November 30, 2006
Thanks to all of our fans that turned out to support our men's basketball team on Tuesday night against our rival, New Mexico State. It was a great atmosphere for college basketball and a great crowd. I know our coaches and players were thrilled and pumped to see a sellout crowd, the first since the 2004-05 season. It certainly makes a difference and definitely impacts the game. The Pit is the best home court advantage in the country when our fans are out in force supporting the LOBOS!
A special note of thanks goes to our student body. We had over 2200 students in attendance on Tuesday night. The student turnout for this game was incredible and the vocal support throughout the game helped will the Lobos to victory. The Department of Athletics is appreciative of how our student body has rallied around the men's team and has supported the decision of free admission for our students. A special note of appreciation to the Associated Students of the University of New Mexico (ASUNM) for helping to initiate and support this policy change.
I would like to challenge our students to continue to make a difference, create that special atmosphere that has made the Pit famous, but to do this without the use of profanity and in the spirit of good sportsmanship. The use of profanity and the throwing of objects on the court or at the visiting team have no place in college athletics.
Finally, I would remind all Lobo fans that Round 2 of the rivalry occurs Saturday night at The Pit with the Lobo women's basketball team taking on the Aggies. Ticket sales have been strong and we are expecting a large crowd. A student section has been created for the women with over 700 student tickets already distributed for this game. We hope to see you Saturday night at The Pit when the women aim for a clean sweep of the Aggies at The Pit.
November 27, 2006
With the football team beating SDSU and the Lobos accepting a bowl bid to the inaugural New Mexico Bowl, congratulations are in order for Coach Long and the team. We have come a long way since the opening game loss to Portland State and have become a very solid and competitive team. Coach Long and his staff are to be commended for their development and maturation of this young team. While young and going through some growing pains, this team was competitive all year and played with great heart. With so few seniors starting, the future looks very promising.
I want to challenge all Lobo fans to come out and support the New Mexico Bowl and Lobo football. The New Mexico Bowl is a great opportunity for the Lobos to play on national TV on Saturday afternoon in our own stadium, to showcase the state of New Mexico and the city of Albuquerque and to provide our young football program with two weeks of additional practice and development.
Governor Bill Richardson and the state of New Mexico showed tremendous leadership in supporting this bowl as an economic development tool for the state and an opportunity to showcase all that is great here in New Mexico. We need all college football fans and Lobo fans to get behind this wonderful event and support our city, state and football program. Tickets are on sale now in our ticket office. You can click here to order online or call the UNM Ticket Office at (505) 925-LOBO.
November 20, 2006
This is a busy week for UNM athletics. Sr. Timmie Murphy will be competing in the women's NCAA Cross Country Championships on Monday, the men's basketball team takes on Kansas State on Tuesday night at 6:00 p.m. (M.S.T.), women's volleyball is competing at the MWC Championships in Las Vegas, women's basketball will be hosting the AmeriSuites Midtown Thanksgiving Tournament Friday and Saturday and the football team will be hosting San Diego State on Saturday at 12:30 p.m. (M.S.T.).
As our fall sports wrap up competition and our winter sports jump into competition, I want to encourage all of our Lobo fans to get behind our programs and come out and support our teams. Student turnout for men's basketball has been impressive. We are averaging over 1,100 students per game, a huge increase in attendance over last year. The spirit and enthusiasm generated by the students has been noticed and is helping to create that home court advantage for which The Pit is famous.
November 13, 2006
Friday night was a special night as the men's team celebrated the 40th anniversary of The Pit in front of over 15,000 with a win over ACU. A number of folks deserve special mention. To our fans that came out in large numbers, thank you. It has the making of a very special year at The Pit and we appreciate your support. Our students were there, over 1000 strong. We need you all year long and it is great to see the positive response to the free admission. It was a thrill for me to meet the members of the 66 team and the King family that were back to help us celebrate the evening. I also want to acknowledge all of the athletics department staff and members of the 40th anniversary committee that helped make this a memorable evening for everyone. A special thanks goes to Brad Hutchins, Darren Dunn, Joe Weiss, Greg Remington, Travis Comer, and Scott Dotson.
November 8, 2006
The story on Tuesday in the Albuquerque Journal regarding the athletic department's facility master planning exercise marks the first step in what will be a major emphasis in improving our athletic facilities. We have good facilities but we need great facilities to be a top 25 program and the premier program in the Mountain West Conference. A focused plan that identifies all of our needs, including sighting of current projects, potential future projects/renovations, cost of future projects, space allocation, parking, traffic, landscaping, signage, exterior aesthetics, infrastructure needs and relationships with campus initiatives, is the critical starting point to creating dynamic athletic facilities.
Congratulations are in order to Coach Fishbein and the men's soccer program on winning another conference championship. This is a tremendous accomplishment and the team and coaches deserve our praise. Coach Fishbein's development of our soccer program into a national power is the role model for other Lobo teams to emulate. We play to win and nobody has done a better job of elevating a program to a consistently high national level than Coach Fishbein.
At the end of the day, winning, and winning championships, is incredibly important and is a viable measure of our success. To be the best in the MWC we need to win championships.
November 7, 2006
As the football season heads into the home stretch and the basketball seasons are about to start, I have received an increasing amount of feedback on the mtn., our new MWC Regional Sports Network. Clearly and understandably there is some frustration among Lobo fans. The concern seems centered on the lack of some football games being televised, the availability of the network, and the absence of distribution on satellite.
I believe the network will ultimately prove to be a great asset for our league. We were ahead of the curve in creating the first all sports network dedicated to a single conference. Building a network from scratch has proven to be challenging and we are undoubtedly experiencing some growing pains. As frustrating as it is for fans, I think it is important to recognize that the network is a work in progress. What we are witnessing now is far from the finished product and it will only get better as we create more programming and increase the distributions outlets. In the end, we will have more games on more TV's in more markets than ever before.
We recognize that deals with DISH NETWORK and DIRECT TV are critical to the long-term success of the network and we are working hard at reaching agreements with both major satellite providers. Negotiations have picked up and we are optimistic at least one deal will be done in the very near future.
Video streaming of our games not televised is an important component of the overall CSTV deal. Rest assured we are working aggressively to see that all non-televised TV games will be video streamed on golobos.com.
Stay tuned and we will keep Lobo fans posted as we know the broadcast situation is weighing heavily on the minds of all LOBO fans.
