This sports editor walks into a bar...

So I'm having a couple of drinks in an Albuquerque pub.

It's noisy. People are wandering around, speaking more loudly than they probably do normally, laughing about things that aren't particularly funny. You know, the usual.

While sitting there talking to a few people, most of whom I've never seen before that night, I'm trying to catch a few glimpses of the University of New Mexico-UNLV basketball game on the tube.

It's the second half. Things aren't going particularly well for the Lobos, who are on the road for this Mountain West game.

This isn't a new thing for the Lobos. They generally don't play well away from The Pit — this year, to this point, has been an exception as they were 4-0 before their trip to Sin City — and they can look pretty shaky against above-average opponents. UNLV is certainly an above-average opponent.

About this time, I start to wonder out loud why the Lobos don't try to schedule tougher games prior to the conference season…New Orleans, Montana State, Saint Louis and Houston Baptist don't exactly instill fear in the hearts of the upper-echelon of college hoops.

Another sports fan sitting next door to me — a former Los Alamos track and field athlete, no less — says the Lobos don't do so because no one wants to sign a home-and-home contract with UNM, which would necessitate said theoretical team having to play in The Pit.

It's not a new argument and, frankly, there's some truth there.

Coaches often like to say things that are basic variations of "our team will play anybody, anytime, anywhere."

Yes, they like to say that. But don't be fooled. Most of those coaches don't mean it.

This isn't out of fear. Not exactly. Nobody that does anything in any sort of competitive area doesn't like to stack the deck in his or her favor as much as possible. Playing on the road doesn't fit that bill. Playing in The Pit certainly doesn't as the Lobos have a reputation for guarding their home floor pretty well.

Fair enough. No one wants to play the Lobos at home. Plus, throw into that mix the fact that coaches' salaries, bonuses and job securities are based almost exclusively on wins and losses. I'd be surprised to find that one coach in the world was compensated based on the "we-played-a-really-tough-team-very-well-and-almost-won" scale.

Ultimately, there's no incentive to play games that you're not pretty darn sure you can win in the nonconference season if you're an upper-echelon team.

The Lobos, despite their longtime insistence on the contrary, are not there yet. And, like Morgan Stanley before it found a way to work around SEC regulations, the Lobos will have to earn that distinction.

OK, UNM. Nobody wants to play you at The Pit. That may very well be the reality of your situation. To get to that top tier and perhaps earn a respectable RPI — something it may have this year through no fault of its own, having to play San Diego State and UNLV again — you may just have to bite the bullet.

You may just have to agree to a few one-game, road contracts against some really good teams.

Is it fair? Not exactly. But that may be what the doctor orders to get the Lobos over that hump and to make them legit contenders year-in and year-out.

UNM, you're going to have to get on the road and (FAR more importantly) knock out some of the big boys from the ACC or Big East to prove you belong in the same breath as your Syracuses or your Kansases or your UCLAes of the world.

If you can do that, then maybe you're just a couple of years away from you calling the shots. Maybe Steve Alford won't be that far away from saying that the Lobos will play anybody anywhere at anytime and not have to mean it.

For now, though, the Lobos probably will have to mean it.