Emptying the Notebook: Lowest-attended Lobo/Aggie game ever in Pan Am Center was one of the great ones

Dec. 16—LAS CRUCES — Here are some extra notes, quotes, stats and whatever else I could manage to empty out of the old notebook after Friday's 73-72 UNM Lobos win over the NMSU Aggies in the Pan Am Center.

NOTE: NMSU did not distribute post game stats or upload them to the NCAA's statistics portal. That doesn't mean I didn't have access to some stats, but the full version I use to generate some regular features in this ETN column were unavailable overnight.

Where were you?

Friday night's announced crowd for UNM at NMSU in the Pan Am Center: 5,182

I fully understand there were a lot of reasons for Friday night's attendance to be what Friday night's attendance was: School is out (many students aren't in town); this is a rebuilding season after an embarrassing, chaotic 2022-23 season; the Aggies got blown out by 44 points in the Pit 13 days prior; and there is, of course, Saturday's New Mexico Bowl in Albuquerque that the NMSU Aggies football team is playing in, which has, indeed, pulled some fans (and a lot of NMSU employees) up north.

I get all that.

But this is a state that still swears it loves its college basketball and takes pride in these two programs.

History is history, and I'd be remiss not to point out that Friday night's announced crowd of 5,182 is the lowest ever for a UNM/NMSU game played in the Pan American Center and the lowest anywhere since an announced crowd of 3,100 when the two teams played at Las Cruces High School on Dec. 17, 1966.

Here is what the arena looked like in a video I shot as pregame player introductions were being done:

----Quick sidebar ...

In that 1966 game, the Lou Henson-coached Aggies beat the No. 5 UNM Lobos squad with future basketball Hall of Famer Mel Daniels on it, 62-61 in overtime. The Lobos felt a foul was called when time should have been expired, giving NMSU a pair of free throws that decided the game.

The two coaches in that game are who each team's home courts are now named after: Lou Henson Court in the Pan Am Center at NMSU and Bob King Court in the Pit at UNM.

Said Lou Henson of the win, as quoted in the next day's Albuquerque Journal article written by Sports Editor LeRoy Bearman: "I don't think this should hurt New Mexico's ranking. It's still one of the top five teams in the country. Their kids were just flat and tired after getting that great win over No. 2 ranked Texas Western Friday night."

Said Lobos coach Bob King: "I'm about as disturbed as I've ever been. New Mexico State played fine basketball. It's a shame they had to win it the way they did."

----Back to Friday ...

I'll give both the Lobo fans who showed up and the Aggies fans who showed up a lot of credit. They were heard. That was an intense atmosphere late in the game Friday night, and while the game obviously had a lot to do with it, the fans in the less-than-half-full-arena was a contributing factor, as well.

As I so poetically noted on social media after the game, "I got paid to cover that great basketball game Friday night in Las Cruces. I mean, that doesn't suck."

It sure would have been nice if a whole lot more basketball and UNM/NMSU fans were there to have been a part of it, too.

While attendance hasn't been nearly what it once was in the Pan Am Center for quite some time (the last time this rivalry game reached 10,000 was on Dec. 30, 2008), this rivalry game had at least never dipped this low since it was played in a high school gym.

Here are the past 10 UNM/NMSU rivalry game announced attendances in the Pan Am Center:

—5,182 — 2023

—6,208 — 2021

—7,268 — 2019

—6,777 — 2018

—6,839 — 2017

—6,298 — 2016

—6,796 — 2015

—8,148 — 2014

—9,184 — 2013

—8,177 — 2012

The gamer ...

Here is the game story I filed after Friday's game in Las Cruces...

He said it ...

NMSU coach Jason Hooten: "It's hard to take anything positive from a loss but I'm proud of our effort tonight. We were down 11 in the second half, came back and kept fighting. Pleased with the fight we showed."

A number to know: 21

New Mexico State had a season-high 21 turnovers (previous season high was 18 in the opener at Kentucky).

For UNM, they've now forced the past two opponents into more than 20 turnovers (Santa Clara 26 last Saturday, NMSU 21 on Friday).

UNM opponent turnovers

—UNM's first 7 games: 99 TOs (14.1/game)

—UNM's last 4 games: 83 TOs (20.8/game)

Now, while that ended 21 NMSU possessions, which is great defensively, the Lobos didn't actually make the Aggies pay for those turnovers very much on the other end, a huge reason the game was so close and nearly won by NMSU.

The Aggies actually scored 20 points off UNM's 16 turnovers while the Lobos scored just 15 points off NMSU's 21 turnovers.

The 40th minute ...

OK, let's get back to that late game drama!

A JT Toppin offensive rebound (the freshman had a head-shaking eight of them on the offensive glass in the game) and putback put the Lobos up by 5 (64-59) with 5:47 left in the game.

NMSU responded with a 6-0 run, including a Robert Carpenter 3-pointer with 3:33 remaining that put NMSU ahead, 65-64. While the Lobos hit buckets on their next two possessions, they were just 2s and the Aggies all of a sudden were hot from beyond the arc, hitting 3s on three consecutive possessions and leading 71-68 with 1:57 remaining.

A Christian Cook free throw on the front end of a 1-and-1 made it 72-68 with 1:07 left.

He missed the next free throw, and the Lobos proceeded up court as the game clock flipped to under 1 minute remaining and UNM down by 4 points.

—55.0 — Jaelen House hits a 3-pointer, assisted by Jemarl Baker, Jr. (72-71, NMSU)

> Timeout Lobos

—28.0 — Missed jumper by Brandon Suggs, rebounded by Donovan Dent...

—23.0 — Dent takes the ball coast-to-coast for a spectacular layup that was selected by ESPN's Sports Center as the No. 1 play on it's Top 10. (73-72, UNM)

> Timeout Aggies

Here's the CBS Sports Network crew gushing over it plus Donovan explaining the layup to us after the game:

—04.0 — Nelly Junior Joseph disrupts a high ball screen and steals the ball from NMSU's Jaylin Jackson-Posey, leading to his running down court...

—02.7 — Junior Joseph fouled, missed both free throws, Jackson-Posey rebounds and calls timeout.

> NMSU timeout

—2.0 — NMSU has length-of-the-floor inbounds pass stolen by Dent.

Game over.

"The three big plays that won us the game," UNM coach Richard Pitino said, "were the Jaelen House made 3; Nelly's steal — we wanted to be aggressive, we thought they'd go high ball screen, he gets an amazing steal; ... And then Donovan makes an absolute amazing finish at the rim. That's how we won the game."

It has been done before, and it was amazing...

The Lobos erasing at least a 4-point deficit in the final minute has been done before, and plenty of Lobo fans will likely remember it.

With credit for this find going to UNM hoops SID Steve Kirkland, the last time UNM won when trailing by at least four points in the final minute of a game was on Nov. 18, 2012, vs. George Mason in the Paradise Jam in the U.S. Virgin Islands.

Here's some Pancake, Kendall and Snell nostalgia for your viewing pleasure...

You can't have Ike without 1K...

Before we dive too much more into the game details and stats, how about some love for Isaac Mushila reaching a significant college basketball milestone, scoring 1,000 career points at the Division I level.

The Division I point breakdown looks like this for Mushila:

—463 pts: Texas A&M Corpus Christi (2021-22)

—507 pts: Texas A&M Corpus Christi (2022-23)

—33 pts: UNM (this season)

—1,003 pts: Division I total points scored

He becomes the fourth Lobos on the roster to have scored 1,000 points at the Division I level, joining Jamal Mashburn Jr., Jaelen House and Nelly Junior Joseph.

Of course, Mushila hasn't only played at the Division I level. He also scored 780 points at two junior colleges before playing at TAMCC. So...

—418 pts: Gillete (Wyo) College (2019-20)

—362 pts: Western Texas (2020-21)

—463 pts: Texas A&M Corpus Christi (2021-22)

—507 pts: Texas A&M Corpus Christi (2022-23)

—33 pts: UNM (this season)

—1,783 pts: Collegiate total points

For starters...

While I don't have the usual best/worst/starting lineup breakdowns this edition of ETN due issues out of my control with the stats not being uploaded after the game, I do know the plus/minus stats show UNM's starters significantly outplayed NMSU's starters while NMSU's bench significantly outplayed UNM's bench.

—All five UNM starters had a PLUS in the plus/minus category.

—All five of NMSU's starters had a MINUS in the plus/minus category.

As for the benches ...

—Three of the four UNM reserves had a MINUS figure in the plus/minus, including a -16 by Tru Washington in 22 minutes on the court.

—Four of the five NMSU reserves had a PLUS figure in the plus/minus, including a +17 by Brandon Suggs in his 18 minutes off the bench.

Lou!!!!!!!!

NMSU called Friday night's game the Lou Henson Classic, gave away T-shirts with the legendary coach's picture on them to the student section and honored his 1998-99 NCAA Tournament Aggies at halftime — a team probably most famous for the fact that a young student reporter at the Round Up named Geoff Grammer covered them.

10 through 11 ...

10-1 for the Lobos is better than 9-2, and that was the take from UNM head coach Richard Pitino after the game, no matter how ugly the game looked to fans, the computer metrics or the pregame 15.5-point Vegas point spread.

"I knew it'd be a tough game," Pitino said. "I was concerned with it. Anytime you win in that fashion at your place, and you got to come back here, we knew it'd be difficult. It was just one of those games where let's just find a way to get that win get home. So, really proud of our guys."

This edition of Lobo basketball is now one of 19 teams in 120-season program history to have at least 10 wins through 11 games:

10 wins through 11 games in UNM history

With final season record in parenthesis

—2023-24: 10-1 (TBD)

—2022-23: 11-0 (22-12)

—2012-13: 11-0 (29-6)

—2010-11: 10-1 (22-13)

—2009-10: 11-0 (30-5)

—2004-05: 10-1 (26-7)

—2000-01: 10-1 (21-13)

—1998-99: 10-1 (25-9)

—1997-98: 10-1 (24-8)

—1996-97: 10-1 (25-8)

—1995-96: 10-1 (28-5)

—1973-74: 11-0 (22-7)

—1967-68: 11-0 (23-5)

—1965-66: 10-1 (16-8)

—1964-65: 10-1 (19-8)

—1963-64: 10-1 (23-6)

—1933-34: 10-1 (16-4)

—1924-25: 10-1 (12-1)

As most of us remember, that 1924-25 Lobos squad had three wins that season against the Albuquerque Bankers and four against the NMSU Aggies.

Hulk House?

After scoring 26 of his 28 points in the first half of the Lobos blowout of NMSU on Dec. 2 in the Pit, Jaelen House was asked about his showman-like on-court persona.

He admitted to being a big wrestling fan.

Well, since that huge night, House's past three games have seen him struggle to hit shots, going 9-of-36 from the floor (25.0%).

He's still produced overall (9.3 points, 10 assists, 12 steals and plenty of pestering defense), but his frustration of missing shots got the best of him Friday as he took his wrestling love a step farther.

After missing a jumper with 5:11 left in the game, House yanked at his jersey so hard in frustration it tore, reminiscent of Hulk Hogan.

You can see him putting on a spare — No. 41 — in this video from the nosebleed seats of press row.

Said teammate Donovan Dent, with a big smile, after the game when asked if he knew what the torn jersey was about: "I'm not sure. My little hot head partner right there. Probably got mad. But he's my guy."

Pitino was less joyful about it.

"He missed a shot and I think he's feeding in to all the wrestling nonsense. I don't know," Pitino said. "He just needs to, he needs to act like a guy who's played a lot of basketball and been a really good player and just understand, you're not gonna be a great player just yet. You missed two months of practice. Like, it's gonna take some time and that's fine."

Pitino added a very 2023, new world of college basketball nugget to the situation.

"He gets NIL (money), so he's gonna have to pay for it," Pitino said.

JT Toppin doing JT Toppin things ...

Lobo freshman JT Toppin, the reigning Mountain West Freshman of the Week, an award he's won three of the possible five times it's been awarded this season (teammate Tru Washington has one of the other two) had himself another monster game for any class, but especially a true freshman playing in his first road rivalry game in college.

Toppin's line vs. NMSU on Friday:

—Points: 18

—Shooting: 57.1% (8-14)

—Free throws: 2-3

—Rebounds: 11 (8 offensive)

—Note 1: His 3rd double-double of the season (first since Nov. 21 vs. Toledo)

—Note 2: First game of his college career without a block

Here's your sign ...

It's a good old fashioned rivalry billboard-off in New Mexico!

After NMSU bought a billboard on I-25 near University Stadium where they are playing in Saturday's New Mexico Bowl that read "Everyone's an Aggie," spoofing the UNM Lobos' favorite fan chant, the Lobos got some social media payback on Friday with their final score bug on X.

Top scorers out ...

UNM's Jamal Mashburn Jr., the Lobos' leading scorer on the season at 18.2 points per game, missed his sixth consecutive game on Friday with a thumb injury expected to keep him sidelined at least through Christmas.

For the Aggies, Femi Odukale missed Friday's game. He's the team's leading scorer (12.3) and rebounder (6.2). The Seton Hall transfer played just one minute in the second half of Tuesday's win over Northern New Mexico.

Hooten said it was a coach's decision not to play Odukale, and would not elaborate. Odukale was not on the team's bench.

VIDEO: Pitino and Dent postgame ...

Here is the postgame video I uploaded to the Journal's YouTube page after Friday's game with interviews of UNM coach Richard Pitino and UNM guard Donovan Dent:

It's about time ...

This one wasn't nearly the foul fest the Dec. 2 game in the Pit was was, but it still took a long time to play, clocking in at 2 hours, 12 minutes.

Here are the three longest games played by UNM this season:

—2:20 — vs. NMSU (Dec. 1)

—2:13 — vs. Toledo (Nov. 21)

—2:12 — at NMSU (Friday)

For NMSU, Friday didn't crack the top three:

—2:43 — at Louisville (Nov. 26, OT game)

—2:29 — vs. Fresno State (Nov. 21, OT game)

—2:20 — at UNM (Dec. 2)

Plus/minus ...

Here are the plus/minus stats for both the UNM Lobos and NMSU Aggies, with minutes played in parenthesis:

—UNM LOBOS

+19 Jemarl Baker Jr. (27)

+7 Donovan Dent (36)

+4 JT Toppin (30)

+4 Nelly Junior Joseph (29)

+1 Jaelen House (28)

+1 Sebastian Forsling (2)

-7 Isaac Mushila (19)

-8 Quinton Webb (7)

-16 Tru Washington (22)

—NMSU AGGIES

+17 Brandon Suggs (18)

+11 Robert Carpenter (30)

+4 Jonathan Kanyanga (10)

0 Tanahj Pettway (4)

-2 Jaylin Jackson Posey (31)

-2 Christian Cook (30)

-4 Jaden Harris (4)

-5 Kaosi Ezeagu (30)

-12 Jordan Rawls (35)

-12 Monzy Jackson (10)

Line 'em up ...

Because NMSU was unable to upload the game stats to the official NCAA database after the game, the usual postgame data used to fill out my best/worst/starting lineup recaps is unavailable for this ETN column.

I apologize to those of you enjoy this section (and there are a couple of you who regularly email me about these stats, so I know there are a some people out there reading this part of the ETN column!)

Not a huge deal, of course, but it does sort of bother me since I've had this as part of this column I believe for every game for several years now.

Around the Mountain ...

The Mountain West had two games on the schedule for Friday night and four games each on Saturday and Sunday...

FRIDAY

—New Mexico 73, New Mexico State 72

—Fresno State 61, CS-Bakersfield 58

SATURDAY

—San Francisco vs. Utah State, 2 p.m. MT, in Salt Lake City

—Air Force vs. UT Arlington, 3 p.m. MT, in Fort Worth, Texas

—UNLV vs. Saint Mary's, 5 p.m . MT, in Phoenix

—Weber State at Wyoming, 7 p.m. MT

SUNDAY

—CS Fullerton at Boise State, 2 p.m. MT

—Montana at San Jose State, 3 p.m. MT

—(D-II) CSU-Pueblo at No. 17 Colorado State, 4 p.m. MT

—Nevada at Hawaii, 8 p.m. MT

MONDAY

—Portland State at Fresno State, 8 p.m. MT

TUESDAY

—(D-II) Saint Katharine at San Diego State, 8 p.m. MT

KenPom updates ...

Remember, KenPom and other predictive metrics evaluate game efficiency, perceived team strength, etc., and just winning isn't any guarantee your ranking goes up when it's against a much lesser team, just like losing doesn't mean you can't climb when you play as well as NMSU did on Friday. Like it or not, KenPom remains the best analytics tool out there for college basketball:

—UNM's KenPom rating BEFORE win: 30

—UNM's KenPom rating AFTER win: 37

—NMSU's KenPom rating BEFORE loss: 271

—NMSU's KenPom rating AFTER loss: 261

As for the MW in KenPom ...

After Friday's games ...

28 Colorado State

30 San Diego State

37 New Mexico

55 Nevada

56 Utah State

75 Boise State

101 UNLV

161 San Jose State

169 Air Force

172 Fresno State

182 Wyoming

Stats and stats ...

There weren't any game stats provided to media at Friday's game, but here is the link to the postgame stat sheet I took a screen shot of from the game stats program: UNM 73, NMSU 72

Up next ...

For UNM: The Lobos host UC Irvine at 7 p.m. Wednesday in the Pit.

For NMSU: The Aggies play at Stephen F. Austin in Nacogdoches, Texas, at 5:30 p.m. MT on Tuesday.

Until next time ...

Until next time, Pan American Center, on the campus of New Mexico State University in Las Cruces ...

Lobos' updated schedule and results ...