SAN JOSE, Calif. — While Lobo nation waited with bated breath on Friday for news on the status of Darington Hobson's injured left wrist, he was busy working on a possible career after basketball.

The player they call "Butter" was trying to see just how smooth his delivery as a television reporter can be, using a TV camera — he held it with his right hand — and microphone to interview teammates in The University of New Mexico locker room prior to a closed practice session in HP Pavilion.

It looks like Hobson should stick to basketball, which makes news that X-rays on his injured left wrist were negative all the more encouraging for him and Lobos fans as the East Region's No. 3 seed prepares for today's NCAA Tournament matchup with No. 11 Washington.

"It's sore," Hobson said of his sprained shooting wrist. "It's tournament time. It's not going to affect me and I'll be ready to go."

The fact that Hobson, the Mountain West Conference Player of the Year who is one of only two Division I basketball players in the nation averaging more than 15 points, nine rebounds and four assists (the other is Ohio State's Evan Turner), will play today came as no surprise to his teammates, head coach or opposition.

"I knew he was coming
back," junior point guard Dairese Gary said before taking a jovial jab. "He gets hurt a lot and rolls around and gets back up. I wasn't too worried about it."

Hobson, who hurt both his wrist and back when he slammed to the court on a first-half drive to the hoop in Thursday's win over No. 14 Montana, is a player that creates matchup problems for any team, even one as athletic as the Pac-10 tournament champion Huskies.

And his versatility is hardly a surprise to UW head coach Lorenzo Romar.

"We recruited him when he was younger, so we were aware of him and watched him play in high school," said Romar. "... He's worked on his body. He looks very good, very strong."

Hobson's versatility — he had 11 points, 11 rebounds and six assists despite the injury Thursday — has made him a hot topic among NBA draft prognosticators, and general managers around the league have begun confirming he's a likely mid-first-round pick if he decides to leave UNM after this season and enter the draft.

While the Turner comparisons have been easy because of such similar stats, Romar added two more names of current and former NBA players who he thinks Hobson has similar games to: Anfernee "Penny" Hardaway and former Washington star and current Portland Trailblazer Brandon Roy.

"(Hobson does) a little like Brandon Roy did for us," Romar said. "We used to call him 'The Provider.' You need a bucket? All right, he can do that. You going to double him, pay too much attention to him? Somebody is going to have a layup or a wide-open three somewhere. He's going to do that. Need a big rebound? He's going to do that."

While the talent and ability was never in question, whether Hobson would have returned to the court at all after a spill like the one he took Thursday would have been in question not that long ago.

"I think Darington — maybe three months ago, it might have been hard for him to get up after that fall," Steve Alford, UNM head coach, said.

"I think that's where he's grown, he's matured. He's played through not being 100 percent. I don't think that was something that he was probably versed at being able to do three months ago."

The maturation process for Hobson, both physically and mentally, was one urged on by a coaching staff full of former players and led by a former All-American who was tutored by one of the most hard-nosed coaches in college history.

"We've been there, done that," Alford said. "So whether it's you get banged up or your body is at 70 percent, OK. It's at 70 percent. Big deal. Play. ... Coach (Bobby) Knight used to say the mental is to the physical as four is to one and that's really present when you get in March."

That mentality has been adopted by this Lobos team.

UNM has used the same starting lineup for all 34 games they've played this season.

And thanks to Hobson's newfound toughness, today will see that streak extended to 35.

Contact Geoff Grammer at 986-3060 or ggrammer@sfnewmexican.com. Read his blog at grammerschoolblog.com.