San Jose State’s Sadraque NgaNga dunks against Boise State in the Spartans 85-58 loss on Jan. 27. Photo courtesy of ***San Jose State Athletics***.

At least it's not Air Force.

And it is a road game. Sort of.

The vacant Provident Credit Union Event Center doesn't exactly strike fear in opponents like the Pit.

Or even a half-packed high school gym.

But again, at least it’s not Air Force.

On Saturday, the streaking University of New Mexico (17-4, 8-2) men's basketball team plays at San Jose State (6-15, 1-9) in a Mountain West conference game that won't snatch much of the league's attention --- unless the unthinkable happens.

The Lobos share second place with Utah State (17-3, 8-2), just a game behind San Diego State (15-5, 9-1).

SJSU is trying to avoid the basement.

Lobo head coach Eric Olen knows what big favorites his squad should be against the Spartans, and there wasn't much to spin in building up the opposition.

In fact, SJSU might be even worse off than when it was hammered by UNM 88-65 in the Pit in December.

"There's a lot of things that are going to be different," Olen said. "(UNM's) Tomislav (Buljan) didn't play in that game. (SJSU) has since had a lot of injury trouble. So they have played a few games without several key guys to the point where some of those films maybe aren't even productive enough for us to evaluate relative for how they're playing now.”

If you take (Colby) Garland or (Jermaine) Washington or both, out of a matchup, it doesn't really translate to what we're going to see, so, just trying to recognize what we're expecting, and really prepare for that is really the challenge."

The Lobos had very little challenge on the road on Tuesday at UNLV. New Mexico built the lead to nearly 40 points on the way to a 89-71 romp -- the biggest blowout they have ever had against the Rebels (10-10, 5-4)

And this is a UNLV team that just beat SJSU last week.

Then again, everyone has beaten the Spartans in the MW.

Except Air Force (3-17, 0-9)

The fact is, SJSU is struggling.

Will coach Tim Miles use this article as bulletin board material?

Maybe.

Maybe not.

If the Spartans read it, it could just discourage them more.

However...

"They're getting healthier which is a big thing," Olen said. Prior to (Wyoming and Boise State), they really struggled. I think Washington shot really well in the first half (against Boise State), so a lot of it is their personnel. Not letting their best players do the stuff they're great at to have big games. We played them the first time, Colby Garland had 31, 30-plus in that game. That's something we got to do a better job of. (We) let their leading scorer get 30-plus points, that's not ideal. For us its just trying execute and keep guys from having big nights, or keep them from being efficient."

Guard Garland leads the team in scoring (17.9) and assists (4,2) while Washington, also a guard, averages 11.6 points a game.

Sadraque NgaNga, a 6-feet-10 forward, has come up big of late, but averages just 6.2 points and 3.8 rebounds a game.

The Spartans have lost 10 of their last 11 and the only setback in MW play by less than double digits came last week in a 66-62 loss at Wyoming. That was Sandwiched between 30-plus point losses to Nevada and Boise State -- the latter in their most recent game at home on Tuesday,