The scene is an early season UNM men's basketball practice.
With the team in the middle of a block out drill, coach Fran Fraschilla sees freshman Jamaal Williams get a little lazy as he battled for rebounding position. Fraschilla stops the drill and informs Williams that if he plays like that against the University of Wyoming's Josh Davis, he will most certainly come down the lane and slam the ball down his throat.
Same practice, different drill.
On a perimeter defensive drill, Fraschilla spies guard Senque Carey and point guard Marlon Parmer giving their respective opponents a little too much cushion. Again he stops the action and tells the team that if it does not play better defense, they will not even have a chance to beat lowly Alcorn State University.
Now it seems the Lobos will have to refer to these early season drills to win games, primarily since the team is still seemingly searching for an offensive identity.
Or is it?
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In a 70-57 win over Northern Arizona University Saturday, the Lobos definitely looked a bit disconcerted on offense at times.
The Lumberjacks led for much of the first half until a late run gave the Lobos a halftime lead. UNM shot 37 percent for the half, including four-of-seven 3-pointers, while the Jacks hit 43 percent of their shots, including 50 percent from behind the arc.
This from a team that many figured would not be much of a task for the Lobos to handle.
"This happens to everybody throughout the year," Fraschilla said. "A lot of teams take on a team that they're supposed to beat by 20 and only beat them by 13."
So in the first half, with the offense struggling to get something going, the UNM defense came to the rescue.
With under five minutes to play and NAU clinging to a 24-21 lead, the Lobos embarked on a 12-0 run, using strong defense and the transition game. During that stretch, Parmer exploited the open lanes to find open players for easy buckets.
"I think our best offense is our transition game," UNM guard Ruben Douglas said. "That comes from getting long rebounds and Marlon pushing it up."
In the second half the Lobos shot much better, finishing with a 48 percent mark and the defense came through, limiting NAU to only nine-of-24 shooting. And again it was Parmer's penetration that paid the most dividends.
It seems those early season drills paid off as Patrick Dennehy and Williams virtually owned the glass, the former finishing with 11 rebounds, five offensive; the latter hauling in seven rebounds, five offensive. For the game, the Lobos outrebounded NAU 41-30.
In UNM's current eight-game winning streak, no team has shot better than 46 percent, while the Lobos have hovered near 50 percent shooting in every game except in a win over New Mexico State University in Las Cruces, where the Lobos shot 35 percent from the floor.
"The coach, he strives for perfection out there," Douglas said. "He doesn't want a guy getting back cut, doesn't want a guy getting beat off the dribble, doesn't want a guy not contesting a shot. We can score points at will, but still lose 103 to 101. That means we've got to stop other people."
So with UNM's meeting with 22nd-ranked Gonzaga University looming tonight, it's obvious that Fraschilla will stick with what's working right now.
"There's not much we can change," Fraschilla said. "Obviously we'll have to play better than we did today. It's hard to not look past these kinds of games when you've got Gonzaga coming in."
It is hard to argue that a team is struggling offensively when it has won eight straight and is shooting the ball well. For right now at least, the Lobos are winning close games. And as everyone knows, a winning identity is more desirable than a losing one.
