sports@dailylobo.com
@ThomasRomeroS
The New Mexico men’s basketball team came in at No. 20 in USA Today’s preseason coaches poll released Thursday.
The Lobos are coming off an impressive season that ended with Mountain West Conference regular season and tournament titles. But in the NCAA tournament, the Lobos, a No. 3 seed, were upset by 14th seeded Harvard 68-82. UNM finished the season with a 29-6 record.
Kentucky was ranked the number one team in the nation followed by Michigan State, Louisville, Duke and Arizona. Boise State and UNLV were the other MWC teams to receive votes.
UNM does have four of its five starters coming back from last season’s MWC championship team in junior center Alex Kirk, junior forward Cameron Bairstow, senior guard Kendall Williams and junior guard Hugh Greenwood.
The only starter not returning is Tony Snell, who went 20th overall to the Chicago Bulls in June’s NBA draft.
Last week at the MWC men’s basketball media day, the Lobos were almost unanimously selected to repeat as conference champs. UNM received 23 of 24 first-place votes with the other one going to UNLV, who finished in a tie for second with Boise State.
Both Williams and Kirk were named to the Preseason All-Mountain West team last week. Williams, the reigning MWC Player of the Year, was tabbed as Preseason Player of the Year.
Lobo Howl
Today the men’s and women’s basketball teams will host the annual Lobo Howl, starting at 6 p.m. at The Pit.
The men’s portion will be broadcast nationally for ESPNU’s Midnight Madness, which begins at 7 p.m. Mountain Time.
Eight other schools will be shown on the broadcast including Kentucky, Duke, Syracuse, Oklahoma State, Wichita State, Memphis, the University of Connecticut and Florida Gulf Coast.
Get content from The Daily Lobo delivered to your inbox
Autograph sessions for the women’s team will be held from 6-6:30 p.m. and the men will hold theirs from 6:30-7 p.m. Both will be held at the North Concourse inside The Pit.
From 7-7:45 p.m. the women will have team intros, drills and various skill competitions. From 8-8:45 p.m., the men’s team will take the floor for team intros, a dunk competition, 3-point contest and drills.
Miles Simon will be commentator for the Lobo Howl on ESPNU and the event is free for everyone attending.
Lobo Howl
6 p.m.
The Pit
