When Cullen Neal injured his ankle during the third game this past year it altered the New Mexico Lobos season. A team of mostly unproven players was relaying on Neal to handle the ball and provide out side shooting and scoring. The Lobos struggled all year and even though they may not have won the conference with Neal they would have finished above .500 as some of the games New Mexico lost this year was due to the teams inability to score at critical time during the game.
When Neal was initially injured it was believed that he would be out until mid-season but because head coach Craig Neal felt he would not be at 100 percent all season, so they made the decision to shut Cullen down and apply for the medical hardship. The hardship waivers are approved by the conference and are given to players that playing less than 30 percent of their teams games. A player applying for a hardship cannot have played in a game during the second half of the season.
Neal will now be a sophomore heading in to the season and he joins Elijah Brown, Xavier Adams, and Sam Logwood who are all members of the Lobos sophomore class.