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Oct. 19—They rubbed shoulders at a preseason joint media day event Thursday in Las Vegas — each voted among the top teams in their respective conferences.
Saturday in a mostly empty Pit, they played like two teams that rightfully should be considered favorites.
The UNM Lobos beat Santa Clara, 77-75, in a private, closed-door scrimmage in Albuquerque — each team playing far more players than they would in a regular season game.
No player reached 30 minutes of floor time.
Lobos head coach Richard Pitino, as he’s said after preseason scrimmages in the past three season, said he was pleased his team got to play another team after an entire offseason of playing against each other. Pitino also emphasized there is no reason to look much into the stat sheet, though the Journal — which was not present at the scrimmage — did get a copy and reviewed it.
“I mean, (the Broncos) were good. And I think we did some good things, too, but it’s kind of hard anytime you play almost everybody (on your roster), it’s pretty deceiving for both teams to go down the box score and nitpick too much,” Pitino told the Journal. “So, I wouldn’t look at it like that. I think it was competitive. Both teams are ready to go. …
“And overall, the best part about it was just not scrimmaging ourselves anymore and seeing it against other players and another well-coached team like they are. I’m happy with how it went.”
The Lobos, picked to finish second in the Mountain West preseason men’s basketball poll, return less than half their minutes and scoring from last season (49.8% and 46.6%, respectively).
The Broncos, in a rarity in the transfer portal era, return 75.3% of their minutes played from last season and 72.8% of their scoring from a 20-win team that was picked third in the Wast Coast Conference — behind perennial NCAA Tournament squads Gonzaga and Saint Mary’s and ahead of San Francisco and both Pac-12 programs playing in the WCC this season — Washington State and Oregon State.
Pitino played 12 of…
Source link : https://sports.yahoo.com/lobo-basketball-edges-veteran-laden-030100293.html
Author : Albuquerque Journal, N.M.
Publish date : 2024-10-20 03:01:00
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