Emptying the Notebook: Wasn't pretty, but Lobos finally get a final-second game-winner of their own

Here are some extra notes, quotes, stats and other odds & ends I managed to empty out of the old notebook after Thursday's 82-80 Lobos win over UT Arlington in the Pit:

Is the curse over?

No, it wasn't with much on the line.

It was a nonconference game on Nov. 16, after all.

But after taking gut-punch loss after gut-punch loss last season with victory in their grasp in the final second of regulation only to have it yanked away — losses that kept them out of the NCAA Tournament — the UNM Lobos, quite frankly, don't care who Thursday night's last-second game-winner from Donovan Dent came against.

They. Were. Due.

Before we dive deeper into Thursday's game-winner with more comments from UNM coach Richard Pitino and the hero Donovan Dent, let's first take a trip down memory lane — a painful one if you're a Lobos fan — to see what happened to the team last season that made Thursday's game-winning layup with 0.5 seconds left all the more sweet.

(For full disclosure, I broke down these same shots in this same way toward the end of last season when it kept happening to the Lobos)

• 2/25: San Diego State 73, New Mexico 71 (the Pit)

Yes, a little more month before he became an all-time college basketball legend for hitting a buzzer-beater in the Final Four to advance to the national title game, San Diego State's Lamont Butler ripped the hearts out of Lobo fans in the Pit, and probably drove the final nail in UNM's postseason chances with his first buzzer beater.

UNM's Jamal Mashburn Jr. hit three free throws with 16.7 seconds left to pull UNM within one. Jaelen House then stole the ball and hit a layup in traffic to put UNM up 71-70 with 6 seconds remaining.

Then the Butler did it, going almost the full length of the floor to hit a 3-pointer at the buzzer gave the Aztecs the win.

• 2/7: Nevada 77, New Mexico 76 (the Pit)

Mashburn hits a jumper with 19 seconds remaining putting the Lobos up 76-75 with 19 seconds remaining. Nevada's Kenan Blackshear's jumper in the lane with 0.1 seconds remaining gave Nevada the season sweep of the Lobos.

• 1/23: Nevada 97, New Mexico 94 in OT (Reno)

This wasn't technically a last-second loss, but considering it was a double overtime loss the Lobos not only could have won twice (end of regulation and end of the first overtime), then had it all end in the most bizarre of ways in the closing seconds of the second overtime, well, this certainly counts as a painful late game loss.

With the game tied 94-94 and what appeared to be possession for the Lobos after a Morris Udeze rebound with 20 seconds to go, no foul was called on either team. The Lobos dribbled the ball up court and called a timeout to draw up their final play with just 14 seconds left in the second overtime.

During the timeout, referee Verne Harris went to the monitor and retroactively called a flagrant foul on Udeze from six seconds prior, giving Nevada two FTs and the ball. Though Udeze was clearly fouled prior to the flagrant he committed, common fouls cannot be called retroactively, only the flagrant. Daniel Foster hit one of two FTs and the Wolf Pack led 95-94 with the ball, leading to another UNM foul. Will Baker hit two FTs for the final score of 97-94, Nevada, all in a game UNM called a timeout in that gave the referees the chance to review the play earlier.

OK, Lobo fans. You still with me?

Because now I'm going to give the same treatment to the final two huge, clutch, painful, wonderful (all depending on your perspective) plays from Thursday night.

Let's start with this...

After a Jemarl Baker Jr. free throw put the Lobos up 80-77 with 12.6 seconds left, UTA's DaJuan Gordon brought the ball up court, drove under the basket and kicked out to Makaih Williams in the corner. Williams hit the corner 3 to tie the game with 5.3 seconds remaining.

And all that set up this...

"Yeah, 5.3 (seconds). Normally you get about a dribble a second," Pitino explained of the final play. "Donovan is about as good as it gets to the rim. So, Mash was staring me down. He was mad at me. I was ignoring him. I wanted to space the court and I wanted Isaac to play behind the defense and Donovan get to the rim. And he's a great layup maker. You know, he's just really, really good at it. So, fortunately, it worked in that one. Sometimes it doesn't."

And as for Dent on the final sequence:

"They kind of picked up and pressed us a little bit, so I knew I'd have the guy kind of backpedalling," Dent explained. "I just kind of saw that and made a move from there and finished over the defender."

"It's what you dream of as a kid, really," Dent said.

So, the Lobos are 2-1 heading into the Ball Dawg Classic — two wins just about everyone expected (one a blowout, one a nail-biter) and one loss most people who aren't Lobo die-hards expected.

Now, three games in Henderson, Nev., await in the Ball Dawgs Classic against Toledo, Rice and Pepperdine.

"We've got three days to fix a lot of things to keep getting better because this team will progress as the season goes on," Pitino said.

The gamer ...

Here is the game story I filed not long after Thursday's game ended...

UNM slips by UT Arlington: Dent goes coast-to-coast to hit game-winner in final second

More on Donnie!

House and Mashburn are the seniors who were voted preseason All-Mountain West. They're both in the 1,000-point scoring club at UNM. They're really, really good.

But take a look at Dent, the sophomore, so far this season, including Thursday's career-high 25-point night:

• Nov. 6 vs. Texas Southern: 12 points, 6 assists, 1 block, 1 steal

• Nov. 9 at Saint Mary's: 15 points, 5 assists, 3 steals

• Thursday vs. UT Arlington: 25 points, 5 assists, 1 block, 2 steals

"There's a lot of talk about House and Mash," said Pitino. "They're really good players. They are. But Donovan Dent is a really good player, as well, and he's taking advantage. We're way better when House is with us. We know that. Hopefully he'll be back soon. But Donovan is taking advantage of that opportunity."

Oh, and how about this? While I wouldn't say he's a great shooter, he's at least not as hesitant to put them up so far this season and he's been knocking a few down, matching in three games the number of 3-pointers he made all last season.

• 2022-23: Dent was 4-of-19 on 3s (21.1%) in 34 games

• 2023-24: Dent is 4-of-7 on 3s (57.1%) in 3 games

Half the story ...

• UNM's offense in the first half: 48 points, 1.263 points per possession, Mashburn 22 points (7-13 FG), Lobos led by 12.

• UNM's offense in the second half: 34 points, 0.971 points per possession, Mashburn 7 points (2-10 FG), Lobos outscored by 10.

The last time ...

OK, back to the game-winner...

The last time the Lobos won a game in the final second was on Nov. 6, 2018, when Anthony Mathis it a 3-pointer with 0.3 seconds remaining on the road at Cal State-Northridge.

Oh, look. I have video of that one, too ...

More struggles without House

House missed his second consecutive game with what the team is saying is a hip injury. He's been a limited participant in practice and even played in the Nov. 6 season opening blowout win over Texas Southern.

But that was after missing five weeks in preseason practice leading up to the season and now he's missed more than another week.

Pitino said they'd re-evaluate his status on Saturday (the team has Friday off) and hope he's ready for three games next week in the Ball Dawgs Classic, and more importantly, for the rest of the season.

Boy, they sure could use him back ASAP.

Yes, Mashburn can still score a ton without him. And, yes, Dent is a stud sophomore playing high-level at the point guard spot in House's spot.

But make no mistake, the Lobos simply aren't as good without House, the fifth-year point guard in the lineup.

In fact, Thursday was the Lobos first win in four games against Division I opponents without House playing, and all three losses were by double digits and Thursday's win was in the final second against a team that was a 14.5-point underdog.

UNM without House vs. DI teams:

2022-23 season

• Feb. 10: UNM loses by 12 points (89-77) at Air Force, a team that finished 10th in the 11-team Mountain West last season

• Feb. 14: UNM loses by 14 points (70-56) in the Pit to Wyoming, who finished in last place in the Mountain West last season

2023-24 season

• Nov. 9: UNM loses by 14 points (72-58) at Saint Mary's

• THURSDAY: UNM wins by 2 points (82-80) in the Pit to UT Arlington, which was a 14.5-point underdog

I already used this Pitino quote in a section above, but I'll post it again here since it is House specific:

"We're way better when House is with us," Pitino said.

Suit yourself ...

No, Thursday was not a Cherry Blazer game. In fact, Richard Pitino has made pretty clear there probably won't be many blazer games of any kind any time soon.

The Lobos coach earlier this week decided to champion the cause of the vast majority of college basketball coaches (and all NBA coaches) sticking with the casual look since COVID instead of going back to the suits on the sideline look.

So, since he's the son of a coach very well known for being on the pro-suit side of the debate, I had fun with it, too, and wrote a column about it.

Here's both a link to the column (with comments from both Richard and Rick Pitino about the matter) and video from Richard's comments on Wednesday about it:

Speaking of game attire ...

The Lobos wore turquoise jerseys on Thursday (and the women's team on Wednesday) as part of their annual Nike N7 game to raise awareness of and celebrate Native American Heritage Month.

Injury report ...

• House did not suit out for Thursday's game with an ongoing hip injury. He will be re-evaluated on Saturday.

• Redshirt freshman guard Braden Appelhans did not suit out Thursday with an ankle injury suffered in Wednesday's practice. It's not expected to be anything that should keep him out long term.

• As reported earlier in the week, freshmen walk-ons Shane Douma-Sanchez and Deraje Agbaosi have both elected to use this season as redshirts, preserving a year of eligibility and not playing in any games.

• Junior center Sebastian Forsling did not play on Thursday. Pitino said there was no injury-related reason for that.

• Freshman forward JT Toppin played 27 minutes on Thursday but was said by Pitino to be cramping up quite a bit in the second half of the game.

Speaking of Toppin ...

Toppin, the 6-9 forward from Texas, continues his fast start to his college career. He recorded his first double-double as a Lobo on Thursday (15 points, 10 rebounds and a blocked shot) in 27 minutes.

His three game start to his college career:

• Nov. 6 vs. Texas Southern: 11 pts, 9 rebs, 2 blks, 2 stls

• Nov. 9 at Saint Mary's: 8 pts, 6 rebs, 1 blk

• Thursday vs. UT Arlington: 15 pts, 10 rebs, 1 blk

A number to know: 57

It's early to care too much about computer rankings, but they do exist. And UNM's KenPom ranking dropped Thursday night from 50 to 57 after beating a UT Arlington team the KenPom formula predicted should have been a 15-point UNM Lobos win (81-66).

For the Mountain West, that's now five teams in the top 60 — all five of which have NCAA Tournament hopes:

31 - San Diego State

43 - Nevada

54 - Colorado State

57 - New Mexico

59 - Boise State

Speaking of KenPom ...

Among many things the good ole' computers at the KenPom.com factory churn out every night is a run down of the best statistical game in the country (his formula for determining what that is, of course, if top secret). The site calls them the Lines o' the Night. And on Thursday, it came from the Pit.

... just not from the winning team.

UT Arlington's 6-9 junior center Shemar Wilson went off on the Lobos with the following, best in the country for the night according to KenPom, stat line:

• 29 points

• 11-12 2FG

• 0-1 3FG

• 7-9 FT

• 11 rebounds

• 2 blocked shots

Attendance ...

The announced attendance for Thursday night's game between UT Arlington and UNM in the Pit: 10,484

UNM has now played in three games this season. Here is the attendance of each:

• 11,106 - Nov. 6 vs. Texas Southern (the Pit)

• 3,500 - Nov. 9 at Saint Mary's (Moraga, Calif.)

• 10,484 - Thursday night vs. UT Arlington (the Pit)

Speaking of attendance ...

UNM's season ticket base is trending up. Here's a story I wrote about it for Wednesday's Journal:

Lobo men's basketball season ticket sales trending up

Another number to know: 22-8

UT Arlington had 22 second chance points compared to 8 for the Lobos. Both were season worsts for UNM.

The difference in offensive rebounds was just 15-14 in UTA's advantage.

UNM's 2nd chance points

• 15 - Saint Mary's (Nov. 9)

• 12 - Texas Southern (Nov. 6)

• 8 - UT Arlington (Thursday)

Opponents' 2nd chance points

• 22 - UT Arlington (Thursday)

• 17 - Saint Mary's (Nov. 9)

• 5 - Texas Southern (Nov. 6)

20/20 vision ...

Mashburn breaking 20 points is nothing new. But did you know he's now had five teammates score 20 or more points in a game along with him breaking 20 points? (hat tip to the Steve Kirkland research on this one).

• Jaelen House (eight times)

• Morris Udeze (twice)

• Donovan Dent (Thursday vs. UT Arlington)

• Jay Allen-Tovar (Jan. 22, 2022, at Wyoming)

• Javonte Johnson (Jan. 8, 2022, vs. Utah State in the Pit)

Postgame presser ...

Here's the postgame presser I shot of Pitino and Dent:

Plus/minus ...

Here are the plus/minus stats from Thursday's game for the Lobos with minutes played in parenthesis:

+9 Donovan Dent (33:41)

+8 JT Toppin (26:47)

+8 Isaac Mushila (12:38)

+3 Tru Washington (17:13)

0 Jemarl Baker Jr. (28:28)

-1 Jamal Mashburn Jr. (36:47)

-5 Quinton Webb (3:51)

-6 Nelly Junior Joseph (22:03)

-6 Mustapha Amzil (18:33)

Line 'em up ...

The UNM Lobos used 19 lineup combinations and played nine players on Thursday. UT Arlington used 13 lineup combinations and also played nine players.

Thursday was the third starting lineup the Lobos have used this season in as many games. They used three unique starting lineups in all 34 games of the 2022-23 season.

Here's a look at how some of those combinations for the Lobos fared, starting with the starters...

STARTING LINEUP

• Who: Donovan Dent, Jamal Mashburn Jr., Jemarl Baker Jr., JT Toppin, Nelly Junior Joseph

• Point differential: -2 (10-12)

• Time on court: 5:51

• Note: The starters were held to under a point per possession and with Nelly Junior Joseph getting in foul trouble, really, this rotation never had much of a chance. In fact, I can't remember the last time I saw a Lobos starting lineup on the court for such a short period of time (5:51) like on Thursday.

BEST LINEUP

• Who: Donovan Dent, Jamal Mashburn Jr., Jemarl Baker Jr., Isaac Mushila, JT Toppin

• Point differential: +10 (18-8)

• Time on court: 5:31

• Note: His stats aren't killing it yet, but in case you haven't noticed, the Lobos play really well with Isaac Mushila is on the floor. He just seems to do things that help the other players. In just 12:38 played, Mushila was held scoreless but had the second best +/- on the Lobos roster on Thursday, and was just one point away from Dent, who scored 25 points. I know that +/- in small sample sizes can be deceiving, but mark my word, the Lobos will have some good +/- numbers this season when Mushila is on the court, even if his stats don't look like they're the reason.

WORST LINEUP

• Who: Jamal Mashburn Jr., Tru Washington, Quinton Webb, Mustapha Amzil, JT Toppin

• Point differential: -4 (0-4)

• Time on court: 1:27

• Note: It didn't take long to see this combination wasn't going to work. This was one of the stretches on Thursday night when Mashburn was running the point and I think that's a problem for the Lobos. They need him to score (and, yes, they need him to shoot a lot). Him running the point isn't the best way for that to happen. The Lobos will be better when House and Dent can be the point guards all game, but without House (injured), and for the few stretches Dent needs to rest or is in foul trouble, it seems the Lobos might be better off using someone other than Mashburn at the point (Jemarl Baker is one of the only options there, not that I'm saying it's an ideal one).

Meanwhile, at the U.S. Air Force Academy ...

The cadets opened their Air Force Classic event with a victory, 76-58 over Lindenwood.

Around the Mountain ...

There were three games around the Mountain West on Thursday with a full slate loading up the next few days. (I'm only listing the games where matchups are already set. In some of the tournament events, we don't yet know weekend matchups or times).

THURSDAY

• Air Force 76, Lindenwood 58 (Air Force Classic)

• Saint Louis 79, Wyoming 69 (Myrtle Beach Invitational)

• New Mexico 82, UT Arlington 80

FRIDAY

• Wyoming vs. Charleston, 12:30 p.m. MT (Myrtle Beach Invitational)

• Abilene Christian vs. San Jose State, 1:15 p.m. MT (Paradise Jam)

• William & Mary vs. Air Force, 4:30 p.m. MT (Air Force Classic)

• Kansas City at Colorado State, 7 p.m. MT

• Saint Mary's vs. San Diego State, 7:30 p.m. MT (Continental Tire Main Event)

• UNLV at Pepperdine, 8 p.m. MT

SATURDAY

• Portland at Nevada, 8 p.m. MT

SUNDAY

• Boise State at Clemson, 11 a.m. MT

• Omaha at Air Force, 2 p.m. MT (Air Force Classic)

• Marshall vs. Utah State, 3 p.m. MT (Cayman Island Classic)

Mountain West records ...

Nonconference records don't really mean much in terms of comparing because teams might be playing very different strengths of schedule. Nevertheless, here are the records through Thursday's games for the Mountain West:

3-0 Colorado State

3-0 Nevada

2-0 Boise State

2-1 Fresno State

2-1 New Mexico

2-1 San Diego State

2-1 San Jose State

2-1 Utah State

2-1 Wyoming

2-2 Air Force

1-1 UNLV

Meanwhile, in good women's Lobos news ...

The UNM Lobos women's basketball team is off to a 3-0 start ...

Nail-biter: UNM women hold on to nip Texas A&M Commerce

Meanwhile, in bad women's Lobos news ...

The Lobos women's basketball team lost a promising redshirt freshman with some deep UNM roots in Hannah Robbins, the daughter of Lobo legend Rob Robbins.

Hannah Robbins, daughter of Lobo standout Rob Robbins, leaves UNM women's program

Stats & stats...

Here's a look at the postgame stat sheet: New Mexico 82, UT Arlington 80

And if you prefer the digital look at the stats, here you go: New Mexico 82, UT Arlington 80

Lobos schedule/results ...

Here's a look at the Lobos schedule and results for the season: