Lobos looking to eliminate Griz

by Troy Warzocha | March 17, 2010 | Montana Kaimin

Fresh off their second consecutive regular season conference title and a school-record 29 victories, the New Mexico Lobos of the Mountain West Conference will take on the Big Sky               champion Montana Grizzlies in the first round of the NCAA Tournament on Thursday in San Jose, Calif.

This is the first NCAA Tournament experience for the Lobos since 2005, and with a victory, New Mexico would advance to the second round of the tournament for the first time since 1999.

In a press conference on Monday, head coach Steve Alford admitted that he was slightly concerned about the Lobos’ lack of tournament experience going into this week.

“I’ve had concerns all year about the inexperience, but I’ve learned to trust that just ... go and do it,” Alford said. “They work so hard and they play so unselfishly that they put ourselves in a chance to win games.”

New Mexico enters the tournament as the No. 3 seed in the East region after posting a 29-4 record this season.

The Lobos are content with the third seed, considering they were knocked out of the postseason conference tournament in the semifinals by San Diego State. 

“I think (the No. 3 seed) was a fair call by the (tournament selection) committee,” said New Mexico all-conference guard Darington Hobson. “We were hoping for a three or four seed and we got the three.”

Hobson, a junior guard out of Las Vegas, Nev., was the first player in Mountain West history to earn the Player of the Year and Newcomer of the Year awards in the same season.

Despite the personal accolades, Hobson said that his personal success is a testament to the team around him.

“The main thing is I wouldn’t have gotten any of those awards if it wasn’t for my teammates,” Hobson said. “I thank them every day.”

While his teammates may help, Hobson is clearly the straw that stirs the drink for the Lobos. He was the team leader in points (16.2 per game) and rebounds (9.2 per game) this season. In conference play, Hobson averaged a double-double per game and led the   conference with an average of 10.1 rebounds per game.

Hobson wasn’t the only Lobo honored this season. Alford was tabbed as the conference’s coach of the year and junior guard Dairese Gary was named to both the all-conference and all-defensive teams.

Alford is in his third year at New Mexico after a successful eight-year stay at Iowa. So far at New Mexico, Alford has posted a 75-25 record and won two regular season championships. At his previous job in Iowa, he led the Hawkeyes to a pair of conference tournament championships and tallied a 152-106 record. 

Prior to his career in coaching, he was a star for the Indiana Hoosiers under the legendary Bobby Knight in the mid-eighties and was drafted in the second round of the 1987 NBA draft.

Almost as important as his coaching, Alford’s membership on two championship basketball teams during his playing days provides the Lobos with genuine insight into big games. 

Outside of being named a two-time consensus All-American, Alford was a part of the Olympic gold-medal basketball team at the 1984 games in Los Angeles, and Indiana’s 1986-87 national championship team.
“(Alford) has done everything that we’re trying to accomplish,” Hobson said. “He knows what it takes off the court and on the court mentally and physically. He gives us a lot of knowledge and helps us out, and he’s been great this year.”

Gary, from Alford’s home state of Indiana, proved his mettle this season as a potent scorer and playmaker. Gary’s average of 14.3 points per game this season was second only to Hobson, and his assist-turnover ratio of 2.1 was good for second in the conference.

Despite all of New Mexico’s awards and victories, and their lofty seed, they aren’t taking the No. 14 Griz lightly.

“(Montana) is a great team,” Hobson said. “You can’t take a team with 22 wins lightly. This time of year, you can’t take anyone lightly.”

Alford has taken notice of how the Griz have handled teams from power conferences this season.

“They just seem to be playing really good basketball,” Alford said. “They beat Oregon easily at Oregon. They lost one possession at Washington. They lost one possession at Colorado State.”

One distinct advantage that the Griz should have on the Lobos will be length in the paint. Montana’s pair of big men, center Brian Qvale and forward Derek Selvig, have a significant height advantage over the Lobos. The tallest player for New Mexico is 6-foot-9-inch sophomore forward Will Brown.
But according to Hobson, height doesn’t always guarantee success on the inside. The Lobos may not have been the tallest team in the Mountain West, but they still managed to be the best rebounding team.

“It’s just going to be a battle (in the paint),” Hobson said. “Both of our big men are tough and they battled guys over seven feet tall this year.”

Despite their apparent size deficiency, the Lobos earned their stripes against top quality foes, going 5-0 against ranked teams. By mid-December, New Mexico had made an impact on the polls, cracking the top 25 in week five and staying there for most of the season. In fact, until their recent loss in the conference tournament, the Lobos were riding a 15-game winning streak.

However, none of that matters now. All that matters is the next game.

“The bottom line is that there’s going to be two good, well-coached teams playing for something special,” Hobson said. “Anybody can beat anybody.”

.(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)

This story has been viewed 485 times.