TALENT SHOW: The constant chatter, this week and for several years, of UNLV being a team loaded with talent seems to really bother Neal.
Simply put, he thinks it is an annual narrative that does a disservice to the performance of current and past Lobos, as well as current and past players in the Mountain West.
Asked Thursday something to the effect of whether his Lobos left Las Vegas at all intimidated by the talent level of the UNLV roster, the third-year UNM coach cut the reporter off.
“Are we talking about paper talent or where they’re ranked?” Neal asked. “Or are we talking about sheer talent? Because if you want to go basketball talent, player for player, I mean I don’t know how much greater or talented they are (than the Lobos). How many championships have they won since the inception of the league? None (UNLV has one shared title 16 seasons ago, but have never won an outright title). How many times has everybody said they had more talent than everybody? … ‘Cause I’ve had a lot of guys here play in the NBA, and there’s a lot of guys that played there that aren’t playing in the NBA that were supposed to play in the NBA.
“So, I don’t get into the talent thing. Do they look good in an airport? Hell yeah. Do they look good when they got their uniform on? Yeah. … Yeah, they’re super-talented, but I think my guys are talented, too.”
Simply put, he thinks it is an annual narrative that does a disservice to the performance of current and past Lobos, as well as current and past players in the Mountain West.
Asked Thursday something to the effect of whether his Lobos left Las Vegas at all intimidated by the talent level of the UNLV roster, the third-year UNM coach cut the reporter off.
“Are we talking about paper talent or where they’re ranked?” Neal asked. “Or are we talking about sheer talent? Because if you want to go basketball talent, player for player, I mean I don’t know how much greater or talented they are (than the Lobos). How many championships have they won since the inception of the league? None (UNLV has one shared title 16 seasons ago, but have never won an outright title). How many times has everybody said they had more talent than everybody? … ‘Cause I’ve had a lot of guys here play in the NBA, and there’s a lot of guys that played there that aren’t playing in the NBA that were supposed to play in the NBA.
“So, I don’t get into the talent thing. Do they look good in an airport? Hell yeah. Do they look good when they got their uniform on? Yeah. … Yeah, they’re super-talented, but I think my guys are talented, too.”
