Emptying the Notebook: UNM's pressure defense smothers No. 22 UCLA

HENDERSON, Nevada — Here are some extra notes, quotes, stats, videos and whatever else I managed to empty out of the old notebook after Friday's 72-64 UNM Lobos win over No. 22 UCLA in the Las Vegas Hoopfest.

He said it ...

"We weren't ready for the intensity of this game."

— UCLA coach Mick Cronin

Turning defense in offense ...

Last season, the Lobos were blessed by the one-man fastbreak that was Jaelen House.

On a regular basis, the point guard's high-intensity, on-ball defense turned into an easy layup at the other end of the court in the blink of an eye. Pick-sixes, coaches call them, referring to when a football player intercepts the ball and takes it all they way back for a touchdown.

But with House gone, the natural assumption may have been that the Lobos would take a step back in points off turnovers.

Hardly.

While the sample size is small, the potential is clearly there for this season's Lobo roster to be as good or, dare I say, even better overall in that department.

The Lobos averaged 16.8 points off turnovers last season. They are averaging 22.0 through two games this season.

In Monday's season opening win against Nicholls, the Lobos scored 23 points off 17 turnovers.

Friday, it was 21 points off 21 UCLA turnovers.

"Twenty one turnovers," UCLA coach Mick Cronin said, pausing in front of reporters to let the number sink in. "It's hard to beat Division II teams with 21 turnovers."

Of course, the Lobos had 24 turnovers and did win, but we'll get to that a little later in this ETN column. This section is about how the Lobos actually did something with the 21 turnovers UCLA had (UCLA scored just 15 points off UNM's 24 turnovers).

From the opening tip, the Lobos were the aggressor and regularly turned defense into offense.

Like here ...

... or here ...

... or here ...

It wasn't just the 12 steals the Lobos had, either. Friday was an all-around defensive gem for UNM.

"I think defensively, we were as connected as we've ever been, and that's coming off of a bad defensive performance for Nicholls," UNM coach Richard Pitino said.

"Credit to our guys. They came to work the last two days of practice, they were dialed in. They understood it, and that's why you learn from all those games. And the Nichols game was was really good for us."

The gamer ...

Here is the gamer I filed from the Lee's Family Forum in Henderson on Friday night:

• New Mexico upsets No. 22 UCLA at Las Vegas Hoopfest

Oh, Mick ...

Friday was UNM's first nonconference win over a ranked opponent since the 2012-13 season when it beat No. 8 Cincinnati, 55-54, in Cincinnati.

The coach of that Bearcats team? Mick Cronin

Cronin, the Jeff Siembieda doppelganger, is now 0-3 vs. UNM:

• Dec. 27, 2012: UNM 55, No. 8 Cincinnati 54 (Fifth Third Arena in Cincinnati)

• Dec. 7, 2013: UNM 63, Cincinnati 54 (The Pit)

• Friday: UNM 72, No. 22 UCLA 64

Home away from home ...

The UNM Lobos are now 9-1 in their past 10 games — all in the past calendar year — played in the greater Las Vegas area.

Friday's game in the Lee's Family Forum in Henderson marked the fifth time the Lobos played in that arena in the past calendar year, though last year when they went 4-0 there it was called the Dollar Loan Center.

The Lobos did lose in January at the Thomas & Mack Center in a regular season game to UNLV, but then rattled off that historic four wins in four days, the first team to ever do so, to win the Mountain West Tournament there in March.

2023-24

• W, 92-84 vs. Toledo — Nov. 21, 2023 (Dollar Loan Center)

• W, 90-56 vs. Rice — Nov. 22, 2023 (Dollar Loan Center)

• W, 90-71 vs. Pepperdine — Nov. 24, 2023 (Dollar Loan Center)

• W, 93-76 vs. Santa Clara — Dec. 9, 2023 (Dollar Loan Center)

• L, 83-73 at UNLV — Jan. 9 (Thomas & Mack Center)

• W, 82-56 vs. Air Force — March 13 (Thomas & Mack Center/MW Tournament)

• W, 76-66 vs. Boise State — March 14 (Thomas & Mack Center/MW Tournament)

• W, 74-61 vs. Colorado State — March 15 (Thomas & Mack Center/MW Tournament)

• W, 68-61 vs. San Diego State — March 16 (Thomas & Mack Center/MW Tournament)

2024-25

• W, 72-64 vs. UCLA — Friday (Lee's Family Forum)

Nelly, again ...

Nelly Junior Joseph was again his dominant self in the first half on Friday before UCLA focused on him in the final 20 minutes and took him out of the game.

Fourteen of his 16 points and five of the six fouls he drew were in the first half.

"He just didn't get the touches (in the second half)," UCLA coach Mick Cronin said. "We dug it out. We didn't follow the game plan in the first half at all. We played behind him and stood and watched him score. We gave Aday (Mara) no help. He scored on four different guys in the first half. ... At no point did we get a second defender to him (in the first half)."

Case in point ...

Junior Joseph's 16-point, 12-rebound double-double is the 45th of his college career, ranking fourth in the country among active players.

NCAA DI Active double-double leaders

68 — Norchard Omier, Baylor

60 — Johni Broome, Auburn

49 — Hunter Dickenson, Kansas

45 — Nelly Junior Joseph, UNM

Donnie dimes ...

Donovan Dent had eight assists on Friday, giving him 19 over the first two games of the season.

It's the first time in his college career he's had 19 assists over any two-game span.

Dent's top two-game assist totals

19 — 11 vs. Nicholls on Monday, 8 vs. UCLA on Friday

18 — 4 vs. San Diego State (Jan. 13), 14 vs. Utah State (Jan. 16)

18 — 10 vs. NM State (Dec. 2, 2023), 8 vs. UC Santa Barbara (Dec. 6, 2023)

18 — 11 vs. Rice (Nov. 22, 2023), 7 vs. Pepperdine (Nov. 24, 2023

18 — 7 vs. Toledo (Nov. 21, 2023), 11 vs. Rice (Nov. 22, 2023)

On the other hand ...

Dent told me that when he talked with his family after the game — 18 of them were there, he said — they had one quick message.

"They were just making fun of me for my turnovers," Dent said. "That's all my family does. They're hard on me, but I love them to death. They support me through everything. They just make fun of me for my turnovers."

So, yeah. About those turnovers.

Dent had nine of them. NINE!

That's a career high for Dent.

Most turnovers by Donovan Dent:

9 — Friday vs. UCLA

6 — Feb. 16 at San Diego State

6 — Nov. 29, 2023, vs. Louisiana Tech

Speaking of turnovers ...

OK, so while the Lobos turned UCLA over 21 times and Mick Cronin said you aren't going to beat some Division II teams with that many turnovers, what he failed to mention was the Lobos had 24 turnovers, one of the team's highest totals ever.

According to BasketballReference.com, that ties for third most all-time for the Lobos. Ironically, the Lobos are 5-2 in the seven games in which they've committed 24 or more turnovers.

Most turnovers by UNM

26 — Nov. 12, 2004 vs. North Carolina A&T (W, 75-59)

26 — March 14, 1974 vs. San Francisco (L, 64-61 in NCAA Tournament)

24 — Friday vs. UCLA (W, 72-64)

24 — Jan. 2, 2016 at Fresno State (W, 77-62)

24 — March 16, 1974 vs. Dayton (W, 66-61 in NCAA Tournament)

24 — Nov. 25, 2019 vs. Auburn (L, 84-59 in Brooklyn)

24 — Dec. 10, 2011 at USC (W, 44-41)

Obviously exhibition games don't count in this stat, but if they did, remember just two weeks ago the Lobos committed 25 turnovers against UTEP.

So turnovers, clearly, are something to keep an eye on.

Meanwhile, back in Albuquerque ...

The Journal sports department covered a lot of ground on Friday night. From high school state playoffs, to the UNM Lobo football team winning in San Diego to the Lobo basketball team winning in Henderson.

Unfortunately, much of it was concluded after our print deadline.

Not to worry, subscribers. We put out a special e-edition page of the Lobos content for readers to see in regular newspaper format (we still have quite a few readers who consume us by reading either the print edition or the digital replica).

Thanks to the crew back in Albuquerque for the hard work:

Attendance ...

The powers that be at Lee's Family Forum (I'm guessing it was either Lee or his family) did not post an attendance for Friday's game. But as was heard on the broadcast (I'm told), and was definitely heard in the arena (I was there) Lobo fans certainly outnumbered UCLA fans by a good 2-to-1 (that might be generous).

And as is always the case, New Mexicans can't attend major sporting events without bringing their state flag.

Those are the rules.

I think I counted seven throughout the game. Here is a video of when the teams came out for last-minute warm-ups before tipoff on Friday night.

About those 3s ...

Can you believe somebody actually wrote in the past few days about how the Lobos can't hit 3-pointers? And how outside shooting was their weakness?

Who would do such a thing?

• Cold outside? For Pitino's Lobos, not hitting 3s is nothing new

Well, they weren't exactly a team of Steph Currys out there, but the 3-point shot was a key weapon in the Lobos quick first half start.

UNM hit 5-of-11 from beyond the arc in the first half, a far cry from the 4-for-22 first half Monday vs. Nicholls. They hit only 1-of-3 in the second half (6-of-15 in the game, 40.0%).

And maybe best of all for the Lobos was that two guys they are relying on this season to hit some 3s — C.J. Noland and Mustapha Amzil, who each went 1-for-9 on Monday — each connected from deep.

Amzil (2-4 3FG):

Noland (1-2 3FG):

Remember this guy?

The San Diego Clippers started their G-League season on Friday and their opening night roster included former Lobo Jaelen House.

Plus/minus ...

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

NEW MEXICO

+15 Donovan Dent (34:04)

+7 Filip Borovicanin (24:21)

+7 C.J. Noland (19:01)

+5 Nelly Junior Joseph (32:34)

+5 Tru Washington (29:51)

+5 Jovan Milicevic (2:00)

+4 Ibrahima Sacko (10:29)

+3 Atiki Ally Atiki (7:26)

0 Quinton Webb (2:05)

-1 Mustapha Amzil (27:31)

-1 Braden Appelhans (4:15)

-9 Kayde Dotson (6:23)

Line 'em up ...

The UNM Lobos played 12 players and used the same starting lineup as they did in their previous three contests (a closed scrimmage vs. Santa Clara, an exhibition vs. UTEP and the regular season opener vs. Nicholls State.

Unfortunately, there was an issue with the stats program at the arena I was told and the usual game book I get after Lobo games (thanks to UNM Sports Information Director Steve Kirkland) wasn't available.

So, no breaking down the best/worst lineup combinations of this game for this edition of ETN.

VIDEO: Pitino and Dent ...

Here's my postgame interview with UNM Lobos coach Richard Pitino and point guard Donovan Dent after the win over UCLA.

Meanwhile, in San Diego ...

It wasn't just the hoops team that beat a southern California program on Friday night.

The Lobo football team beat San Diego State on the road, 21-16.

Here is colleague Sean Reider's recap of that game, which keeps the Lobos bowl hopes alive:

• New Mexico football starts strong, rallies late to beat San Diego State

Around the Mountain ...

There were four games around the Mountain West on Friday night. Here's a look at those plus a look at some upcoming games around the league.

FRIDAY

• Colorado State 87, Tennessee State 79

• Fresno State 64, Sacramento State 57

• Pacific 80, San Jose State 67

• New Mexico 72, No. 22 UCLA 64

SATURDAY

• Memphis at UNLV, 3 p.m. PT/4 p.m. MT (TheMW.com)

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

• Washington at Nevada, 7 p.m .PT/8 p.m. MT (TheMW.com/Nevada Sports Net)

• Boise State at San Francisco, 7:30 p.m./8:30 p.m. (ESPN-plus)

SUNDAY

• Tennessee State at Wyoming, 1 p.m. PT/2 p.m. MT (TheMW.com)

• San Jose State at Hawaii, 7 p.m. PT/8 p.m. MT (ESPN+) — Rainbow Classic

MONDAY

• Long Island University at Air Force, 1 p.m. PT/2 p.m. MT (TheMW.com)

• San Jose State vs. NAIA Life Pacific, 7:30 p.m. PT/8:30 p.m. MT — Rainbow Classic

TUESDAY

• Texas A&M-Corpus Christi at New Mexico, 6 p.m. PT/7 p.m. MT (TheMW.com)

• Denver at Colorado State, 6 p.m. PT/7 p.m. MT (TheMW.com)

• NAIA Corban College at Boise State, 6 p.m. PT/7 p.m. MT (TheMW.com)

• D-III Occidental at San Diego State, 7 p.m. PT/8 p.m. MT (TheMW.com)

Mountain West records ...

(standings don't really matter until we have league games, and after less than a week, even looking at records doesn't do much, but, here we are.)

2-0 Colorado State

2-0 New Mexico

1-0 Boise State

1-0 Fresno State

1-0 Nevada

1-0 San Diego State

1-0 UNLV

1-0 Utah State

1-0 Wyoming

1-1 Air Force

0-2 San Jose State

Stats and stats ...

Here is the postgame stat sheet I posted late Friday night: New Mexico 72, No. 22 UCLA 64

And if you prefer the digital version, here you go: New Mexico 72, No. 22 UCLA 64

Up next ...

For New Mexico: The Lobos host Texas A&M-Corpus Christi at 7 p.m. Tuesday in the Pit.

For No. 22 UCLA: The Bruins host Boston University at 7 p.m. PT on Monday at Pauley Pavilion in Los Angeles.

Until next time ...

Until next time, Lee's Family Forum in Henderson, Nevada, home of this year's Las Vegas Hoopfest.

NOTE: For those of you familiar with my years of postgame empty arena pics, you'll notice this one is not from the top of the arena or at least higher up like normal. I pretty much forgot to take the pic and was out in the parking lot when I remembered. When I went back in, the guy who let me in was sort of unsure what I was talking about so I just took a quick pic and left rather than walking around.

Lobo schedule/results ...