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The 2021-22 New Mexico Lobos basketball schedule is almost ready for release. This past week, the Mountain West Conference released the conference schedules for all 11 schools. Combine that with a report that UNM has just one more non-conference date to fill in its 13-game non-conference schedule, and the entirety of this season’s schedule should be out soon.
The Outlook
The Lobos will play 31 regular season games in Richard Pitino’s first year as head coach. Of the 13 non-conference games that the Lobos have on the slate, 12 of them have been filled. New Mexico will play a home and home with New Mexico State this season. UNM will also pay a visit to Boulder to take on Colorado, who is paying the Lobos $80,000 for the visit. New Mexico will also take on SMU in The Pit.
Conference Slate
New Mexico will open up their 18-game MWC play on December 28th when Colorado State pays a visit to The Pit. The Lobos will then pay former head coach Steve Alford a visit on New Year’s Day when they play Nevada in Reno, however that will be the only time UNM and Nevada square off all season.
Some key home games that Lobo fans will of course be looking forward to will be January 15th when San Diego State comes to town; Boise State comes to Albuquerque on February 8th, and Senior Night will be March 5th when the Lobos take on UNLV.
Schedule Right Now
The Lobos and New Mexico State still need to agree on the dates of their two contests, and as mentioned before, the Lobos still need to fill one more non-conference game, and that one is a road contest.
Nov 10th……Florida Atlantic
Nov 13th……@ Colorado
Nov 15th……Grambling
Nov 22nd……Western New Mexico
Nov 25th-26th….Las Vegas Classic (Teams taking part are UNM, Towson, Alabama-Birmingham and San Francisco)
Dec 9th……Denver
Dec 12th……UTEP
Dec 19th……SMU
Dec 21st……Norfolk State
TBD……New Mexico State
TBD……@ New Mexico State
TBD……@ TBD
Dec 28th……Colorado State
Jan 1st……@ Nevada
Jan 8th……Utah State
Jan 11th……@ UNLV
Jan 15th……San Diego State
Jan 18th……@ Colorado State
Jan 22nd……@ Wyoming
Jan 25th……Fresno State
Jan 29th……San Jose State
Feb 1st……@ San Diego State
Feb 5th……@ Air Force
Feb 8th……Boise State
Feb 15th……Wyoming
Feb 19th……@ San Jose State
Feb 22nd……@ Utah State
Feb 26th……Air Force
Mar 1st……@ Fresno State
Mar 5th……UNLV
Thoughts
Yes, Lobo fans will look at the home slate in the non-conference schedule and once again be disappointed with no big names outside of the regional rivals in UTEP and NMSU. However, this is a good slate of teams to get the newer Lobos accustomed to Pitino’s style of coaching without getting ran out of the building.
I like the mix of teams that are regional outside of the UTEP and NMSU games. The Colorado game is a money game, one the Lobos will no doubt be huge underdogs in. The game with Denver is good to see and could turn into a regional rivalry. SMU will be a really good test for UNM as well.
Overall, this schedule may not have any standout names that casual basketball fans will clamor to see, but it is a solid schedule for Richard Pitino’s opening campaign and a nice welcome back to The Pit for this season.