UNM hoops: Do two freshmen give Lobos the opportunity to press this season?

Richard Pitino hates social media.

But he does use it.

In fact, after watching game film the day after each of the past week’s Lobo exhibition game victories — last Thursday over Division II CSU-Pueblo and Wednesday over New Mexico Highlands — the third-year Lobos coach took to X (formerly Twitter) and posted what he called his “thoughts” on the games.

Thursday, he noted, among other things, that the team’s on-ball defense must improve and the team must improve on taking away the 3-point attempt from teams.

But one defensive plus from Wednesday that fans seemed to enjoy was watching the Lobos successfully execute some full-court pressure. As Pitino posted on Thursday, “The press was fun to see.”

In particular, redshirt freshman Quinton Webb, a long-armed, athletic 6-foot-6 wing, and true freshman Tru Washington, a long-armed, tenacious defending 6-foot-4 shooting guard, were the ones spearheading the stretches of success in the second half with full-court pressure and active hands even in half-court defense.

“Deflections were great — 40-plus, which is terrific,” Pitino noted.

But does what appears to be a roster of depth this season — one that truly can go 10 deep — and the fact that the Lobos seem to have the personnel in pesky point guards Jaelen House and Donovan Dent along with athletic wings in Webb and Washington allow the team to press full court? UNM utilized it a couple dozen, at most, last season.

Sure, the Lobos picked up defensively full court last year, but actually trapping or pressing was rare, partly because of personnel and foul trouble.

The answer to whether the team can press the length of the court is unclear, but the fact that it was already shown — and successfully — in the second preseason game makes clear Pitino and the Lobos have it in mind.

In Webb and Washington, there are two willing participants to press with sufficient energy without it taking away from their offensive contributions (a balancing act some fans don’t care to acknowledge when they see some players not defend as well as others).

“Both of us, we both kind of have like a defensive mindset,” Webb said. “Both of us, the whole time really just feeding off each other. Before we even go in, we’re like ‘Hey, we’re going to get stops. Get stops. Get stops.’ …

“That’s part of my game. The high school I came from (Etiwanda High School in Rancho Cucamonga, California), we were nicknamed ‘Clamp City.’ Most schools, you work on offense for and hour or two. We would work on defense.”

TWO NUMBERS TO KNOW: Defense remains the biggest concern for the Lobos after two exhibition games — at least if the injuries to the three players held out Wednesday night are, indeed, likely to be afterthoughts by next week. However, there were two stats on the defensive side that would have been quite impressive had they happened in regular-season games.

In last week’s win over CSU-Pueblo, the Lobos blocked 13 shots. The Lobos’ team record of 14 blocks in a game was set just this past Dec. 20 in a win over Prairie View A&M. Prior to that, no Lobo team had ever blocked more than 12 shots in a game.

Freshman forward JT Toppin led all Lobos with four blocks in last week’s CSUP win and Dent added three form the point guard spot.

UNM is optimistic it can protect the rim better than last season, when it ranked third in the Mountain West with a solid 3.9 blocked shots per game.

In his social media recap after the CSUP win, Pitino wrote: “We can be a great shot blocking team.”

In Wednesday’s win over New Mexico Highlands, despite being without House, a steal machine, the Lobos managed 14 steals, led by Webb’s three. Five other Lobos had two apiece.

The Lobos’ high in steals last season was 11, which they did twice.

The last time UNM had more than 14 steals in game was Nov. 16, 2019, when the team posted 17 versus McNeese State. The school record for steals in a regular-season game is 25 versus Division II Western New Mexico on Nov. 28, 1990.

UNM’s 6.7 steals per game last year was second most in the Mountain West.

FOR STARTERS: Wednesday’s starting lineup of Donovan Dent (6-2), Jamal Mashburn Jr. (6-2), Mustapha Amzil (6-9), JT Toppin (6-9) and Nelly Junior Joseph (6-10) was a bit of an experiment to see how well Amzil at the “3,” Toppin at the “4” and Junior Joseph at the “5” might work.

That unit played 12 minutes, 46 seconds and outscored NMHU 31-18 (plus-13) while scoring 1.40 points per possession, including hitting the first three 3-pointers of the game.

The only unit that scored at a better clip for UNM on Wednesday was Dent, Mashburn, Tru Washington (6-4), Quinton Webb (6-6) and Toppin. That grouping was on the court for 3:38, outscored NMHU by 9 (12-3) and scored 1.41 points per possession.

As good as all that sounds, neither lineup is expected to be the regular starting five when everyone is healthy for the Lobos, but knowing those two groupings, at least in terms of scoring differential, performed well together in at least one small sample size likely won’t be forgotten by the Lobos coaching staff.

CALIFORNIA KIDS: Webb, who came in as a freshman last year with Dent and Braden Appelhans and roomed with both along with former Lobo Morris Udeze, is close with all three. And Wednesday night said he sometimes has to get after Dent, who has a smooth style and sometimes falls into a stereotype of California basketball players being soft or playing too laid back.

“DD, you know what I’m saying, he’s not gonna like this, but he has a tendency to get a little lazy sometimes — a little Cali Ball,” Webb said. “... I’ve got to stay in his ear and remind him, we’ve got to turn this up.”

Reminded he, like Dent, is also a California kid, Webb smiled.

“Hey, I’m from Cali, but let’s be real. We got that cool ball reputation. It is what it is.”