Lobos Showing some Swagger

Last season, The New Mexico Lobos men basketball team resurrected from the dead with a 24-9 record. They received a NIT invitation, where they loss to the California Golden Bears in the first round. Nonetheless, a good season.

Former Lobo J.R. Giddens led the Lobos with 16.3 ppg and 8.8 rpg last season, jump-starting his journey into the NBA. He was co-player of the year in the Mountain West Conference, and was the catalyst during the team's success.

At the beginning of the 2008-09 season, the Lobos looked vulnerable. J.R. Giddens wasn't there anymore, and it showed. The Lobos were lacking a go-to guy, and nobody looked like they wanted the job. Close games in Creighton, at the Cancun Challenge in Mexico, and at home against VCU exploited the Lobos' lack of leadership. Close games at San Diego State, UNLV, and Utah dropped the Lobos to fourth place in the Mountain West satndings heading into the halfway mark. The Lobos seemed to come up short in every big game.

It wasn't until New Mexico hosted the Runnin' Rebels of UNLV on the Feb. 7, that Lobo fans finally got a glimpse of a leader.

The Lobos were down at half, and fifth year player Tony Danridge had only taken one shot. New Mexico fans knew Danridge had take-over potential, especially since he was the most athletic and high-flying jumper on the team, probably in the league.

Lobos Head Coach Steve Alford knew his team wouldn't win unless Danridge stepped up.

"Tony was challenged the most at halftime and he responded." Alford said. "We told Tony that if he wasn't going to shoot, we weren't going to win."

Danridge went 9-12 from the field and hit the tying shot with 39 seconds left to send the game into overtime. He finished with 26 points and nine rebounds to lead the Lobos to a 73-69 victory.
It's what the team needed. It was the missing piece to the puzzle. Finally, Danridge made his mark on the team as a leader. Now he has to keep it consistent. Everybody is expecting the same determination to win that they saw from him against UNLV.

His performance might be his curse, or it might be his break-out game. Fan's expectations for Danridge are high. If the Lobos perform well in the rest of the season, the UNLV game will be marked as the game where the team unified.

Danridge doesn't need to be J.R. Giddens, he just needs to be a leader.