Emptying the Notebook: Dent is the star, but are two other Lobo guards quietly stealing the show?

Nov. 22—Here are some postgame notes, quotes, stats, trends, videos and more that I managed to empty out of my notebook after Thursday’s 80-58 UNM Lobos win over visiting Grambling State in the Pit:

Lobo defense stealing the show…

While we all seem to have been paying attention to the Donovan Dent show this season, with some Nelly Junior Joseph dominance in the paint mixed in, the Lobos may have quietly been showing us who they really are all along.

A defense-first squad that lives and dies off creating offense off its high-pressure defense.

And maybe, just maybe (I get it, it’s really early in the season), it’s been Tru Washington and C.J. Noland who have been stealing the show right under our noses this whole time.

Washington had five steals and Noland had three on Thursday (more on them in a bit), but really the entire team continues to feed off steals, almost to the point where it becomes worrisome at times when they aren’t forcing turnovers.

Consider this: With 14 steals in Thursday night’s 80-58 win over the Grambling State Tigers, the Lobos are now averaging 12.0 steals per game and have had double digit steals in four of their five games (the one not hitting that mark was a nine-steal game vs. St. John’s on Sunday).

That 12.0 steals per game ranks 11th nationally (out of 364 Division I teams) and is far ahead of the program record of 9.1 steals per game set in 1978 and well ahead of the pace last season’s team had when it had a program record of 312 total steals (8.7 per game over 36 games).

And who’s been doing it?

The easy answer is just about everyone as 11 out of 12 players on the roster have at least one steal this season and all five Lobo starters from Thursday’s game (Noland got his first start of the season) are averaging at least 1.0 steals per game.

But Washington and Noland are separating themselves from the pack.

Let’s start with Washington.

The second-year Lobo guard had five steals on Thursday (all in the first half) and is now averaging 3.0 steals per…

Source link : https://sports.yahoo.com/emptying-notebook-dent-star-two-150100561.html

Author : Albuquerque Journal, N.M.

Publish date : 2024-11-22 15:01:00

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