Nelly Junior Joseph's defensive dominance nets UNM-record seventh Player of Week award

Nelly Junior Joseph is where opposing team’s possessions go to die.

And as a result, he and UNM basketball have become with increasing regularity the place where Mountain West Player of the Week awards come to live.

Junior Joseph won his fourth such award on Monday, and for UNM that’s seven on the season (Donovan Dent has three).

In wins vs. Colorado State and at Air Force last week, the Lobo center averaged 16.0 points, 16.0 rebounds, 3.0 blocks and 2.5 steals. His 21 rebounds Saturday at Air Force is tied for the fourth most this season in a game vs. a Division I opponent and second most ever for a Lobo in a Mountain West game (Drew Gordon had 23 vs. Utah in 2011).

And while the 6-foot-10 Nigerian center likes offense, and insists he’ll hit at least one 3-pointer before the season is over, he knows what his strength is.

“Coming from Rick Pitino (at Iona two seasons ago) to Richard Pitino (at UNM), it’s all about defense, man,” Junior Joseph said. “All my old coach do is defense, defense. All his mindset is defense. So when I came here, I bring the mindset to the team, I just want to play defense.”

Junior Joseph is the only player in the Mountain West averaging a double-double overall this season (13.8 points per game/11.0 rebounds per game) and in conference play (14.6 points/12.1 rebounds).

UNM’s seven MW Player of the Week honors is already a program record, and the Lobos are the third team to have two players win at least three MW POW’s in the same season, joining the 2010-11 San Diego State Aztecs (Malcolm Thomas and Kawhi Leonard) and the 2018-19 Nevada Wolf Pack (Jordan Caroline and Caleb Martin).

Junior Joseph’s fourth POW award makes him just the third Lobo to win the award in back-to-back weeks (J.R. Giddens in 2007-08 season, Roman Martines in 2009-10 season). He and Gordon (2011-12) are now tied for second in program history with four weekly awards in one season, one behind the five J.R. Giddens earned in the 2007-08 season.

DD’s got D, too

Junior Joseph may be building quite the strong case for Mountain West Player of the Year, and his teammate Tru Washington, especially the past month or so, has been as good as anyone on the defensive end of the court.

But Dent, that pass-first point guard who also leads the league in scoring, can fill some defensive columns on the stat sheet, too.

Most games with 1 steal and 1 block:

(Mountain West players)

14 — Donovan Dent, UNM

13 — Nelly Junior Joseph, UNM

13 — Elijah Price, Fresno State

10 — Alex Crawford, Fresno State

9 — Miles Byrd, San Diego State

Most games with 2 steals and 2 blocks:

(Mountain West players)

6 — Nelly Junior Joseph, UNM

6 — Elijah Price, Fresno State

5 — Miles Byrd, San Diego State

Hot ticket

While there are still tickets available for Wednesday’s UNM Lobos game in the Pit vs. Wyoming, Sunday’s game with the Mountain West’s second-place team, Utah State, is already sold out.

The NCAA on Monday, in a weekly list of top games to watch compiled by former Journal sports writer Andy Katz, chose the UNM/Utah State game as this week’s seventh-best game.

All nine other games on the list are among power conference schools. The Feb. 1 UNM at Utah State game in the sold-out Dee Glen Smith Spectrum also made Katz’s top games list that week.

Nelly vs. the 3

So, about that 3-pointer Junior Joseph insists he'll hit this season...