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Whose House? Viejas Arena awaits rematch with UNM Lobos and their polarizing point guard

geoff grammer, albuquerque journal, n.m.
·6 min read

Feb. 15—Thirty-five games, 754 days.

That's how long it's been since any team not wearing a New Mexico Lobos uniform walked out of Viejas Arena with a win over the San Diego State Aztecs

But while the memory of that game — the rare SDSU home loss — coupled with an 18-point loss in the Pit earlier this season might normally be more than enough to get the sold-out arena up for a game, there is something else that has fans on the Mesa foaming at the mouth for Friday night's UNM-SDSU Mountain West matchup.

Or someone else.

His uniform may be cherry and silver on Friday night, but the man of the hour will be the one wearing the black hat. Jaelen House is public enemy No. 1 for 10 of 11 Mountain West fan bases, and he'll be the guest of honor this trip for 12,414 anxious fans and the infamous student section known as "The Show", which sits next to the visiting bench .

"Be careful what you wish for," San Diego State coach Brian Dutcher said this week when a reporter asked him about fans wanting another crack at House. "We can't fall into that trap. He's gonna be who he is as a player. He's always been that way. We just have to try to contain him, do a good job taking care of the ball when he's guarding the ball and just play Aztec basketball and hopefully that will be good enough to impact him and his ability on the floor."

House on the basketball court — a night-and-day turnaround from he's off it — soaked in the cascade of boos that poured down upon him in Viejas Arena late in last year's 76-67 Lobos win over SDSU like he was a heel in a well-scripted WWE main event.

"That's what it's got to be like, though," House told the Journal last year, when the Viejas Arena fans' hate of him and his big performance in light of it was brought up in a postgame interview. "I don't like them, they don't like me. ... I don't know what it is. I like big-time moments."

In addition to House's 29 points, 4 steals and one technical foul (for talking with fans sitting courtside during the game) in last year's win in Viejas Arena, the speedy 6-foot guard and pest of a defender also went off for 26 points, 5 assists, 3 steals (and a technical foul) in UNM's 18-point win over the Aztecs in Albuquerque last month.

"Oh, he's so dynamic. He affects the game at both ends of the floor," Dutcher said. "Some guys usually only affect it at one end. They're either great defenders and then they're okay offensive players, or they're great offensive players just okay on defense. But he impacts the game on both ends."

There will be more than House in the game, of course. And the Lobos and Aztecs (19-6, 8-4 MW) are in a tie for second place in a stacked Mountain West championship race that is currently being led by Utah State (8-3 MW), which has lost to both SDSU and UNM already this season.

DENT STATUS: Donovan Dent, the lobo sophomore who sprained his ankle on the final play of Tuesday's win at Nevada, will be a game time decision Friday night in San Diego, the team says.

MAN OF STEAL: House had just one steal in Tuesday night's win at Nevada, but it was a big one for milestone's sake. It was his 204th steal in under three full seasons in a UNM uniform, passing Lobo legend and current radio analyst Hunter Greene for No. 2 all-time.

UNM career steals leaders:

1. Kelvin Scarborough (1984-87) — 235

2. Jaelen House (2022-present) — 204

3. Hunter Greene (1984-88) — 203

4. Phil Smith (1981-84) — 197

5. Kendall Williams (2010-14) — 186

House is also the NCAA's active leader in career steals with 276 (204 at UNM, 72 at Arizona State).

In Mountain West games, his 108 steals are tied with UNLV's Wink Adams (2005-09) for fourth all-time. The career leader for most steals in Mountain West games is BYU's Jackson Emery, who had 121 in league games in 2005 and then 2008-11. Emery's 249 career steals at BYU are the most career steals while playing for a Mountain West team — a number House has passed in his college career. It won't count for that league record, however, unless House gets there in UNM-only numbers.

MEN OF STEAL: UNM leads the Mountain West in steals, both in the regular season (9.44 per game to second-place SDSU at 7.56 per game) and in league games (8.83 per MW game to second-place CSU and SDSU, tied at 7.0 per game).

In addition to House being the NCAA's active steals leader, he is one of three Lobos in the top four spots in the league's steal standings:

1. Jaelen House, UNM (2.50/game)

2. Tru Washington, UNM (1.75/game)

3. Luis Rodriguez, UNLV (1.74/game)

4. Donovan Dent, UNM (1.58/game)

5. Darius Brown II, Utah State (1.56/game)

STEAL THE ONE?: So, now that all this steal talk is out of the way, maybe it should be pointed out that the Lobos aren't exactly stealing the ball like they were just a couple of weeks ago.

UNM has had double-digit steals in 10 games this season, two off the program record of 12 set in both the 2019-20 and 2004-05 seasons.

The 1977-78 Lobos had 11.

But teams have adjusted to the Lobos' steal-happy ways of late and while UNM got all 10 of its double-digit steal games in a 13-game flurry between Dec. 2 (a 44-point win over in-state rival New Mexico State) and Jan. 24 (a 20-point road win at San Jose State), the Lobos have now gone five games where steals were kept to single digits.

In fact, over the past four games — a pair of home losses to Boise State and UNLV and a pair of road wins at Wyoming and Nevada — the Lobos are averaging just 6.0 steals per game.

Against SDSU in the Jan. 13 win in the Pit, the Lobos had eight steals and scored 16 points off of 13 Aztecs turnovers.