Littlest Lobos causing opponents' biggest problems

The little Lobos sure have been a big problem for opposing teams.

Mountain West conference play opens Saturday night in the Pit against San Jose State. And first-year head coach Eric Olen plans to continue to take full advantage of the pressure that playing 6-foot-3 point guard Deyton Albury and 5-11 point guard Uriah Tenette on the floor at the same time can bring.

When those two players — the two shortest on the UNM roster — have been on the court together this season — for 179 possessions and 100 total minutes played — the Lobos have outscored opponents by 59 points. There is no other two-player combination this season that has given UNM a better output (though it's worth noting the top five two-player combinations all include Tenette.)

While the offensive benefits of having two dynamic playmakers on the court together may not be entirely surprising, the reason that particular duo is able to have such an impact is because UNM hasn't suffered the defensive lapses one might expect by going shorter.

"You put two of the smaller guys out there and the defense is still good because of their ability to pressure the ball and their athleticism there," Olen said. "And then, just the attention that they draw (on offense) — the ability to draw help off the dribble."

Olen said Albury's elite driving ability often draws multiple defenders, but that alone doesn't always equal better offense. Defenses can often adjust enough, or recover defensively fast enough on one drive, to make up for one driver in the court.

But when there's two?

"When you have Uriah out there, and Deyton forces a little extra help, and then you have another explosive guy who's getting the space, they can amplify each other when we make good end-of-drive decisions," Olen said. "We talk about that a lot — a good end-of-drive decision, that creates some advantage. And then we want to amplify that advantage with another good decision, and if it lands on Uriah or Luke (Haupt) or other guys who can drive the basketball when we have the space, they're able to amplify that advantage. ...

"Some of the best opportunities, best shot quality we get, is going to come off of multiple drives (on the same possession)."

Top plays

Tenette admitted his phone was a rather busy device last Sunday night when his baseline out of bounds alley-oop dunk from the Luke Haupt assist made ESPN's Sports Center Top 10 plays segment.

As for when it happened — a play the Lobos had never practiced but one assistant coach Tom Tankelewicz drew up in a timeout based on something he saw in the Florida Gulf Coast defense — Tenette said it probably supplied him with a much-needed boost to break out of a funk he was in.

"I was excited for that play when it was getting drawn up in the huddle," Tenette said. "I don't think I was playing very well at that moment in time in the game, and getting that drawn up, and Luke making that pass — was great pass by him — and getting that dunk down really helped get me going during that game."

To no avail

Player availability reports are now part of the regular game-to-game protocol in the Mountain West for league games.

Posting at 9 p.m. MST the night before every league game, teams must disclose any player they know to be "out" or "questionable". Each team's head athletic trainer will serve as the primary point of contact on the list, with another staffer serving as the "secondary liaison".

An updated report will also be posted on the league's website two hours before each game.

That said, 9 p.m. is not 9 a.m. And at Friday's 9 a.m. media conference, Olen said, "I don't have any updates today," when the Journal asked him for a status update on starting Chris Howell (wrist) and Tomislav Buljan (hamstring), who both left Sunday's win over Florida Gulf Coast with injuries, as well as Kevin Patton Jr., who was away from the team "for personal reason."

Series history

The Lobos lead the series 23-6, including 12-1 in the Pit. But since 2019, it's been a far more respectable (for SJSU) 9-5 UNM advantage with SJSU winning a game against the Lobos in five of the past seven seasons, including 2019 when they were 1-17 in Mountain West play, 2020 when they were 3-15, 2021 when they were 3-13, 2022 when they were 1-17 and last season when they were 7-13.

Basically, even when the Spartans have struggled to beat anyone else in the league, they've still found success against the Lobos.

Last season, the teams split the regular season series with the Spartans upsetting the Lobos 71-70 in San Jose and then UNM taking care of business against SJSU in the Mountain West Tournament quarterfinals.

In that Jan. 14, 2025, regular season game in California, the Lobos led 70-69 and San Jose State missed a shot with 4 seconds remaining, but UNM failed to secure the defensive rebound to clinch the game. Latrell Davis, who has since transferred to San Diego State, grabbed the offensive rebound and scored for the Spartans, giving them the win with 1 second remaining.