Three games in and still plenty of question marks.
Chief among them: Can the Lobos possibly keep it up on the glass?
The University of New Mexico men’s basketball team set a school record with 79 rebounds in a 90-58 rout of Division III LeTourneau on Thursday afternoon in Houston. Bayron Matos and Makuach Maluach each had double-doubles as six players had at least half a dozen rebounds.
As nice as it was, the hard truth is that UNM wasn’t exactly facing the caliber of competition it will see the rest of the season. Every team the Lobos face from here on out will have players just as big, fast and aggressive.
Any measure of success moving forward will require more strong work on the glass, regardless of who New Mexico is playing.
“If we can find a way to translate this to good Mountain West teams like a Boise State then, yes, it’s going to give us an opportunity,” Lobos coach Paul Weir said.
Thursday’s game wrapped up a weeklong stay in southeastern Texas in which the Lobos (3-0) outrebounded their opponents 176-83. They had 32 on the offensive glass against LeTourneau; their opponents combined to grab just 27 in the three games.
UNM’s stay in Houston were invaluable, Weir said. Set up at the last minute, Rice officials allowed the Lobos to use the facilities to get a much-needed tune-up before Monday’s Mountain West opener at Boise State.
It came on the heels of a three-week stint in the Texas Panhandle for preseason camp, then a quick trip home for finals before the stop in Houston. The team is scheduled to fly to Idaho on Friday.
Weir said his club’s depth will help keep the players fresh during the early phases of a bizarre 2020-21 college basketball season, one in which the Lobos might never practice or play a single minute in New Mexico due to state health restrictions on large gatherings during the pandemic.
That said, there’s no escaping the fact that living out of a suitcase and staying on the road for what could be the next three months will be taxing.
“There’s no one on this team that’s playing 35 minutes a night, so we will play a lot of guys and hopefully that makes us versatile,” Weir said, adding that the potential exists of players wearing down en masse.
“There’s no excuse. There’s nothing else we can do,” he said. “We have the hand of cards we’ve been dealt, we’ve got to play it as best we can, we got to stay in great shape and take care of our bodies, we’ve got to rest where we can everywhere we can and hopefully our style of play with regard to minutes will kind of minimize that.”
Thursday’s matinee, as was a Tuesday night game against an NAIA team from San Antonio, Texas, was more about UNM working out the kinks than it was trying to get a win. Wins in Houston were a formality. The real test starts next week.
Boise State (4-1) was picked second in a preseason MWC poll and has the league’s top player in Derrick Alston Jr. As quick as the Broncos are, as Weir said a few times after Thursday’s game, they are a big step up in competition.
In that regard, LeTourneau was the one-armed punching bag the Lobos needed. Maluach had 15 points and 12 rebounds, making him the latest Lobo to reach the 1,000-point club for his career.
“I can rebound,” he said. “I’m mostly just trying to show the way. You know, sometimes it’s hard telling people go and get an offensive rebound and it’s not there, it’s not guaranteed. I’m just trying to go every time.”
It was his second double-double of the season and just the fourth of his career. For Matos, the muscular 6-foot-9 freshman got the first of what should be many with his 16-point, 10-board performance in just 19 minutes of playing time.
Rod Brown was two boards short of a double-double. The 6-7 junior showed a huge upside in his three games in Houston. A versatile player who can guard the other team’s point guard or hold his ground in the low post, he said his role is to basically be the Swiss Army knife of Weir’s arsenal.
Brown also said the team learned a lot about itself, sans the rowdy fans back home.
“Games like these are really good,” he said. “It just shows we don’t need to play at The Pit to be good. It’s just all about adversity. We’ve been through a lot, being in Lubbock, Texas, and other places and just being able to all come together.”
GAME NOTES
The Lobos never trailed, although the Yellowjackets did manage to stay within 20 well into the second half. … Logan Padgett came off the bench to score seven points, including his first career 3-pointer. … The Lobos were awful from the 3-point line, going 2 for 12. They weren’t terribly impressive at the free throw line, either, going 12 for 24. It underscores the team’s need for strong post play, Weir said. … Point guard Jeremiah Francis is struggling. He took just three shots in Thursday’s game, scoring two points with a pair of turnovers and only two assists. Weir said he will lean on the North Carolina transfer to become the team’s 3-point go-to guy.