ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (KRQE) – They are off to their best Mountain West Conference start ever through 15 games. Richard Pitino’s UNM Lobos are on top of the league at 14-1 and would like to finish what they started. Their journey continues on the road Wednesday at Boise State. The Lobos beat the Broncos 84-65 back in January, but Pitino believes his team will get a stiffer challenge in the second meeting.
The Broncos had their four-game winning streak snapped on the road at San Diego last week to drop to 9-5 in league play and fifth place. “I mean they’re going to look at this game as getting back into the picture,” said UNM head coach Richard Pitino. “So, we got to be tough on the road. We played great versus them the first time. I mean, it was the best half of the year by far. But, we know it will be a totally different game the second time around.”
The Lobos will head into the matchup on an eight-game winning streak. UNM has won 14 of their last 15 games and has beaten the top teams in their conference. Despite all of those wins and an early season victory over UCLA, the Lobos can’t seem to crack the AP Top 25 list.
At the moment, the team doesn’t seem to care as they continue to chase success. “My honest opinion is that I don’t want to be ranked because whenever you get ranked you get relaxed and stuff,” said UNM center Nelly Junior Joseph. “The rankings don’t win the game, but no. I want to get ranked like toward the end of season so I can go into the tournament being ranked. That would be, like, perfect.”
The Lobos and Boise State have an 8 p.m. start on Wednesday. The game will be televised on CBS Sports Network.
