Pitino practicing patience with return of Lobos starting center Nelly Junior Joseph

It’s been almost a full week since UNM’s starting center, Nelly Junior Joseph, touched down at the Sunport from Nigeria and joined the Lobo basketball team.

Richard Pitino should have everything pretty much set for the season now, right?

OK, maybe a little more patience is in order, but the third-year coach on Monday did admit he was pretty happy with what he got out of last week’s exhibition opening win over Division II CSU-Pueblo in the Pit. In particular, the coach was pleased with the result considering the Lobos rolled out the ball with only one returning starter, had Junior Joseph playing nearly 20 minutes with a grand total of one practice under his belt and got big games from true freshmen JT Toppin, Tru Washington and redshirt freshman Quinton Webb.

As for turning the page toward what to expect from exhibition No. 2 on Wednesday night at 7 p.m. against D-II New Mexico Highlands, Pitino wants to see a little more out of his veteran transfers — the 6-foot-10 Junior Joseph from Iona, 6-5 wing Jemarl Baker Jr. and 6-9 forward Mustapha Amzil. The fourth transfer, 6-5 Isaac Mushilla, is out injured (more on him below).

“Well, it’s almost like we’ve hit reset because of Nelly (arriving last Tuesday night),” Pitino said. “We played the first exhibition game with really just giving Nelly a couple of concepts of what we’re going to run. He played two different pick and roll coverages that he did well, which I was surprised that he even knew what he was doing there.”

Pitino noted last week that they gave Joseph a total of four plays in one practice last week, and that’ll probably be up to eight they feel confident trying this week.

“He’ll be way more equipped to do it now. For one day of practice (before last week’s exhibition), I thought he did pretty well for playing, what 16 minutes?” Pitino said. “He’s a key, key part of that frontcourt. You want to rush the process, but you can’t. It was an unfortunate situation for him to kind of go through (missing so much time away from the team), but he’s here now and that’s the most important thing. But we’re trying very, very hard to be smart about how much we throw at him early in the process.”

INJURY FRONT: Starting point guard Jaelen House (leg injury) and Texas A&M-Corpus Christ transfer forward Mushila (broken left hand) likely won’t play on Wednesday night, but both are starting to get worked back into practice drills this week.

Each have missed all practices so far in October, at least as far as full contact drills go, but as a pair of fifth-year seniors, albeit in Mushilla’s case one that is new to the team, the Lobos are hopeful both will require very little re-acclimating to the team once healthy.

“We will let Jalen House do a little bit of non-contact (this week in practice). We’ll let Isaac Mushilla do a little bit of non-contact,” Pitino said. “I’d say they’re both doubtful for Wednesday with kind of the intent to get them back for the first game.”

MORE ON IKE: Pitino and crew know what they have in House. Mushilla is a different story.

The coach knows Mushilla, a rebounding machine wherever he’s been in the past despite being just 6-5, can play the “4” spot — traditionally referred to as a power forward before that term has all but left the game in recent years.

Pitino is optimistic that Mushilla can log minutes at the “3” and “4” this season, which would provide a lot more lineup flexibility depending on whether the team wants to go big — Mushilla or 6-9 Mustapha Amzil playing the “3” — or play small — with Mushilla, Amzil or even 6-5 senior Baker getting some time at the “4”.

“When (Mushilla) was playing (he broke his hand in one of the first full team practices one month ago), he was a terrific cutter. A really good rebounder. Probably a better shooter than you think he is. He can make a shot for sure,” Pitino said.

“We, at the time, weren’t really playing him at the ‘3’ because (Junior Joseph) wasn’t with the team yet and the Lobos needed more frontcourt players). But I would like to look at it whenever he can get healthy to where he’s playing a little bit of ‘3’. I’m trying really, really hard, especially if we’re going three guards or whatever it may be that we can be big at the ‘4’ and the ‘5’ to help defensively and rebounding. But, you know, he’s another guy we talked about who’s played in the NCAA Tournament. He was an all conference player. So I was impressed when he was playing.”