Physical challenge: Boise State, UNM set for rematch

Richard Pitino hopes his Lobos don’t even remember what happened in the Pit on Jan. 17.

Leon Rice and the Boise State Broncos can’t forget.

As their teams prepare for Wednesday night’s rematch in Boise — UNM (22-4, 14-1 Mountain West vs. Boise State (17-8, 9-5) at 8 p.m. MT on CBS Sports Network — both head coaches on Tuesday expressed similar recollections of their first meeting, an 84-65 Lobos win.

“We played great versus them the first time,” Pitino said. “I mean, it was the best half (Lobos up 48-21 at halftime) of the year by far. But we know it’ll be a totally different game second time around.”

That first half against the preseason league favorites included UNM scoring 17 points off nine Boise State turnovers, 22 fast break points and riding a 23-2 run into the break.

“When you turn on that film, you’re like, whoa! That was a blitzkrieg,” Rice said. “You know that happens to teams down there (in the Pit). It just hasn’t happened to us (before). We were on the unfortunate receiving end of it this time.”

The Lobos were at their run-and-gun best that night — coming up with steals, rebounds blocked shots, turning defense into offense, scoring in transition and defending at an elite level.

They finished the game with 20 points off turnovers, most against Boise State this season by three (Hampton had 17 on Nov. 24) and 29 fast break points, most against Boise State this season by 12 (Washington State had 17 on Dec. 7).

UNM’s physicality was behind it all. Well, that and a little more, says Rice.

“We’re a pretty physical team, and it wasn’t even close in the first half how much more physical they were than us,” Rice told Bronco Nation News on Jan. 17. “You know, in this building, they’re pretty much allowed to do it.”

On Tuesday, he added that the Lobos physical defense comes with a little something extra.

“Sometimes there’s clips of — how do you say it? — they take some swings at the ball, and you’re like ... I don’t know if a mindset is going to help with that where they’re allowed to take a wild swing at it and get a piece of the ball, maybe, but there’s a lot of other things they get, too,” Rice said.

Broncos point guard Alvaro Cardenas, who set the Broncos single-season assist record in Saturday’s loss at San Diego State, said BSU must find a way to limit UNM’s fast break points.

“They’re probably the best team in the conference in fast break points and we really gotta do a better job of showing bodies, especially to Donovan Dent on the fast break,” Cardenas said, before deftly noting that stopping a team from scoring on the fast break is much easier to do on the other end of the court.

“It also starts with offensive rebounding,” Cardenas said. “That’s key in slowing down their fast break. The more offensive boards we can get, the more we slow them down.”

INJURIES: Starting forward Mustapha Amzil (plantar fasciitis) has been held out two of the past three games (wins at Air Force and Sunday vs. Utah State), and was visibly bothered by the foot injury in the game in between (vs. Wyoming last Wednesday). The foot has been bothering him for a month and his status, Pitino said Tuesday, is day-to-day.

That can probably be expected the rest of the season.

Sixth man C.J. Noland was hit in the face in the first half of Sunday’s game vs. Utah State and never returned, even to the bench, after going to the locker room to be evaluated.

“Both day-to-day,” Pitino said Tuesday.

Amzil is the third leading scorer for the Lobos (12.1), second leading rebounder (5.5) and has hit the second most 3-pointers (33). Noland, who Pitino says is a “sixth starter,” averages 8.4 points and 1.1 steals per game. They are two of the team’s three captains for the season.

GOING THE EXTRA MILE: The Lobos have won more conference road games already this season (six) than any Lobo team in the past decade and more than all but two Lobo teams in the first 25 seasons of Mountain West existence (2014 UNM won seven in an 18-game league schedule and 2010 UNM won seven in a 16-game league schedule).

But, the Lobos haven’t beaten Boise State in Idaho in the last six tries. The last time UNM won in Boise was when Craig Neal coached the program (an 81-70 UNM win in what was then called Taco Bell Arena on Jan. 17, 2017).

JUST R-E-L-A-X? Sunday’s win over Utah State puts the Lobos up two games on the Aggies in the Mountain West standings and with a tiebreaker over every team in the league at this point, UNM is essentially up three games in the race to get at least a share of a league title and the No. 1 seed in the Mountain West Tournament.

That’s not a bad spot to be in with just five games to play.

But Pitino continues to echo the theme of “the race is not over” and that’s the mindset with which the team will approach the Boise State game.

“There hasn’t been a different approach to Nichols State (Nov. 4 season opener). There hasn’t been a different approach to UCLA (Nov. 7), USC (Nov. 29), Arizona State (Nov. 28)... None of it has changed with us,” Pitino said. “They’re all important. They all mean something in a different way, good, bad, or whatever.”