Makuach Maluach (10) blows past Colorado State’s Kris Martin for a bucket in this March 2, 2019 game. Maluach says that as a senior this coming season, he “can’t be quiet anymore.” (Roberto E. Rosales/Albuquerque Journal)
There is no ceremonial passing of the torch in college basketball.
Seasons end, seniors and transfers move on – with more regularity now than ever before. The identity of teams and leadership within a locker room begins its annual shift each spring, often with seniors leading workouts and setting the tone.
But for this year’s crop of players, including those on the UNM men’s team, the new normal with stay-at-home orders and campus closures due to COVID-19 restrictions has slowed the team’s normal, natural spring evolution.
“We’ve got a lot of new faces coming in,” said Lobo senior-to-be Keith McGee, the 6-foot-3 third year guard who is spending his spring back home in Rochester, New York.
UNM’s Keith McGee, shown dunking against Wyoming in 2019, was hoping to get together with the new players for 2020-21. But the coronavirus worldwide public health concern has gotten in the way of that. (Jim Thompson/Albuquerque Journal)
“We’ve got pretty much a whole new team for us, so there’s a lot of work we wanted to get done, and this is just in the way.”
Sure, there are Zoom meetings with coaches and trainers, the usual late-night online video game as if they were back playing them in their Lobo Village apartments in Albuquerque. But teams aren’t able to get in the gym now to start building their chemistry together.
For the Lobos, this was supposed to be the time their three rising seniors – Makuach Maluach, Zane Martin and McGee – were to be getting their chance to put their stamps on the program that is still longing to return to a championship level in the Mountain West Conference.
Maluach, entering his fourth season with UNM, and McGee, entering his third after spending his freshman season in junior college, joined the Journal on Tuesday afternoon for a Zoom conference call and podcast interview (Podcast HERE). They talked about the frustrations of not yet being with their team ahead of their final seasons in college and what they see their roles are on the 2020-21 Lobos. Martin was unavailable to join his fellow seniors on the call.
“Last year, I don’t think I was a good leader at all,” said Maluach, the unassuming 6-7 Sudan-born wing who hasn’t been able to go home to Australia this spring to visit family due to difficulties with international travel restrictions.
“I can’t be quiet anymore. I’ve got to get out of my comfort zone and go at guys. … Because there’s no time.
“The last three years, I thought I could sit back and let the other guys lead, but now I’m in my last year. I’ve just got to go out there and lead and tell people what it is – get people to the gym and work hard, because we haven’t won anything.”
The Lobos have three departing seniors (JaQuan Lyle, Corey Manigault and Carlton Bragg) and four players (Drue Drinnon, who never played this past season, Vante Hendrix and J.J. Caldwell, who each played fewer than 20 games, and Arkansas-bound Vance Jackson) transferring or wanting to transfer.
There are two open scholarships, which could end up adding another senior or two by way of a graduate transfer. Nevertheless, the Lobo seniors on the roster now know it will be up to them to set the offseason tone and right the program’s ship at long last.
While both seniors extolled the virtues of several younger Lobos, McGee suggested it might be his fellow senior, Martin, who, despite having played in every game this past season, could be the biggest surprise for UNM fans.
“I still feel like people haven’t seen what Zane can really do,” McGee said. “I still feel like we haven’t let him off the leash yet. … I know for a fact he can control a game – take full control of a game.”
But for now, it’s about being patient for the Lobo seniors, even as the frustration, and boredom, mount.
“It’s hard,” said Maluach. “We had so many goals after the season that we wanted to accomplish before next season started, but there’s nothing you can do right now. You just have to stay home and stay safe for the betterment of everyone else. You can’t be selfish during this time. … Right now you just have to stay safe and stay home.”
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Lobo hoops seniors are eager to bring team together - Albuquerque Journal
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