GAME NOTES: New Mexico fires up The Pit on Friday night, as the Lobos entertain the Idaho State Bengals for a season-opening, non-conference battle.

Under head coach Craig Neal in his first season after replacing the departed Steve Alford, the Lobos battled with San Diego State for Mountain West Conference supremacy in 2013-14. The two programs fought to the end of the conference tournament, which New Mexico claimed by a score of 64-58. Unfortunately, as has been the case all to often for the Lobos when they've performed so well during the regular season, they ended up one-and-done in the NCAA Tournament with a 58-53 loss to Stanford in the second round of the event.

Overall, UNM posted a record of 27-7 and was 15-3 in league play. More importantly, at least for this game, the Lobos were 13-2 at home in 2013-14 and lost just once versus a non-conference opponent in The Pit.

Meanwhile, the Bengals are taking their cues from Bill Evans these days, the 22nd head coach in program history. His first two years have been rather unpleasant with a total of just 17 victories. Last season, he tallied 11 of those wins, against 18 losses, and was just 8-12 in conference play.

ISU, which won back-to-back games only twice a season ago, lost at Portland State in the final game of the season, leaving the program with five defeats in the last six outings. Also important to note is the fact that the Bengals won a total of just two true road games out of 15.

The Lobos own a 5-2 advantage in the all-time series, winning the last four encounters with Idaho State. The two victories for the Bengals took place during the 1966-67 and 1978-79 campaigns.

The Bengals are coming off a season in which they finished first in the league and 94th in the nation in offensive rebounding with 11.97 per contest and the good news is that Jeffrey Solarin, who was responsible for a great many of those boards, is back for his senior campaign. Solarin was second in the league in rebounding overall with 8.5 per contest, starting all 28 games for the program as he also delivered 10.4 ppg on the strength of 60.4 percent shooting from the floor.

The Bengals also bring back senior guard/forward Chris Hansen, who led the team in scoring with 16.6 ppg as he knocked down an impressive 80-of-200 from beyond the arc. Now, if only Hansen could get more comfortable playing inside a bit more in order to improve upon his 3.9 rpg. Another key figure for the Bengals will be guard Evann Hall, who came off the bench in all 29 games and contributed 6.0 ppg, a number that will certainly take a leap forward.

There appears to be a problem for Neal and the Lobos this year, call it rebuilding if you will, but the fact is the top three offensive stars are no longer on campus. Cameron Bairstow, Alex Kirk and Kendall Williams may not have been household names outside of the MWC, but anyway you look at it UNM is in desperate need of replacing almost 50 points and 20 rebounds per contest.

Hugh Greenwood, now a senior, is a guard who can fill some of the holes, assuming he can elevate his scoring production from 6.2 ppg after shooting just 39.9 percent from the field. It should be noted that even with those numbers, Greenwood has been well-respected in the MWC. Fellow senior guard Deshawn Delaney (5.3 ppg, 4.0 rpg) will get more chances to show off his ability and even the son of the coach, Cullen Neal (7.1 ppg, 2.0 apg), will be given an expanded role.

A scrappy new bunch of players might be tough to mold into a cohesive unit, but hopefully they'll be able to carry on the tradition set by the 2013-14 squad that ranked 10th nationally in holding opponents to 38.9 percent shooting from the field.

Even though the Lobos have lost quite a bit of scoring power, the fact remains that few teams ever find success visiting The Pit and when they do, they have to bring a strong lineup and a sizeable amount of defense to get the job done. For the Bengals, they'll need more luck than most just to remain competitive into the second half.