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New Mexico’s MBB 2021-22 Schedule

Almost full

NCAA Basketball: Minnesota at Iowa Jeffrey Becker-USA TODAY Sports

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.