Nov. 30—For starters, the Lobos haven’t always been getting off to great starts.
While Monday’s home game against Division II New Mexico Highlands isn’t expected to be the biggest test of the young season, it is the next opportunity for the new-look Lobos to try and correct what could become a fatal flaw the rest of the season if they aren’t careful.
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UNM has more than once allowed a slow start — often offensively, and often exemplified by their leading scorer — to put them into a hole that for the most part they’ve been able to respond to.
“I’ve been pleased — Nebraska and then this (Alabama State game) — we put a couple below-standard halves out there, and I’ve liked the way we responded both times,” UNM head coach Eric Olen said. “I think we have a competitive group. I think we have tough kids. And, yeah, I’ve been pleased with their poise and their ability to respond to adversity.”
But that doesn’t mean he wants to keep playing with fire and just accepting bad offensive starts.
UNM is averaging 33.0 points in the first halves of games, 44.9 in second halves.
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“I thought we were a little bit sped up. Our decision making wasn’t great. We didn’t take care of the ball well,” Olen said last week when asked about first-half struggles vs. Alabama State. “… I think it’s a combination of things, but we’ll look at the film and try to identify where we’re struggling and try to fix those things.”
Jake Hall, the team’s leading scorer (13.4 points per game), scored three first-half points last Wednesday before erupting for 21 of his career-high 24 in the second half. And while that’s extreme, the discrepancy wasn’t entirely unusual for the true freshman.
Jake Hall 1st half
—Points: 3.9
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—FG%: 29.0
—3FG%: 21.7
—Attempts: 4.4
Jake Hall 2nd half
—Points: 9.6
—FG%: 60.5
—3FG%: 55.2
—Attempts: 5.4
“When we move the ball and we share it, when we make good decisions at the end of a drive, when we take care of the basketball, it’s going to land on him more often,” Olen said, noting that it’s not merely about Hall not hitting shots in the first half, but the offense not always getting him the best shots it is designed to get him.
“… It’s really just collectively how can we find him volume.”
Injury update
Tomislav Buljan, the Lobos’ 6-9 double-double machine, turned his ankle in the closing minutes of last week’s win over Alabama State in the Pit.
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There’s no official decision about whether he’ll play Monday, but given it’s a D-II opponent, rest ahead of Saturday’s game against a very good Santa Clara team seems possible.
Special visitor
Benjamin Schuch, a 6-foot-9 forward from Austria who is currently playing for a club team in Spain, is expected to be in the Pit on a recruiting visit Monday, the Journal has learned.
Schuch has competed for the Austrian national team, mostly with their youth programs, but did suit up for a game earlier this year for the men’s senior national team in a FIBA World Cup qualifier.
He averaged 13.4 points, 9.1 rebounds and 5.9 assists for Austria earlier this year in eight games in FIBA U20 EuroBasket competition.
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Series
UNM is 25-4 vs. New Mexico Highlands. The last NMHU win was that memorable 31-30 slugfest on Jan. 29, 1929.
The series was largely confined to exhibition games for the past few decades, not being reflected on that series record above.
UNM beat NMHU 86-59 in the Pit on Nov. 24, 2003, in their last regular-season meeting. Lobo guard Javan Tindall had a game-best 27 points, four assists and four 3-pointers, David Chiotti had a 19-point, 10-rebound double-double, and Alfred Neale came off the bench to score 16. Terence Mirabal scored a team-high 15 points for the Cowboys.
UNM has won 24 straight regular-season games against non-DI opponents.
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The last such loss was Dec. 2, 1991, when Eastern New Mexico came to the Pit, had 15 offensive rebounds and had four starters score in double figures to upset the Dave Bliss-coached Lobos, 81-76. The Lobos were led by Steve Logan’s 22 points.
Disclaimer : This story is auto aggregated by a computer programme and has not been created or edited by DOWNTHENEWS. Publisher: Sports.yahoo.com
