Emptying the Notebook: Buljan blows up, happy Halls, fast starts, no bull, Dent's return and on to Indy

Here are some notes, quotes, stats, trends and other odds & ends I emptied out of the old notebook after Tuesday's 84-69 UNM Lobos win over Saint Joseph's in the quarterfinal round of the NIT in the Pit:

Buljan blows up

If Tomislav Buljan's games in the Pit are over — and based on his transfer portal value to a deep-pocketed power conference team now that it sounds assured he will get another year of eligibility, they very well could be — the 23-year-old first-year college player from Split, Croatia, went out with a bang.

Not just Tuesday — 27 points, 11 rebounds — but over the three-game NIT stretch for the Lobos.

In UNM's three wins, the 6-foot-9 forward hat the following averages:

• Points: 21.0

• Rebounds: 10.0

• 2-pt FGs: 62.9% (22-35)

• 3-pt FGs: 75.0% (3-4)

He started his season off brilliantly in the Pit back in November and ended it brilliantly in the Pit in March.

Tuesday, his 27 points/11 rebound double-double was against the A-10 co-Defensive Player of the Year, Saint Joseph's Justice Ajogbor and Sunday's 14 points, nine rebounds and seven drawn fouls game was against A-10 All-Defensive team big man Rafael Castro.

And in both cases, things got pretty physical in the post for Buljan, leaving him with some visible marks on his arms and face while doing a postgame press conference on Tuesday.

"I mean, when you play rough like that, you get some (scratches and bruises) from couple games," Buljan said. "I mean, they foul sometimes. Sometimes they don't call it, but you should rather play through everything. Doesn't matter, scratch or whatever."

In all three games, Buljan didn't just sit back and let the physical play come to him. He attacked the rim regularly.

Buljan even got to show off his improved outside shot over the past week, hitting three 3-pointers after having hit just 4-of-19 of them from beyond the arc over the first 31 games he played.

"Right now, I feel like very confident," Buljan said of his 3-point shooting. "I got to give the shout out to our assistant coach, Mikey (Howell), who I've been working with lately."

The gamer

Here's the gamer I filed from the Pit on Tuesday night:

• UNM surges past Saint Joseph's and into NIT semifinals

Up next/Updated NIT bracket

Onward!

The Lobos are on to the NIT semifinals — the "Final Four" term is trademarked, of course, by some other college basketball tournament going on right now.

UNM will play Tulsa next Thursday, April 2, in historic Hinkle Fieldhouse in Indianapolis.

The winner of that game plays in the April 5 NIT championship in Gainbridge Fieldhouse, the home of the Indiana Pacers.

Here is the updated NIT bracket through half of the quarterfinal games — the ones played Tuesday and before the Wednesday quarterfinals, which include fellow Mountain West program Nevada with former Lobo coaches Steve Alford and Craig Neal, who would certainly be warmly welcomed back to Indiana where they were high school stars.

UNM's NIT semifinal game history

• 2026: Semifinals vs. Tulsa on April 2

• 1990: UNM lost to Saint Louis, 80-72 (March 26, 1990)

• 1964: UNM beat NYU, 72-65 (March 19, 1964)

An April first (on April 2)

No, this isn't an April Fool's joke. When the Lobos next take the court, in the April 2 semifinal game against Tulsa, it will be the first game the UNM Lobo basketball program has ever played in the month of April.

(h/t Steve Kirkland for letting me know that one!)

Jake's latest record

Another game, another record for Jake Hall.

The Lobos freshman guard's 3-pointer (naturally) with 18:22 left in the first half were his third, fourth and fifth points of the game, and 564th, 565th and 566th of the season. That set a new freshman season scoring record for the Mountain West, breaking the old mark of 564 set by UNLV's Anthony Bennett in the 2012-13 season.

(All that guy did was go on to become the No. 1 pick in the NBA Draft a few months later)

Hall ended the game with 24 points and now has 585 points this season through UNM's 36 games (16.3 points per game). That's now more than 100 points more than any other Lobo has ever scored in their freshman season (Kenny Thomas had 484 points in 33 games in the 1995-96 season).

Mountain West: Most points scored by a freshman

585* — Jake Hall, New Mexico (2025-26)

564 — Anthony Bennett, UNLV (2012-13)

559 — Brandon McCoy, UNLV (2017-18)

511 — Cameron Oliver, Nevada (2015-16)

464 — Dedan Thomas, UNLV (2023-24)

UNM: Most points scored by a freshman

585* — Jake Hall (2025-26)

484 — Kenny Thomas (1995-96)

445 — JT Toppin (2023-24)

449* — Tomislav Buljan (2025-26)

406 — Kendall Williams (2010-11)

*NOTE: UNM has one or two more games to play.

And here's the latest update on the star-studded list of most 3-pointers ever scored by a freshman:

NCAA D-I made 3-pointers

• 132 — Antoine Davis, Detroit (2018-19)

• 122 — Stephen Curry, Davidson (2006-07)

• 118 — Trae Young, Oklahoma (2017-18)

• 116* — Jake Hall, New Mexico (2025-26)

*NOTE: UNM has one or two more games to play.

A Halluva day for the Halls

Big brother couldn't let his little bro have just one day to get all the love?

Jake Hall's big win Tuesday night and breaking the Mountain West freshman scoring record wasn't the only huge hoops news of the day for the Halls.

Dax Hall, Jake's younger brother and a UNM Lobo recruit who has been offered a scholarship by Eric Olen, was named on Tuesday the San Diego Section Player of the Year for his standout season for Santa Fe (California) Christian.

Those scores!

The Lobos' three NIT scores:

• UNM 107, Sam Houston 83 (24 points)

• UNM 86, George Washington 61 (25 points)

• UNM 84, Saint Joseph's 69 (15 points)

The Lobos are the first team since the San Diego State Aztecs in 2016 to advance to the NIT semifinals with three-consecutive 15 points or more.

Those starts!

Last Wednesday, in the first round of the NIT, the Lobos outscored Sam Houston 16-7 in the first four minutes of the game. It was the most points UNM had scored by the 16:00 mark of the first half all season.

Tuesday, they almost matched it.

The Lobos led 15-9 at the 16:00 mark against Saint Joseph's, the second most points UNM has had in the first four minutes of a game all season.

UNM's most points at 16:00 1H

• 16 — March 18 vs. Sam Houston (16-7)

• 15 — Tuesday vs. Saint Joseph's (15-9)

• 12 — Jan. 27 at UNLV (12-4)

• 10 — five times

NIT kill shot counter!

Just for good measure, the Lobos started the second half on Tuesday even better than that first half mentioned above.

After the Hawks scored the first bucket of the second half, UNM went on a 10-0 kill shot run, the fourth kill shot in the NIT for UNM.

NIT kill shots for UNM

• vs. Sam Houston: 1 (0 for the Bearkats)

• vs. George Washington: 2 (0 for the Revolutionaries)

• vs. Saint Joseph's: 1 (0 for the Hawks

That kill shot early in the second half was actually part of a larger game-changing 34-12 mid-game run from the 2:17 mark of the first half when the Hawks led 39-31 to the 9:31 mark of the second half when a Jake Hall 3-pointer made it 66-51, Lobos.

No bull: It's bull riding time

As I was pounding away on my laptop in the Pit media room on Tuesday night, the sounds of fork lifts, front end loaders, work crews and more were buzzing on the Pit ramp, breaking down the court and starting the prep of the PBR Ty Murray Invitational bull riding event that makes its highly-popular stop in Albuquerque this week.

Initially, it was believed the handover of the Pit to the PBR was going to prevent UNM from hosting a quarterfinal round game, but Assistant AD Matt McKernan (and a lot of people working their tails off to make the overnight transition work so tons of dirt can start getting dumped in first thing Wednesday) and the PBR made it happen, giving the Lobos, and their fans, one last hoops treat on Tuesday night.

And that wasn't something overlooked in the postgame press conference by UNM coach Eric Olen after he thanked fans for showing up for three games the past week.

"Also, in addition to the fans, our administration and all the people who — I'm not even sure I can understand all the work that's going into pushing the rodeo back and and that setup that's allowing us to play here today," Olen said. "We would have been in Philadelphia if they hadn't done that. I think that's part of what makes this place special, is the kind of support that our program gets and the willingness to do anything to help us and put us in position to be successful.

"So we couldn't be more appreciative of another opportunity to play here at home. Not every place in the country is going to make that effort to get us a home game here and not have to fly across the country. This was a community effort to get this done, and we just are really appreciative of everyone and all their efforts to make that happen for us."

Rick is Wright!

One last game in the Pit for the season, a return to the NIT semifinals for the first time in 36 years and second in 62 years.

What do all three have in common?

Rick Wright was along for the ride for all three! (well, sort of).

He was a fan of the 64 team as a youngin, writer at the Journal for the 1990 team and has been, to all of our benefit, a pretty regular columnist once again the latter part of this season sharing perspective only he can on a fun Lobos ride to the NIT semifinals.

Here is his column from Tuesday's quarterfinals win:

• WRIGHT: A remarkable season just gets more fun-damental — 'Smart wins,' as Olen put it

I love what Olen said in the postgame presser, as an answer to Rick's question about where in overall recruiting picture he and his staff place the importance of fundamentals.

"We’re always looking for that. 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."

Uriah finding ways

The statline wasn't as glowing has the last couple games for Uriah Tenette, but make no mistake he was still playing high-level point guard on Tuesday night.

He had seven points, four rebounds, drew five fouls, one assist, one turnover and one steal.

And this beauty of an and-1...

Steve Kirkland Stat of the Night

In this edition of the world famous Steve Kirkland Stat of the Night...

Tomislav Buljan's 27 points and Jake Hall's 24 combined for 51. That is the most points by a Lobo duo in a postseason tournament (NCAA or NIT) since 1987 when Hunter Greene (29) and Kelvin Scarborough (29) combined for 58 in a first-round NIT loss to Oregon State.

Pit stop for two former Lobos

Lobo legend Donovan Dent, who took a pit stop this season at UCLA, made a more fitting Pit stop on Tuesday night and was at the Lobos game.

UNM honored him during a first-half media timeout as new Athletic Director Ryan Berryman presented him with his 2025 Mountain West championship ring from last year.

UNM Lobo legend Donovan Dent, who took a pit stop this season at UCLA, is taking a more natural Pit stop tonight in ABQ where AD @RyanDBerryman just presented him with a 2025 Mountain West championship ring. pic.twitter.com/MdB3T3IR85

— Geoff Grammer (@GeoffGrammer) March 25, 2026

Braden Appelhans, Dent's close friend and former Lobo teammate, was also at the game and was given his championship ring by UNM earlier in the day.

UNM chose not to do a public ceremony for him at the game because Appelhans, who played at Drake this past season, has another year of eligibility and has announced he plans to enter the transfer portal when it opens April 7 and UNM did not want any potential compliance issues to come up as a result.

He said it

Saint Joseph's head coach Steve Donahue on the Pit:

"I think I've been here five times. I was here as an assistant at Penn, head coach at Cornell, head coach at Penn, and now. I told them, it's arguably the best — outside of, I love the Palestra (Penn's home arena in Philadelphia, known as the "CaCathedral of College Basketball"). Part of the Pit's charm is the people are nuts about Lobo basketball. That's part of it. And then I talked about the Final Four game here, Jim Valvano running around after they beat Phi Slamma Jamma and all the history.

"And obviously it hurts right now. It stings that we lost. But they're going to remember that experience."

Faces in the crowd

I love zooming in on crowd shots at sporting events and seeing what I can find, what reactions are caught on people's faces, who's looking at their phones, or whatever. I'm a dork like that, but it's fun and me and my 6-year-old daughter enjoy it.

So, I thought I'd share one from Tuesday's game for no journalistic reason whatsoever. (this does require some zooming in, so good luck with that depending on what device you're reading this ETN).

Attendance...

The announced attendance for Tuesday's Saint Joseph's at New Mexico NIT game in the Pit: 8,054

UNM Lobos's three NIT games:

• 9,207 — Sunday vs. George Washington

• 8,054 — Tuesday vs. Saint Joseph's

• 7,286 — Last Wednesday vs. Sam Houston

That's a three game total of 24,547. The 23 other games in the NIT thus far (there are two quarterfinal games on Wednesday) have had total of 54,644.

NIT attendance comparison

• 8,182 — UNM 3-game NIT average

• 2,376 — NIT's other 23 games average

Series notes

The Lobos now lead the Hawks 2-1, all-time. All three games have been played in the Pit, and here's a look at the previous two, both of which were in the now defunct Lobo Invitational:

• Dec. 19, 1969 — UNM 78, Saint Joseph’s 77: Lobo legend Willie Long went off for 36 points, 10 rebounds and hit 14 of 16 free throws, and they needed every one of them to hold off the combined 55 points scored by Saint Joseph's dynamic one-two punch of Dan Kelly (27 points, four rebounds) and Mike Hauer (28 points, 13 rebounds).

• Dec. 30, 1999 – Saint Joseph’s 81, UNM 76: Four Hawks scored in double figures, led by 17 from Marvin O'Connor, who hit four of Saint Joseph’s 11 3-pointers to beat first-year Lobos coach Fran Fraschilla's squad. UNM hit 26 of 38 2-point shots (68.4%) but just 3 of 17 3-pointers (17.6%) and squandered a 10-point halftime lead and a 20-point, eight-rebound, three-blocked shot game from Damion Walker.

Plus/minus...

Here are the plus/minus numbers for Tuesday's game with minutes in parenthesis:

NEW MEXICO

• +20 Tomislav Buljan (31:33)

• +12 Jake Hall (37:55)

• +12 Uriah Tenette (34:27)

• +11 Deyton Albury (15:13)

• +10 Antonio Chol (14:47)

• +10 Tajavis Miller (19:20)

• +6 Luke Haupt (34:35)

• -1 Timeo Pons (3:43)

• -5 JT Rock (8:27)

SAINT JOSEPH'S

• +3 Jaden Smith (5:37)

• +3 Khaafiq Myers (23:54)

• 0 Jaiden Glover-Toscano (28:26)

• -1 Mekai Johnson (00:43)

• -6 Dasear Haskins (30:59)

• -13 Justice Ajogbor (32:26)

• -15 Anthony Finkley (13:31)

• -18 Derek Simpson (37:16)

• -28 Austin Williford (27:08)

Line 'em up...

The UNM Lobos played nine players and used 13 unique lineup combinations on Tuesday. The Hawks played nine players and used 14 unique lineup combinations.

Here's a look at some of the Lobos lineup combinations, starting with the starters.

STARTING LINEUP

• WHO: Uriah Tenette, Deyton Albury, Jake Hall, Luke Haupt, Tomislav Buljan

• POINT DIFFERENTIAL: +7 (27-20)

• TIME ON COURT: 9:40

• NOTE: Deyton Albury was back in the starting lineup and so, too, was the Lobos super fast start to the game (and the second half). Three of the team's 10 turnovers wasn't great by the starters, but three steals, four assists, efficient offense — it was a good run for the starters, for sure.

BEST LINEUP

• WHO: Uriah Tenette, Jake Hall, Tajavis Miller, Luke Haupt, Tomislav Buljan

• POINT DIFFERENTIAL: +6 (21-15)

• TIME ON COURT: 9:00

• NOTE: I went with this combination as the "best" of the game even though this and the starting five were both quite good for essentially 19 of the 40 minutes of the game. This grouping didn't have any turnovers, though, and was scoring at a 1.35 points per possession clip, so I gave it the nod, but really we're splitting hairs. The only difference here between the starters and this group was Tajavis Miller in here for the ailing Deyton Albury, who started and played well despite that illness.

WORST LINEUP

• WHO: Uriah Tenette, Jake Hall, Tajavis Miller, Luke Haupt, JT Rock

• POINT DIFFERENTIAL: -4 (2-6)

• TIME ON COURT: 1:50

• NOTE: Not a ton of court time here, but it was enough to see that the offense wasn't clicking with this group. Any sample size under two minutes isn't worth looking too deeply at.

AND THEM?

• NOTE: The Hawks' starting five, which has played a ton of minutes in the past week of NIT games, looked like a group that had played a ton of minutes in the past week. Saint Joseph's starting five — Derek Simpson, Dasear Haskins, Jaiden Glover-Toscano, Justice Ajogbor and Austin Williford — was outscored 28-18 in the 10:23 they shared the court together. In that time, more than 25% of the game, they had four turnovers, scored under a point per possession and allowed UNM's quick starts to both halves.

VIDEO: UNM coach/players; St. Joe's coach/players

Here's the postgame press conference with UNM coach Eric Olen, Lobo players Tomislav Buljan and Luke Haupt, Saint Joseph's coach Steve Donahue and Hawks players Derek Simpson and Justice Ajogbor:

Pregame from the Pit

Here's a look back at the pregame show, for those interested in watching/hearing how wrong I probably was about everything that was about to happen in the game.

Around the NIT

Here are the quarterfinal NIT scores and schedule:

TUESDAY

• Tulsa 83, Wichita State 79

• New Mexico 84, Saint Joseph's 69

WEDNESDAY

• Illinois State at Dayton, 5 p.m. MT (ESPN2)

• Nevada at Auburn, 7 p.m. MT (ESPN2)

Stats and stats...

Here is the postgame stat sheet I posted after Tuesday's game: New Mexico 84, Saint Joseph's 69

And if you prefer the digital version, here you go: New Mexico 84, Saint Joseph's 69

So long, Pit...

It was a 17-3 season in the Pit for the UNM Lobos. Not bad. Not the best ever, but not bad at all and getting a chance for the team and fans to do a unique one-week, three-game send off they way things turned out with the three NIT wins was pretty special, too.

And, for the last time this season, video of the second half light show, something that's become a cool little UNM tradition in the Pit (they do it at University Stadium, too, but the Pit version is the best, even here when it was 8K in attendance and not the more customary 14K of the regular season.

Reach Geoff Grammer at ggrammer@abqjournal.com or follow him on Twitter (X) @GeoffGrammer.