Lobo men's basketball postpones Cherry/Silver game due to mounting preseason injuries

Richard Pitino has said you never truly know about a team until you see how they handle a bit of adversity.

Well, it appears the third-year University of New Mexico Lobos coach will get to know this season’s squad a lot sooner than expected.

In addition to the team’s projected starting center (Iona transfer Nelly Junior Joseph) still not being in the country while he waits in his native Nigeria for a student visa issue to get cleared up, UNM announced on Tuesday it is postponing (not cancelling) its preseason Cherry/Silver game that was scheduled to be held Saturday due to mounting injuries on the team.

“We’re disappointed that we won’t be able to have the Cherry/Silver scrimmage this Saturday,” Pitino said in a statement shared via social media. “We have a few guys that have had some bumps and bruises, so we can’t do a full scrimmage at this time. We are hopeful to be able to reschedule the event for another date.”

The term “bumps and bruises” is doing a lot of heavy lifting in that statement.

Last week, Isaac Mushilla, the 6-foot-5 Texas A&M-Corpus Christi transfer forward broke a bone in his left hand during a practice and will miss at least four weeks after surgery later this week. Mushilla averaged 14.5 points and 9.9 rebounds for the Islanders this past season with a school-record 14 double-doubles.

One of Junior Joseph’s two backups at center, 7-foot junior Sebastian Forsling, has missed time with a concussion.

Though mostly precautionary, senior point guard Jaelen House has missed practices with a leg injury.

One player sprained an ankle last week and another has been suffering from back spasms.

UNM has exhibition games in the Pit on Oct. 26 and Nov. 1 against Division II teams CSU-Pueblo and New Mexico Highlands, respectively. Its regular season opener is Nov. 6 in the Pit vs. Texas Southern then plays at a Saint Mary’s team expected to be nationally ranked on Nov. 9 in Moraga, Calif.

The good news, if you’re looking for a (cherry) and silver lining to it all, is that as of yet, there is nothing that seems to be a season-long injury or issue that should affect the team’s ultimate goal of being at its best by March for a postseason run.

Last year’s team started 14-0 and was the final Division I team in the country to lose a game. And while nobody would suggest they should have lost a game earlier, the Lobos of 2022-23 didn’t face much adversity until the second half of the season. UNM seemed to hit a wall, of sorts — mentally, physically, or both — following that 14-0 start with an 8-12 finish to close the year with a 22-12 record and first-round exit from the NIT.

Tackling adversity head on, senior guard Jamal Mashburn Jr. said during a July interview, was important for this season’s team to reach its full potential.

“I would say the theme for this year is trust. And that’s through all of the adversity because we’re going to lose games. We’re going to be down in a game. People are gonna feel tired and stuff like that,” Mashburn said in July.

“And it’s just all about just staying at it and trusting the process, because I think we do have something special here and we do have a great opportunity in front of us to be a top Mountain West team and have an NCAA Tournament berth, but we got to go out there and do it. We got to go out there and trust the process and execute.”

TIME TO TALK: The Mountain West’s men’s basketball media day event takes place Thursday in Las Vegas, Nev., and is in person for the first time since before COVID.

It’s also taking place simultaneously with the West Coast Conference media day at the same venue with the hopes of more media being able to give preseason coverage to both leagues.

As part of the Mountain West’s event, the league’s preseason all-conference teams and predicted order of finish will be unveiled. The ballots, which were due earlier this month, are voted on by a panel of voters from each of the 11 media markets in the league. The coaches, who annually assure anyone who will listen they don’t pay attention to the polls but always seem to reference exactly where they were picked throughout the season, do not participate in the preseason voting.

Each school brings the head coach, sports information director and two players. For the Lobos, Mashburn and Jemarl Baker Jr. will attend.