Grammer: A preseason edition of Grammer's Guesses for Saturday's Lobo hoops event

It’s not exactly like Christmas morning.

But for Lobo basketball fans, Saturday night’s Lobo Howl is a return to an old feeling of excitement and — this season more than any other in UNM history — curiosity about all the new gifts the program has brought them in the offseason.

The entirety of the men’s basketball roster, after all, and a good portion of the women’s team are brand new to these parts, making their debuts in that gym dug 37 feet deep on UNM’s south campus.

Do I really know what to expect? Nope.

Will that stop me from making predictions? Nope.

Dunk contest

The contestants:

• No. 0 Kevin Patton, Jr. — 6-foot-8, junior, forward
• No. 1 Deyton Albury — 6-2, senior, point guard
• No. 4 Uriah Tenette — 5-11, freshman, point guard
• No. 5 Antonio Chol — 6-9, junior, forward

Leaning into that Christmas theme from above, let me warn you against assuming the best gift under the tree might not be the one in the smallest package.

In October 2011, for instance, a 5-9 guard from Houston — Jamal Fenton — got a surprise visitor at the Lobo Howl.

When his mom showed up from out of town, his juices were flowing and he decided to try one of the best, or at least most original, dunks in Lobo Howl history.

With his back to the basket and standing near the team’s bench, the undersized dynamo tossed the ball over his head toward the basket, did a back flip, then charged toward the rim, caught the ball in the air, dunked the ball while the Pit crowd erupted — his teammates rushing the court as he pulled himself up on the rim and swinging around like a kid on monkey bars.

“I call that ‘the Jamal Special,’” he told Journal reporter Mark Smith at the time. “That was great having my mom here; she surprised me. I didn’t know she was here, but then I saw her in the crowd and thought, ‘Oh my God.’ I had to do it for her.”

In 2018, a 6-0 freshman named Drue Drinnon announced his presence at what that year was called the “Cherry/Silver” game, dominating the dunk contest to the surprise of many fans seeing him for the first time, and some of the people at the event who had already seen him play.

”You didn’t know I could do that, though, did you?” a grinning Drinnon asked a Journal reporter after the event. “Nobody did. I got that in my bag.”

So, with that trip down memory lane in mind, sorry to the big, athletic guys who will get plenty of dunks this season — Chol and Patton — and my apologies to the speedster who I suspect will be running the point for the Lobos this season in Albury.

My pick for the dunk contest is the 5-11 two sport star from Prescott, Arizona, Tenette.

Skills competition

The contestants:

• No. 3 Destinee Hooks/No. 8 Chris Howell
• No. 13 Joana Magalhaes/No. 23 Emma Najjuma
• No. 15 Drew Jordon/No. 7 Sir Marius Jones
• No. 24 Jessie Joaquim/No. 2 Tajavis Miller
• No. 20 Tyler Jones/No. 3 Luke Haupt
• No. 10 Cacia Antonio/No. 10 Tomislav Buljan

Six teams of two — five teams featuring one men’s player, one women’s player and one team with two women’s players — will compete in a skills competition.

To the best of my knowledge, this is a first for the Howl with a player from each team participating in a competition similar to the one that has become a regular fixture in the NBA’s All-Star weekend festivities in recent years, featuring running, dribbling, a passing ring, and shooting drills as a team.

Picking the winner of a skills contest with teammates who have never done these drills together before takes a highly scientific, well-researched and well thought out approach...

Oh look, Antonio and Buljan have the same number.

Book it. They’re your winners!

3-point competition

The contestants:

• No. 14 Leonor Peixinho
• No. 11 Nayli Padilla
• No. 5 Kaia Foster
• No. 44 Lalia Abdurraqib
• No. 40 Clarissa Craig
• No. 4 Alyssa Hargrove
• No. 23 Jake Hall
• No. 29 Timeo Pons
• No. 35 JT Rock
• No. 31 Milos Vicentic

Well, unlike the skills competition, jersey number won’t help in predicting this one, which is a good thing for seven of the 10 contestants who don’t even have a three in their jersey number.

Eric Olen hinted that freshman Jake Hall has been the best statistical 3-point shooter in practice so far for his team. But on the scouting advice of two well-placed moles who have had eyes on the women’s team, I’ve narrowed down my picks to two players, neither of them on the men’s team, who are bound to fire up a ton of 3s this season.

My pick for runner up: Foster. My pick to win it: Padilla.