New Mexico men's basketball earns No. 11 seed in return to NCAA Tournament

Mar. 17—ALBUQUERQUE — A decade's wait is finally over.

Memphis, the Lobos are on their way.

The University of New Mexico's men's basketball team will play its first game in the NCAA Tournament since 2014 on Friday against the Clemson Tigers of the vaunted Atlantic Coast Conference at 1:10 p.m. in the FedEx Forum in Memphis, Tenn.

{p class="p1"}Amid the pomp and circumstance of Selection Sunday, UNM knew it had a reserved spot in the NCAA field after it won the Mountain West conference tournament Saturday, securing the Lobos the conference's automatic berth. All that remained to be learned Sunday was seeding, regional location and opponent, with New Mexico earning the No. 11 seed in the West portion of the bracket.

{p class="p1"}This UNM team was a mishmashed group of veterans and celebrated newcomers cobbled together by a name-brand coach who stirred the echoes this season and brought the passion for Lobos hoops out of its dormancy.

{p class="p1"}The group — led by 7-foot-tall center Sebastian Forsling carrying the team's cherished new trophy down the escalators at the Albuquerque International Sunport — returned home to a heroes' welcome Sunday morning from Las Vegas, Nev., less than 12 hours after becoming only the second team in the history of the conference's tournament to win the bracket as a No. 6 seed. Hundreds of Lobos fans greeted the team at the airport, chanting and singing as some players high-fived well-wishers and others recorded the moment on their phones.

Thousands more braved the rainy, 40-something temperatures outside to file into The Pit for that afternoon's NCAA Tournament Selection Show. Jaelen House was the first to arrive, wearing a baseball cap and sunglasses, clutching his Mountain West MVP trophy in both arms as he walked onto the floor with the band playing the school's fight song.

With the players situated near midcourt and the live CBS broadcast playing out on big screens around the arena, the Lobos saw their name plastered on the screen in the announcement of the West Region, where they'll face No. 6 Clemson in the opening round.

"Don't know much about them other than they're one of the schools that recruited me out of high school," said guard Jamal Mashburn Jr.

The moment, one Lobos fans have waited so long for, was broadcast to a national audience with coach Richard Pitino front and center. It will be his third trip to the NCAA Tournament in a dozen years as a head coach.

Getting there, however, is nothing new. The son of Hall of Fame coach Rick Pitino, Richard spent eight years of his youth living in Lexington, Ky., when his dad was coaching Kentucky.

"Emotional, extremely emotional," he said of the feelings he had when surrounded by so many fans in Las Vegas and upon the team's return to Albuquerque on Sunday morning. "Very similar fan base in my opinion, to Kentucky. I grew up around it. Kentucky was the type of fan base who'd be waiting at the airport for you when you'd be getting off the plane. They were charter flights, though; I need to remind [UNM athletic director] Eddie [Nuñez] of that."

Pitino said he hasn't had many opportunities to soak in everything that's happened the last few days. It's been a whirlwind of practices, games, team dinners and media obligations.

One of the few chances came Saturday night with his family in Las Vegas, Nev. That group included his brothers, his wife and kids.

"A lot of smiles, lot of tears," he said. "Just so much going on."

Lobos fans might see themselves as an extension of his inner circle. His son, Jack, for instance has become a bit of a celebrity the last year or two. A ball boy during home games, he became a favorite target of cameras panning the crowd during the Mountain West Tournament.

"With our fans, you can truly tell it means something to them, it really does," Pitino said. "I had people coming up to me crying, hugging me crying and wanting autographs. I mean, Jack signed like 30 autographs. My son, Jack. God's honest truth."

While there wasn't drama about the Lobos making the tournament, the suspense was certainly there as UNM's name wasn't revealed until the final portion of the West Region toward the end of the broadcast.

New Mexico is one of a record six teams from the Mountain West in the field of 68. Among them is Nevada, the team coached by Steve Alford and his longtime assistant Craig Neal, the last two head coaches to take UNM into the Big Dance.

{p class="p1"}The Lobos are joined in the West Region by Alford's Wolf Pack, the No. 10 seed that will face No. 7 Dayton in Salt Lake City. Should UNM beat Clemson and then win its next game against either No. 3 seed Baylor or No. 14 seed Colgate, the Lobos could face their former coach in the round of 16.

Colorado State and Boise State have been sent to Dayton, Ohio, for play-in games as 10 seeds. Boise State will face Colorado, and Colorado State gets Virginia.

San Diego State is the No. 5 seed in the East Region and will face Alabama-Birmingham in Spokane, Wash. Regular season Mountain West champion Utah State is the No. 8 seed in the Midwest and will face TCU in Indianapolis, with the winner potentially meeting No. 1 seed Purdue.

Selection committee chairman Charles McClelland said New Mexico was one of five teams that played its way into the dance by winning its conference tournament. Those five are the so-called "bid stealers" because they likely took the place of other potential at-large teams like Indiana State, the highest-ranked NET team (No. 29 as of Sunday) to not make the tournament.

McClelland implied the Lobos would have been left on the outside looking in had they not won four games in four days in the Mountain West Tournament.

"I don't care," Pitino said. "I'm just happy to be in the NCAA Tournament. I have no reaction. We earned it, we won 26 games, we won the conference tournament and we're fired up to play Clemson."

After last season's run by San Diego State to the national championship game, it left every team — and every fan base — asking "why not us?" That's especially true of the Lobos, a team that has already been installed as a 2.5-point favorite to beat Clemson.

The Lobos will fly to Memphis on Wednesday, a team spokesman said.