2008–09 New Mexico Lobos men's basketball team

2008–09 New Mexico Lobos men's basketball
Mountain West Regular Season Co–Champions
2009 NIT, Second Round
Conference	Mountain West Conference
2008–09 record	22–12 (12–4 Mountain West)
Head coach	Steve Alford (2nd Year)
Assistant coach	Craig Neal (2nd Year)
Assistant coach	Wyking Jones
Assistant coach	Ryan Miller
Home arena	The Pit, University Arena

	Conf			Overall
2008-09 Mountain West Conference Men's Basketball Standings
Team (Rank)	W	L	PCT	W	L	PCT
BYU	12	4	.750	25	8	.756
#25 Utah	12	4	.750	24	10	.706
New Mexico	12	4	.750	22	12	.647
San Diego State	11	5	.688	26	10	.722
UNLV	9	7	.563	21	11	.656
Wyoming	7	9	.438	19	14	.576
TCU	5	11	.313	14	17	.452
Colorado State	4	12	.250	9	22	.290
Air Force	0	16	.000	10	21	.323
Rankings from AP Poll

The 2008–09 Division I University of New Mexico Lobos men's basketball team represented the University of New Mexico as a member of the Mountain West Conference. The Lobos were coached by second-year head coach Steve Alford and played their home games at the University Arena, also known as "The Pit", in Albuquerque, New Mexico.

The Lobos finished the season 22–12, 12–4 in Mountain West play. They were Co–Champions of the Mountain West Conference with Utah and BYU. They were defeated by Wyoming in the semifinals of the 2009 Mountain West Conference Men's Basketball Tournament. They invited of the 2009 National Invitation Tournament. They defeated Nebraska before losing to Notre Dame in the second round.

Dion Williams became a successful and popular Youtube gamer after his season with the New Mexico Lobos. He goes by the name iMAVERIQ for his sports gaming channel, and iMAV3RIQ for random games he plays (SSB4, Monstrum, H1Z1, Battlefield: Hardline, etc. He also plays alongside his little brother Trent, who is now 13. He plays with his wife Jasmin as well. On his iMAVERIQ channel, he has over 160,000 subscribers. He has 3 daughters who's names are lyric Lyvelle and Lyree. He is a Christian man, and, compared to his older videos, does not swear much and has become a role model for hundreds and thousands Worldwide. His amazing sense of humor also attracts many people. His motto? G1GB (God first, God bless). Check out his theme song made by Flammy Marciano. #G1GB. Dion Williams has gone on to become a very inspiring man after his time with the lobos basketball team.

Roster

**2008–09 Roster**
Name	Number	Pos.	Height	Weight	Year	Hometown	High School/Last College
A.J. Hardeman	00	F	6' 8"	225	Freshman	Del Valle, Texas	Del Valle HS
Jonathan Willis	2	G	6' 6"	185	Sophomore	Carson, California	Mayfield HS
Dion Williams	4	G	5' 11"	165	Freshman	Albuquerque, New Mexico	Willow Canyon HS
Dairese Gary	5	G	6' 1"	205	Sophomore	Elkhart, Indiana	Concord HS
Nate Garth	11	G	6' 2"	180	Freshman	Sacramento, California	Hamilton HS
Will Brown	15	F	6' 9"	225	Freshman	Dallas, Texas	Woodrow Wilson HS
Phillip McDonald	23	G	6' 5"	200	Freshman	Cypress, Texas	Cypress Springs HS
Román Martínez	30	F	6' 6"	185	Sophomore	El Paso, Texas	Montwood HS
Tony Danridge	32	G/F	6' 5"	215	Senior	San Bernardino, California	Cajon HS
Chad Toppert	33	G	6' 7"	215	Senior	Albuquerque, New Mexico	Academy HS
Chris Johansen	40	G	6' 4"	190	Freshman	Albuquerque, New Mexico	St. Pius X HS
Kem Nweke	42	C	6' 10"	265	Freshman	Missouri City, Texas	Thurgood Marshall HS
Daniel Faris	53	F	6' 9"	245	Senior	Albuquerque, New Mexico	Eldorado HS

Lobo Coach Steve Alford

Rankings

Main article: 2009–10 NCAA Division I men's basketball rankings

Ranking Movement
**Legend:** ██ Increase in ranking. ██ Decrease in ranking. ██ Not ranked the previous week.
Poll	Pre	Wk 1	Wk 2	Wk 3	Wk 4	Wk 5	Wk 6	Wk 7	Wk 8	Wk 9	Wk 10	Wk 11	Wk 12	Wk 13	Wk 14	Wk 15	Wk 16	Wk 17	Wk 18	Final
AP	NR	NR	NR	NR	NR									NR	NR	NR	NR	NR	RV
Coaches	NR	NR	NR	NR	NR									NR	NR	NR	NR	NR	NR

2008–2009 Schedule

Date	Opponent^#	Result	Record	Site (Attendance)
Exhibition
11/08/2008*	Western New Mexico	W 88–59	–	University Arena (11,658)
Regular season
11/14/2008*	SE Missouri State	W 102–59	1–0	University Arena (13,031)
11/16/2008*	at Creighton	L 75–82	1–1	Qwest Center Omaha (16,107)
11/20/2008*	Grambling State (Cancún Challenge)	W 96–50	2–1	University Arena (12,066)
11/22/2008*	UCF (Cancún Challenge)	L 71–72	2–2	University Arena (12,707)
11/24/2008*	Cal State Northridge	W 85–74	3–2	University Arena (12,101)
11/29/2008*	vs. VCU (Cancún Challenge Semifinals)	L 55–67	3–3	Aventura Spa Palace (213)
11/30/2008*	vs. Drake (Cancún Challenge 3rd place game)	L 62–68	3–4	Aventura Spa Palace (201)
12/06/2008*	Southern Miss	W 60–58	4–4	University Arena (12,465)
12/10/2008*	at San Diego	W 57–54	5–4	Jenny Craig Pavilion (2,034)
12/13/2008*	Ole Miss	W 103–70	6–4	University Arena (13,341)
12/17/2008*	Oral Roberts	W 66–63	7–4	University Arena (13,358)
12/20/2008*	at Texas Tech	L 78–86	7–5	United Spirit Arena (8,425)
12/23/2008*	New Mexico State (Rio Grande Rivalry)	W 76–62	8–5	University Arena (17,197)
12/30/2008*	at New Mexico State (Rio Grande Rivalry)	W 68–66	9–5	Pan American Center (10,285)
01/03/2009	at UNLV	L 58–60	9–6 (0–1)	Thomas & Mack Center (14,189)
01/06/2009*	UTEP	L 60–73	9–7	University Arena (13,713)
01/10/2009	Air Force	W 78–53	10–7 (1–1)	University Arena (15,212)
01/17/2009	BYU	W 81–62	11–7 (2–1)	University Arena (15,277)
01/21/2009	at San Diego State	L 76–81	11–8 (2–2)	Cox Arena (8,001)
01/24/2009	at TCU	W 69–52	12–8 (3–2)	Daniel–Meyer Coliseum (5,590)
01/28/2009	Colorado State	W 68–50	13–8 (4–2)	University Arena (13,157)
01/31/2009	at Utah	L 68–69	13–9 (4–3)	Jon M. Huntsman Center (9,676)
02/03/2009	Wyoming	W 86–57	14–9 (5–3)	University Arena (13,081)
02/07/2009	UNLV	W 73–69 ^OT	15–9 (6–3)	University Arena (17,407)
02/11/2009	at Air Force	W 76–66	16–9 (7–3)	Clune Arena (1,874)
02/17/2009	at BYU	L 62–73	16–10 (7–4)	Marriott Center (12,911)
02/21/2009	San Diego State	W 75–49	17–10 (8–4)	University Arena (16,801)
02/24/2009	TCU	W 76–62	18–10 (9–4)	University Arena (14,777)
02/28/2009	at Colorado State	W 81–79 ^2OT	19–10 (10–4)	Moby Arena (3,023)
03/03/2009	Utah	W 77–71	20–10 (11–4)	University Arena (18,018)
03/07/2009	at Wyoming	W 74–73	21–10 (12–4)	Arena-Auditorium (7,412)
2009 MWC Men's Basketball Tournament
03/12/2009	vs. Wyoming (Quarterfinals)	L 67–75	21–11	Thomas & Mack Center (10,011)
2009 National Invitation Tournament
03/17/2009*	Nebraska (First Round)	W 83–71	22–11	University Arena (7,974)
03/19/2010*	at Notre Dame (Second Round)	L 66–70	22–12	Joyce Center (3,013)
*Non-conference game. ^#Rankings from AP Poll. ( ) Tournament seedings in parentheses.

References

New Mexico Lobos men's basketball

Venues	Carlisle Gymnasium (1928–1957) Johnson Gymnasium (1957–1966) The Pit (1966–present)

Rivalries	New Mexico State

Culture & lore	History Lobo Louie

People	Head coaches

Seasons	1899–00 1900–01 1901–02 1902–03 1903–04 1904–05 1905–06 1906–07 1907–08 1908–09 1909–10 1910–11 1911–12 1912–13 1913–14 1914–15 1915–16 1916–17 1917–18 1918–19 1919–20 1920–21 1921–22 1922–23 1923–24 1924–25 1925–26 1926–27 1927–28 1928–29 1929–30 1930–31 1931–32 1932–33 1933–34 1934–35 1935–36 1936–37 1937–38 1938–39 1939–40 1940–41 1941–42 1942–43 1943–44 1944–45 1945–46 1946–47 1947–48 1948–49 1949–50 1950–51 1951–52 1952–53 1953–54 1954–55 1955–56 1956–57 1957–58 1958–59 1959–60 1960–61 1961–62 1962–63 1963–64 1964–65 1965–66 1966–67 1967–68 1968–69 1969–70 1970–71 1971–72 1972–73 1973–74 1974–75 1975–76 1976–77 1977–78 1978–79 1979–80 1980–81 1981–82 1982–83 1983–84 1984–85 1985–86 1986–87 1987–88 1988–89 1989–90 1990–91 1991–92 1992–93 1993–94 1994–95 1995–96 1996–97 1997–98 1998–99 1999–00 2000–01 2001–02 2002–03 2003–04 2004–05 2005–06 2006–07 2007–08 2008–09 2009–10 2010–11 2011–12 2012–13 2013–14 2014–15 2015–16