Ad
UNM MEN'S BASKETBALL
No ball movement means bad offense for Lobos
UNM's four assists in Tuesday's loss to Boise State ranks as one of the program's lowest totals in decades
Published
Modified
Tuesday's UNM Lobo loss was ugly.
It wasn't just Lobo ugly; Boise State looked pretty awful offensively, as well. But it was still ugly.
The two teams combined for 81 missed shots.
There was an inordinate amount of one-on-one offense — by design from the defenses, mind you, but still a whole lot of players were trying to go score on their own.
For the Lobos, they had a season low four assists on 20 made field goals.
For Boise State, it was seven assists on 20 made field goals.
UNM hadn't had fewer than 10 assists itself in a game this season.
"That's a pretty low number, but we didn't make a lot of baskets," Lobos coach Eric Olen told the Journal, chalking up at least part of the statistical outlier of the four assist game to the simple fact that his team was missing shots as opposed to a larger indication of a problem with ball movement.
"It's hard to get assists when you can't put it in the basket. It's all kind of connected. ... The stretches when we had success — early second half — we hit a couple shots. That helps. But, ultimately, we just couldn't get it to go in enough."
He's not wrong. The Lobos did miss some open and some seemingly makable shots.
Ad
But they also missed some — OK, a lot! — of shots where Boise State was very much the cause of UNM's lack of ball movement, especially ball movement that resulted in post touches for Lobo big men. Boise State is one of the biggest teams the Lobos will face this season with an average roster height ranked 16th out of 365 Division I teams. In terms of Mountain West play, Grand Canyon and Air Force are the only other Mountain West teams even in the top 100.
"They're really physical," Olen said. "They do a great job of walling up. They don't block a lot of shots, although they had a few of them tonight (Boise State blocked seven Lobo shots on Tuesday). They don't typically blocks shots. We're trying to get to the rim. Our guys are going to attack."
Other than an alley-oop on UNM's second possession of Tuesday's game, Lobo big man Tomislav Buljan scored five of his six made field goals unassisted, basically resorting to having to going one-on-one against Broncos defenders anytime he did get a touch on the inside. UNM's other three assists came on catch-and-shoot 3-pointers in the second half.
UNM's inability to have effective ball movement hasn't been a season long thing, but it has shown up at times.
And it's worth noting the two best teams in the Mountain West in defensive assist rate happen to be the two teams the Lobos play this week.
Boise State ranks 16th (same as their roster height ranking) out of 365 DI teams in defensive assist rate, with opponents assisting on just 43.0% of their made field goals this season (Tuesday, it was 20% for UNM).
Wyoming leads the nation in that statistic, allowing teams just a 35.7% assist rate.
So, while it is what the Broncos (and coming up, the Cowboys) do, and while the Lobos were without one of their top assist men in staring guard Chris Howell (oblique injury), it's still worth noting that Tuesday's assist performance wasn't just bad.
It was one of the worst since the website SportsReference.com started keeping tabs on such things for college basketball. The site notes that since the 2004-05 season, the Lobos have had four or fewer assists in a game just three times.
The other two? Both in the throw-away COVID season of 2020-21 when the team lived in hotels outside the state of New Mexico the entire season, finished with a 6-16 record (just four of those wins vs. Division I teams), a 294 ranking in KenPom and a NET ranking of 303.
It was a season that got head coach Paul Weir fired.
- Jan. 28, 2021 — 4 assists on 25 made FGs (.160) — L, 64-62 OT) at Fresno State
- Dec. 23, 2020 — 3 assists on 18 made FGs (.167) — L, 89-52 at Boise State
- Tuesday — 4 assists on 20 made FGs (.200) — L, 62-53 at Boise State
UNM's previous Mountain West game — 88-65 on Dec. 20 over San Jose State — featured the Lobos assisting on 18 of 31 made field goals (58.1%). But the Spartans rank 305th in defensive assist rate.
In that same time frame, the Lobos defense also had three games in which they held an opponent to four or fewer assists.
For balance, here they are:
- Feb. 22, 2014 — 4 assists on 21 made FGs (.190) — W, 58-44 vs. San Diego State
- Dec. 23, 2007 — 4 assists on 11 made FGs (.364) — W, 62-32 vs. Weber State
Reach Geoff Grammer at ggrammer@abqjournal.com or follow him on Twitter (X) @GeoffGrammer.
