With emotions running high on the court and in the stands, a crowd of 11, 451 saw UNM pull off an intense 83-73 win over Baylor University Tuesday at The Pit in the first round of the National Invitation Tournament.
The win capped a roller coaster week for the team, which saw it almost play its way into an NCAA Tournament berth, only to find out that its old coach — Dave Bliss — and his new team would come to the place he called home for 11 years.
Sophomore guard Ruben Douglas scored 27 points and senior forward Wayland White added 14 more and the duo led a late UNM charge to secure the win.
After a tightly played first half, scoring runs dominated the latter stages of the game. Baylor used an 18-6 run to rally from a 52-40 midway through the second half before an 8-2 spurt gave UNM a 66-60 cushion with seven minutes left. But Baylor tied the game at 70 with 3:43 left before UNM closed the game with a 13-3 run, led by Douglas and White.
Douglas started and ended the run by connecting on two free throws and White scored five points, including a tip-in of sophomore guard Marlon Parmer’s shot with the Lobos up 72-71 with 2:47 left in the game. White followed that with a spinning, floating layup to give UNM a five-point cushion with 2:06 left.
“That was a great college basketball game,” UNM head coach Fran Fraschilla said. “That game had everything.”
Everything included drama right from the beginning, and plenty action from performers with interesting twists, which gave the game a soap opera-like feel to it.
It had two players (Douglas and White) recruited by the former coach (Bliss) who chose to play for the current coach (Fraschilla).
It pitted four players with close ties against each other — Baylor forward and former Lobo Greg Davis playing against UNM forward and former teammate Brian Smith and a dunking duel between White and Baylor forward Terry Black, who played against White in high school in Milwaukee.
Oh, and there was a little matter of Bliss’ return to The Pit.
The horde of cameras pointed toward The Pit ramp waiting for Bliss’ entrance before the late-night game started showed that this was no ordinary event.
Amid a mixed reaction of boos and cheers, Bliss was greeted by former UNM coach Bob King and Fraschilla before ESPN conducted an interview with Bliss and Fraschilla before the game started. As Bliss made his way down to the visitor’s sideline, the boos and the cheers got louder. When Davis was introduced, boos rained from the crowd and would continue for the rest of the game.
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“It’s amazing because what you do, you have flashbacks,” Bliss said of coming down The Pit ramp. “ Because you can remember having done this before, it didn’t change at all, and obviously once you walk down on the floor — and ESPN came in and kind of ruined everything — it’s surreal. It’s an unusual situation.”
Baylor grabbed the momentum quickly in the game, sprinting out to a 7-3 lead on Bear guard Wendell Greenleaf’s 3-pointer. Douglas carried the Lobos in the early part of the game, connecting on three straight threes to start the game to give UNM a 9-7 lead. However, Douglas was beset by early foul problems as he picked up two fouls in the first three minutes of the game.
Emotions were high early in the game, especially between former teammates Davis and Smith as they exchanged glares early in the first half. The animosity would peak in the second half when Davis blocked a Smith shot and stood over him as he lay on the floor, taunting him.
Davis would get a technical foul for his antics, but Smith returned the favor a few minutes later, getting a technical foul after Baylor guard Matt Sayman was called for an intentional foul when he stopped White on a fast break opportunity.
“Greg and I are friends, but this obviously was an emotional game for him and he wanted to come in here and play well,” Smith said. “I don’t really know what happened. I just know he did something and got a technical for it and I’m going to protect myself and protect my teammates.”
With the score tied at 30 late in the first half, UNM took control of the game on a hook shot by freshman forward Patrick Dennehy and a 360-degree spinning layup and a sunk off a steal by White. It was part of a 10-1 run that put UNM up 40-31 before a dunk by Bear forward Terry Black, who led Baylor with 22 points, cut the lead before halftime to 40-33 on a breakaway dunk.
Afterwards, Fraschilla complimented Bliss’ handling of the media blitz surrounding his return.
“I thought coach Bliss handled everything great; I tried to handled it with class,” Fraschilla said. “The guy’s won 498 games, come on. And I’ve watched a lot of film this last few days, and the guy is really a great coach.”
Smith said it was different to see his former coach at the visitor’s bench.
“It was awkward seeing coach Bliss in a green blazer, first of all, and then on the opposite end of the bench,” Smith said. “It was funny. A bunch of times, I was looking over at him like he was our coach and then, just kind of had to shake my head and realize he’s not there anymore. I have to look at the little man on the other end.”
