Lobos hope to have some old school Pit magic waiting for Utah State

Game of the Year. Part 2.

A Feb. 1 game inside a raucous, sold-out Dee Glen Smith Spectrum in Logan, Utah, between the top two teams in the Mountain West conference — the UNM Lobos and the Utah State Aggies — was so good, they've decided to do it again.

This time, in a sold-out Pit in a rare Sunday afternoon game (2 p.m., CBS Sports Network). The teams again enter as the clear frontrunners for the league title with just six of 20 conference games remaining.

UNM (21-4, 13-1 Mountain West) closed out Game 1 on a demoralizing 43-15 run, handing the Aggies their worst home loss, 82-63, since 1996. Utah State (22-3, 12-2 Mountain West) was somewhat embarrassed — they said as much in their postgame press conference. But the Aggies are trying not to make Game 2 about payback as much as just play better.

"We know what is on the line," said Aggie guard Drake Allen in the Herald Journal in Logan. "I wouldn’t say it's a revenge game. We know what happened here in the (Spectrum). We are moving on from that. It’s more of a hunger and the hunger comes more from wanting to win a Mountain West championship than beating New Mexico."

Utah State coach Jerrod Calhoun, after first giving credit to UNM for the way they took over late, said after the Feb. 1 loss that his team missed plenty of wide-open shots, "but you can't let your offense dictate how you're going to compete and how you're going to play."

UNM coach Richard Pitino, whose Lobos are riding their second seven-game win streak of the season, said he's trying to keep Sunday business as usual, despite the buzz and hype surrounding the game — one that if won by the Lobos would give them a two-game advantage and the tiebreaker over Utah State.

"It's almost mid-February. If I'm motivating guys to get ready for these games, then we've got some serious problems," Pitino said earlier in the week.

Pitino said he's excited to know the Pit, which sold out more than a week ago, will be the setting.

"We're playing for first. We're playing for a lot right now," he said. "And when this building gets going, it's special. And Utah State, that was a hard place to go. We gotta make it hard for them when they come into this building on Sunday."

Those jerseys!

The Lobos will be playing in 1970s-inspired retro jerseys that had social media buzzing earlier in the week.

And a lot went into making it happen.

The process started last spring when former Senior Associate Athletic Director Ryan Berryman was still at UNM (he now works at the Big Ten's University of Washington).

With former Lobo Michael Cooper being inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame last year, Berryman wanted to find a way to honor him. Among the ideas was creating a replica jersey from Cooper's 1977-78 season in which he, Marvin "Automatic" Johnson and head coach Norm Ellenberger spearheaded what some consider to be the best Lobo basketball team ever.

Berryman, Assistant AD for Equipment Jacque May and Lobo hoops sports information director Steve Kirkland sifted through as many old media guides and photos as they could find to digitally recreate the jerseys in a design concept Nike could replicate. The graphic design work was handled by Director of Creative Services Jonathan Tibbetts.

The Zia Pueblo signed off on UNM replicating the turquoise and cherry Zia symbol with a basketball in the middle and "Lobos" over the basketball.

Since we last met

Since these two teams last met in Logan (all of two weeks ago), they've each won three games, two against common opponents.

Both UNM and Utah State had matching 71-67 final score victories over Wyoming — Utah State's was in Laramie, UNM's was in the Pit.

Both had home games against Colorado State — UNM beat the Rams by 22 points on Feb. 5, Utah State beat the Rams by eight on Tuesday.

Both won road games at the two bottom teams in the standings — UNM by 35 at Air Force, Utah State by eight at Fresno State.

Will we be seein' a different Ian?

Utah State's Ian Martinez is an All-Mountain West first team candidate. In the first meeting with UNM, he had just 10 points while going 0-for-7 from 3-point range and, even more jarring to those who know his game, 2-for-7 at the free throw line.

Take out the UNM game, and his season averages on those stats are: 17.2 points, 38.9% 3-point shooting and 90.4% free throw shooting.

It's hard to keep a player like Martinez down long. In the three games since losing to UNM, he's averaged 21.0 points, hit 7-of-18 3s (38.9%), and is a perfect 18-of-18 (100%) at the free throw line.

Last season against the Lobos, Martinez averaged 22.0 points, hit 6-of-10 (60%) 3-pointers and was 12-of-13 (92.3%) at the free throw line.

At their best against the best

UNM is 5-0 against the top five in the MW standings (teams in second, third, fourth and fifth) with an average margin of victory of 16.4 points. And they are 5-1 against teams in sixth, seventh, eighth and ninth in the standings with one loss, three wins in which they trailed by double figures and two wins that came down to the final possession (UNLV and Nevada in overtime).

Sunday will be UNM's ninth time playing a team with a Top 75 offense (out of 364 Division I teams), according to KenPom.com. Utah State is ranked No. 22.

The Lobos, who have the No. 23-ranked defense in the country and the No. 1 ranked defense in league games, have gone 8-0 in those first eight games against top offenses and won them by an average margin of victory of 11.8 points.