Dec. 4—Pit Magic has been on loan to the squad across the street so far this season.
Anyone who doesn't think so must have missed the final 30 minutes or so of action of last week's UNM Lobo football win — in double overtime — over then-Mountain-West-leading San Diego State inside a very loud University Stadium.
AdvertisementAdvertisementAdvertisementSaturday, as the Lobos host a Santa Clara team that is the highest-ranked, non-conference opponent that any Mountain West school has scheduled at home this season, UNM is hoping Pit Magic finds its way back home to that 37-foot hole in the ground where 60 years of having the crowd serve as a sixth man on their court has helped the Lobos be one of college basketball's toughest teams to beat in their home arena.
"It's a big game for us," said first-year Lobo hoops coach Eric Olen, whose team is 5-0 in the Pit so far. "It's a white out (promotion with fans asked to wear white) in the Pit on Saturday, and we need everybody here. We need the full-throat version of the Pit, because it's a great basketball team.
"... This is the best non-conference game in the entire Mountain West, in terms of home games. So we hope to take advantage of that opportunity. We need everybody."
Monday's postgame plea from the laid back Olen wasn't accompanied by the same marketing push of the highly-produced 'Office' or 'Gone in 60 Seconds' social media videos his fellow first-year Lobo coach Jason Eck was able to be a part of with UNM's marketing teams in the school's all-hands-on-deck effort to get everyone out to football games this season (University Stadium's year-over-year average home attendance growth of 57.8% leads the nation, by the way), but it was part of UNM appearing to start it's post-football return to pushing the marketing for all sports.
AdvertisementAdvertisementAdvertisementUNM posted an attendance graphic calling for 13,000 fans in the Pit on Saturday — the same graphic it used multiple times during the football season when Eck asked for fans to come to football games.
UNM ranks 29th in the country in average home attendance so far this season at 11,224 through five home games — second in the Mountain West to San Diego State (26th nationally at 11,596).
A year ago, with Donovan Dent, Nelly Junior Joseph and Richard Pitino leading a team that was coming off an NCAA Tournament appearance, the average home attendance through five games in the Pit was just 10,942, before picking up once league play began.
Last season's Mountain West champion Lobos got it's first 13,000-person crowd in home game number six, when it sold out 15,411 for the clash with New Mexico State. It didn't hit 13,000 in a non-NMSU rivalry game until home game number nine, on Jan. 3, when the team hosted Nevada in the 1,000th men's basketball game ever played in the Pit. That crowd, which saw an overtime win over Alford's Pack, was announced at 14,622.
AdvertisementAdvertisementAdvertisementTop-ranked opponent
As for this season, Olen is correct. Santa Clara is, in fact, the highest-rated team playing a non-conference game in the home gym of a Mountain West school this season. SC entered Thursday night's games ranked 50th in KenPom.com out of 365 Division I men's basketball teams.
The days of Mountain West level teams getting good home opponents are long gone in modern college basketball, though fans still voice their displeasure with the Lobos' schedule and its lack of marquee names coming to the Pit each season.
Santa Clara (8-1) has already found success this season over teams with familiarity in this neck of the woods. The Broncos beat Steve Alford's Nevada Wolf Pack at home by 15, beat Nico Medved's Big Ten Minnesota Golden Gophers by 11 on a neutral court last week and beat Richard Pitino's Big East Xavier Musketeers by 19 on the road last month.
AdvertisementAdvertisementAdvertisement"They're as good as anyone we've seen," Olen said.
Mountain West's Top 10 home games:
KenPom.com ranking entering Thursday's games
1. Santa Clara (50) at UNM, Saturday
2. Colorado (66) at Colorado State, Saturday
3. Stanford (78) at San Jose State, Dec. 13
4. Utah Valley (88) at Boise State, Nov. 8; at Fresno State, Nov. 15; at San Diego State, Wednesday
5. UC San Diego (95) at Fresno State, Nov. 12; at Nevada, Tuesday
6. Wichita State (98) at Boise State, Nov. 18
7. UC Irvine (130) at San Jose State, Nov. 30
8. Pacific (131) at Nevada, Nov. 8; at Air Force, Wednesday
9. Southern Illinois (135) at Nevada, Nov. 12
10. Miami, Ohio (138) at Air Force, Nov. 15
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