After releasing the 2015 schedule on Friday, head coach Jeff Nelson said he devised the schedule with the vision of a playoff run, without needing to win the conference.
“It’s always the goal to win the conference,” Nelson said. “But scheduling like this, it gives us an opportunity to get a second or third (place) team into the postseason, if we can do well.”
The Lobos will face an abundance of tough teams, which can help their ratings percentage index — granted UNM can garner a few wins against some fierce competition. The first set of games in late August will be a homecoming for Nelson as he returns to Muncie, Indiana. The Ball State tournament will take Nelson back to his alma mater.
Nelson said the team had been invited to play against Ball State the past couple of years, and he is exited at the opportunity to head back. His first assistant job was under Ball State’s head coach Steve Shondell. The two will now be facing off in the first tournament of the season.
The Lobos will then return home for their annual Lobo Classic tournament, located in Johnson Center. UNM will square off against SMU, Santa Clara and Cal State-Fullerton. New Mexico will be seeking a little payback after UNM dropped a tight 3-2 match against SMU a year ago in the championship game of the SMU Invite.
UNM will then venture to California at the USC Invite, where Nelson said the New Mexico will be tested in a televised Pac-12 match against the Trojans. The Lobos will also be facing a traditionally sound Pepperdine program in the third weekend of the season.
The final tournament before conference will be the Lobo Invitational, where UNM will welcome LIU-Brooklyn, Cal State-Northridge and a highly touted SEC team in LSU. Nelson rounded out the non-conference play with an away game against Rio Grande rival NMSU.
Even though winning the conference isn’t outside the realm of possibility for UNM, Nelson said he doesn’t want to be eliminated for playing teams that the University is required to compete against.
“The problem is that we need to raise the RPI within the conference,” Nelson said. “We’ve played teams within the conference that have hurt us.”
Nelson said the Lobos could sweep a team 3-0 in conference play but still slide down in the RPI pole, reflecting the quality of the team in the Mountain West. However, UNM is required to play the majority of the conference teams twice in the season, leaving little room for error if UNM doesn’t win the Mountain West.
“The Mountain West conference is a good conference,” Nelson said. “The last few years we felt like we should have had multiple bids (to the NCAA tournament), but our RPI hurt us.”
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This year Nelson drew up a difficult non-conference schedule at the beginning of the season in anticipation for a slide in the RPI when MW play rolls around.
“Until we get the conference RPI up, I’ve got to build from the outside and make sure my non-conference schedule provides so that we don’t have to be perfect in the conference,” Nelson said.
Liam Cary-Eaves is the assistant sports editor for the Daily Lobo. He can be reached at assistantsports@dailylobo.com or on twitter @Liam_CE.
