WHO'S LAUGHING NOW? GORDON, KIRK

ALBUQUERQUE -- Around 4:30 p.m. Sunday, The University of New Mexico learned it earned a No. 3 seed in the 2010 NCAA men's basketball tournament.

By about 4:50, Drew Gordon's cell phone was just about out of juice.

"I've gotten, I don't even know how many texts have come in so far -- but my phone can't handle it," said Gordon, the 6-foot-9, 230-pound sophomore forward who transferred to UNM in December after starting the season as the starting center for UCLA. "A lot are from old teammates at UCLA. They're wishing me luck and congratulating me."

While Gordon can't play with the Lobos until the end of the fall semester next year due to NCAA transfer rules, he still felt Sunday's selection show party in The Pit, an affair that drew more than 5,000 fans and featured head coach Steve Alford live on national television, was a small piece of vindication.

Leaving a program like UCLA, one with as rich a history of NCAA tournament success as any program in the nation, to play for a UNM team that has never advanced past the second round of the tournament brought with it plenty of criticism and plenty of questions.

"Anytime you transfer, you're going to catch a little of that from the home school and the fans," Gordon said. "... I caught a lot for leaving at the beginning of the season, but by the end of the season when we were making that run, people kind of realized maybe I made the right decision."

UCLA did not get invited to the NCAA tournament.

Gordon said he knows this season's success will be tough to beat, but he hopes to help the Lobos continue to earn the type of respect that garnered them a No. 3 seed, the highest ever for a Mountain West Conference team.

It didn't hurt Gordon's excitement that the Lobos' first-round game with No. 14 Montana is Thursday in San Jose, Calif., Gordon's hometown.

"I'm going on my own," Gordon said, as transfer players are not allowed to travel with the team. "It's spring break and I get to go home to see family and watch my team in the tournament. How great is that?"

Gordon wasn't the only basketball player in Albuquerque on Sunday hoping selection show parties in The Pit become the norm.

Los Alamos High senior Alex Kirk, a 6-11 post who has signed a national letter-of-intent to play with the Lobos next year, also received flack with his decision last fall to join the Lobos. Kirk's recruiting process brought him down to two finalists: UNM and Arizona.

When he chose UNM, Kirk said he wanted to play in the NCAA tournament, a statement that drew criticism from those aware UNM had been the Big Dance just once in the past decade while Arizona, at the time, was riding an NCAA record 25-year streak of consecutive tournament appearances.

Arizona did not get invited to this NCAA tournament.

"Me and my dad, we looked at a lot of factors when we picked UNM," said Kirk, who spent the week in Albuquerque playing in and watching the state's high school basketball tournament in The Pit. "We saw what coach had going here, the direction it was headed. We sort of saw this coming. Maybe not quite as good as they did this year, but we knew what direction the Lobos were headed and we wanted to be a part of that."

Alford said he couldn't be happier for the fans and his current players, but also for guys like Gordon and Kirk.

"There weren't people in this state that gave him grief," Alford said of Kirk. "There may have been people in the neighboring state that gave him grief. ... There's nothing more exciting that what's going on here."

Even though they'll be forced to watch the Lobos go dancing from afar, guys like Kirk and Gordon who bought into Alford's program long before the bandwagon was as full as it is now, still had plenty to be proud of on Sunday.

"I think we're just going to have to make this a habit over the next four or five years," Kirk said. "That's what I'm coming here for."

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