptied out of the old notebook after Saturday's 74-56 Lobos win in the Pit vs. UT-Arlington:

Big game for Albury

I barely got the full question out before Deyton Albury answered with a grin.

"For sure, got to see the ball go in the basket a couple of times, so it was good," said Albury, the UNM senior point guard who had struggled shooting the ball through his first three times donning a Lobos jersey — two exhibition games and Wednesday's regular season win over East Texas A&M.

While Saturday's 74-56 win over UT-Arlington was hardly a model of shot-making efficiency for him (he hit 3-of-9 shots), he was clearly doing offensively what he was recruited to UNM to do — attack the rim, draw some fouls (he drew six of them and was a perfect 8-of-8 at the free throw line), score some buckets (he finished with 15 points) and generally set up the rest of the UNM offense (he had just two assists, but UNM had 15 in the game and the flow, for the first time this season, was effective in the second half, largely due to his pressure on the rim).

Albury in two exhibition games and Wednesday's win over East Texas A&M had hit 3-of-24 shots (12.5%).

But his coach, Eric Olen, said that didn't mean Albury wasn't doing what the coaching staff wanted.

"Deyton's playing the way we need him to play," Olen said. "His role is to put a lot of pressure on the basket and the rim, and he's done that every time out, with some mixed results early. But one thing for us is we've seen these guys every day for a period of time, and I think we're getting to a place where we understand each person, what they're bringing and how they can affect the game.

"I thought last time out, maybe even the second exhibition, we didn't cash them in, but D-A really created some advantages off his rim pressure. He had a bunch of assist opportunities in those games, even if they didn't actually turn into assists. He's impactful. We want him to continue to be aggressive. And I think that's his mindset every game, so that aligns for us."

While Albury clearly liked the fact that he actually hit some shots this game, including his first 3-pointer as a Lobo, he had a mostly similar sentiment to his coach about how he had been playing even if the shooting percentages were so low.

"I felt like I was playing the way I wanted to play. Felt like I could have slowed down a little bit on a couple of drives, but missing a couple shots never takes away my aggression," Albury said. "I am very confident in my game. You know, been doing it my whole life. So it's just a matter of staying aggressive and just trusting my teammates."

When he spoke with the Talking Grammer podcast (Episode 117) last month, he explained how growing up in the Bahamas he always had an aggressive, physical style of play that put pressure on defenders at all times.

"That's been my play style my whole life, just being aggressive, driving it to the rim with no fear, creating contact, finishing through contact," Albury said. "I wouldn't say I'm just driving the paint looking for fouls. I think it's either foul me or I score. But I take a lot of pride in driving to the rim because that's my game."

The gamer

Here's the gamer I filed from the Pit media room on Saturday after UNM's 74-56 win over UT-Arlington:

• UNM stifles UTA as Lobos blow out another opponent

Why so defensive?

In case you haven't caught the early season theme of Lobo basketball, this team has been playing very good defense.

According to KenPom, UNM's defensive efficiency rating (the lower the better) over the first two games has been 70.1 against East Texas A&M and 77.7 against UT-Arlington.

Using that 77.7 as the benchmark, I took a look at how often the Lobos posted consecutive games with a KenPom defensive efficiency rating of 77.7 or better in the Mountain West era, even including all non-Division I opponents.

The list isn't very long.

Here are the five instances of the Lobos posting KenPom defensive efficiency ratings of 77.7 or better (two were three game streaks):

2025-26 season

• 70.1 — vs. East Texas A&M (Wednesday)

• 77.7 — vs. UT Arlington (Saturday)

2024-25 season

• 77.6 — at Wyoming (Jan. 7, 2025)

• 71.3 — vs. San Diego State (Jan. 11, 2025)

2014-15 season

• 77.3 — vs. New Mexico State (Dec. 3, 2014)

• 71.8 — at Valparaiso (Dec. 6, 2014)

• 76.1 — vs. Louisiana-Monroe (Dec. 13, 2014)

2011-12 season

• 63.0 — at Air Force (Jan. 31, 2012)

• 72.0 — at Boise State (Feb. 4, 2012)

• 65.1 — vs. Wyoming (Feb. 11, 2012)

2005-06 season

• 65.0 — at TCU (Feb. 11, 2006)

• 75.2 — vs. Wyoming (Feb. 15, 2006)

So, yeah. The defense has been good.

Home sweet home

For those maybe unaware, the Lobos tend to win a lot of games in the Pit.

In fact, with Saturday's win over UT-Arlington, UNM has now won 13 consecutive home games, which is the sixth longest active home win streak in the country among 365 Division I teams.

Longest active D-I home win streaks:

19 — St. Thomas (Summit League)

18 — Akron (MAC)

18 — Duke (ACC)

17 — Miami, Ohio (MAC)

15 — North Alabama (Atlantic Sun)

13 — New Mexico (Mountain West)

13 — Louisville (ACC)

13 — Utah Valley (WAC)

Of note, two teams are no longer on the list above since Friday night: Grand Canyon (lost at home Friday night to Youngstown State) and No. 5 St. John's (lost Saturday in Madison Square Garden to No. 15 Alabama).

Buljan's coming out party

Tomislav Buljan, the 22-year-old freshman from Croatia, scored eight of his game-high 17 points in a two and a half minute span early in the second half — an inside presence at the rim that helped ensure the floor spacing for the Lobos offense was as needed the rest of the half.

"It helps a lot, especially when you have shooters on the outside,” senior point guard Deyton Albury said of Buljan’s presence in the paint opening things up for the rest of the offense. “All it takes is a paint touch for us to get a good look (on the outside) ... Tomislav had it going today."

Through two games, Buljan's averages:

• Points: 12.5

• Rebounds: 9.5

• FG: 60.0% (9-15)

• Fouls drawn: 8 (4.0 per game)

• FT: 77.8% (7-9)

Some 3-D action

UT-Arlington hit just 3-of-25 3-pointers against the Lobos on Saturday. It was the third lowest opponent 3-point percentage in Lobo history in a game where the opponent shot at least 20 3-pointers:

Lowest opponent 3FG% (min 20 attempts)

1. 7.7% (2-26) — Wisconsin (Nov. 26, 2019)

2. 9.5% (2-21) — Washington (Dec. 24, 1998)

3. 12.0% (3-25) — UT-Arlington (Saturday)

t4. 12.5% (3-24) — Iona (Dec. 18, 2022)

t4. 12.5% (3-24) — Air Force (Jan. 20, 2010)

That weird 6-7 thing

I can't tell you what the heck the whole viral 6-7 thing going on with kids these days is really all about, nor how painful it is to realize I just types "kids these days" in a column. But the reality is, it's a thing.

Saturday, when Tomislav Buljan stepped to the free throw line with 6:59 left in the game with the Lobos leading 65-40, the anticipating began to rise.

He knocked down his first free throw.

66.

Then his second.

67.

And anyone in the Pit not old enough drive did it.

Sudden, almost involuntary arm thrusts up and down were seen throughout the Pit, juggling balls that weren't there. Laughing. Screaming "siiiixxxx, seeevennnn!"

So, naturally, I left no stone unturned. In the postgame press conference I had ask Lobos head coach Eric Olen the one thing the world demanded to know: His thoughts on 6-7 in the Pit.

Journalism.

You're welcome.

Steve Kirkland stat of the night

For this ETN's edition of the SKSOTN, we're again looking at defense.

UNM held UTA to 19 first half points on Saturday after holding East Texas A&M to 14 in the first half on Wednesday.

That marks the first time since 2005 that the Lobos have held back-to-back opponents under 20 points score in the first half since doing so against Dartmouth (18 first half points) on Dec. 28, 2005 and, coincidentally, UT-Arlington (17 first half points) on Dec. 29, 2005.

Points per possession

UT-Arlington

• First half: 0.543

• Second half: 1.121

• Game: 0.800

New Mexico

• First half: 0.861

• Second half: 1.303

• Game: 1.042

The first half defense has clearly been off the charts in two games for the Lobos after holding East Texas A&M to just 0.368 PPP in the opening 20 minutes on Wednesday.

Half the story

Now, for a graphic I made about that first half defense UNM has had in its first two games, including noting that over those 40 minutes (you know, the time of a full game), the Lobos have allowed 33 points, 21.2% shooting and forced 29 turnovers.

Attendance

The announced attendance for UT-Arlington vs. UNM in the Pit on Saturday: 11,513

UNM ran a kids get in free promotion for the game, allowing any purchase of a general admission ticket to receive up to two free tickets for kids 12 and under.

There were 220 such tickets sold, UNM said.

Series

UNM is now 6-0 all time against the Mavericks, including 5-0 in the Pit.

The series has had some rather notable games, as noted in Saturday's game day preview article in the Journal.

• Donovan Dent took the ball coast-to-coast for a game-winning layup in the final seconds for an 82-80 win Nov. 16, 2023, in the Pit.

• Back in the 1990 Lobo Classic, UNM won 136-99, scoring a program record for points vs. a Division I opponent (and they did it hitting 2-of-8 3-pointers). In that game, Lobo Vladimir McCrary scored 35 points and pulled down 13 rebounds; Luc Longley had 24 points on 12-of-12 shooting to go along with five assists and six blocked shots and not one, but two Lobos — Jimmy Taylor and Ike Williams — each dished out 10 assists (UNM had 40 in the game).

Random tip of the cap: Journal photographers

The Albuquerque Journal has amazing photographers. Below are links to some of their sports-specific photo galleries just in the past 48 hours. Please, take a look if you haven't already (but then come back here to ETN! We're not done yet.):

• Lobo basketball: UNM beats UT-Arlington

• Preps: State cross-county championships

• Preps: Boys soccer championships

• Preps: Girls soccer championships

Plus/minus

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

NEW MEXICO

+20 Chris Howell (22:24)

+18 Tomislav Buljan (18:34)

+18 Uriah Tenette (20:12)

+15 Antonio Chol (24:05)

+14 Jake Hall (23:43)

+13 Deyton Albury (27:27)

+3 Luke Haupt (25:51)

+2 JT Rock (8:55)

-1 Kevin Patton Jr. (5:43)

-2 Timeo Pons (1:41)

-3 Tajavis Miller (14:23)

-7 Milos Vicentic (7:02)

UT-ARLINGTON

+4 Cameron Jackson (27:41)

+1 Bahsil Laster (17:14)

0 Jayden Smoot (14:25)

-4 Amari Reed (2:36)

-5 Marcell McCreary (21:49)

-8 Raysean Seamster (23:21)

-10 Marcus Rigsby Jr. (19:18)

-12 Jordan Lowery (19:01)

-18 Casmir Chavis (24:27)

-18 Miles Goodman (9:43)

-20 (Tyran Mason (20:25)

Line 'em up

The UNM Lobos played 12 players and used 21 unique lineup combinations on Saturday. The Mavericks played 11 players and used 32 unique lineup combinations.

(as long as I've been listing these things, I don't recall ever seeing a team use 32 lineup combinations in a game).

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

STARTING LINEUP

• WHO: Deyton Albury, Jake Hall, Chris Howell, Antonio Chol, Tomislav Buljan

• POINT DIFFERENTIAL: +4 (16-12)

• TIME ON COURT: 8:36

• NOTE: Solid ball movement (five assists, only one other lineup combination had more than two), but also let the Mavs get loose a few times early in the second half. Still an ovrall strong showing by the starting five.

BEST LINEUP

• WHO: Deyton Albury, Uriah Tenette, Chris Howell, Antonio Chol, Tomislav Buljan

• POINT DIFFERENTIAL: +6 (6-0)

• TIME ON COURT: 2:08

• NOTE: One freshman in for the other — Tenette in here for Hall — and the result was a little better even than the starting five, though in a 2-minute sample size it's hard to say this was really any better or worse than a more than eight and a half minute run of the starters being efficient on offense. Tenette and Albury together on the floor is something I'm interested in seeing moving forward. I think it creates some nice opportunities with two rim attacking point guards on the floor like those two, though size — elite positional size everywhere but the PG spot — might be an issue putting both on the floor too long.

WORST LINEUP

• WHO: Deyton Albury, Luke Haupt, Kevin Patton Jr., Antonio Chol, Milos Vicentic

• POINT DIFFERENTIAL: -4 (0-4)

• TIME ON COURT: 1:07

• NOTE: Not a lineup you'll see on the court together often, and at just 1:07 on Saturday, you saw why. Choppy. Not much flow or rhythm to the offense. Just, rough.

VIDEO: Olen, Albury and Howell

Here's my postgame press conference video from the Pit media room with coach Eric Olen, point guard Deyton Albury and guard Chris Howell:

Hey, remember before the game?

Here's the ABQJournal Sports Live! pregame show I did from the Pit on Saturday if you want to relive what I thought was going to happen:

As a reminder, I'll be doing pregame shows for all Lobo men's basketball games, colleague Sean Reider and I do postgame shows for all UNM Lobo football games our weekly UNM Lobo sports check-in show is Tuesdays at 1:30 (ish) p.m., depending on when the weekly Jason Eck press conference wraps up.

All are streamed live on the Journal's YouTube page and my X (Twitter) account and live questions and comments during the show through those platforms is possible.

Meanwhile, those other Lobos...

The UNM Lobo women's basketball team lost on Friday night in Boulder to the University of Colorado.

Here is colleague Ken Sickenger's preview article for that game:

• Trampled: Lobo women fizzle in second half at Colorado

But they're back in action Sunday in the Pit. Again, take it away, Ken...

• Sunday session: Lobo women chasing consistency in game three

Meanwhile in Reno...

The Mountain West had a brutal first five days, suffering home court upsets to four teams (I'm looking at you, Boise State, UNLV, Fresno State and Grand Canyon!).

Nevada, a 13.5-point favorite at home in Reno was this close to making it five upsets in six days...

Around the Mountain

There were eight Mountain West teams in action on Saturday and two more on Sunday's schedule.

Here's a look at some recent results and upcoming games:

WEDNESDAY

• USC Upstate 67, Fresno State 66

• New Mexico 76, East Texas A&M 54

THURSDAY (no games)

FRIDAY

• Utah State 80, VCU 77 (Frisco, Texas)

• Youngstown State 90, Grand Canyon 81

SATURDAY

• Boise State 101, Utah Valley 77

• New Mexico 74, UT Arlington 56

• Wyoming 92, Cal State Fullerton 82

• UC Santa Barbara 85, San Jose State 74

• Austin Peay 74, Air Force 54

• Fresno State 82, Long Beach State 62

• UNLV 101, Chattanooga 69

• Nevada 78, Pacific 77

SUNDAY

• Idaho State at San Diego State, 2 p.m. PT/3 p.m. MT (TheMW)

• Omaha at Colorado State, 4 p.m. MT (TheMW)

MONDAY

• Northern Illinois at Grand Canyon, 6 p.m. PT/7 p.m.MT (TheMW)

TUESDAY

• Long Island University at Air Force, 2 p.m. MT (TheMW)

• Austin Peay at Wyoming, 6:30 p.m. MT (TheMW)

• UT-Rio Grande Valley at Boise State, 7 p.m. MT (TheMW)

• UC Riverside at New Mexico, 7 p.m. MT (TheMW/Altitude 2)

• Montana at UNLV, 7 p.m. PT/8 p.m. MT (TheMW)

Stats and stats...

Here is the postgame stat sheet I posted Saturday after the game: New Mexico 74, UT Arlington 56

And if you prefer the digital version, here you go: New Mexico 74, UT Arlington 56

Up next...

For New Mexico: The Lobos host UC Riverside on Tuesday at 7 p.m. in the Pit

For UT-Arlington: The Mavericks host Arlington Baptist on Monday.