Sports

Sports

Men's basketball schedule features seven NCAA teams

J.R. Oppenheim | July 21

Since New Mexico won’t make the trip to Wyoming this year for a Mountain West basketball game, Lobo coach Craig Neal said he received an offer via text from Wyoming coach Larry Shyatt. Come up for a vacation and experience Laramie, Neal joked. The 11-team conference schedule means teams drop one half of a home-and-away series with two different foes, and the Lobos will not face the defending conference tournament champion in Wyoming.

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Sports

Being a Lobo: Top five basketball alumni

Liam Cary-Eaves | July 20

Dating back to 1956, the University of New Mexico has helped guide a multitude of players into the NBA. New Mexico fans have witnessed many dominant players blossom right before them. Ranking the top five Lobo basketball players of all time is a difficult task; accounting for individual careers in Cherry and Silver followed by life after UNM, I have taken on the task of ranking the best to ever wear a Lobo uniform.

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Sports

Being a Lobo: Top five Lobo athletes to watch this year

Thomas Romero-Salas | July 20

UNM has plenty of athletes to watch this upcoming year. There are several players on every team to keep an eye out for, but there wasn’t room for everybody on this list. The list of the top five athletes to watch isn’t meant to honor these athletes, but to highlight some of the better players that UNM puts on the field.

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Sports

Sports briefs for July 13, 2015

Thomas Romero-Salas | July 13

The New Mexico baseball team officially announced the hire of Buddy Gouldsmith, who will join the staff as third base coach. The move comes a month after former UNM pitching coach Dan Spencer left the team to take the same position at Washington State. Assistant coach Ken Jacome will take over as pitching coach for the departed Spencer. Jacome was the pitching coach for UNM from 2005-08.

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Sports

Basketball: Lobos howl above the rest

July 13

New Mexico fans turn out for their Lobos. For the 16th consecutive year, New Mexico fans have topped the Mountain West for attendance in both men and women’s basketball. It is the 49th straight year that UNM’s fan base scaled the top-25 plateau for attendance at men’s basketball games. “I’m not surprised at all,” New Mexico Vice President for Athletics Paul Krebs said. “I truly believe we have the best fans in the country.”

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Sports

Sports briefs for July 7, 2015

Thomas Romero-Salas and J.R. Oppenheim | July 6

Sports Briefs AD contract extension Paul Krebs has a new four-year contract to remain as athletic director for New Mexico, the Albuquerque Journal reported Thursday.

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Sports

Men's Basketball: New assistant coach announced

Liam Cary-Eaves | July 6

Head coach Craig Neal’s journey to court his team and staff for the 2015-2016 season has come to a close. Terrence Rencher was named the latest addition among New Mexico’s men’s basketball coaches after garnering an assistant coach position on Neal’s staff. “I know what this program stands for and I know the passion behind it,” Rencher said. “I know the expectations that come with it and I’m up for that challenge.”

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Sports

Basketball: Old lobos, new tricks

Thomas Romero-Salas | June 29

The atmosphere of The Pit doesn’t disappear — not even for an All-Star game. The inaugural Lobo All-Star game on Sunday saw 9,497 fans watch some of the greatest UNM players in the history of the program face off against one another in a Cherry vs. Silver match. The Cherry team narrowly beat the Silver team 127-124. Drew Gordon hadn’t played a game at The Pit since the 2011-12 season, and yet he had to remind himself that he was playing in an exhibition game.

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Sports

Sports briefs for June 29, 2015

Thomas Romero-Salas | June 29

Men's and Women's basketball release schedules, Lobo named to All-America track team

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Sports

Kirk eager for return to The Pit

Liam Cary-Eaves | June 27

Alex Kirk’s return to Wise Pies Arena will be anything but a business trip for the seven-footer in Sunday night’s Lobo All-Star game. The former New Mexico Center said he is looking forward to seeing some familiar faces after forgoing his senior season to join the NBA. “We don’t get to see each other that much,” Kirk said.

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Sports

Lobo All-Star game this Sunday

Thomas Romero-Salas | June 26

With the likes of Danny Granger, Ruben Douglas, Tony Snell and others highlighting the first ever Lobo All-Star game it was a chance that other former Lobos didn’t want to say no to. Fans will get to see some of the best Lobo players in the history of the program this Sunday at The Pit.

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Sports

Sports briefs for June 22, 2015

Thomas Romero-Salas | June 22

Sports Briefs Men’s basketball The Lobos received a commitment from Nikola Scekic for the 2015 recruiting class last week. Scekic, who is originally from Serbia, is a 7-foot, 245-pound center and will join UNM after playing at MMG Academy in Florida.

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Sports

Women's basketball: Four more years for Coach Sanchez

Liam Cary-Eaves | June 22

The ‘i’s have been dotted and the ‘t’s crossed for months now, but the paperwork has finally become official on head coach Yvonne Sanchez’s four-year contract extension through May of 2019. The deal, signed by Sanchez and UNM Athletics Director Paul Krebs back in April, will net the New Mexico women’s basketball coach an annual salary of more than $266,000 for each of the four years. “It’s been done for a couple of months now,” Sanchez said. “It definitely feels good to be here longer.”

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Sports

Women's tennis: Perkins Jasper steps down, McKenna steps up

Thomas Romero-Salas | June 22

Erica Perkins Jasper is leaving New Mexico women’s tennis on top. After leading the Lobos to their first Mountain West crown in April, Perkins Jasper has announced her decision to step down as head coach and become the new chief operating officer of the Intercollegiate Tennis Association. Perkins Jasper turned the women’s tennis program around quickly. Between the three seasons before Perkins Jasper became head coach, the team won just 17 matches. During Perkins Jasper’s three-year tenure the Lobos went 40-33 and won their first ever Mountain West title.

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Sports

Basketball: NCAA changes may improve games' flow

Thomas Romero-Salas | June 15

The flow of the game has always seemed to be an issue in college basketball, and the NCAA has taken some steps to rectify that. In an attempt to fix the pacing of the game, the NCAA approved a change from two 20-minute halves to four 10-minute quarters starting this upcoming season for the women. “They’ve been debating them for a couple of years now, so I knew something was going to change,” UNM head coach Yvonne Sanchez said. “I really like it. It gets us more toward more global basketball. In FIBA rules (for international play), it’s four quarters.”

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Sports

Baseball: Players forego senior seasons for MLB draft

Liam Cary-Eaves | June 15

ollowing the MLB draft, New Mexico will head into the offseason looking to fill some major holes in their lineup and on their coaching staff. UNM’s junior starting pitcher Toller Boardman and junior infielder Sam Haggerty will test their luck in the professional baseball realm, forgoing each of their senior seasons as Lobos. Boardman was selected in the 22nd round (670th overall) by the Detroit Tigers, while Haggerty was selected by the Cleveland Indians as a 24th rounder (724th overall). Head coach Ray Birmingham was unavailable for comment, but he said in a statement that the program he runs at UNM sets out to get student-athletes into the major leagues.

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Sports

Track & Field: Lobo athletes attain All-American honors

Staff Report | June 15

New Mexico sent four athletes to the NCAA Championships in Eugene, Oregon this past weekend, all of whom reached the All-American plateau for the first time in school history. Senior pole vaulter Logan Pflibsen set the bar high for UNM’s track and field program after tying for a sixth-place finish in his final collegiate meet. Pflibsen’s personal-best 17 feet, 18 ½ inches breached the top eight spots of the 24 athletes. Pflibsen is only the third pole vaulter in school history to finish as an All-American.

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Opinion

LGBT edition column: How many strikes until everyone's out?

Thomas Romero-Salas | June 8

Not long ago, the idea of a gay athlete was foreign to many. Yes, there had been athletes who ‘came out’ after their playing days were over, but their stories were relegated to the back pages of the newspapers, or not talked about at all. That long-held stance has since fallen to the wayside with Jason Collins and Michael Sam breaking barriers by coming out as gay during their careers. Collins became the first openly gay active NBA player when he took to the court for the Brooklyn Nets in 2014. Sam was the first openly gay player to be chosen in the NFL draft when St. Louis selected him with the 294th pick just last year.

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Sports

UNM teams meet academic standards mark

Staff Report | June 1

All 21 New Mexico athletics programs hit the required mark of 930 in the NCAA Academic Progress Report. APR is designed to penalize teams that are not meeting the required academic standards set by the NCAA. None of UNM’s teams are in danger of receiving a penalty. Four UNM athletics programs had four-year scores of a perfect 1,000: women’s tennis, men’s tennis, women’s cross country and women’s golf. Last week, all of those programs were recognized by the NCAA for being in the top 10 percent of a particular sport in APR.

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Sports

Baseball: Team injuries plagued season

Thomas Romero-Salas | June 1

A string of injuries derailed New Mexico’s chances of winning another Mountain West baseball championship. Over the course of the season, the Lobos saw six of their nine starting players miss time due to injuries. The pitching staff wasn’t immune to the injury bug either, as UNM lost two starters — sophomore Conner Rusch and senior Colton Thomson — during the year. The Lobos were able to endure the losses, but finished in fourth place in the Mountain West at the end of the regular season. UNM’s finish is its lowest since the 2011 season, when it placed sixth.