Sunday
WHAT: Exhibition game
WHO: Washington State vs. UNM Lobos
WHERE: The Pit
WHEN: 2 p.m., Sunday
WATCH: MW+ (online, subscription required)
SPECIAL NOTE: For the first time, season ticket holders must purchase tickets for the game — though for season ticket holders they are only $5. For everyone else, they are $15. Parking is free for the preseason games.
One year ago, the UNM Lobos lost a preseason exhibition game at Washington State.
Eric Olen, rather matter of factly, said people shouldn’t get caught up with the outcome.
Friday, Olen spent a good part of his 17 minute media availability with local reporters talking about his team’s 99-89 win at Oklahoma State last weekend.
The second year coach, rather matter of factly, said people shouldn’t get caught up with the outcome.
“We want to make sure that we don’t let the result in a game that doesn’t count get in the way of our progress,” Olen said. “We have to have enough realism to see the things that we’re not doing well and continue to address them.”
And while Lobo fans seem downright giddy on social media about hearing of Jake Hall’s 31-point outburst — there was no TV broadcast or online stream of the game, though the Journal and UNM’s radio crew both traveled to Stillwater, Oklahoma, to cover the game — Olen was in that coaching sweet spot this past week.
What’s the coaching sweet spot?
The comfortable place where the Lobos played well enough to keep optimism high — really, high, actually — and yet had enough mistakes and poor play in some areas that he didn’t have to work hard to convince his players to put in a hard week of practice.
“I think the film is pretty glaring in that we didn’t play well — a lot of issues defensively,” Olen said when asked if he had to work hard to get his players‘ attention in practice this week.
“You talk about 99 (the impressive point total the Lobos scored in the home gym of a Big 12 school that hadn’t lost a home exhibition game since 1988). We gave up 89. We gave up 22 offensive rebounds. We had unforced turnovers. We had really undisciplined fouling. We fouled them eight times — eight non-shooting fouls (when the Cowboys were already) in the bonus.”
“One of the things I’ve told our team recently is like you have to be hard to beat before you can be good. And right now, we’re not hard to beat. We’re beating ourselves.”
Who needs preseason? Olen’s in midseason form already.
The Lobos did look good offensively. Really, good in fact. And it was hardly just Jake Hall.
In fact, in the second half last weekend, the Lobos were better with Hall off the floor than on it (UNM was plus-17 on the scoreboard in his 13 first half minutes played and minus-2 in his 15 second half minutes).
About those rebounds
UNM was outrebounded last weekend 45-35 and allowed 27 second chance points off 22 offensive rebounds by the Cowboys.
Olen and UNM have been pretty open about acknowledging the largest question mark on the team at this point is post play and rebounding.
But that doesn’t mean they’re content in just waving the white flag on the rebounding column of the stat sheet this season.
A reporter (not the Journal!) prefaced a question on Friday about how the team might overcome that aspect of their game by saying, “You’re going to get outrebounded. I think everyone understands that.”
Before the rest of the question could be asked, Olen wanted to make clear he wasn’t at all OK with just accepting that as given for this team.
“I mean, hopefully not every time,” Olen interjected. “We’re trying to get to where that doesn’t happen every time, and it’s not a foregone conclusion.”
Getting defensive
Olen went on to explain some of the other areas on defense he wanted to see fixed after game one.
Got a pen? Olen noted disappointment in the Lobos’ defense in the following areas after last weekend’s game:
Transition defense: “We had guys just running past us. We were leaving guys to take the ball and letting people get behind us.”
Defensive communication: “First play of the game, Uriah (Tenette) and Jake in an action — two guys coming back, starting backcourt — blown assignment. ... Very first play of the game, wide open 3(-point attempt) to their best shooter. Uriah and Jake miscommunication.”
On ball defense/preventing ball from getting inside: “I thought we really struggled to guard the ball across the board. There were multiple possessions where they came down, no pass, no screen, and the ball just got right to the block.”
But 99 points is good, right?
Olen is still very high on this team, despite seeing plenty of room for defensive improvement.
“I really believe in our ceiling and what we’re capable of,” Olen said. “I think it’s going to be a fun team to watch, especially right now (because) we’re way better on offense than defense right now, so you’ll probably see some points. Hopefully, we can get some of that fixed.”
Geoff Grammer is the Sports Editor of the Journal, a podcaster, columnist and covers UNM Lobos basketball, among other things. Reach him at ggrammer@abqjournal.com or follow him on Twitter (X) @GeoffGrammer.