ALBUQUERQUE — Defense has turned its back on The University of New Mexico.

And without it, losses have followed.

Entering today's Mountain West Conference men's basketball game against Air Force, the Lobos have been set on their heels recently.

Back-to-back losses to TCU and San Diego State have exposed UNM's defensive weaknesses, something the Lobos had been able to compensate for during much of the nonconference stretch.

And while the Mountain West isn't a conference among the nation's elite, the coaching is apt enough to expose and exploit any team's weaknesses.

It showed last season when UNM was 11-4 entering conference play and finished 4-13 the rest of the way. Or when Colorado State started 10-2 and finished 7-11. Or when Wyoming was 9-5 before, and 8-10 after. None of those coaches returned.

"Conference league play is a whole different animal," UNM's first-year head coach Steve Alford said. "Any time you get into conference play, it's more possession-by-possession. We know that's a weakness of ours and we have to be practicing hard and keep
teaching.

"The guys have to be able to pick it up a little bit more knowing that defending something is very difficult and it takes 40 minutes to do that."

In a 74-72 defeat at TCU on Tuesday, the Lobos gave up 46 second-half points to the Horned Frogs. In a 72-67 defeat a week ago at home against San Diego State, the Lobos allowed the Aztecs to score 47 second-half points. And despite beating Wyoming in double overtime on Jan. 5, UNM gave up 48 points in the first half to the Cowboys.

"The last three games, we've defended well for 20 minutes and defended very poorly for 20 minutes," Alford said. "And you can't run that risk all the time."

Then there's another challenge.

The Air Force Falcons are the Air Force Falcons. Despite having another head coach — there have been four different head coaches in the past five years — the Falcons continue their trademark Princeton ball-control offense. It forces teams to play all 35 seconds of the shot clock and wears them down so that the offense is even affected.

"The style is a little different, but what we've tried to do is fit our style to our personnel," head coach Jeff Reynolds said. "I think they've responded."

They've responded with a win at home against UNLV (65-53) and a victory over Wyoming in Laramie, Wyo., in overtime (64-62).

"They're a really disciplined team and know how to run their offense," UNM sophomore Roman Martinez said. "We're going to play our hardest and try to learn from those losses. It'll take a full defensive effort. Defensively, we need to have a combined effort from the team."

And that, the Lobos believe, is what it will take to get back into the win column.

Contact Tommy Trujillo at 986-3060 or ttrujillo@sfnewmexican.com