LOBO BASKETBALL: Young guns help UNM to a strong second half in exhibition victory
UNM senior guard Jamal Mashburn Jr drives the ball near midcourt at The Pit on Thursday. The Lobos won their first exhibition game of the season against CSU Pueblo, 83-65.
It was a dress rehearsal.
If that ever were a dress rehearsal.
The UNM men’s basketball season kicked off – technically – on Thursday night at The Pit when the Lobos hosted the first of their two exhibition games to bring to life the 2023-24 college basketball season.
After a sluggish first half, UNM fended off a pesky Colorado State University Pueblo Thunderwolves team, 83-65, in front of 9290 fans.
“That was really good for us. We have not had a lot of time together.,” UNM men’s head basketball coach Richard Pitino said. “Obviously, with Nelly (Junior Joseph) getting off a plane two days ago and only practicing once, I really wanted to throw him in there. I wrestled with it. I just felt like Nelly is a key piece to what we are doing, he needs to play with these guys.”
The touted transfer forward from Iona landed in Albuquerque on Tuesday after flying back from his home country of Nigeria. He had been away from the team all summer and fall.
In July, he played in the four-team GLOBL Jam Tournament in Toronto, Ontario, Canada for the Basketball Africa League team. Junior Joseph had to deal with student visa issues in his home country of Nigeria.
The Albuquerque Journal reported that Junior Joseph had been working out and taking classes online all semester to maintain his eligibility to play.
With the very limited time that Junior Joseph has been with the team, Pitino said that he gave the forward four plays out of a large and complex offensive playbook the Lobos run.
“He didn’t screw up one. Which is great,” Pitino said. “Now, we are trying to play more out of concept. I think if you watch the NBA, because of (Denver Nuggets center Nikola) Jokic, a lot of people are playing the five-man and playing what is called splits, I think it was really good. We don’t have a lot of post-up stuff in for Nelly.
Obviously, I was trying to get him some touches and see how that looked. He’s never run it.”
The team was also without Preseason All-Mountain West Conference guard Jaelen House. House sat out the exhibition game due to soreness in his back.
Sophomore guard Donovan Dent filled in the starting point position for House. He played 32 minutes and had 26 points, six assists and two steals.
Dent said that even without House not seeing any playing time against the Thunderwolves, the team is deep and can weather the storm of an injury to any player.
“We have one person struggling, we got nine other guys that can easily pick him up,” Dent said. “I mean it’s our first game back in a while, so I mean, we’re not really worried about shots falling.”
The Lobos looked like a team that hadn’t played meaningful minutes with essentially a new crop of players.
Three of the five starters were all on other Division I teams last year. Junior Joseph made the NCAA Tournament with Pinito’s father, Rick Pitino, at Iona, Mustapha Amzil was with a very good Dayton team and Jemarl Baker Jr was at MWC rival Fresno State.
CSU Pueblo took advantage of the Lobos’ first-half shooting woes. The Thunderwolves had a 28-21 lead with 6:01 in the first half thanks to a Makiah Morris layup.
But UNM would close the final 5:36 of the first half on a 17-4 run and Dent would score seven of those points.
Although Dent made several layups, he said he worked on his jump shot during the offseason. A point of emphasis to add to his game by his head coach, the program and fans.
“I really didn’t shoot as much as I wanted tonight, (and) from behind the 3 (point line), I’ve got to work on that a little bit,” he said. “But my ability to get to the rim, that’s kind of why I played a lot today and just get my teammates involved.”
Dent had 13 of his 26 points in the second half and made all seven of his free throw attempts.
Pitino said that when Dent signed his letter of intent to play at UNM, he knew he could help the Lobos win some championships.
“Donovan is a key piece to what we are doing,” Pitino said. “Although House has been out about three weeks, it has helped Donovan’s progression… we love what we got in Donovan. He’s a terrific player.”
Donovan Dent started at point guard and finished the game with 26 points.
Pitino said he was unsure if House would play in the next exhibition game.
True freshmen Tru Washington and JT Toppin both saw a good chunk of playing time, both clocking in 24 minutes. Washington scored 11 points while Toppin scored 15 points on 8-of-11 shooting.
Pitino said the Lobos might have a diamond in the rough with Toppin.
“When we signed (Toppin), we really liked him. Now when we saw him play in the wintertime, we were kind of sitting there thinking: don’t tell anyone this kid is coming (to UNM) because he’s really good. We didn’t want any of the big boys trying to poach him. Since he has stepped on campus, he has been extremely impressive.”
UNM will host New Mexico Highlands on Wednesday, Nov. 1. at 7 p.m. It’s the final exhibition game for the Lobos before they host Texas Southern in the season opener on Nov. 6 at 7:30 p.m.
