Whoa, Nelly! Five things to know as Lobo basketball starts practice without star center

The countdown to Nov. 6 is on.

Like all NCAA basketball teams, the UNM Lobos get 30 full team practices over a 42-day span before their season opener against Texas Southern in the Pit on Nov. 6.

For third-year coach Richard Pitino, the “official” start to practices for the season started on Monday and here are five things to know about these Lobos ahead of the 2023-24 season:

1. Whoa, Nelly!

I made it three paragraphs of building up the excitement before this.

While it’s by no means a secret around the program, prized offseason transfer Nelly Junior Joseph, the 6-foot-10 projected starting center who was a two-time All-MAAC player at Iona playing for Pitino’s dad, Rick Pitino, is not yet practicing with the Lobos.

Why not?

Well, he’s not yet even in the country.

“Awaiting his visa,” Richard Pitino said Wednesday. “We hope to get it resolved real soon.”

A native of Benin City, Nigeria, Junior Joseph is still awaiting his student visa to travel back to the United States — a matter that has not prevented him from enrolling in classes online at UNM (he is enrolled and otherwise eligible).

He did play for the Basketball Africa Select team this summer in the four-team GLOBL Jam tournament in Toronto, pouring in 18 points on 6-of-9 shooting with nine rebounds and two steals against the Kentucky Wildcats in that event.

While still optimistic the heir apparent (quite a relative term) to the departed Morris Udeze at the starting center spot will be on campus soon, Junior Joseph missing workouts with the team should temper expectations of him exploding out of the gates this season.

The Lobos‘ backups at the “5” spot include 7-foot junior Sebastian Forsling and 6-9 freshman JT Toppin, who has received high reviews from coaches about his summer and preseason workouts.

While not the offensive threat at the rim Udeze was last season, Junior Joseph is expected to be much more of a rim protector for UNM when he does join the team.

2. And you are?

It’s a new era in college basketball, and not just for the Lobos.

While there aren’t many teams turning over their entire roster every year — like down at New Mexico State — it’s common now for half or more of a team to be new each season.

For the Lobos, the newcomers this season include six scholarship players and a pair of walk-ons with local ties.

SCHOLARSHIP PLAYERS:

• F Mustapha Amzil, 6-9, senior (transfer from Dayton)

• G Jemarl Baker Jr., 6-5, senior (transfer from Fresno State)

• C Nelly Junior Joseph, 6-10 senior (transfer from Iona)

• F Isaac Mushila, 6-5, senior (transfer from Texas A&M-Corpus Christi)

• F/C Jadyn “JT” Toppin, 6-9, freshman (Faith Family Academy, Dallas)

• G Tru Washington, 6-4, freshman (AZ Compass Prep, Phoenix)

WALK-ONS:

• F Deraje Agbaosi, 6-7, junior (transfer from North Alabama, graduated from Eldorado High School)

• G Shane Douma-Sanchez, 6-1, freshman (Del Norte High School)

3. Expectations

Last season, the team won its first 14 games and was the last remaining Division I team without a loss. However, the Lobos went 8-12 after that, finishing Mountain West play in sixth place and playing in the NIT. Included in that second half stretch were two buzzer-beater losses on their home court to NCAA Tournament teams Nevada and San Diego State and a double-overtime loss on the road at Nevada.

What are the expectations for this season? They’re high. Not just usual Lobo fanatic high, but national media high.

Assuming the Junior Joseph situation works itself out, the Lobos are on the NCAA Tournament radar for plenty of national media personalities and publications.

While the Almanac preseason guide predicted a fourth-place finish in the Mountain West for the Lobos, most other preseason predictions have them consistently in the No. 2 or 3 spot in the league along with Boise State (defending champion). National title runner-up San Diego State seems to be almost a consensus preseason No. 1.

Asked recently in an interview with the Talking Grammer podcast what a fair expectation for fans would be for this season, senior shooting guard Jamal Mashburn Jr., agreed it should be high.

“Y’all should expect pure excitement and just winning basketball,” he said. “And you should expect us to play hard every night for you guys. Every one of you guys should expect us to have energy. And we’re gonna win some games, man. We got a special group. Like, we got a really special, special group, man.”

4. Schedule

Season tickets are on sale for an 18-home game season, we just don’t know yet, specifically, what all that means.

What is clear through past reporting in the Journal and through other sources is that the Lobos will, in addition to their usual 18-game Mountain West schedule with nine games on the road and nine at home in the Pit, play a 13-game nonconference schedule that includes eight home games and five away from Albuquerque (three in neutral court games in Las Vegas, Nev., and true road games at Saint Mary’s in Moraga, Calif., on Nov. 9 and at New Mexico State in Las Cruces on Dec. 15).

Two home exhibition games played in the Pit bring the home slate to 18 games.

5. House and Mash

There may be plenty of new faces, but the core of the Lobos remains this: One of the best offensive backcourts in Division I basketball returns for its third season together with all-Mountain West senior guards Jaelen House and Jamal Mashburn Jr.

The two have each been named Top 100 players in the country by the Almanac and both are headed toward rarified air in Lobo basketball history.

Not counting the points they’ve scored at their previous stops (House two seasons at Arizona State and Mashburn one season at Minnesota), each has already joined the 1,000-point club in Lobo uniforms in just two seasons.

Currently, here is where the two stand on UNM’s all-time scoring list (just as a Lobo), including the next couple names they’re each scheduled to pass on the list:

21. Marvin Johnson (1,246 points)

22. Cameron Bairstow (1,239 points)

23. Jamal Mashburn Jr. (1,233 points)

• • •

29. David Chiotti (1,145 points)

30. Ike Williams (1,086 points)

t31. Chad Toppert (1,067 points)

t31. Jaelen House (1,067 points)

Of note, UNM’s current top 10 scorer list of all time starts at 1,542 points with Willie Long — a total both would surpass this season even if not quite reaching what they’ve averaged each season as a Lobo so far.

Asked on the Journal’s podcast about talk of the House/Mashburn backcourt being one of the best in the country, Mashburn said this:

“I would say, first of all, I don’t think we’re ‘one of the best.’ I think we are THE best backcourt in the country,” Mashburn said. “... Y’all should expect just more of what we’ve been doing, but more connected, though. We’ve had multiple conversations just leading up to (this season) about us just being on the same page at all times. Whenever we’re on the same page … it doesn’t matter if it’s little or small or big, good things happen for our team.”