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Mission accomplished? Not quite yet.
The No. 12 New Mexico Lobos may have wrapped up the MWC regular-season title race, but there is still work to be done.
Two games are on the schedule before next week’s MWC Tournament at the Thomas & Mack Center in Las Vegas, Nev. The Lobos travel to Reno, Nev., to battle Nevada tonight and continue the road trip to Colorado Springs for a Saturday matchup with Air Force.
Because this week has no effect on the conference tourney, head coach Steve Alford said the games are a chance for his team to play in a pressure-free environment. The Lobos will be able to go out and have some fun, he said.
“It’s been a grind after grind after grind and the players have been under all kinds of pressure,” he said. ”It’s no pressure this week; it doesn’t affect our seeding in the conference tournament.
We’re conference champs. We’re the No. 1 seed.”
Tonight’s matchup features two teams on opposite extremes in the MWC standings. UNM (25-4, 12-2 MWC) clinched the regular-season title Saturday afternoon with its win against Wyoming and Colorado State’s 78-65 loss at Boise State.
Nevada, meanwhile, sits in last place with a 3-11 MWC mark. The Wolf Pack is 12-16 this season, the second-worst overall record among conference teams. It enters tonight’s game off an 80-63 loss to in-state rival UNLV.
In their previous matchup on Feb. 2, UNM captured a 75-62 win over Nevada. It was the first time the two teams had squared off on a basketball court.
Though Nevada sits in the MWC cellar, sophomore center Alex Kirk said UNM doesn’t take any team lightly.
“We know how important this week is, even though we’ve still won the title,” he said. “We’re still going to be focused on Nevada … and then we’re going to move on to Air Force, then move on to the tournament.”
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Nevada ranks at or near the bottom in many statistical categories.
Through 14 conference games, the Wolf Pack is last in scoring defense (71.1 points per game), scoring margin (losing by 9.1 points per game), field goal percentage defense (.468) and 3-point defense (.390).
Offensively, Nevada has scored 62.1 points per game in MWC play.
Only Fresno State and Wyoming have fewer points per game in conference games. The Wolf Pack shoots .415 from the field and .302 from the 3-point line.
Senior guard Malik Story leads Nevada in scoring, netting 16.4 points per game this season. He put up 24 points against UNLV. Junior guard Deonte Burton joins Story in a double-digit scoring average with 15.8 per game.
UNM’s Kendall Williams has climbed to ninth among MWC scorers. The junior guard averages 13.9 points per game in 28 contests, conference and nonconference. Kirk’s average has increased to 12 points and eight rebounds per conference game, and junior Tony Snell has 11.7 points per game.
The Lobos are still No. 1 in the MWC in scoring defense, limiting conference foes to 58.6 points per game.
Even without much on the line this week, Alford said his team is still focused for its upcoming games.
“They wouldn’t be in this program if that wasn’t the case,” he said. “Our program has always been about that, and we’re very good on the road. I expect us to be good on the road this week.”
