New Mexico head coach Yvonne Sanchez isn't ready to scrap her coaching pedagogy just because her squad is in the midst of a slump.
Sanchez said at Thursday’s press conference that she needs to remain patient in order to allow her team to come around. But Sanchez, who received a new contract last year, isn't ready to start shaking things up just because her team hasn’t come out of the Mountain West gates with a clean start.
“Once you start changing everything and you don’t do what you’re doing, then you’re going to screw everything up,” Sanchez said. “You just keep doing what you’re doing. You keep going with what you’ve been going with and they’ll get it eventually, hopefully. If not, then it might be next year.”
Although the Lobos are nowhere near ready to scrap this season and label it a rebuilding year, Sanchez said she needs players to step up and start performing to their potential before the season gets away.
This Saturday UNM will head into a home game against San Jose State (6-12, 4-3 MW), a team UNM hasn't lost to in the last five matchups.
The Spartans, like the Lobos, have recently hit a skid. After a shaky non-conference, SJSU started MW play with a 4-1 start, before dropping its final two contests on the road.
The Lobos took the opening conference game against Nevada 51-47, UNM (9-7, 2-3 MW) but has proceeded to drop three of the past four games.
The Lobos have faired better at home (6-3) than on the road (3-4) this year, but have not been lights out, as the squad was a year ago. The Lobos already have as many losses as the team had all of last year at WisePies Arena, when UNM went 14-3 at home.
For this season, Sanchez is not focused on what the team is doing on the home or on the road, she said the squad needs to change its tune and start focusing on winning each game.
“We’ve got to win games. I don’t care if it’s home or away. We’ve got to win basketball games,” Sanchez said. “It’s not about defending home or splitting on the road, it’s about winning basketball games.”
Sanchez’s squad has just used up the final mid-week bye of the season, something which the head coach said was puzzling, so early in the year. Although she would like to have spread out the resting points in the schedule, Sanchez said she saw some positives to the having a break during the first week of school.
As for how her team responds to the full week off from games, Sanchez said she still has to see what will happen.
Get content from The Daily Lobo delivered to your inbox
“It’s time we are the agressors. We’ve had that attitude in the last week,” Sanchez said. “We had it going into Wyoming and I just don’t know what happened there.”
The Lobos kept the 66-48 loss to Wyoming (10-7, 3-4 MW) within two possessions, before unraveling in the final ten minutes of the contest.
Although UNM has dropped to eighth place in the conference, after being predicted to finish second in the preseason polls, Sanchez said the Lobos have plenty of time to turn things around as MW play heats up.
“We feel like we are capable of beating every team in our league,” Sanchez said. “And if we don’t play well, every team in our league is capable of beating us.”
Liam Cary-Eaves is the sports editor for the Daily Lobo. He primarily covers volleyball, women’s basketball, baseball, and beach volleyball. He can be reached at sports@dailylobo.com or on Twitter @Liam_CE.
