Jake Hall isn’t a massive player.
But his gravitational pull might be one of the stronger ones in college basketball this season.
And it’s that gravity — a term the Lobos use on occasion to refer to the way defenses are drawn to the 6-foot-4 guard even when he doesn’t have the ball — that the UNM offense is banking on this season every bit as much as Hall’s scoring itself.
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“Playing with Jake is great because the other team is so worried about him not getting a shot off,” said UNM forward Tunde Vahlberg Fasasi, whose Lobos host Northern Arizona at 4 p.m. Saturday in the Pit.
“So when he goes to come off a screen or set a screen, everyone’s looking at him, which makes it easier for me or for someone else to maybe come off that screen and be open.”
In Monday’s 100-60 blowout of visiting Utah Tech, the gravity of the situation was on full display.
While the first half wasn’t crisp for UNM — they were tied with the Trailblazers 33-33 with just over a minute left in the first half — the second half things started to open up.
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And while Eric Olen points primarily to the defense for the reason why, there’s also some credence to that gravity Hall was creating.
In the first half, Hall’s offense carried the Lobos as he scored 19 of his 30 points in the opening 20 minutes while the next leading Lobos scorer (Uriah Tenette) had just seven points.
In the second half, as the Utah Tech defense tried make things more difficult on Hall to get shots off, things began opening up for others and the Lobos offense was even more on point with Hall scoring just 11 in the half while three other Lobos scored between eight and 15 points (Vahlberg Fasasi scored 15 of his 17 after the break as those Utah Tech defenders were cheating toward Hall, creating space elsewhere on the court.
It’s all by design for Eric Olen and assistant coach Tank Tankelewicz, who has a heavy hand in the offensive game planning.
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“Gravity, we use that to describe kind of the spacing on the floor for the defense,” Olen explained. “If you’re guarding Jake, you’re probably going to be a little closer to him because otherwise he might shoot it, right? … So, if your typical defensive principles have you ‘X’ far away from Jake when you have that specific matchup, you’re going to be closer, right? So that’s the gravity of him pulling his defender closer to him and away from the ball. …”
“It’s primarily his defender, … but just the reaction of the defense towards him because of the threat of his shooting, that’s kind of the concept.”
Oh, that defense, though
While there was some gravity to it all, the defense was actually what Olen thought Monday’s second half onslaught — 62-27 in the final 20 minutes — was primarily about.
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UNM had 17 points off turnovers in the second half compared to six in the opening 20 minutes. And the messaging from the coaches continues to be about focusing on that side of the ball when looking for improvement.
“We’re talking a lot about starting with a defensive mindset, developing our defensive identity because we feel like if we can do a good job there we feel like offense is in a pretty good place. We have a lot of guys who can put the ball in the basket, who just kind of naturally score efficiently,” said Olen. “We feel like maybe the lowest hanging fruit for us in terms of our short term progress is the defensive end.”
Checking in
Rytis Petraitis appears headed toward his fourth-consecutive missed game with what Olen is still saying isn’t considered a major, long-term injury, but is one that has lingered longer than first thought.
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“Rytis is questionable to doubtful for tomorrow,” Olen said Friday.
Olen did say he’s getting close and “doing more activity in practice” recently, just now a process not only to “get the injury repaired, but also, (he’s) been out, we’ve got to get him back in the flow.”
Transfer forward Imran Suljanovic missed Monday’s game with lower leg tendinitis, but has been practicing and will be available Saturday, Olen said.
On Fedi
Asked Friday by 101.7 FM, will Federico Grani see more minutes after playing well the past couple games — the last exhibition and on Monday night — Olen had a big smile and a quick answer.
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“Yeah, if he quits fouling.”
Grani, the 23-year-old from Italy, had six points and seven rebounds but was limited Monday night to 12 minutes, 22 seconds on the court.
Geoff Grammer is the Sports Editor of the Journal, a podcaster, columnist and covers UNM Lobos basketball, among other things. Reach him at ggrammer@abqjournal.com or follow him on Twitter (X) @GeoffGrammer.
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