DAILY LAccustomed OBO new mexico
What’s on your mind
friday
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The Independent Voice of UNM since 1895
March 12, 2010
by Damien Flores
by Mario Trujillo Daily Lobo
LAS VEGAS — Feb. 20 was supposed to serve as a memory — a day the UNM men’s basketball team could look back on late in the postseason to summon energy. The Lobos ended up reliving that same day in the quarterfinals of the Mountain West Conference tournament, when they faced Air Force. For the second time this season, the Falcons nearly upset UNM. But for the 29th time this season, the Lobos found a way to win, finishing off the Falcons 75-69 at the Thomas & Mack Center on Thursday, behind another double-double from Darington Hobson and 20 points from Dairese Gary. “I think (Air Force head coach) Jeff (Reynolds), in the last two to three weeks, has done more with his team than anybody in the league,” Lobo head coach Steve Alford said. “You’ve seen it coming. They have really played hard.” For a team that only managed to get its 10th win Wednesday (the Lobos hit the 10-win mark in early December), Air Force played better than its No. 9 ranking suggested. The will-not-go-gently-into-thatgood-night attitude clearly frustrated the Lobos. Hobson, who had a game-high 28 points and 15 rebounds, threw his mouth piece, yelled at teammates and ended by getting a technical in the second half. “It cost us two points during the game,” Hobson said. “I apologize for that. But, you know, that is something I still have to work on. I’m an emotional player.” It wasn’t just Hobson. Alford took out sixth-man Will Brown when he became agitated after a foul call. The frustration was understandable. Air Force — a 150-to-1 long shot to win the tournament and 16.5 point underdogs in Thursday’s game — had the nationally ranked No. 8 team in the nation on the run. With four minutes left in the game, Air Force pulled within three points, 61-58. “Sometimes you have to give credit to your opponent,” Alford said. “We are 29-3. We broke every Lobo record there is to break. We now have more wins than any Lobo team in the history of the school, and if you ask m e
what o u r strength is — we work really hard.” But so did Air Force. Though the Lobos led for 39 minutes of the game, the Falcons constantly squeezed that lead to single digits. UNM’s second-largest lead of the night came with three minutes left in the first half, when the Lobos shot up 31-22. But looking to go into halftime with a double-digit cushion, the Lobos watched a running 3-pointer drop in at the buzzer by Air Force guard Evan Washington, cutting the lead to seven. That momentum carried over to the second half. The Falcons slowly chiseled away at the Lobos, pulling to 48-47 with 12:48 left in the game.
see AFA win page 8
to victory
Poet of the Year for New Mexico Hispano Entertainers Association in 2007 and 2008
UNM 75 AFA 69
A message to the UNM basketball team: The rims at Washington Middle School didn’t have nets when I was a kid. No matter how many times coach replaced them, some vatos would boost each other up and cut them down. Even the nets made of chain. So we never knew what it sounded like when you hit the shot, that sound in the Nike commercials, the ball players sporting shoes we could never afford. But that’s the way it was. We played anyway, through cracks in the concrete that could turn your ankle on the jump. The rain puddles ruined our school uniforms before the lunch bell. And we were sweating, the school yard dust clung like brown scabs to the sides of our faces. But all you have sometimes is a ball, some friends and a court. Grandpa and I watched every Lobo game, the reception always jacked up by the radio towers down the road. So much static you couldn’t read score. So we kept count ourselves. Spider Smith, Gibson, Kenny Thomas, Lamont Long, I had their stats memorized like prayers. I snuck my Walkman into class to listen to the Old Dominion game during Spanish. In P.E., my friends pretended we were the team. Determined to score more points on the floor than we got on the math test. An after-school pickup game instead of homework. All we wanted to be were the Lobos.
Photo above by Gabbi Campos / Photo below by Joey Trisolini / Daily Lobo Above: Phillip McDonald hangs in the air as Air Force’s Avery Merriex looks to block McDonald’s shot on Thursday at the Thomas & Mack Center. McDonald tallied eight points. Below: Fans congratulate Lobo swingman Darington Hobson while he walks toward the locker room at the Thomas & Mack Center on Thursday. The Lobos beat No. 9 Air Force 75-69. Hobson had 28 points and 15 rebounds.
Grandpa took me to the Utah game in The Pit in ’98. When Royce Olney buried Andre Miller in the court and pulled up for that 3. I remember it was loud, how the crowd hollering, stomping the concrete, the benches, shook my ribs like they were piano wires, struck with mallets. But the whole crowd was silent. When Olney took a long jump, hung there, and just let it go. Everyone heard when that shot went in, even in the cheap seats where we were sitting. It sounded machete
like a cutting through bamboo.
The stands emptied to the court, and my grandpa was crying. Not because the game, but he realized he’d only have a few years left. So he just laughed it off and told me, You’ll be a Lobo someday. You just might not be on the team.
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