Randy Harrison: For Lobo men's basketball fans, there's a silver (& cherry) lining

Mar. 1—Perfection really is the enemy of the good.

That may be the way to rationalize what a lot of Lobo men's basketball fans are feeling now.

The Lobos got to 21-9 Tuesday by defeating Fresno State 94-80 on Senior Night. It was an impressive and emotional bounce-back both for the team and fans — an energetic 12,520 on Tuesday. They have shown up and shown off even for the way too many sleepy-time tipoffs, But, hey, good for TV and its gazillion potential viewers on the West Coast, where 7:30 PT is a prime-time start.

Fans left the Pit happily this time, but they've been put through the ringer, and many wonder what might have been.

We certainly get it. It's not just the excruciating loss to San Diego State Saturday night, the third one like that in 2022-23.

It's also that these Lobos started 14-0, by which point everybody else in the country had fallen at least once. UNM cracked the Top 25. There followed hope, which we require to feel alive.

Now this week, the Lobos are scratching and clawing just in an effort to catch San Jose State — San Jose State! — for fifth place in the Mountain West. And Lobo Nation faces the sobering prospect of spelling "disappointment" with those letters, N-I-T.

This team was "perfect" for a long while but since has played so imperfectly. That makes it hard to feel "good," see.

Nonetheless, the suggestion here is to take the macro view.

Remember that two years ago, the Lobos went 6-16 while playing whatever "home" games the vagaries of COVID would allow in Lubbock, Texas — and in digs decidedly less glamorous than at nearby Texas Tech.

Recall that last year, the Lobos were 13-19 upon hitting reset under a new coach.

Pretend it's not March 1. Say it's this past Nov. 1 instead. You're offered this 21-9 record, at this point, for this UNM team. Take it or leave it.

You'd take it, yes?

Richard Pitino through two seasons seems to be a workable fit here. Gotta admit, I was underwhelmed by the decision to hire him two years ago. And wrote so, in great detail, here.

Yet by all accounts he represents himself and the university with aplomb and grace, on game night and otherwise. He fields a team that plays hard and entertains. Over two seasons, he plunked down a big bet, as in the more he brought in, the bigger the risk, on portal transfers. And dang if he didn't hit on all four — Jamal Mashburn Jr., Morris Udeze, Josiah Allick and the utterly relentless, obviously indispensable Jaelen House. All productive players and made better by chemistry, as in how well they have played together.

But here is something you might not realize, much less appreciate: This shapes up to be the best second season for any Lobos coach over the last half-century, dating back to Norm Ellenberger's year two. (See the box with this column for those totals.) Even your favorite Steve Alford, in Year Two, sustained double-digit losses.

Yes, Alford's golden years were to come. Craig Neal's tenure would free-fall. Paul Weir and Ritchie McKay were mismatched here, and Fran Fraschilla is on TV a lot to remind us how much he knows.

There is still doable work to be done, but Pitino's Year Two should outperform each of theirs. And he keeps saying the program is still "building." Believe that and there is reason for you Lobo types to keep your furry chins up.

If all this "future" talk reads like an epitaph for 2022-23, it isn't. An NCAA at-large bid seems impossible now, but can't these Lobos knock a door down in Vegas?

They've already shown that they match up squarely with the league's king, San Diego State. There otherwise are no world-beaters in the bunch, even if you believe the Mountain West is strong. You'll feel better if UNM, with its thin bench, needs only three wins in three days rather than four in four, which means, best to be the fifth seed than the sixth or worse.

Meanwhile, much credit to Udeze, Allick, House and Mashburn, who took the leap of faith to come here and made Lobo hoops fun again.

Udeze's eligibility is expiring, and in any case the band as we know it will break up. So bottle this moment. If these four are the co-authors of a new chapter of New Mexico hoops, and you hold Pitino to his word that the best is to come, you'll remember them as legends.

And the pain won't be as painful.

Follow-up follies

Recent UNM coaches in their 2nd season with the program. Spoiler alert: Most of them weren't great.

Coach Season Record

Bob King 1963-64 23-6*

Norm Ellenberger 1973-74 22-7!

Gary Colson 1981-82 14-14

Dave Bliss 1989-90 20-14

Fran Fraschilla 2000-01 21-13*

Ritchie McKay 2003-04 14-14

Steve Alford 2008-09 22-12*

Craig Neal 2014-15 15-16

Paul Weir 2018-19 14-18

Richard Pitino 2022-23 21-9

* NIT

! NCAA