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New Mexico (255) vs. UAB (56) in Las Vegas on Thanksgiving Day

New Mexico went 6-16 last season, so they fired Paul Weir and hired Richard Pitino (yes, Rick’s son). Pitino had been the head coach at Minnesota but was fired last March.

This is not last year’s New Mexico team! I also highly doubt they are as bad as the KenPom 255 ranking. They started the season at 287, but after going 3-1 in their first four games, they have improved to 255. They will win again today against Western New Mexico.

Their only loss has been to Colorado (51), with wins over FAU (195), Grambling State (337), and Montana State (174). They beat FAU by 7 and Montana State by 3.

The Massey Composite ranks New Mexico at 191, which I believe is a more accurate ranking than KenPom’s. The spectrum on the Massey Composite varies from 255 (KenPom and Stat Fox) to 134 (Roundtable).

KenPom has UAB winning 81-66.

Looks like they went into the portal a bit as well. Also the guard play should be fun to watch as their best players are Jaelen House(Eddie House's kid,19.5 pts 4 assists) who transferred from Arizona State and Jamal Mashburn Jr (18 pts 3 rebs 2.5 assists) who followed Pitino from Minnesota. Their OOC schedule doesn't look all that great but thankfully they have plenty of chances to get good wins in the MWC

Should be a fun game.

ESPN's matchup predictor has UAB with a 93% chance to win. Seems a little high.

(11-22-2021 10:47 AM)hooverblazer Wrote:  ESPN's matchup predictor has UAB with a 93% chance to win. Seems a little high.

Agreed. Colorado had their hands full with New Mexico, and only led by 2 points with 9 minutes remaining in the game, and by 3 points with 2 minutes remaining. Colorado ended up winning 87-76.

We are not good enough offensively to be receiving the hype or expectations we are. Not every team is going to have poor ball security or passing decisions. If the press ain’t forcing turnovers, we are still short of being decent in half court D.

Like USC, this is a game we should win. If we don't bring it like we did in the 2nd halves of the USC and A&M games, we will lose. I've seen this team play really well for halves or short spurts, but we still haven't put together a complete game yet.

Better FT shooting and better consistency is what this team needs. If we can fix those aspects, UAB will be tough for ANY team to beat. When we are playing well, we are remarkably good. But missing FTs at the clip we do and the drops in intensity that occur intermittently may make us fall short of our potential.

Excited for the upcoming games. This is an important week.

When I said what I said, I didn’t mean I don’t like the potential. I just think we are light years from reaching it right now. Too bad we can’t flip the conference schedule & noncon schedule and play these tougher opponents on the back end.

UAB's halfcourt defense is situational. Straight up man, we can be very good and very disruptive to passing lanes. But also can be beaten off the dribble, and our bigs are foul prone and, at this point, also can find themselves in bad matchups. Buffen isn't playing very physical vs. what I expected; LeBlanc is a warrior but is a tweener playing bigger than he is. We may struggle with big lineups when we don't turn them over, or whenever Jemison sits for long stretches. Flip side is you better have some tough guards when we start running bodies at you.

Our half-court trap is potentially a nightmare for people. I like what we can do there. But if they beat it, we'll be subject to take some beatings on the boards. Dropped situationally, that trap is going to win us some games. Could get us beaten a time or two also if a team can handle it.

New Mexico will be a good match up for us. Not a great team but better than anyone we have played outside of USC. Very intrigued by the potential match up against San Francisco. I know nothing about them but they are highly rated and play in a very good conference. I'm always excited about games against other quality mid majors that we rarely see. Gotta take care of business against UNM first though.

I think it is possible New Mexico ends up being most improved team in the country. They are traditionally good. Last year was fluky with covid and then having to play all road games with their home games in Arizona. Complete roster retool with transfers.

(11-22-2021 08:59 PM)DuelingDragon Wrote:  I think it is possible New Mexico ends up being most improved team in the country. They are traditionally good. Last year was fluky with covid and then having to play all road games with their home games in Arizona. Complete roster retool with transfers.

Yes. They are a good and proud program. Won't be a pushover by any means. Beating them will be a good win.

Player to watch -

Jaelen House (Jr. 6-0 155) played his first two years at Arizona State. Who really knows how tall Jaelen is? His freshman year at Arizona State he was listed at 6-2 and last year at 6-1. He was not a starter at Arizona State, but he definitely is at New Mexico. He has gone for 30, 22, 18, and 8 points in the first four games. He is 17-22 from the charity stripe (.773), 20-35 from two (.571), and 7-22 from three (.318). He also has 18 assists and 13 steals.

• Father, Eddie, played at Arizona State from 1997-00 where he was the 2000 Pac-10 Player of the Year, is still the school’s all-time leading scorer and has his No. 5 retired, before playing 11 seasons in the NBA, winning a title with the 2008 Boston Celtics
• Uncle, Mike Bibby, played at Arizona where he helped the Wildcats win the 1997 NCAA Championship and was a consensus first-team All-American in 1998, before playing 14 seasons in the NBA
• Grandfather, Henry Bibby, helped UCLA win three NCAA titles from 1970-72 before playing nine seasons in the NBA and later coached in both the NBA and college, including 10 seasons as the head coach at USC (1996-04)

https://golobos.com/sports/mbball/roster...len-house/

Player to watch -

Jamal Mashburn Jr. (So. 6-2 185) started the last 8 games for Minnesota last season as a freshman. He followed Pitino to New Mexico. He has scored 14, 20, 18, and 21 points in the first four games. He is 9-13 from the free throw line (.697), 23-41 from two (.561), and 6-18 from three (.333). He also has 10 assists and 13 rebounds.

When Andy Kennedy says New Mexico has dynamic guards, he is referring to House and Mashburn.

• Father, Jamal, Sr., played at Kentucky for Rick Pitino from 1991-93, where he was the 1993 SEC Player of the Year and a consensus first-team All-American, before playing 12 seasons in the NBA, earning third-team All-NBA honors in 2003 with the New Orleans Hornets

https://golobos.com/sports/mbball/roster...shburn-jr/

These guys have some legit talent. Thanksgiving will be fun.

It make me feel oooolllld that two players who were a few years younger than me now have kids playing college ball.

New Mexico routed Western New Mexico tonight 88-63.

House didn’t play. He has a sprained ankle.

Mashburn had 19 points.

I have a weird affinity for west-coast mid-majors so I'm having a tough time containing my excitement for this matchup. I'm sure the fanbase would get more excited at the possibility of knocking off "bigger" names, but going against New Mexico and potentially San Francisco is almost as good as it gets for me personally.

Some state ties - San Francisco is coached by Todd Golden who spent some time on Bruce Pearl's staff at Auburn.

i can't wait for these games in LV!

they will reveal AK from the prior coaches who SUUUUUUCKED in neutral site games.