Lobos face tough test as Grand Canyon brings size and defense to the Pit

Now for the hard part.

Not that it's been easy so far, mind you, but Eric Olen knows the deal.

"We have been playing well, but we haven't played a team in conference with a winning record, either. So there's a lot of work left," Olen said on Monday.

UNM is sitting pretty at 13-3 overall and 4-1 in Mountain West play after a strong two-game road sweep in Colorado — a win last Tuesday at Colorado State and another Saturday at Air Force.

But Tuesday's showdown in the Pit — with the Lobos' 20-game home win streak on the line — is against Mountain West newcomer Grand Canyon (10-5 overall, 3-1 Mountain West), a team that is coming off a two-win week itself, one of those being a thumping of Boise State, which the Lobos were unsuccessful in doing two weeks ago in Boise.

"They've played well on the road," Olen said. "They just went had a big win at Boise, outplayed them pretty convincingly through that game, which if you look at how we performed there, you know that wasn't something we were able to do."

Grand Canyon has one of the league's top players in guard Jaden Henley, who is averaging 17.2 points, 4.7 rebounds and 1.9 steals per game and is second in the league at fouls drawn per 40 minutes. Henley, who played at UNLV last season, uses a physical, attacking style that is sure to put pressure on a Lobo defense that emphasizes defending the paint and rim.

Maybe even more concerning is Grand Canyon's size.

The Lopes are 20th nationally in average roster height, have arguably the best rebounder in the Mountain West not named Tomislav Buljan in 6-8 Brown transfer Nana Awusu-Anane (9.1 rebounds per game) and have enjoyed the emergence of 7-1 center Efe Demirel, a 21-year-old freshman who has played professionally in Turkey.

"He's really physical. I think he's a problem for us, just with his size and physicality," Olen said about Demirel. "We saw that a little bit with Boise, where (the Broncos') frontcourt was able to really protect the basket (against the Lobos on Dec. 30). Their physicality impacted us. And I think Grand Canyon is similar, so he's a big part of what they're doing defensively.

"They have a top 25 or close to it (29th) defense, and he sort of anchors that. He's a very good player, and they have several very good players."

For Jake's sake

Jake Hall was named the Mountain West Freshman of the Week on Monday after averaging 21.0 points and 4.5 rebounds per game, while shooting 54.2 percent (13-of-24) from the field and hitting eight 3-pointers in two UNM wins the previous week.

Hall's career-high 24 points on Saturday at Air Force was his fifth 20-point game of the season, the most 20-point games by a UNM freshman in program history.

Series notes

UNM leads the all-time series with Grand Canyon 4-1, including a 4-0 record in the Pit.

The one loss was one of those dreaded "game before Christmas" slip-ups for UNM on Dec. 23, 2014, in a game where Hugh Greenwood scored 20 points, Deshawn Delaney added 13 and Jordan Goodman scored 10 off the bench in a 68-65 Lopes win in Phoenix.

Houston's Big Two!

Everyone remembers the Big Two of the 1999-2000 Houston Rockets, right?

No, not Hakeem Olajuwan and Charles Barkley. But Bryce Drew and Lobo legend Kenny Thomas.

The current GCU coach was a second-year Rockets point guard that season after being the team's first-round pick (16th overall) in the 1998 NBA Draft. Thomas was a rookie power forward on that Houston team after being the first-round pick in 1999 (22nd overall).

“Bryce was a very smart player, and it’s no surprise he’s become a smart coach," Thomas told the Journal on Monday night. "I enjoyed playing with him during our year together in Houston and always respected how he approached the game.”

Houston wasn't the first time the two were teammates, either.

"Kenny and I were teammates (in 1997) for the World University games and then we were teammates for the Houston Rockets for a year," Drew said on Monday night, adding "Kenny's a great guy."

While the latter run as NBA teammates didn't net a championship like their 1997 run for Team USA did with a gold medal performance, Drew still recalls his time with Thomas fondly — even if the first story that came to mind was an incident off the court from the summer of 2001.

"Our assistant coach (Jim Boylen, who coincidentally later was a Mountain West head coach at Utah) had a little dog and he was in the car and Kenny went to pet it and the dog actually bit Kenny and he was out like a week or two from that," Drew recalled.

Ups and downs for the fans

XPogo, a team of extreme pogo performers, will perform for fans at halftime.

Also, the first 2,500 fans in the game get free rally towels.

Reach Geoff Grammer at ggrammer@abqjournal.com or follow him on Twitter (X) @GeoffGrammer.