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It's Time for the Lobo Men's Basketball Team to Mix It Up
Dec. 20, 1999 It's time for Lobos to mix it up, for fans to suck it up and lay off the panic button
It's a difficult thing to determine exactly what time it is for the University of New Mexico men's basketball team. Time to panic? Time to change the strategy? Or simply time for Lobo fans to suck it up and suffer a bit while allowing a first-year coach time to build his program with his kind of players. But, just like it was during Rocky Long's rookie year over at University Stadium, this suck-it-up stuff can be painful. And embarrassing. Ugh: The Fran Fraschilla Lobos were dumped 73-66 Saturday night in The Pit and were swept this season by the Texas-El Paso Miners. Ugh: Expect the Lobos to get hammered big time Tuesday night by the fourth-ranked Arizona Wildcats. Ugh: Hold your breath Thursday when the New Mexico State Aggies visit The Pit looking to join the Miners in a sweep of the Lobos -- which would mean Long and Fraschilla combine to post an 0-8 record against Miners and Aggies. Big ugh. These are trying times for all Lobo fans especially when you consider how safe it is to be thinking:
Now, don't mistake this as a shot at Fraschilla. It's not. Fran is playing mostly with Dave Bliss players and these players probably look a lot like Bliss players would have looked over the past four years if Kenny Thomas had not been roaming the paint. But, in The Pit, even these Lobos should have been good enough to beat the Texas-El Paso team that came visiting Saturday with a first-year coach. The lack of an inside game is simply killing the Lobos. Oh, Damion Walker is doing a respectable job for a slender, 6-foot-7 center, but the opposing defenses just aren't showing much respect for UNM inside. And, so far, there isn't much to respect on the outside either. The opposing defenders have to be thinking:
And don't worry about the Lobos hurting you much inside. It won't happen. The Lobos play with good effort but not much else, which brings us back to the "time-to-change-the-strategy" question. The Lobo offense seems confused and tentative. The constant glancing over to Fraschilla is becoming annoying. If the Lobos are going to be looking at Fraschilla every second, they might as well walk the ball down the court, run down the clock and shorten the game. The Lobos also aren't that good at man-to-man defense. They need to mix things up: Sub and press after made free throws, use a match-up zone, try a 1-3-1 zone, try a 2-3 zone, use the half-court trap, send all five players to the defensive boards and bag the fast break. It's not that any of this stuff will work. The problem for UNM is size, talent and shooting. But "the-time-to-change-the-strategy" stage beats what comes next: The "time-to-panic" stage. |
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