After a wild finish in a 91-90 win over UNLV on Sunday afternoon, the Lobos look to build on their three-game winning streak as they head North to Ft. Collins on Wednesday to take on a struggling Colorado State team fraught with coaching turmoil and a lengthy losing streak.
Head coach Larry Eustachy has agreed to formally step down as head coach of the Rams amid an investigation by the University regarding the “climate” of the basketball program and Eustachy’s treatment of players.
Eustachy ends his six-year run at Colorado State with a 122-79 record. The Former Idaho and Southern Mississippi coach agreed to restructure his remaining contract to allow the school to pay him three $750,000 installments over the next two years.
Second-year assistant coach Jase Herl will act as an interim head coach for the final two games of the regular season. Assistant head coach Steve Barnes initially took over the lead for the program, but he too was suspended with pay by the school after the investigation by school officials determined that Barnes’ behavior was similar to Eustachy.
Herl and the Rams, losers of their last three games and ten of their previous 11, will have challenging task slowing down a Lobo team that defeated the UNLV Rebels on Saturday for their third straight victory. UNM has been lights out offensively over the past two games, combining to score 210 points against Wyoming on the road and UNLV at home.
Although the winning streak by the Lobos has been a team effort, the re-emergence of Sam Logwood as a scoring threat has been a catalyst for the team’s success. Logwood scored 24 points against the Cowboys and 17 points on Sunday against the Rebels, along with ten rebounds for his first double-double of the season.
2017-18 has been a final trying season for the senior from Indianapolis, as off-court personal issues and a shoulder injury kept the former starter out of the lineup for the month of January.
Junior guard Prentiss Nixon will need to have another big game like the 27-point performance he delivered against Nevada on Sunday if the Rams have any shot at keeping pace with the high-scoring Lobos. Nixon leads the Rams in scoring this season with 15.7 points per game, although Bolingbrook, IL, native managed to score just 26 points combined his previous five games.
Tipoff is set for 7:00 pm, with television coverage provided by AT&T SportsNet/Root.