A remarkable season just gets more fun-damental

The line that composer Herman Hupfeld penned back in 1931, then was sung by Sam to a pensive Elsa 11 years later in “Casablanca” before Rick so rudely cut him off, is as true now as it was then.

The fundamental things still do apply.

The New Mexico Lobos defeated Saint Joseph’s 84-69 Tuesday night at the Pit, sending UNM to the National Invitation Tournament’s final four (note the lower case; it’s nice, but it’s still only the NIT and not the Big Dance).

Big Dance? Back in November, Lobo fans had no reason, maybe even no right, to expect this team to be within sniffing distance of the NCAA Tournament — or to be 26-10 and one of 14 Division I teams (out of 365) still playing as of this writing. First-year coach Eric Olen, the new kid in school, had to assemble a completely new roster.

Yet, here they are.

How have they done it?

Clearly, the roster Olen assembled bristles with talent. Just as clearly, Olen and his staff have coached them well.

So, yes, the Lobos are good at basketball. They can shoot, run, jump, bang bodies in the paint. All of that —  but there’s more.

What’s that sound I hear? It’s there, if you listen carefully.

It’s the sound of fundamentals.

Let’s start with Tomislav Buljan, UNM’s principle low-post threat. Buljan’s tenacity in the paint, combined with the sophisticated low-post moves he likely developed back home in Croatia, produced the majority of his season-best 27 points against St. Joe’s.

But Buljan, who was 5-of-23 shooting 3-pointers this season before Tuesday — hoisting them only as a last resort — was 2-of-2 on 3s vs. the boys from Back East. He also hit a nice little turnaround “jumper” that gave the Lobos a 13-point lead, 72-59, with 5:43 left in the game.

“Jumper” is in quotation marks here advisedly, because Buljan’s feet barely left the floor when he took those shots.

Essentially, they were one-hand set shots — the shot that coach Jerry Maier taught us in fifth grade at Sandia Base Elementary in the ‘50s; the man was a stickler for fundamentals. It was the shot that ruled college basketball back when Mr. Hupfeld was writing his songs in the ‘30s.

Whatever works, fundamentally speaking.

“Right now I feel very confident,” Buljan said. “I have to give a shout out to our assistant coach, Mikey (Howell). He’s been working with me (on shooting from outside the paint).”

Correct me if I’m wrong — I’m not — but European basketball players tend to be more fundamentally sound than their American counterparts. Nikola Jocic is Exhibit A, but Buljan’s gaining ground.

After the game, I asked Olen where he’s placed fundamentals in the overall picture of recruiting a roster, whether this season at UNM or in past years at UC San Diego.

“We’re always looking for that,” he said. “Just knowing how to play. It’s described a lot of different ways. Feel, basketball IQ. There a lot of adjectives for it.

“We try to evaluate that. It’s hard, because it’s not something that’s objective … I think smart wins, and I think we have a smart basketball team.”

Lobos senior Luke Haupt, after all, is a coach’s son. Freshman Jake Hall plays like one.

Hall, a record-setting 3-point shooter, was 3-of-7 on 3s Tuesday. It was a 3-pointer he didn’t make, though, that stands out in this discussion.

With the Lobos up by 10 with 1:54 left, almost in the barn but not quite, Hall was being guarded on a defensive switch by 6-foot-10 St. Joe’s shot-blocking phenom Justice Ajogbor.

Hall, trapped on the baseline, gave Ajogbor one of his patented shot fakes — can’t get much more fundamental than that— put up a shot that hadn’t a prayer of going in but drew a foul and hit three free throws. Game over.

The season isn’t over, and that’s a tribute to all concerned — the players, the coaches, the 24,547 Pit fans who put aside their NCAA Tournament longings and came to watch three NIT games.

As time goes by, this team just gets fundamentally more interesting.