New Mexico Mercury

Section K: Defending Players or Defending Racism

This week the Lobos won two big games, and their commanding play deserves a column. Unfortunately, other issues need our attention.

As you may know, two controversial images “promoting” the Lobo game at UNLV were tweeted by a self-proclaimed UNLV fan this week. Both images show Hey Reb, the UNLV mascot, holding a leash attached to a Lobo player: one a hunched Jamal Fenton, the other a running Cameron Bairstow. The photos turn my stomach. They are disgusting, sad, and hateful...

Section K: Teaching Marcus Smart and What We Learn

As Marcus Smart returns to the court this Saturday, I wonder what he’s been taught and what we have learned. After Smart’s push of a fan in Lubbock last week, Oklahoma State University and the Big 12 attempted to send a message that violence among players and spectators has no place in college basketball. While it is debatable whether or not a three-game suspension conveys this message, the situation leaves Smart and the rest of us with a clear lesson: universities and intercollegiate athletic institutions are not ready for black athletes to bear their voices...

Section K: Lobos Given Treacherous Conference Road Schedule

Dear Mountain West Commissioner,

The Lobos have finished first in the league the past two years, and last season, UNM was the only team during conference competition with a winning record on the road. Across the sports world, this success would garner respect--and, in some instances, even advantages--but the Lobos receive neither from the Mountain West...

From Section K: Lobos Better Last Year, But This Squad Will Go Further

In the first week of February 2013, the 19-3 Lobos ranked 15th nationally on their way to a 29-win season and a three seed in West Region. Six weeks later sitting stunned in Section 19 of Salt Lake’s EnergySolutions Arena, I would have traded all those accolades for a rematch with Harvard.

This February, the 17-4 Lobos look in from outside the Top-25. While on track for an NCAA appearance, two bad losses--one to stumbling NMSU and another to underperforming UNLV--keep the Lobos from receiving national attention...

From Section K: Why Cullen Must Play

This season Cullen Neal has caused you anxiety. You’ve held your breath when he started to drive. You’ve cringed when he shot. You’ve put your face in your hands when he turned it over. You’ve wondered to yourself if he belongs. You’ve heard that he receives special treatment because his dad’s the coach. Some have whispered profanities about his play and the situation. Others have shouted them.

I can’t remember an individual in Lobo history who has been such a polarizing figure as Cullen in just his first season...

Lobo Fanatics Suffering from Memory Loss

Dear Lobo Basketball Fans,

Seemingly every conference season, I become deeply concerned about some of you. I worry that Lobo fans have changed allegiances or simply forgotten who they are supporting.

The fans I worry about are usually decked out in cherry memorabilia. Sometimes they even have layers of lobo gear: the t-shirt with the new logo, the sweater with the classic logo, the jacket and matching limited-edition rally towel. They cheer when the Lobos make buckets to increase their leads and bask in their victories. These people look like Lobo fans and act like them--well, most of the time...

The Most Beautiful Classroom in the World

The most beautiful classroom in the world lives in the middle of a Southwestern painting.  The vaulting blue sky gives way to the magnificent whites of the billowing clouds--smoke signals from the gods.  Their shadows fancy dance on the hills.  Triangulated among the peaks of the Jemez, Sangre de Cristo, and Sandia mountains, our classroom provides a bridge from a traditional community to the modern world.

Each morning, a bus travels the dirt roads of the Pueblo and fills with bleary-eyed children.  Nearly 900 years ago, these children’s ancestors settled the fertile soil near the confluence of the Galisteo and Rio Grande rivers...

Seeing the pristine in a tainted Great Plains

As I prepared for my trek to the Northeast across the Great Plains this summer, I quietly resented that I would have to endure the mind-numbing, soul-sucking road trip I was directly and indirectly advised not to take for years, but, in my head, the justification of all the trouble existed in the destinations I would experience and the people I would visit. The road of nothingness was just the medium for time and space travel.

After watching the prairie for hours with predetermined discontent, I saw something beyond the straight roads, dividing fences, and regular telephone poles. I remember it was somewhere in Nebraska where I saw the grass move like the sea’s waves...

Quality food shouldn’t be an oasis

According to the USDA, over 23 million Americans live in a food desert: an area with a concentration of low-income households and low access to a supermarket.    In an urban environment, a low access area is defined by being at least one mile from a major grocery store.  Imagine the odyssey of walking for blocks or taking public transportation carrying handfuls of plastic bags stretching ever closer to rupture or pulling an overfilled personal shopping cart only to arrive at your building to begin climbing flights of stairs to your kitchen.