Nov. 19, 2008

Lobo Basketball
What: Lobos vs. Grambling State
When: 7:07 p.m. Thursday (Nov. 20)
Where: University Arena (The Pit)
On The Air: KASY My50-TV; 770 KKOB-AM
Online: GameTracker; Live Broadcast Via All Access on GoLobos.com

By Richard Stevens -- Senior Writer/GoLobos.com

Steve Alford says his Lobos plan to be a bit self-centered in The Pit vs. Grambling, but the Lobo coach means this in a good way, a team way, a therapeutic way.

It's simply that time of the season to work out a few kinks, begin to define yourself defensively, and work on creating a chemistry that will bubble hot for 40 minutes of basketball.

The opponent across the court becomes secondary to the inner needs of your own team.

"This first game is all about us," said Alford. "Doing the things that we didn't feel we did very well at Creighton: valuing the ball, taking care of the basketball, making better reads offensively, getting it to the right people at the right time. And really have a tenacity, a toughness, at the defensive end for 40 minutes.

"Regardless of what Grambling does - they can be a man team, zone team, run this set, run that set - I think Thursday is going to be all about us."

The Lobos showed the type of team they are capable of becoming when they outplayed Creighton for at least 30 minutes. Alford was not pleased with the final 10 minutes, especially the final four minutes, when Creighton rallied for the win.

The Lobos get another shot at the court at 7:07 p.m. tonight (Thursday) when they play Grambling in the first of four games UNM will play in the Cancun Challenge. The Cancun challenge will bring Central Florida into The Pit on Saturday and then UNM goes to Cancun for a Nov. 29 game vs. Virginia Commonwealth and a Nov. 30 game against Drake or Vanderbilt. The Lobos will wedge a Nov. 24 game in The Pit vs. Cal State Northridge between those four Cancun challenges.

The Lobos are coming off an 82-75 loss at Creighton. The Lobos dominated the Bluejays to take a 16-point lead with 10:17 to play and were up nine points with 3:39 to play before the Jays rallied for the win. The Lobos looked extremely good early in the game, but it was not a finish Alford wants to repeat and the Lobos coach didn't just toss the blame on his players for the loss.

"We as coaches just have to continue to learn this team and do a better jot of managing and get the players to understand what's important. That's the defensive end," he said. "The issues were we didn't get stops in the last ten minutes of the game and we turned the ball over too much. Those are things we have to continue to work on."

Alford says his Lobos will be concentrating on their own issues, but he'll probably point out Tigers Andrew Prestley to his UNM inside men. Prestley scored 27 points and hauled down 10 rebounds in the Tigers' 80-74 overtime loss Tuesday to Louisiana Tech.

The Lobo will be looking for Pit win No. 600 when they play Grambling State. History says the Lobos probably will put that win in the book as UNM has won 32 consecutive non-conference home games. Duke has the longest streak in that category at 62.

The Tigers were 7-19 last year and return three starters including Prestley and 6-7, 240-pound senior Jamal Breaux. The Tigers' senior was named the SWAC Preseason Defensive Player of The Year. It will be interesting to see if Breaux is matched up against UNM's Tony Danridge, who had 23 points at Creighton and was 10-of-13 from the floor.

Danridge said he is looking forward to being back on the court after losing down the stretch to Creighton. "Just getting this bad taste out of my mouth will be good," he said.

Said Lobo point guard Dairese Gary: "We want to win the game, but first we have to find ourselves, find out what we need to do to make ourselves better."

Editor's note: Richard Stevens is a former Associate Sports Editor and sports columnist for The Albuquerque Tribune. You can reach him at rstevens50@comcast.net. Previous articles are available at The Richard Stevens Corner

Lobos Men's Basketball

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