It must be mid-March. It has to be because the passion from Lobo basketball fans this week was off the charts; the kind of passion reserved (in most place) for March-Madness. UNM opened their season with an exhibition game…. an EXHIBITION game… against Colorado State-Pueblo, and only beat the Thunderwolves by 12 points. The horror! Guard Cullen Neal, playing in his first game since last November when an ankle injury cut short his season, had 8 turnovers. He also scored 33 points. I love the passion that Lobo fan has for basketball. It is truly what makes this program so special. And I realize passion works both ways. I believe this is my 20th season around Lobo basketball and I can honestly say I have never heard as intense reaction after an exhibition game as we heard this week. I’m not here to tell you that you are wrong…or right for that matter. I will never tell you how to be a fan. I do think it is very easy to over-react to an exhibition game when you have a lot of guys who have never played together before, and a lot of guys who have never played Division-1 college basketball before, all on the floor together. The Lobos may or may not have a great season, I really don’t have a great feel on that yet. But I do know they will look a lot different than they did in their first exhibition against CSUP…a game that won’t count in their record, and most of you won’t even remember next month.
