Emptying the Notebook: UNM's Borovicanin project took another big step Saturday in Colorado

FORT COLLINS, Colo. — Here are some extra notes, quotes, stats, videos, trends or whatever other sort of odds & ends I managed to empty out of the old reporters notebook after Saturday's 76-68 Lobos road win over Colorado State in Moby Arena:

Borovicanin's confidence growing...

As UNM guard Filip Borovicanin was walking down a back hallway from the Lobos' visiting locker room back out to Moby Arena to see a friend after Saturday's 76-68 win over Colorado State, I told him he had a hell of a first half against the Rams.

He smiled, and said, "Thank you, but yeah, it was just first half. I need to make it whole game."

I mean, sure. I guess. But if he just does what he did in one half Saturday the rest of the season — all during conference play — for the Lobos, they'd be pretty happy.

Borovicanin is making real time strides before our eyes this season in terms of his confidence starting to catch up to his skill set. And for a team with plenty of other weapons all starting to settle nicely into their roles, I'd say Borovicanin is actually on a real nice trajectory for the Lobos.

And that's something not many probably would have thought would be the case a couple weeks into the season.

Borovicanin started the season as a starter for the Lobos. After watching him in summer and preseason practices, it made sense. The 6-foot-9 Serbian guard handled the ball well in the open court and was an efficient shooter, inside and out. And the problems that his size would create on defense on the wing was something coaches everywhere would love.

It was almost bewildering in the preseason how he didn't get much of an opportunity at all to play in two years at Arizona before transferring to UNM.

But then came this season, and we all sort of saw the other issue. While Borovicanin played well in the UCLA win, he really just wasn't producing — certainly not like a starter should be expected to.

By his fourth start, he was pretty much a no-show in the Nov. 17 St. John's in Madison Square Garden (he didn't even play in the second half). Understandably, he lost his starting gig and saw fewer than 10 minutes of playing time in a four of five game stretch.

The Lobo coaching staff hadn't given up on him, though. They just realized that, for whatever reason, his obvious on-court skills just hadn't yet aligned with his ability to confidently put those skills to work in an actual game.

Over the past month, though, that's changing.

Saturday in Moby Arena, Borovicanin took a huge step forward in his development. He looked free and loose and was, arguably, the best player on the court in UNM's 76-68 victory over Colorado State.

Based on all the game data, the computers at KenPom.com deemed Borovicanin the game's statistical MVP.

Borovicanin's statline at CSU:

• Points: 10

• 2pt FG: 2-2

• 3pt FG: 2-2

• Rebounds: 4

• Assists: 1

• Blocks: 1

• Steals: 4

Pretty much all of that came in the first half, when UNM outscored CSU by 19 points in a 20-minute half with Borovicanin on the floor.

"Terrific first half," UNM coach Richard Pitino said of Borovicanin. "Filip ... he's the type of guy — it never happens anymore, but if he does stick it out, use this year (to develop), next year, he's going to continue to progress."

Earlier this month, Borovicanin admitted he had been fearful of mistakes on the court.

"I probably was just a little bit stiff, you know? Like tight and probably a little bit scared of making a mistake because I was not playing good," Borovicaninc said. "... I think with the games just going and going, I think I'm just getting my confidence back and trying to play better every day. ... I don't feel as tight anymore."

As far as UNM's first two conference games, although spread out (Dec. 4 vs. San Jose State and Saturday at Colorado State), Borovicanin is at or near the top of several statistical categories, at least relative to the time he's on the floor.

He's hit an efficient 8-of-9 shots (5-6 2s, 3-3 3s), he's grabbed 11 rebounds, had four assists and five steals.

Without diving too deep into the explanations of how these computers arrive at these numbers, take a look at where Borovicanin ranks in the Mountain West in an admittedly very small sample size of league games only, so far:

• 3rd — ORtg (offensive rating)

• 2nd — Effective FG% (105.6%)

• 3rd — Steal rate

Those are all KenPom stats, a site I reference regularly in my reporting.

Per BartTorvick.com, Borovicanin's BPM (Box Score plus-minus, which also adjusts for minutes played), Borovicanin leads the Mountain West in conference games. His raw plus-minus number in the SJSU and CSU games is plus-26, which means in the time he was on the court in both of those Lobo victories, UNM outscored the opponents by 26 points. Considering they beat SJSU by just six and CSU by eight, one player having a plus-26 is pretty remarkable.

So, while it's not likely he's ready to ride out the rest of the season as a league star, it's fun watching his game grow right in front of us like this.

The gamer...

Here is the gamer I filed Saturday from Fort Collins...

• Lobos ambush Colorado State early and cruise to conference road win

Home, home on the (front) range...

It's been awhile since the UNM Lobos had tasted that sweet Front Range taste of victory at Moby Arena.

Saturday's Lobos win snapped a six-game losing streak in Fort Collins for UNM.

Past 10 UNM games in Fort Collins:

• W — Dec. 28, 2024 (76-68)

• L — Jan. 2, 2024 (76-68)

• L — March 3, 2023 (92-84)

• L — Jan. 19, 2022 (80-74)

• L — March 3, 2021 (87-73)

• L — Jan. 15, 2020 (105-72)

• L — Jan. 12, 2019 (91-76)

• W — Feb. 28, 2018 (108-87)

• W — Jan. 14, 2017 (84-71)

• L — Feb. 23, 2016 (86-69)

MW era coaching records at Moby:

• Fran Fraschilla: 3-0 (1.000)

• Steve Alford: 4-2 (.667)

• Ritchie McKay: 3-2 (.600)

• Craig Neal: 2-2 (.500)

• Pitino: 1-3 (.250)

• Paul Weir: 1-3 (.250)

Stealing the show...

UNM had 10 steals Saturday against a CSU team that doesn't turn the ball over much and hasn't had a team record 10 steals against them in Moby Arena since ... UNM did it last year on Jan. 2, 2024, in a CSU win.

Two of Saturday's first half steals led to fast break buckets, including this at the very end of the first half by Braden Appelhans leading to a Donovan Dent layup...

UNM has now had seven games (out of 13) with 10 or more steals this season.

The Lobos had 12 such games (out of 36) last season.

But if you think this is the norm, it's not.

UNM's number of 10 steal games:

• 7 — 2024-25 (in 13 games so far)

• 12 — 2023-24

• 2 — 2022-23

• 3 — 2021-22

• 2 — 2020-21

• 12 — 2019-20

• 2 — 2018-19

• 7 — 2017-18

• 2 — 2016-17

• 2 — 2015-16

Beautiful big to big zone busting...

It's not exactly a trend or anything here. But this high post to low post pass from Jovan Milicevic to Nelly Junior Joseph (after the entry feed from Donovan Dent) to bust Colorado State's 2-3 zone was a thing of beauty.

Some more big-to-big passing for a Lobos team that likes having two bigs out on the court together sure would be a new, dangerous weapon for the offense.

Speaking of Jovan...

Lobo freshman Jovan Milicevic still hasn't broken into the regular, big minute rotation for the Lobos.

But he's getting closer. And he's proving when he does get big minutes, he makes the most of them.

Aside from the nice assist he had to Nelly Junior Joseph mentioned above in that high-low, post to post pass against the CSU zone, Milicevic also hit both of his field goal attempts on Saturday for five points, including this second half baseline jumper...

• In single digit minute games (9 of them):

> 12 points

> 5 rebounds

> 3-5 2FG

> 1-4 3FG

• In double digit minute games (3 of them):

> 28 points

> 8 rebounds

> 7-10 2FG

> 4-5 3FG

Now, the bulk of those stats, to be clear, were in the game against Division II Western New Mexico when he played 18 minutes. But Milicevic also had 11 minutes in a neutral court win over USC (2 points, 2 rebounds) and 16 minutes Saturday in a road win at CSU (5 points, 1-1 2FG, 1-1 3FG).

He's coming along nicely of late for the Lobos and Pitino has mentioned he'd like to start getting more minutes form Milicevic at the "4" as the backup to Mustapha Amzil.

Donnie Dimes update...

It was as quiet a 14 point, six assist game as most anyone will have in the Mountain West, but that comes with the steadiness Donovan Dent plays with much of the time.

No, it was the 40-domination his team needed from his last game to beat VCU in the Pit, it was just a take what the defense gives you, let everyone else shine sort of game for the Lobo junior.

"They were crowding him on the ball screens, and he's just gotta be a little ... when they collapse on him, he's gotta pass it out," UNM coach Richard Pitino said of Dent's solid, but not perfect game. "He's trying to get into the pocket (off the way team's are playing screens set for him) a little bit, which he's really, really good at. But the way they were playing, he needed to spray the ball out to the 3-point line a little bit more, but he'll learn from it."

Dent's 14 points gives him 934 for his Lobos career as he closes in on that 1,000 point club later this season.

His six assists give him 362 for his career, moving him up past some more Lobo legends on the career assists list:

UNM career assists

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

—

10. Marlon Parmer, 2000-2002 — 384 (84 games)

11. Hugh Greenwood, 2012-2015 — 372 (130 games)

12. Donovan Dent, 2023-present — 362 (82 games)

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

14. Hunter Greene, 1984-88 — 354 (108 games)

The perfect storm...home

Clearly, teams should stop trying to be so perfect against the Lobos. It doesn't seem to be working.

CSU's 8-for-8 showing at the free throw line Saturday marked the third time since the 1996-97 season a Lobo opponent was perfect at the FT line.

The Lobos won all three games.

• 8-8 CSU (Saturday at CSU)

• 7-7 Utah (3/1/03 in the Pit)

• 5-5 San Jose State (1/24/24 at SJSU)

Oh, that run...

Saturday's game was tied 16-16.

Then the Lobos did something they hadn't done before under Richard Pitino.

They rattled off a 21-0 run.

UNM has had two 20-0 runs under Pitino — earlier this month vs. Division II Western New Mexico and last season against D-II Eastern New Mexico.

The previous largest vs. a DI team was an 18-0 run late in the first half of last season's win over San Diego State in the Pit on Jan. 13.

"I can't remember — not too many times in a league game on the road, you have a 21-0 run," Pitino said.

Here's what happened in that devastating 6 minute, 15 second span between C.J. Noland hitting a 3-pointer with 8:54 showing on the clock to start the scoring run and the Donovan Dent bucket with 2:39 left in the first half to end it.

21-0 UNM scoring run:

• 6 minutes, 15 seconds

• Score went from 16-16 to UNM leading 37-16

• UNM hit 9-of-13 shots (3-3 3-pointers)

• UNM had three assists, seven rebounds (two offensive), one block and six steals

• CSU was 0-for-5 shooting

• CSU had seven turnovers

What I wrote vs. what actually happened...

My pregame preview article, and much of my online pregame show fro Fort Collins, pointed out that CSU, by style under coach Niko Medved, have shown two defensive tendencies that, when executed, can really take away two key strengths of the Lobos.

• Colorado State does two specific things that can stymie the Lobos

My first point: Basically, I suggested CSU would ignore offensive rebounds, even at the expense of second change points, to emphasize getting back on defense to prevent UNM from easy transition buckets, something UNM often needs to get its offense going.

CSU's offensive rebound rate in the past four seasons (the Pitino vs. Medved era) has reflected this:

CSU's OR% and national rank:

• 2024-25: 24.1% (325th out of 364 DI teams)

• 2023-24: 24.6% (301)

• 2022-23: 19.6% (355)

• 2021-22: 21.8% (341)

What actually happened: CSU ended with a season-high 12 offensive rebounds, a season-high offensive rebound rate of 36.4% a was one point off its season high in second-chance points (the Rams had 16 on Saturday).

But if the Rams were getting more offensive boards, it probably meant the get-out-and-run Lobos were feasting on fast break, right?

Not exactly.

The Lobos finished with six fast break points, all in the first half.

So, yeah.

What do I know?

QUICK SIDE NOTE: UNM getting outscored 11-6 in fast break points, and winning, is very unusual. First, UNM entered the game 3rd in the nation in fast break points per game (19.2). It was also just the third time in 13 games they lost that stat this season (also in loss at St. John's and in win vs. VCU).

My second point: Colorado State doesn't foul much, thus doesn't send teams to the free throw line much, something UNM's aggressive offense needs to happen to be at its best and win.

UNM points from FTs and national rank:

• 2024-25: 20.41% (108th out of 364 DI teams)

• 2023-24: 29.1% (173)

• 2022-23: 21.5% (32)

• 2021-22: 19.9% (67)

Well, I was kind of right.

I mean, CSU didn't foul much (the Rams were only called for nine fouls).

And the Lobos didn't score much at the free throw line, going 7-of-9 at the stipe. The seven made FT's ties a season low (UNM made seven vs. St. John's) and cut in half the previous season low in free throw attempts against a DI opponent (UNM had 18 FT attempts vs. St. John's).

UNM's 9.2% of points coming from the free throw line was a season low.

So, as predicted, CSU didn't foul and it led to UNM not getting many points at the free throw line.

What didn't go as I thought was that if those things happened, the Lobos would struggle.

Dad brag? Yes. But it's my column, so...

Unrelated to Lobo hoops (other than she was, in fact, at a Lobo hoops game), my 15-year-old daughter came on a road trip with me to cover a game for the first time.

The CSU crew did awesome letting her sit on media row for a game when the vast majority of CSU's normal media was gone covering the football team's bowl game in Tucson.

Pregame, she joined me on my web show and had four or five people come introduce themselves to her specifically, followers of her through my social media posts through the years.

Proud dad day... well, at least until her coin flip picks went 4-1 on Saturday in picking Mountain West games and my actual use my brain picks went 2-3. (More on that at the bottom in the Grammer's Guesses update section).

Thanks again to CSU and the several CSU fans who made her feel special, which made me feel pretty special, too.

And for a more specific thank you, here's a post I made about a CSU fan I've gotten to know over the years who gave my daughter a silver dollar on Saturday to use for her coin flip picks the rest of the season.

Steve Ivy is a good dude and made my daughter feel pretty important on Saturday, though I hope the coin doesn't get one game right the rest of the season.

Attendance...

The announced attendance at Moby Arena for Saturday's game between the UNM Lobos and CSU Rams: 4,772

Nice for Rice...

Boise State's Leon Rice, whose Broncos made him sweat it out a bit, earned his 300th career coaching victory on Saturday at San Jose State, 73-71.

Plus/minus...

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

NEW MEXICO

+9 Atiki Ally Atiki (8:39)

+8 Filip Borovicanin (24:14)

+7 Donovan Dent (36:26)

+6 Tru Washington (20:29)

+6 Jovan Milicevic (15:41)

+2 C.J. Noland (19:31)

+2 Mustapha Amzil (24:19)

+1 Kayde Dotson (3:34)

0 Braden Appelhans (15:46)

-1 Nelly Junior Joseph (31:21)

COLORADO STATE

+3 Kyle Jorgensen (22:13)

-1 Kyan Evans (31:50)

-4 Keshawn Williams (13:15)

-4 Jaylen Crocker-Johnson (21:20)

-4 Ethan Morton (19:11)

-4 Nique Clifford (37:51)

-7 Bowen Born (8:10)

-8 Jalen Lake (28:54)

-11 Rashaan Mbemba (17:16)

Line 'em up...

The UNM Lobos played 10 players and used 13 unique lineup combinations. The Colorado State Rams played nine players and used 10 unique lineup combinations.

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

STARTING LINEUP

• WHO: Donovan Dent, Tru Washington, Filip Borovicanin, Mustapha Amzil, Nelly Junior Joseph

• POINT DIFFERENTIAL: +8 (30-22)

• TIME ON COURT: 16:34

• NOTE: The band is back together. The starting five to start the season is back as the starting five and I think it will stick this way for awhile with C.J. Noland being the much needed spark off the bench, who I expect will still get big minutes. Saturday, this combination had the best point differential of the day, though did commit seven of UNM's 12 turnovers while playing together. Nevertheless, as I always say, when your starting five is outscoring their starting five, you have a really good chance at winning the game.

As noted in the section above about that 21-0 scoring run, the Lobos had the starting five in for a chunk of that run, and during one 5:39 span late in the first half, the starting five had an 18-7 (plus-11) stretch together, again showing these guys appear as if they are starting to get a good feel for each other.

BEST LINEUP

• WHO: Donovan Dent, C.J. Noland, Braden Appelhans, Jovan Milicevic, Atiki Ally Atiki

• POINT DIFFERENTIAL: +7 (12-5)

• TIME ON COURT: 3:19

• NOTE: You could go with the starters here as the best lineup if you'd like as they had one more point on the point differential, but those turnovers weren't good. This unit — one not often on the floor together for the Lobos — in just over 3 minutes of action scored 2.0 points per possession, had no turnovers and three assists, same as the starting unit had in more than five times the court time.

WORST LINEUP

• WHO: Donovan Dent, C.J. Noland, Braden Appelhans, Mustapha Amzil, Nelly Junior Joseph

• POINT DIFFERENTIAL: -8 (3-11)

• TIME ON COURT: 2:54

• NOTE: The three guards are the same as the group that has a +7 in just about 3 minutes, but Mustapha Amzil and Nelly Junior Joseph in this group and the results were much, much different. This unit's 0.60 points per possession was the worst for any Lobos combination that played more than 30 seconds together.

AND ONE OF THEIR'S...

• WHO: Kyan Evans, Jalen Lake, Nique Clifford, Ethan Morton, Rashaan Mbemba

• POINT DIFFERENTIAL: -7 (10-17)

• TIME ON COURT: 2:54

• NOTE: CSU's offense is usually very efficient. Saturday, it's starting five — the group Niko Medved deemed best to start a big early season Mountain West game — mustered a mere 0.56 points per possession in over 12 minutes on the court together. For any unit, that's a pathetic number. For your starting five? Yikes.

VIDEO: Pitino and Noland postgame...

Here are my postgame interviews with UNM Lobo coach Richard Pitino and UNM senior guard C.J. Noland...

MORE VIDEO: Pregame show...

Here is a clip to my pregame show from Moby Arena with a special guest appearance form another Talking Grammer, my 15-year-old daughter, Jaedyn...

It's only been 10, but...

There have been 10 Mountain West conference games played (out of 110) so far.

There isn't nearly enough yet to pretend we know definitively much of anything. But we do know that the games have, largely, been pretty close.

• CLOSE GAMES (4 or fewer points or OT): 5

• BLOWOUTS (19 or more points): 1

A season ago, the Mountain West ranked 8th out of 33 conferences in "close games", per KenPom.com with 24 out of 99 (24.2%) and 3rd out of 33 at the other extreme for most blowouts with 21-out of 99 (21.2%).

It was feast or famine in the league last season with 45 of 99 games falling into one of the two extremes.

As for this season, three teams have had each of their league games so far come down to the final possessions: Nevada, Utah State and Wyoming. Their record in those close games?

• Utah State 2-0

(70-67 home win over Wyoming; 67-66 road win at SDSU)

• Wyoming 1-1

(70-67 road loss at Utah State; 66-63 home win over Nevada)

• Nevada 0-2

(66-64 home loss to Colorado State; 66-63 road loss at Wyoming)

As for that one blowout, that was San Diego State beating the brakes off Fresno State, 84-62 in Fresno, on Dec. 4. The Aztecs next league game was Saturday, a 1-point home loss.

(Also, you can expect this note to make another appearance in my Monday evening "Around the Mountain" conference column).

Meanwhile, in San Diego...

OK. It's happening again. Despite being on coach No. 4 in a seven-year span (and the previous three all parlaying NCAA Tournament trips into higher-paying jobs elsewhere), the Utah State Aggies with a new coach are winning again. Big time.

They won Saturday at Viejas Arena to put whoever wasn't already there on notice that they are legit, no sitting pretty at 12-1 and 2-0 in league play with a road win at San Diego State.

Around the Mountain...

There were five games around the Mountain (West) on Saturday and five more coming up on Tuesday. Here's the next week of games...

SATURDAY

• New Mexico 76, Colorado State 68

• Wyoming 66, Nevada 63

• Boise State 73, San Jose State 71

• Utah State 67, No. 20 San Diego State 66

• UNLV 87, Fresno State 77

TUESDAY

• UNLV at Air Force, 1 p.m. PT/2 p.m. MT (TheMW)

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

• New Mexico at Fresno State, 5 p.m. PT/6 p.m. MT (TheMW)

• Boise State at Wyoming, 5:30 p.m. PT/6:30 p.m. MT (theMW)

• Utah State at Nevada, 7 p.m. PT/8 p.m. MT (TheMW)

FRIDAY

• Nevada at New Mexico, 8 p.m. PT/9 p.m. MT (FS1)

SATURDAY

• San Diego State at Boise State, 1 p.m. PT/2 p.m. MT (CBS)

• Wyoming at Air Force, 2 p.m. PT/3 p.m. MT (TheMW)

• San Jose State at UNLV, 3 p.m. PT/4 p.m. MT (TheMW)

• Fresno State at Utah State, 6 p.m. PT/7 p.m. MT (TheMW)

Mountain West standings...

Through Saturday's games...

2-0 Boise State

2-0 New Mexico

2-0 Utah State

1-0 UNLV

1-1 Colorado State

1-1 San Diego State

1-1 Wyoming

0-1 Air Force

0-2 Fresno State

0-2 Nevada

0-2 San Jose State

Mountain West home/road standings...

A team get's a +1 for a road win and -1 for a home loss:

+1 Boise State

+1 New Mexico

+1 Utah State

0 Air Force

0 Colorado State

0 San Diego Stateaa

0 UNLV

0 Wyoming

-1 Fresno State

-1 Nevada

-1 San Jose State

Stats and stats...

Here is the postgame stat sheet I posted Saturday after the game: New Mexico 76, Colorado State 68

And if you prefer the digital version, here you go: New Mexico 76, Colorado State 68

Grammer's Guesses...

The Guesses go 2-3 on Saturday and I'm now 5-5 on the season picking Mountain West games against the spread.

My daughter's coin flip picks went 4-1 today and she (and her coin) are now 7-3 on the season.

I already hate this season.

Up next...

For New Mexico: The Lobos play at Fresno State on Tuesday at 6 p.m. MT (5 p.m. local start time in Fresno). The game will be streamed on TheMW.com.

For Colorado State: The Rams play at San Jose State on Tuesday at 3 p.m. MT (2 p.m. local start time in San Jose).

Until next time...

Until next time, Moby Arena on the campus of Colorado State University in Fort Collins, Colorado...

(Because of a watch party for the CSU football team playing in the Arizona Bowl, I couldn't post my regular after game, empty arena picture today. So this will have to do.)

Lobo schedule/results...