First look: Lobo basketball hits court for summer practice

Year four of the Richard Pitino era of UNM men’s basketball began this week with Wednesday being the first peek behind the curtain (for media, at least) at the reloading — not rebuilding, they’ll tell you — program.

Gone are Jaelen House and Jamal Mashburn Jr., two of the more dynamic, and unique, players in the program’s history who defined Pitino’s first three years at the helm.

While the presumption is that the changing of the guard, if you will, means this team is now in the hands of junior star Donovan Dent, both the California point guard and Pitino made it a point on Wednesday to shoot down the notion that the 2024-25 Lobos team belongs to any one player or person.

“Well, I’m not handing the keys to anybody,” Pitino said when that phrase was used in a question about Dent taking over as the lone lead guard. “I think Donovan could be one of the best point guards in the country, but this is a collective effort. So it’s nobody’s program.”

Dent, who may not love the uptick in media duties his new role as the primary face of a program with elevated expectations will bring, said he’s excited about the possibilities this roster presents and in his role helping get the best out of it.

“It’s not really handed to me, so I’ve still got to work hard this offseason and summer and prove that I can play at that level,” Dent said. “And I’m excited. We have a really fun team. I’m excited to see what we could do this year.”

Dent, who said he wants to be a more vocal leader, said there has been one noticeable difference this week with the whole team together for the first time.

“We got a lot bigger this season,” said the 6-2 Dent. “I mean, last year, I was like kind of one of the taller guys. Now I think I’m the shortest on the team.”

As talented as House and Mashburn were, the combination of three short, ball-dominant guards in those two and Dent — all playing big minutes — was often the primary roster flaw.

The recruiting for this year’s team was specific — get bigger.

“It’ll look different, but it’s exciting,” Pitino said. “There’s things we’ll do similar but there’ll be different things as well. And we’ll have to tinker with what we think works with the personnel.”

FULL HOUSE: Sixteen players participated in Wednesday’s practice — the second of the summer session for the team (Tuesday was the first). There were eight returning players (six on scholarship, two walk-ons) and eight newcomers (seven on scholarship, one walk-on).

It was one of, if not the first full-participant practice the program has had in the summer since Pitino has been at UNM. Sometimes it was injury issues, sometimes one or two players weren’t enrolled in the summer session and then there was center Nelly Junior Joseph’s visa issue last season with him not arriving to Albuquerque until Oct. 30 — two days before the team’s second exhibition game.

Wednesday, Junior Joseph was not only in attendance— having already taken a trip home to Nigeria and back to the United States — but he was playfully showing Pitino after practice how much his 3-point shot has improved (no, that is not expected to be a part of the big-man’s game).

Pitino said the program was not worried whether Junior Joseph’s trip home would cause similar problems this summer because when last year’s visa issue was finally approved, it was for two years.

NEWCOMERS: Wednesday’s first glimpse was by no means a fair opportunity to evaluate any of the newcomers. Not only have some been in town, and some in college, no more than 72 hours at this point, they all are still noticeably getting acclimated to the thin Albuquerque air.

STRENGTH AND SPEED: The Journal asked UNM strength coach Matt Flores to name the strongest new Lobo.

“Sacko, and it’s not close,” Flores said, referring to the 6-6, 240-pound Ibrahima Sacko, a sophomore wing from Conakry, Guinea, who transferred from Georgia Tech.

Later, in a far more biased encounter, the Journal asked Dent to name the fastest player on this year’s team now that House is gone.

“Me,” Dent said, almost insulted by the question.

He then smiled and admitted freshman guard Kayde Dotson might be the guy while another coach later suggested returning guard Tru Washington should be in the conversation.

THIS PIT: North Texas transfer C.J. Noland, a 6-4 guard who was a former 4-star recruit that started his college career at Oklahoma, was asked why he chose UNM for his final college season.

“I would say the biggest reason is just the style of play that Coach Pitino plays here,” said Noland, who shot 37.0% from 3-point range last season. “They like to play in transition, they like to get the ball up and down and that’s how I want to play for my last year.”

Noland said he watched some UNM games when one of his best friends, Colorado State guard Jalen Lake, would play the Lobos.

“I watched New Mexico, and I’m like, ‘Yeah, the way they play I want to play like that,’” Noland said.

He then said the fans “put me over the top.” When it was noted he transferred from playing in one Pit — the 9,797-seat “Super Pit” in Denton, Texas — to another Pit, he laughed and said, “Exactly. The real Pit.”

ON TOPPIN: Both Pitino and Dent said they weren’t upset with the late April transfer news of Mountain West Freshman of the Year JT Toppin, understanding the factors that led to it (neither said money, but it is believed Toppin received well over $1 million in NIL money to play for Texas Tech).

Pitino did acknowledge the timing wasn’t ideal and Dent said that while teams also tried to lure him into a transfer, he said he just couldn’t do it.

“Just trusting in Coach Pitino and Coach (Isaac) Chew,” Dent said of why he stayed. “They talked to me a lot in the offseason because there were some teams that wanted me. But just staying loyal to where I committed the first time — my family’s big on loyalty.”

ON BRADEN: Dent, a close friend of 6-7 guard Braden Appelhans since they came in to UNM together as freshmen, was asked about Appelhans taking a brief (less than one week) dip into the NCAA transfer portal in April before announcing he was remaining a Lobo.

“I knew he wasn’t going anywhere,” Dent said with a big smile. “That’s my guy. I knew he wasn’t going anywhere.”

Photos: UNM hoops first summer practice