It's the last gasp - but all the UNM football team can do is exhale in disgust. For the first time in eight years, the Lobos aren't bowl-eligible at 4-7 overall and 2-5 in the Mountain West Conference. UNM was the lone MWC team that was bowl-eligible every year since 2001.
It's easy to describe the UNM men's basketball team's season in one word: uncertainty. Take six freshmen, three seniors, sophomore point guard Dairese Gary and multidimensional junior Roman Martinez, and then subtract J.R. Giddens, Jamaal Smith and Darren Prentice.
The UNM women's soccer team saw its season come to an end Oct. 5, as the Lobos fought hard but fell to UNLV in an overtime shootout. With the loss, UNM finished 8-5-6 overall and 3-3-1 in the Mountain West Conference. UNM broke through in the 70th minute on a goal by Alexis Ball to tie the Runnin' Rebels 1-1, but the Lobos didn't find the back of the net again.
Public relations quotes are a dime a dozen. But if you're lucky, you'll get a few gems in your time working in the journalism industry. So far, I have about three that I consider golden: "You guys are the experts," Rocky Long said, referring to the media.
Michelle Corrigan sprinted across the finish line last weekend in San Diego, inching past a BYU opponent to solidify the first Mountain West Conference Championship in UNM women's cross country history. But Corrigan wasn't racing for first place, second place or even third place individually.
If you ask Steve Alford, it would appear that the men's basketball team has 99 problems. Thing is, all of them appear to be good problems - or at least problems with viable solutions. Problem No. 1: finding a defensive specialist to replace J.R. Giddens, who led the Lobos with 47 steals and 39 blocks last season.
Despite having a passion for basketball, Lobo freshman Sara Halasz has worked to get where she is. It's not enough that her favorite basketball player is WBNA star and former Connecticut Huskie great Diana Taurasi, or that her favorite movie is "Love and Basketball.
This season might be a rebuilding year, but the UNM women's basketball team has history on its side. For the past 11 seasons, there hasn't been much to cry about - or, for that matter, in the last 13 seasons under head coach Don Flanagan. UNM enters this season looking to capture its sixth Mountain West Conference title in the last seven seasons.
It's no wonder his number is 33. Whenever the UNM men's basketball team is in dire need of a 3-point field goal, all head coach Steve Alford has to do is draw up a double-screen play for Chad Toppert. The sharp-shooting guard does the rest, nimbly navigating through a maze of picks.
A string of bad luck has plagued the UNM football team this year - from injuries piling up to tough, heart-wrenching losses. But maybe a late-season voyage to Las Vegas - the bad-luck capital of the world - might include a change in the cards for UNM. For sure, the Lobos don't want to be left pondering the ifs, something they were forced to consider last week in a loss to No.
I almost regret not exercising my right to vote - almost. Trust me, if I didn't have to politicize a basketball column, I wouldn't. But this isn't my doing. It's Kevin Johnson's fault. The former Phoenix Suns' point guard, whom I will still remember as the guy Horace Grant blocked in the '93 NBA Finals between the Chicago Bulls and the Suns, beat out incumbent Heather Fargo to become Sacramento's first black mayor.
Rafael Neda is the future of the UNM baseball team. The sophomore is a native of Obregon, Mexico, where he grew up playing baseball. "I had great coaches when I was younger," he said. "And I think that helped for my love of baseball." Neda, the right-handed catcher for the Lobos, played high-school ball at Amphitheater High in Tucson, Ariz.
Since walking on, senior nose tackle Wesley Beck has been noted for his gridiron smarts. After all, football runs in his family - Beck's father, Curlin, played tailback at West Virginia from 1979-82. Senior defensive tackle Jeremiah Lovato, who has been Beck's roommate for three years, said he will remember Beck's intelligence.
All the sideline towel-twirling ended up being nothing more than a formality, as the UNM football team was gut-checked 13-10 by the No. 9 Utah Utes on Saturday in its home finale. On a night where upset brewed like a cup of coffee, the difference was a blocked field goal.
You know what they say: You dug your own hole - now lie in it. And that might just be the best thing for the UNM football team to do. For some reason, the Lobos have a propensity to fall behind early against Utah. But even more fascinating is UNM's ability to resurrect themselves and upset the Utes.
The Mountain West Conference Championships for women's cross country is shaping up to be a two-pony race. Of the nine teams running in Saturday's championship in San Diego, only UNM and BYU are nationally ranked. The UNM women's team climbed four places to 23rd in the nation after last week's 10th-place finish in the NCAA Pre-Nationals at Indiana State.
"Always over-deliver and under-promise." That's the motto co-owners Steve Horton and Chris Byrd teach their employees at Pro Image in Cottonwood Mall. The store, which opened Oct. 11, sells sports apparel, including jerseys, hats, T-shirts and professional and college sporting goods.
For five UNM women's soccer players, Friday's game against UNLV could be their last. But senior forward Hannah Hand has played with that approach her whole career. "I haven't changed anything since I was a freshman," Hand said about her game-time mentality.
UNM baseball is back - not necessarily in full swing, but in bunt mode. The Lobos squared off Tuesday in Game 2 of a five-game series of intrasquad scrimmages. Ken Jacome's Big Red Machine ran Chad Tidwell's Silver Slammers through the press 10-4. Jacome is the Lobos' recruiting coordinator, and Tidwell is a pitching coach.
In the midst of MLB Commissioner Bud Selig pushing the World Series to Thanksgiving, computer systems posing for a Texas and Penn State date in Miami for the BCS National Championship game and Kerry Collins quarterbacking the only undefeated team in the NFL, what about the NBA? The NBA season kicked off Tuesday in the homes of the two teams that played in the 2008 NBA Finals: the defending-champion Boston Celtics and the runner-up Los Angeles Lakers.
Solutions by The State News
