ALBUQUERQUE A s preseason exhibitions go, it went pretty much as expected. The starters looked good, nearly everyone got to play and, of course, there were plenty of sloppy sets and a handful of ooohs and ahhhs. Ultimately, the curtain officially rose on another college basketball campaign for the University of New Mexico after Monday night’s 74-70 win in The Pit against UTEP.
“The NCAA doesn’t always get everything right as far as it pertains to rules changes and I think they got this one right,” said Lobos coach Richard Pitino, referring to a policy shift that allows Division I programs to schedule one another for scrimmages and practices rather than lower-level opponents who don’t offer more of a challenge. “To be able to play a Division I opponent is phenomenal for us.” As expected, it wasn’t a thing of beauty.
The Lobos turned it over 25 times against a fouling, physical team that will again be among the nation’s leaders in fouls committed. UTEP’s 27 whistles doubled those of UNM, which made for a busy night at the free-throw line. While the Lobos hit just 5 of 23 shots from the 3-point range, their 36 tries from the charity stripe allowed them to play a more aggressive style at both ends of the floor.
That includes guard Tru Washington, a sophomore who appears to be entrenched as a starter alongside point guard Donovan Dent. The pair combined for 36 points, not to mention a dazzling transition alley-oop from Dent to Washington with five minutes left .