Can the Lobos overcome their hoops doppelgänger in VCU?

RICHMOND, Virginia — Phil Martelli Jr. pulled up the game film this week on his laptop to start scouting the New Mexico Lobos.

As he watched, he had to double check to make sure the camera on his MacBook wasn’t on.

“It’s like looking in a mirror sometimes,” the first-year VCU coach said of scouting the Lobos under first-year coach Eric Olen.

Martelli, 44, and Olen, 45, were two of the biggest names in last season’s college basketball coaching carousel — and both got their current gigs based on the decision of another of those hot, young coaching names in last spring’s hiring season, 43-year-old Richard Pitino. (More on that later).

For now, entering the sixth week of the 2025-26 season, the building process for Martelli and Olen at two non-Power Conference — but still very much NCAA Tournament-ish level — programs, is taking on a similar path in the eyes of the Rams coach.

There are bumps in the road, but there is also growth and optimism that competing within their conference for a championship — the 6th-rated (per KenPom.com) Mountain West for the Lobos, the 7th-rated Atlantic 10 for the Rams — is still very attainable.

“Watching them evolve,” Martelli said, “they are trusting each other more. It’s like looking in a mirror, sometimes. You see them trusting each other more playing more into their roles and kind of understanding this is where I can affect winning.”

Though he has consistently given a similar message to media when talking this season about his Lobos, Olen’s belief that he, too, sees consistent growth was laid out far more directly to his team in a social media video posted by UNM on Tuesday showing the coach talking to the players in the locker room after Saturday’s 98-71 win over Santa Clara.

“That’s a glimpse of what we’re capable of,” Olen said. “That’s the most complete version we’ve seen. We’re just getting started. Our best basketball is still out in front of us. It’s scary what you guys are capable of. Just keep working.”

Of that Santa Clara beating, Martelli said he saw a Lobos team playing with more confidence and aggression.

“In all the games I’ve watched (of New Mexico), and I’ve basically watched every game that they’ve played so far, that was the most aggressive they’ve been guarding the ball, getting out and really pressuring,” he said. “It’s something we’ll have to be ready for every day with the way we play, but we’ll have to be ready for it Wednesday night.”

Bill Walton would be proud

Wednesday’s game at the 7,637-seat Siegel Center will be Grateful Dead Night with VCU/Grateful Dead themed T-shirts given away to fans.

For two teams trying to build postseason résumés in a college basketball landscape with very little margin for error if you aren’t in a Power Conference, this game will have a Touch of Gray to it, with both teams hoping they will get by, and they will survive.

(Google it, kids).

Flirting with the old guy

Last March — within 24 hours of the Lobos losing to Michigan State in the second round of the NCAA Tournament in Cleveland, in fact — VCU offered its then- vacant job to former UNM head coach Richard Pitino.

Pitino turned down the offer, obviously, but had nothing but good things to say about the program and the offer it made.

Shortly thereafter, Pitino took another offer to coach at Xavier in the Big East and VCU hired Martelli, who had come off two 20-win seasons at Bryant, including last year leading the American East squad into the NCAA Tournament where, like UNM, it lost to Michigan State in Cleveland, just in the first round.

Series history

The series is split 1-1 between the two schools — a 2008 loss in Cancun for the Lobos and a win last season in the Pit in what was the first game of the home-and-home series being completed with this game in Virginia.

Last game: New Mexico 78, VCU 71 (Dec. 18, 2024)

Donovan Dent went off. The former Lobo point guard scored 25 of his game-high 40 points in the second half and Nelly Junior Joseph added a 15 point, 11 rebound double-double.

VCU, then coached by former Utah State coach Ryan Odom, got a team-high 20 points from former star Max Shulga.

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