Advertisement

No. 21 Lobos visit Fresno State as nation's last unbeaten

geoff grammer, albuquerque journal, n.m.
·6 min read

Jan. 3—There isn't anything under the radar about these Lobos at this point.

At 14-0, and coming off one of their aesthetically worst performances of the season — albeit with the same result as their first 13 games, a victory — No. 21-ranked UNM realizes as it heads to Fresno State on Tuesday night that teams now have more than enough game film to know what the Lobos have been doing well, and what they should be trying to take away.

Tuesday, Jan. 3

No. 21 New Mexico at Fresno State, 9 p.m. MST, CBS Sports Network, 770 AM/96.3 FM

If there had been any sneaking up on teams for the preseason No. 5 pick in the Mountain West — which on Monday night became the last undefeated men's Division I team in the country following Rutgers' road upset at No. 1 Purdue — it's long gone.

"We kind of got to build with no real pressure. Everyone's just like, let's see what happens," said Lobo forward Josiah Allick, who coming off a 15-point, 15-rebound game seems to be as important as any Lobo at this point as opposing teams are focusing heavily on stopping fellow 6-foot-8 forward Morris Udeze.

"Now that we've kind of established that we are a top team in the country, we've kind of transformed from the hunter to the hunted. Everybody's thinking about us. ... So we're just going into every game knowing that we're not going to have any easy ones the rest of the way and it helps you focus and lock in."

Fresno State (5-8, 1-1 Mountain West), like Saturday's Lobo opponent Wyoming, may not present a résumé that impresses, but it is a defense-minded team that handled Wyoming last week with far more ease at home than did the Lobos on the road, not to mention the Bulldogs have won six in a row in the series with UNM.

And Fresno State has a bit of a blueprint to try and follow looking at what seems to have worked best in the three closest wins of the season for the Lobos — a 4-point win at Saint Mary's on Nov. 30, a 3-point neutral court win vs. San Francisco on Dec. 12, and Saturday's 1-point road win at Wyoming. While it happened in different ways, all three of those games included Udeze being taken out either entirely or for long stretches of the game from being the low-post scoring threat he has been most of the season, seemingly throwing the Lobos offense out of rhythm.

* At Saint Mary's, two early fouls led to Udeze being limited to 5:40 in the first half with 2 points (he did end up with 13 points, 26 minutes, 4 fouls).

* Vs. San Francisco, the Dons' two 7-foot-2 centers made Udeze's life miserable in the paint, holding the league's leader in field goal percentage to 3-of-10 shooting (he ended up with 9 points, 9 rebounds ini 3 minutes).

* At Wyoming, foul trouble on Udeze kept the Lobos from being able to play their usual offense. He ended up with zero points, no shot attempts, four fouls and 13 minutes played.

In all three cases, Allick stepped up his game in Udeze's absence, culminating in Saturday's best game of the season for the Missouri-Kansas City transfer.

But UNM relying on Allick in key stretches isn't exactly a secret on anyone's scouting report, either.

"They (the Wyoming Cowboys) really sagged off Josiah and we got to work on getting a little bit more comfortable offensively playing when teams do that," said UNM coach Richard Pitino. "... We got to be able to flow and turn it, and OK, if you're gonna sag, we turn into a ball screen then maybe get a mid range shot. So those are the things we got to work on. Because they are really game planning well for it."

SOLD OUT: UNM announced on Monday that Saturday's upcoming home game against UNLV is already sold out — the first official sellout in the 15,411-seat Pit since March 2015 on the senior night game of former Lobo Hugh Greenwood.

Though still in Australia, Greenwood on Sunday night posted a picture of his confirmation that he purchased two tickets and will give them away this week via his Instagram page. He wrote on social media: "Unfortunately I won't actually be there on Saturday. Buying some tickets was my way of making sure it was a sell out and supporting the boys and the program. I'll do some sort of giveaway leading up to the game this week on my Instagram. #GoLobos"

ALLICK'S 15/15: Saturday was Allick's first double-double as a Lobo with 15 points and 15 rebounds. His five offensive boards marked the third time this season he had five or more offensive rebounds ini 14 games after having three such games in three full seasons at UMKC.

As for 15/15 games this season, according to BasketballReference.com there have been 67 of them in Division I games, but just two in the Mountain West:

* Allick, UNM — 15 points, 15 rebounds at Wyoming (Saturday)

* Daniel Akin, Utah State — 21 points, 15 rebounds at San Diego (Nov. 17)

POLL POSITION: The Lobos moved up one spot in the Associated Press Top 25 — from No. 22 to No. 21 — on Monday morning, appearing on 58 of 61 voter ballots. They also jumped from 147 total points received last week to 290 on Monday.

They remain the only Mountain West team ranked, though the San Diego State Aztecs are just two spots out of the Top 25, receiving 72 points (No. 25 Iowa State has 94 points).

The Lobos also debuted this week in the USA Today coaches Top 25 at No. 22.

HOUSE NEARS 1,000: Lobo point guard Jaelen House has scored 993 points in college — 229 at Arizona State and 764 at UNM.

He would be the fourth member of his family to score 1,000 points in his college career, joining his dad, Eddie House (2,044 at ASU); grandpa, Henry Bibby (1,293 at UCLA); and uncle, Mike Bibby (1,061 at Arizona).

HOMECOMING: Tuesday will be the first game back in Fresno for Tarvish Felton, the Lobos assistant coach who came to UNM over the summer after having coached with the Bulldogs for the previous four seasons.