UNM Lobos point guard J.J. Caldwell and I sat down before a practice earlier this week to talk about his quick start in UNM's 7-2 start to the season after having played very little basketball over the past three years. The pass-first PG may be getting overlooked since he isn't one of the team's scorers. We talk about that and I break down the start of Mountain West hoops play before wrapping up the pod with a brief interview with my 10-year-old daughter about her strategy to beat me picking games this season.

One-time Albuquerque Journal staffer Andy Katz, the former Lobo hoops beat writer who went on to the Fresno Bee, ESPN and now spreads his work around with NCAA.com, Turner Sports, The BigTen Network, Fox and elsewhere, talked with us about his memories of covering the Lobos, his current Albuquerque connections and the state of the Lobo program today.

On the eve of the 2019 version of the Rio Grande Rivalry, I interview UNM Operations Director Ralph Davis who was the head coach at New Mexico Military Institute when current NMSU Aggies star Trevelin Queen played there. Davis offers his unique insight on the pro potential of the NMSU guard. I also answer listener questions and break down UNM's loss at UTEP.

I talk with Craig Snow, the special assistant to the head coach of Lobo basketball who is the former assistant coach with the team but spent the past five years as head coach and part of that time as Athletic Director at New Mexico Highlands. We talk about his journey from playing at Evansville to Albuquerque and what brought him back for a second stint with the Lobos.

In the long-awaited return of the podcast, I talk with JaQuan Lyle and Carlton Bragg, the 23-year-old team captains who have taken an unlikely path to being teammates in Albuquerque. They talk about their journey, their expectations, what it's like being roommates and some teammates Lobo fans should look out for this season.

As Paul Weir enters season two of his tenure as head coach of the Lobos basketball program, I ask him for some big picture assessments of what he accomplished in his first season, what he regrets and what should fans expect from him and his team in the coming 2018-19 season.

New UNM Lobo point guard Keith McGee talks about his growing up, what got him to UNM and he's remarkably open about some insecurities he's had as a player, saying he had to overcome confidence issues both at the junior college he played at last season and earlier this semester at UNM when he started playing with the Lobos.

In Episode 17, I had a long talk with the man I consider the New Mexico coach that never was. Dick Hunsaker is a Clovis High graduate who has played for or coached with the likes of Don Haskins, Neil McCarthy and Rick Majerus while also having connections with Steve Alford and Craig Neal (heck, he was even once a part of a summer camp with Bob King and Norm Ellenberger). Hunsaker talks about all those connections and spending a week observing this year's UNM Lobos and head coach Paul Weir.

In Episode 16, I have a conversation with Lobo sophomores Vladimir Pinchuk and Makuach Maluach. The two have a unique bond as they were not only the only two freshmen on last year's team but were both living in the United States for the first time. They talk about their transition to a new country, college basketball and even interview each other about guilty pleasures like Pinchuk's love of watching hundreds of episodes of Family Feud.

(Reposting from 3/24/18) In Episode 9, I veer off course from the usual Lobo hoops podcasts and talk to the author of "All the Dreams We've Dreamed" and the central figure of that book, former NMSU Aggie point guard Shawn Harrington, who in 2014 was shot while taking his daughter to school in the west side of Chicago. Bradburd, an NMSU professor and former Aggies basketball coach who recruited Shawn to Las Cruces in the 1990's, talks about why he wrote the book and his relationship with his former player. Shawn walks us through that tragic morning and talks about what he hopes people take from the book. I am reposting this on Oct. 3, 2018 because it was originally posted under an Albuquerque Journal account and this will add it to all the proper channels for my podcast.