LAS VEGAS — In the city of one-night stands, the UNM men’s basketball team’s relationship with the Mountain West Conference Tournament is promiscuously quick.
Four consecutive years — four early-round exits for the Lobos. Not only that, but, overall, UNM is 4-14 inside the confines of the Thomas & Mack Center, since the league began tournament play in Las Vegas in 2000.
For a change, the historical narrative favors the Lobos, but more on that later.
Or perhaps not, because, in the battle of the bootlickers, No. 9 Air Force prevailed 59-40 over No. 8 Wyoming, which was shorthanded without the presence of Jaydee Luster, who suited up but didn’t play because of an ankle injury which limited his mobility.
The Lobos swept the season series. Still, remember the Lobos just snipped by the Falcons on Feb. 20 and even trailed with 27.8 seconds left in the game, thanks to a Grant Parker layup.
Ultimately, Darington Hobson elevated the Lobos to a 59-56 victory.
AFA head coach Jeff Reynolds touted Air Force’s success handling the crowd intensity at The Pit as evidence that the Falcons are fully capable of competing with UNM.
“As I’ve said, growing up in the state of North Carolina, being from ACC country, people don’t realize how good Mountain West basketball is,” Reynolds said. “They don’t understand the venues that make up the league. The Pit is, if not the toughest place in the country, it’s close. I’ve been fortunate to play at Rupp, at Duke, fortunate to coach at Dean Dome.”
At The Pit, Air Force methodically ran its Princeton-style offense, milking the shot clock, not allowing the Lobos to get into transition and ensuring the game was a low-scoring contest. Much of the Falcons success was predicated on their ability to dictate the pace of the game.
With that said, Reynolds wasn’t so sure it’d be easier to control the tempo — like the Falcons did against UNM in The Pit — on a neutral floor.
“They had some shots that didn’t go down that allowed us to stay in the game, and we made some really tough, contested 3s,” he said. “It will be very difficult tomorrow, just from the standpoint that they had a week to prepare for us.”
But the Lobos have their own cobwebs. That is, unless history rings true.
Air Force notwithstanding, typically, the MWC regular-season champion, which happens to be UNM, has made it to the MWC tournament finals seven times in 10 years. Four times, the regular-season titleholders have captured the tournament title in the same year.
In quarterfinal games, the No. 1 seed is 8-1. Furthermore, the Lobos are 7-1 against opponents on their side of the bracket, which includes Wyoming, Air Force, San Diego State and Colorado State, having only lost to SDSU at its arena.
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Even so, Lobo head coach Steve Alford isn’t baited into resting on his laurels. That No. 8 national ranking doesn’t give the Lobos any insulation. Neither does that 14-game conference winning streak. Here, the Lobos are unprotected.
“Season 3 and Season 4 are different,” Alford said. “You can’t lose a game and move on. We go to Vegas knowing we’re like everybody else: If you win, you keep playing. If you lose, you go home.”
Alford knows that all too well. UNM brings its own collective tournament baggage with it to Las Vegas.
Last season the Lobos were tri-regular-season champions alongside Utah and BYU. UNM was the third seed in the tournament for the second time in consecutive years. Falling victim to a long-running rut of No. 3-No. 6 upsets, the Lobos bowed out to Wyoming.
Curiously, it wasn’t a case of the mid-tiered teams being better than expected, their records being indicative. No, even more confounding, in 2007-08 and last year, the Lobos, as the No. 3 seed, faced teams (Utah and Wyoming) with 7-9 conference records.
Now, the Lobos will face a team which finished with a regular-season conference record of 1-15. What exactly does that mean? Only history will tell.
