Emptying the Notebook: Taking away the outside gave Utah State inside track to blowout in the Pit

Here are some notes, quotes, stats, trends and other odds & ends I emptied out of the old notebook after Wednesday's 86-66 UNM Lobos loss to Utah State in the Pit:

Where were all the 3s?

It's been awhile since we've asked this in these parts, but here we go ...

Where were all the 3-pointers?!

The UNM Lobos, a team attempting 27.6 3-point shots per game and one that had made 10 or more of them in eight of 11 Mountain West games before Wednesday's 86-66 loss to the Utah State Aggies, could hardly get a shot off from beyond the arc, let alone make many of them.

"Our whole plan was, they're so good off the bounce and getting you in rotations and kicking out, we wanted to show early in the gaps and then really inch out to Jake Hall. He was a big part of our game plan," Calhoun said.

"I thought the guys did a much better job to get the shooters (in the second half)," he said. "All these guys, they're so good at getting you in the air and then kicking out. So I thought we did a really nice job of running them off the line."

The Lobos hit a season-low-tying three 3-pointers on Wednesday and attempted a season low 13 of them.

Not exactly the bombs-away-from-deep sort of team we had grown accustomed to seeing.

"They really extended their defense to take away three-point shots, limited our attempts there," UNM coach Eric Olen said. "In theory, that should lead to a few more points in the paint, and some of that rim pressure that we're trying to create."

The floor spacing that the Lobos offense is built on seemed nonexistent against an Aggies defense that took UNM out of both being able to effectively drive the ball or get off 3s.

UNM should be thankful that big man Tomislav Buljan was at least able to draw a season-high 10 fouls and get to 17 points, nine of which came from free throws.

Ironically, the four other games this season the Lobos had 20 or fewer 3-point attempts, they won. But, as Olen alluded to, those were games in which things were rolling inside.

UNM's fewest 3-point attempts

• 13 — Wednesday vs. Utah State (86-66 loss)
• 16 — Jan. 13 vs. Grand Canyon (87-64 win)
• 18 — Dec. 10 at VCU (81-78 win)
• 18 — Nov. 11 vs. UC Riverside (82-68 win)
• 20 — Nov. 5 East Texas A&M (76-54 win)

The other time the Lobos managed to hit only three 3s in a game was, well, maybe their worst offensive performance of the season, or at least one as bad as Wednesday's, when they played at Boise State on Dec. 30.

Bad news is, the Broncos are up next for the Lobos on Saturday in the Pit.

UNM's fewest 3-pointers made

• 3 — Wednesday vs. Utah State (86-66 loss)
• 3 — Dec. 30 at Boise State (63-53 loss)
• 5 — Nov. 11 vs. UC Riverside (82-68 win)
• 6 — Nov. 8 vs. UT Arlington (74-56 win)
• 7 — Dec. 14 vs. Florida Gulf Coast (75-59 win)
• 8 — three times (one loss at NMSU, two wins)

The gamer

Here's the gamer I filed from the Pit on Wednesday night:

• Utah State ends UNM’s home win streak with dominant victory in The Pit

So long, home winning streak

UNM's 23-game home win streak that was snapped on Wednesday in the Pit was the fourth longest active streak in the country and the third longest in Lobo history.

The ones still streaking

• 28 — Akron (MAC)
• 28 — Duke (ACC)
• 28 — Miami (Ohio) (MAC)
• 22 — Saint Mary's (WCC)
• 22 — Utah Valley (WAC)
• 22 — McNeese (Southland)

OK, Utah. We get it!

Each of the top four home win streaks in UNM history were ended by teams from Utah:

• 41-game streak snapped Feb. 26, 1998 to BYU
• 24-game streak snapped Jan. 25, 1975 to BYU
• 23-game streak snapped Wednesday to Utah State
• 22-game streak snapped Feb. 1, 2006 to BYU

Chol low

Junior wing Antonio Chol's bucket with 2:04 left in the first half put UNM up 33-31.

The Pit was rocking. The bench was going crazy. The Lobos were feeling it.

For Chol, well, that was all he wrote. Chol scored two points, a season low.

His previous low? Just four days prior — Saturday at San Jose State when he had four points.

The player who at one stretch this season had five consecutive double-figure scoring games, and seven in a nine-game stretch, hasn't scored more than eight points in the past five games.

Also, the past two games are the only two all season in which he hasn't hit at least one 3-pointer. Until Saturday's game at San Jose State, he was the only Mountain West player who had at least one made 3-pointer in every game.

Chol's first 18 games

• Points: 177 (9.8 ppg)
• 3-pt FGs: 38-100 (38.0%)

Chol's past five games

• Points: 26 (5.2)
• 3-pt FGs: 6-24 (25.0%)

He said it: Calhoun

I caught up with Utah State coach Jerrod Calhoun after the game and while he had plenty to say about the game plan and great execution by his team, he also had a lot of praise for what he saw on game film of the Lobos and in person in the Pit.

"A lot of respect for Eric and his program," Calhoun said. "They'll certainly bounce back. They're an NCAA Tournament team, just like San Diego State. I think we have three teams right now that will be in the NCAA Tournament."

So, this isn't just a UNM team playing above itself that was brought back to earth on Wednesday and might not really be as good as the record suggests?

"They have a lot of talent. They're bigger in person," he said. "We're an older team, right? So we recruited the portal to get older and athletic, and we've got five returning players. That's something Eric and I talked about in the offseason. He's in a little different breakdown of his roster (right now). I think they're going to be scary by the end of the season."

Trollin' on the X

Tuesday, the UNM social media team posted an image of an "Official Lobos Permission Slip" basically giving fans who went to Wednesday night's late-starting game an excuse for showing up to work late Thursday morning.

After the game, Utah State's social media team thanked UNM for the help and, with some modifications, reposted the filled out permission slip signed by Eric Olen.

Instead of the Lobos "We need the Pit to be bumping" messaging, the Aggies wrote "We need time to celebrate on Twitter."

Script flipped

There were, without question, some similarities to the UNM/Utah State game about a year ago in Logan on Feb. 1, 2025.

In a game for first place in the Mountain West standings, and one that was close in the first half (Utah State even led by nine early in the second), the Lobos ran away with it in the Spectrum, handing the Aggies one of their worst home losses in years in one of the toughest road environments in the country.

Utah State basically did the same on Wednesday.

Feb. 1, 2025, in Logan

• FINAL: UNM 82, Utah State 63
• Put UNM in 1st place in MW
• UNM outscored USU 52-27 in second half
• USU's first 19-point loss in the Spectrum since 1996
• UNM won its next four and seven of next nine and won league championship, made NCAA Tournament.
• USU won its next three and six of next nine and finished third in MW, made NCAA Tournament.

Feb. 4, 2026, in Albuquerque

• FINAL: Utah State 86, UNM 66
• Put USU in 1st place in MW (tied)
• USU outscored UNM 50-33 in second half
• UNM's first 20-pt loss in the Pit since 2020
• UNM has eight games left
• USU has nine games left (one is nonconference vs. Memphis on Feb. 14)

For those Lobo fans in need, here is the game story from that big win a year ago, if it helps.

• UNM Lobos overwhelm Utah State and grab control of Mountain West

Speaking of flipping the script ...

Usually it's the UNM Lobos overwhelming teams with points off turnovers, beating opponents entering Wednesday's game by an average of 17.2 to 10.8.

Wednesday, Utah State scored 19 points off 15 UNM turnovers compared to the Lobos scoring just nine points off Utah State's 12 turnovers. It was a season low minus-1o margin in what has arguably been the team's best single stat of the season.

The Lobos have lost the points off turnovers stat just five times this season.

UNM losing points off turnovers

-10 (19-9) — vs. Utah state (Wednesday)

-6 (20-14) — vs. Nebraska (Nov. 20)

-3 (9-6) — at Boise State (Dec. 30)

-2* (12-10) — vs. Mississippi State (Nov. 21)

-2 (11-9) — at NMSU (Nov. 15)

* Lobos won game.

Largest deficits

Utah State led by as many as 21 points on Wednesday night after a Mason Falslev 3-pointer with 2:30 left in the game — 79-58.

It was the largest deficit of the season for the Lobos, even larger than any faced in that horrible (first half, anyway) Nov. 20 loss to Nebraska in Kansas City.

The Lobos have been down double digits in just six games all season, including all five of their losses.

UNM's largest deficits this season

• 21 — vs. Utah State (Wednesday)
• 20 — vs. Nebraska (Nov. 20)
• 15* — vs. Alabama State (Nov. 26)
• 15 — at San Diego State (Jan. 17)
• 11 — at Boise State (Dec. 30)
• 10 — at New Mexico State (Nov. 15)

*Rallied to win, 93-87

Pulled a quad

Wednesday's defeat was a lost opportunity for the Lobos in plenty of ways.

A win would have kept the home win streak alive, kept UNM in a first place tie in the Mountain West standings and as it pertains to the team's NCAA Tournament chances, it would have been a coveted Quad 1 victory.

Utah State entered the game 27th in the NCAA's NET rankings. Any team in the top 30 of the NET is a Quad 1 game at home (it's 50 for neutral courts and 75 for road games).

UNM doesn't get many Quad 1 opportunities in the Pit. Wednesday was just the eighth, and UNM is now 5-3 in those games.

UNM's Quad 1 home games past five years

• L, 86-66 vs. Utah State (Wednesday)
• W, 68-66 vs. Colorado State (Feb. 21, 2024)
• W, 99-86 vs. Utah State (Jan. 16, 2024)
• W, 88-70 vs. San Diego State (Jan. 13, 2024)
• L, 73-71 vs. San Diego State (Feb. 25, 2023) — Lamont Butler buzzer beater game
• W, 81-79 (OT) vs. Boise State (Jan. 20, 2023) — Leon Rice/Lobo baseball team game
• L, 83-68 vs. Colorado State (Feb. 17, 2022)
• W, 75-66 vs. Wyoming (Feb. 15, 2022)

*Data collected by UNM hoops SID Steve Kirkland.

Bench blues continue

Wednesday made the third straight game the Lobos' bench has been outscored by the opponent's bench.

Wednesday vs. Utah State

• Aggies bench points: 31
• Lobos bench points: 21

Saturday at San Jose State

• Spartans bench points: 31
• Lobos bench points: 21

Jan. 27 at UNLV

• Runnin' Rebels bench points: 37
• Lobos bench points: 32

UNM had won the bench points battle in seven of the first nine Mountain West games this season, all seven of the league wins over those first nine league matchups.

Attendance

The announced attendance for Wednesday's Utah State at New Mexico in the Pit: 14,419

Pit games 2025-26:

• 14,639 — Jan. 24 vs. Nevada
• 14,419 — Wednesday vs. Utah State
• 13,763 — Jan. 3 vs. Wyoming
• 13,614 — Dec. 6 vs. Santa Clara
• 12,785 — Dec. 20 vs. San Jose State
• 12,512 — Jan. 13 vs. Grand Canyon
• 12,204 — Dec. 14 vs. Florida Gulf Coast
• 12,037 — Nov. 26 vs. Alabama State
• 11,924 — Jan. 21 vs. Fresno 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

Utah State leads the overall series with the Lobos 35-15 and has now taken a one-game lead in the Pit, 12-11.

The Lobos won the previous two in the series — the 82-63 win in Logan, Utah, on Feb. 1 last year in a game for first place in the standings, and a nail-biting 82-79 win in the Pit on Feb. 16.

Olen, counting that UC San Diego win he had last year in Logan, is now 1-1 vs. the Aggies.

Plus/minus

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

NEW MEXICO

• -21 Deyton Albury (23:05)
• -19 Tomislav Buljan (29:15)
• -17 Uriah Tenette (28:17)
• -14 Jake Hall (33:59)
• -13 Antonio Chol (23:58)
• -10 Luke Haupt (32:17)
• -5 Tajavis Miller (20:08)
• -1 JT Rock (9:31)

UTAH STATE

• +18 Mason Falslev (27:39)
• +16 Adlan Elamin (35:23)
• +15 Karson Templin (21:11)
• +14 Kolby King (18:59)
• +10 Drake Allen (27:39)
• +10 MJ Collins (33:22)
• +9 Garry Clark (17:17)
• +8 Elijah Perryman (8:32)
• 0 Zach Keller (6:09)

Line 'em up

The UNM Lobos played eight players and used 15 unique lineup combinations on Wednesday. The Aggies played nine players and used 13 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: -5 (11-16)
• TIME ON COURT: 9:05
• NOTE: It was never sharp. Offensively, it was as bad as UNM's starting unit (this one or the previous one) has been all season for, in fact. The Lobos' starting five scored a whopping 0.64 points per possession against Utah State in nearly a fourth of the game (well, 9:05 of 40 minutes, anyway). That's not going to win many games against anyone. Five turnovers might be as high as I remember seeing the starting five have in a game, too.

BEST LINEUP

• WHO: Uriah Tenette, Jake Hall, Tajavis Miller, Luke Haupt, JT Rock
• POINT DIFFERENTIAL: +2 (11-9)
• TIME ON COURT: 6:10
• NOTE: That's it. Plus-2. The best lineup combination of the night managed to play more than six minutes together and outscore the Aggies by just two points. At least this grouping was north of one point per possession scoring (1.11).

WORST LINEUP

• WHO: Uriah Tenette, Deyton Albury, Tajavis Miller, Antonio Chol, Tomislav Buljan
• POINT DIFFERENTIAL: -8 (9-17)
• TIME ON COURT: 4:09
• NOTE: This group actually scored more than two points per minute and 1.25 points per possession. That's winning basketball. So to be minus-8 in just 4:09 probably tells you just how bad giving up 17 points in 4:09 really is.

AND THEM?

• NOTE: Not one of Utah State's 13 lineup combinations was really an extreme outlier, good or bad. The group that played together most (no, not the starters because Utah State doesn't actually play its starting five together very much), was Drake Allen, MJ Collins, Mason Falslev, Adlan Elamin and Karson Templin. In 12:37 n the court, they outscored UNM 31-26 and scored an efficience 1.38 points per possession.

VIDEO: Eric Olen and Tajavis Miller

Here's the postgame presser video with UNM coach Eric Olen and Lobo senior guard Tajavis Miller after the Utah State loss:

Pregame from the Pit

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 Fresno on Tuesday...

OK, first thing's first. Fresno State's Jake Heidbreder hits a buzzer beater to beat UNLV, 98-96, on Tuesday night.

Now for the good stuff.

The game featured the following "highlights":

• Fresno State scored seven points in final six seconds
• 62 personal fouls called
• 80 free throw attempts
• six technical fouls called
• seven players foul out

UNLV had five players foul out and the only five players left in uniform, including a walk-on, were on the court at the final buzzer. Two of those four players had four fouls and if the game went to overtime, there's a good chance they would have finished the game with fewer than five players on the court.

And the Mountain West wants to put action like this behind a paywall with the new media rights deal?!!?

Random tip of the cap

Just because I thought it was interesting, I'm going to share.

San Diego State fifth-year senior forward Jeremiah Oden scored his 1,000th collegiate point on a 3-pointer in front of the Wyoming Cowboys bench in the first half of the Aztecs Tuesday night win over the Pokes.

Oden started his career in Laramie, had a stop at DePaul and is now at SDSU.

So he scored his first college point with the Wyoming Cowboys and his 1,000th point against the Cowboys — both a great accomplishment, and a bit of a sign of the times.

Around the Mountain

There was just one game Wednesday after an interesting four pack on Tuesday night. Here's a look at recent scores since the last Lobos game and some upcoming games around the league:

TUESDAY

• Boise State 91, Nevada 87 (OT)
• Grand Canyon 81, Air Force 57
• Fresno State 98, UNLV 96
• San Diego State 72, Wyoming 63

WEDNESDAY

• Utah State 86, New Mexico 66

SATURDAY

• Grand Canyon at UNLV, 2:30 p.m. MT (Fox)
• Utah State at Wyoming, 6 p.m. MT (CBS Sports Network)
• San Diego State at Air Force, 6 p.m. MT (FS1)
• San Jose State at Colorado State, 7 p.m. MT (TheMW)
• Fresno State at Nevada, 8 p.m. MT (TheMW)
• Boise State at New Mexico, 8 p.m. MT (CBS Sports Network)

Mountain West standings

Here are the conference standings through Wednesday's games:

• 10-2 Utah State
• 10-2 San Diego State
• 9-3 New Mexico
• 8-3 Grand Canyon
• 8-4 Nevada
• 6-6 Boise State
• 5-6 Fresno State
• 5-6 UNLV
• 4-8 Wyoming
• 3-8 Colorado State
• 1-10 San Jose State
• 0-11 Air Force

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

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

Stats and stats

Here is the postgame stat sheet I posted after Wednesday's game: Utah State 86, New Mexico 66

And if you prefer the digital version, here you go: Utah State 86, New Mexico 66

Grammer's Guesses

We both went 3-1 on Tuesday night (that's right, I picked Air Force to be inside that 24.5-point spread and the lost ONLY by 24. Never a doubt!).

But, Wednesday was another deal. Me and the coin though the Lobos and the Pit were going to pull it off, both going 0-1.

SEASON STANDINGS:

• My daughter's coin: 37-32
• Grammer's Guesses: 37-32

Up next

• For New Mexico: The Lobos host Boise state on Saturday at 8 p.m. in the Pit. The game will be broadcast on CBS Sports Network.
• For Utah State: The Aggies play at Wyoming at 6 p.m. next Saturday in Laradise. The game will be broadcast on CBS Sports Network prior to the Boise State at UNM game.

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