Dec. 14, 1999

Brian Smith was up all night Sunday, studying for a semester final exam at the University of New Mexico.

Then, after Monday's exam, he spent two, grueling hours on the basketball court.

Those two hours, he said, were the high point of his day.

"I pulled an all-nighter last night, and it affected me (in practice) a little bit," said Smith, a Lobos junior forward who was an academic all-Western Athletic Conference selection last season. "But it's actually nice to have practice because that's at least two hours when you're not thinking about school and you can concentrate on basketball.

"These two hours are the most fun we have this week. Today (Monday), we had one of the most fun practices we've had all year."

Lobos head coach Fran Fraschilla said it's impossible to get through finals week without making some concessions to academics.

Today, he said, players will be arriving at practice late or leaving early because of finals.

"It's going to be a little chaotic," Fraschilla said. "But by Thursday or Friday, I think, most of the guys have their exams over with.

"Early in the week, especially, you've got to be flexible. You don't want three months of academic work going down the drain because (the players) didn't have time to prepare for final exams."

Exams or no exams, Smith said, preparing for Saturday's home game against Texas-El Paso shouldn't be a problem -- not after the 84-69 thumping the Miners gave the Lobos in El Paso 13 days ago.

"UTEP handed it to us down there," he said. "That's all there was to it.

"They were talking a lot of mess, and we all remember that. It's a payback game, and we're definitely going to come out and play hard."

NOTES: Wyoming center Ugo Udezue, a first-team preseason all-Mountain West pick, is expected to miss at least a month-and-a-half after undergoing arthroscopic knee surgery this week.

Udezue, who averaged 20.5 points and 7.4 rebounds a game last year, thus will miss the Cowboys' game with the Lobos in Laramie on Jan. 13. The 6-foot, 8-inch junior from Nigeria should be back in time for the Valentine's Day rematch in Albuquerque.

Udezue is the second member of the all-MWC preseason team to go down this season. Utah forward Hanno Mottola suffered a torn medial collateral ligament a month ago but probably will be ready before conference games begin next month.