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Men's basketball: UNM men's basketball team needs consistency to win on the road

By Jeremy Fowler
Thursday, January 18, 2007

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Men's report

New Mexico guard J.R. Giddens is fouled from behind as he beats San Diego State's Mohamed Abukar to the basket. Giddens, the Lobos' leading scorer, only scored 10 points against the Aztecs on 4-of-14 shooting. UNM lost 73-68 to drop to 1-4 in the Mountain West Conference.

Lenny Ignelzi/Associated Press

New Mexico guard J.R. Giddens is fouled from behind as he beats San Diego State's Mohamed Abukar to the basket. Giddens, the Lobos' leading scorer, only scored 10 points against the Aztecs on 4-of-14 shooting. UNM lost 73-68 to drop to 1-4 in the Mountain West Conference.

New Mexico's Aaron Johnson has the ball knocked loose by San Diego State's Kyle Spain. The Lobos took a one-point lead with under eight minutes to play Wednesday night at SDSU, but a 7-0 run by the Aztecs ended UNM's hopes of picking up a win on the road for the first time this season.

Lenny Ignelzi/Associated Press

New Mexico's Aaron Johnson has the ball knocked loose by San Diego State's Kyle Spain. The Lobos took a one-point lead with under eight minutes to play Wednesday night at SDSU, but a 7-0 run by the Aztecs ended UNM's hopes of picking up a win on the road for the first time this season.

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Men's report

SAN DIEGO — This is beyond dissecting strategy or reiterating the same old comments about confidence.

Confusion has invaded the University of New Mexico locker room - at least when it's the visiting team.

The Lobos' heads were hanging after they lost their sixth consecutive road game of the season 73-68 to San Diego State.

"It's getting to that point where we don't have all the answers," guard Chad Toppert said.

It's starting to feel like 2003 again.

The Lobos (12-8, 1-4 in Mountain West Conference) don't own a road win in six tries this season. The struggle is playing out like coach Ritchie McKay's first two years of winless road trips in 2002 and 2003.

Last week was a prime chance to knock off a solid team, No. 13 Air Force, but the Lobos squandered a 21-point lead in Colorado Springs, Colo.

Now this. New Mexico gained a 53-52 lead off a Toppert 3-pointer with 7:44 to go, then watched it quickly vaporize.

The puzzlement had guard J.R. Giddens searching for a way to express what's happening.

UNM is tied with Utah for the worst record in the Mountain West.

"It's not like we're trying to lose," said Giddens, who clanked his way to 10 points on 4-of-14 shooting. "I don't know what to tell you. We work hard in practice. You feel like it's your night, and then it doesn't happen."

But UNM is no longer the 55-point road pi¤ata from the UTEP-New Mexico State massacre in early December.

The Lobos are close. They score. They get leads.

They sometimes play good defense.

Guard Tony Danridge almost always plays huge, as was the case Wednesday with a team-high 18 points on 9-of-13 shooting.

And then they crumble.

The point when San Diego State had its most potent scoring burst was the same time the Lobos should have followed Toppert's postgame orders - "get stops when we really need it."

The Aztecs (13-5, 2-2 in MWC) ran off a 7-0 run to make it 62-56 with 4:40 left.

Ball game.

A layup by guard Darren Prentice kept the Lobos within four points with less than two minutes left, but it was too late.

Coach Ritchie McKay said his team has played well in segments - some good shots here, good defense there - but not for 40 minutes.

McKay owns seven road wins in his fifth year as Lobos coach, five coming during New Mexico's 2005 campaign that ended in the NCAA Tournament. The Lobos defeated Wichita State on a neutral court for a Las Vegas Tournament in December.

"We can't rely on other teams missing shots," McKay said. "We have to make them miss. When we're consistent for 40 minutes, we'll be really good."

If consistency doesn't prevail soon, the road will continue to feel like a labyrinth.

The Lobos play at UNLV on Jan. 27, followed by Colorado State on Feb. 3 and BYU - where the Cougars have won 26 consecutive home games, the second-longest streak nationally - on Feb. 14.

The Jan. 3 game at TCU was supposed to be an automatic win, but the Horned Frogs won 64-52.

Prentice said his team's misfortune can't go on forever.

"I don't know if it's going to come next week or in Las Vegas (for the Mountain West Conference Tournament), but it's going to come," Prentice said. "We're going to get a road win. I still believe in this team. I know I keep saying that, but I do."