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New Mexico Basketball To End Season Early?
Lobos season is in limbo.
Contact/Follow @JeremyMauss & @MWCwire
San Diego State, UNM series canceled
The New Mexico basketball team is on the verge of ending play for the rest of the 2021 season. There is no official word from the Mountain West or New Mexico but it seems to be trending that way, per Geoff Grammer of the Albuquerque Journal.
There are no COVID-19 positive issues with the Lobos program and the Wednesday and Friday series vs. San Diego State in Lubbock, Texas, has been called off from the New Mexico side of things. With this not being a COVID-19 issue, the games might be counted as forfeit but that has not yet been decided what the result will end up being.
There have already been players who have opted out for this season from the Lobos including Nolan Dorsey, and at least two more according to Grammer. The shocking report is that those unnamed players may have been urged to opt-out.
Others who opted out are senior guard Zane Martin who transferred to Towson prior to the fall semester starting and, during this season, senior guard Keith McGee.
https://twitter.com/NolanDorsey3/status/1355555318433017856
The Lobos program has bounced around all season long with games in various cities in Texas and playing random games in Phoenix. This has to be taking a toll on these players and coaches, and head coach Paul Weir said as much when asked about trying to reschedule games to give his players some type of break but has been unsuccessful.
“I have not been very successful at those. So where and when the San Diego State game is played, I think we’re still working on,” Weir said. “We obviously have to speed that up. I’ve been kind of trying to do some things that have been the best interest of our team from a physical and mental health perspective but haven’t been able to really get anybody else to budge on that.”
Not being able to stay at home and have a regular college life is very difficult and not fair for these athletes to perform on the court for the masses on television so that the Lobos can earn television revenue.
Having just eight scholarship players available makes playing and even practicing basketball is tough for this team to continue through the season.
No one would blame New Mexico to just pack in and get back to their lives, or as normal as possible, and focus on rest and preparing for next season when, hopefully, things are more normal.
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