The University of New Mexico women's basketball team has put together an historically good season so far and things are looking pretty promising as postseason play draws near.
New Mexico (21-4, 11-3 MW) has engineered one of the most successful seasons in program history to this point. And despite a couple of recent missteps against San Diego State and Fresno State, UNM still has a shot at garnering the top seed in the Mountain West after Boise State just stubbed its toe on Saturday at Utah State.
The Lobos got off to a pretty hot start for the second consecutive year. Last season, the team started 11-0 before finally being dealt its first loss against Oklahoma on the road. This year, UNM started 11-1 and avenged that Sooner defeat by returning the favor with an 84-80 victory at Dreamstyle Arena on Nov. 28, 2018.
New Mexico had a stretch where it won 17 of 18 games earlier in the season and showed a penchant for winning games in a variety of different ways.
Head coach Mike Bradbury said earlier teams were daring New Mexico to shoot the 3-pointer and his players just did a good job of making them pay.
At just over 30 percent, UNM doesn't make 3s at an exceptionally impressive clip, but the team is full of players that can heat up from the outside at any given moment.
Madi Washington had a two-game stretch where she hit nine 3-pointers, Jayla Everett has connected on 36.4 percent of her attempts and Ahlise Hurst exploded for nine makes in one game en route to a 39-point performance against the Sooners.
But the teams bread in buttered down low, where senior Jaisa Nunn has been a matchup nightmare for virtually everyone. She leads the team in scoring with 16.8 points per game, making nearly 57 percent of her shots and patrolling the boards with a team-high nine rebounds per contest.
On the defensive end, senior transfer Nike McClure has been a shot-blocking specialist — swatting 60 shots over her 25 games played — a 2.4 "return-to-sender" rate per game despite playing under 23 minutes on average.
The team has learned to live with a relatively high turnover rate, though it has seemed to reign in some of the unnecessary risk-taking as the season has progressed. Junior point guard Aisia Robertson has been the one tasked with protected the ball, and while she has committed a gaudy 141 turnovers, she has also dished out 177 assists to achieve an assist to turnover ratio that is better than 1:1.
Her ability to put break down defenses and figuratively put some opponents on skates has been one of the big difference makers that has led to so much success thus far in the Lobo season.
The Broncos are still in the top slot in the conference standings at 12-2, but New Mexico and Wyoming are nipping at their heels at 11-3 with a date between Boise State and UNM looming in the near future on March 4.
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New Mexico has to play San Jose State and Colorado State prior to that, but it is likely that the meeting between the top two seeds could provide an inside track to the winner. The Lobos will also have a tough opponent in the regular season finale, as they close the slate again the Wyoming Cowgirls, with whom they are tied in the MW standings.
The 2019 Mountain West Women's Basketball Championship will begin on Sunday, March 10 though the first five seeds are awarded a bye that precludes them from playing on day one.
Right now Boise State with its 12-2 conference record, New Mexico (11-3), Wyoming (11-3), Fresno State (10-5) and host-school UNLV (8-7) fill those slots.
Being afforded the chance to win the tournament by playing just three games in three days as opposed to having to win four in four is an obvious advantage and New Mexico would probably be best served by staying on the opposite side of the bracket of Boise State.
The Mountain West has seemingly become a "one-bid league" in the minds of many basketball experts and in the eyes of the NCAA selection committee. The winner of the 2019 Mountain West Women's Basketball Champion will be crowned on Wednesday, March 13 and punch its ticket to the big dance.
But while winning the conference tourney is the only sure-fire way to forge a path into the NCAA Tournament, New Mexico should like its chances as one of the favorites to achieve that, but has certainly placed itself in a position to make a strong argument for getting an at-large bid, especially if it can run the regular season table and make a deep run in Las Vegas, Nevada.
Robert Maler is the sports editor for the Daily Lobo. He primarily covers basketball and baseball and contributes content for various other sports as well. He can be contacted at sports@dailylobo.com or on Twitter @Robert_Maler.
