Whether they talk about it or not, there's a lot on the line for Pitino's Lobos in Reno

The balancing act is real this week.

It’s impossible for the UNM Lobos not to know what is on the line this week with a road game at Nevada on Tuesday and a home game in the Pit on Friday.

With one more win (they’d prefer two), the Lobos claim a regular-season Mountain West championship, the first since 2013.

But when the Lobos (23-6, 15-3 Mountain West) have been at their best this season, and when they built up all those wins that now have them sitting atop the league standings, they had a genuine buy-in to Richard Pitino’s call to never look ahead.

The big picture hasn’t been the Lobos’ picture. They have been a team that has not looked ahead, neither dwellt on a loss nor over-celebrated a win.

But it’s hard to ignore when the questions are flying at you like they were Saturday after the Lobos’ win over Air Force ensured they were a win away from at least a share of a conference title.

“That was the goal since the start of the season,” Lobo point guard Donovan Dent said, after fielding his fourth question in a five-minute postgame press conference about winning a championship. “We talked about it. Yes, we want to win the conference tournament, but we wanted to win the regular season. We think it’s way more important in our opinion. ... Two more wins and we did our job.”

Two wins would mean an outright championship while one would ensure at least a share of a title (there is a chance for an outright title with just one win, though there are a few scenarios of other team losses needed for that).

When told Dent addressed the desire to win a championship, Pitino joked he was going to have a word with his star point guard.

“I’m going to yell at Donnie when I see him for saying something stupid,” Pitino said.

Pitino also acknowledged what’s on the line this week, but while reiterating the approach to preparation can’t change.

“Our number one goal was to win a regular-season championship. If you do that, you’re probably going to put yourself in a really good position for the NCAA Tournament,” Pitino said. “We don’t really talk a whole lot about that, but hell yeah, I want to win a title. Absolutely.”

The Lobos don’t have an easy road to doing so, though.

Nevada (16-13, 8-10 MW), while hit with injuries and suffering through a far less successful season than it had hoped, is still dangerous.

Aside from playing the Lobos to an overtime thriller on Jan. 3 in the Pit that UNM needed a buzzer-beating jumper from Nelly Junior Joseph to secure in overtime, the Wolf Pack is also playing its senior night game and with a style that could cause issues for the Lobos.

Nevada’s tempo (346th out of 364 Division I teams) is the slowest in the Mountain West and a stark difference to the get-out-and run style the Lobos (fourth-ranked tempo in the country) thrive when playing. Also, Nevada’s pack-the-paint defense makes scoring at the rim hard for a Lobos team that has two of the best in the country scoring at the rim in Dent and Nelly Junior Joseph.

“Obviously, when we played them here, it was a very close game — had to win at the buzzer,” Pitino said. “Coach (Steve) Alford and the staff do a great job. So we know it won’t be easy.”

Speaking of Alford

Alford, the former UNM head coach, and his associate head coach Craig Neal, also a former UNM head coach, were the fitting opposing coaches for the Jan. 3 game, which was the 1,000th men’s basketball game played in the Pit.

Tuesday, there’s again plenty on the line in an Alford-vs.-New Mexico game.

Aside from clearly not wanting his former team to claim a championship on his new home court, Alford also has 699 career coaching victories, putting a nice milestone of 700 career victories on the line.

Steve Alford coaching record:

78-29 (.729) — Manchester

78-48 (.619) — Southwest Missouri State

152-106 (.589) — Iowa

155-52 (.749) — New Mexico

124-63 (.663) — UCLA

112-72 (.609) — Nevada

• • •

699-370 (.654) — TOTAL

621-341 (.646) — Division I