December 2, 2008
Albuquerque Journal
Lobos Look for Answers After Cancun
By Mark Smith, Journal Staff WriterCANCUN, Mexico — There is a reason it's called the future.
Forget the cliches. Forget the mindless Internet drivel by the lunatic fan fringe — the future is not now.
And University of New Mexico basketball fans are getting a first-hand smack across the forehead with that fact.
“It's really frustrating, because I know we're a lot better than 3-4 — a lot better than 3-4,” says Lobo senior Daniel Faris. “But we'll figure it out and we'll be all right. It's just really hard to believe we're 3-4. We've got a lot of things we've got to work on to get out of this. It's going to take hard work.”
After a 24-9 season in Steve Alford's first year as UNM coach, and with one of the highest rated freshman classes in the country on its way to Albuquerque, the future looked pretty darn bright for the program. Still does. But those who were making Sweet 16 reservations for this season's NCAA Tournament might have to reassess those plans right now.
After being swept in its two games here this weekend in the inaugural Cancun Challenge, the Lobos (3-4) don't look anything like a team that will contend for the 2009 Mountain West Conference crown.
UNM was the preseason pick to finish fifth in the league. Right now, that looks too high for a team that has squandered leads in each of its losses and has a losing record seven games into the season for the first time since Ritchie McKay made his debut as Lobo coach six years ago.
The Lobos could get a boost this month if 6-foot-9 freshman Isaiah Rusher becomes academically eligible and joins the team as expected.
But in the meantime, Alford and his coaching staff have tried just about everything, but the young guns don't seem to have the proper chemistry on the floor with the key veterans.
It has left Alford scratching his head a bit.
“It's hard,” Alford said. “Having so many new guys at the beginning of the year, we have to look and, maybe, change our approach going into preseason. Maybe we weren't tough enough in the preseason, and that's something that maybe we've got to look at. Because we don't have that toughness to us.
“Young guys don't understand that. They've got to see that in the upperclassmen, and unfortunately we just haven't had that.”
Senior Tony Danridge, who missed Alford's debut season with the Lobos in 2007-08, is supposed to be the team's go-to guy. He was a combined 1-of-8 from the floor in New Mexico's two losses in Cancun — to VCU (67-55) and to Drake (68-62).
Senior post Faris has been inconsistent. Despite scoring a team-high 14 points against Drake, he had just three rebounds and missed a couple of easy shots inside during crucial situations. Senior Chad Toppert has been relatively one-dimensional, being basically a 3-point threat.
But Alford says the biggest problem continues to be the seniors' lack of leadership, and he's not sure how to get that kick-started.
“We've just got to get better,” Alford said. “It was a tough stretch, we didn't handle the stretch well at all. And now as coaches, we've got to get back home and we've got to figure out what buttons to push, and push them pretty quickly.
“Our confidence is shook, you can see that — we're not a very confident basketball team. We've got to figure out how to get that back. We've got to work defensively, we've got to work on the backboard and work on getting our confidence back in shooting. If we don't put all those things together, it's probably not going to be a lot of good results for us.”
Not, at least, in the immediate future.
YOU DON'T SAY? Just more than a week ago, Central Florida's Jermaine Taylor called out the Journal for suggesting that UNM would probably roll past the Knights in their Nov. 22 game at the Pit. After the Knights came from behind to beat UNM 72-71, Taylor said “In the newspaper today, it said they were going to roll over us or whatever,” Taylor said after his post-game interview had ended. “I think that helped us out a lot. So if any other team wants to say something like that to help us out, go ahead. We are a good team. We're going to be playing more like this.”
Just not right away.
Ole Miss massacred UCF 78-46 in the Knights' next game and Sunday Morehead State beat UCF in Cancun. It was the Eagles' first win in seven games this season.
The Knights' only victory since leaving the Pit came against South Dakota State on Saturday in Cancun, 66-64.
WHITE TIME: Former Rio Grande player Alex White played 10 minutes and scored two points in the Bulldogs' win against the Lobos. The 6-6 senior said, “It felt good to get out there and play, and be able to play against (former Eldorado High star) Daniel Faris again.”
White said he is majoring in advertising management and will get his degree in the spring.