Emptying the Notebook: Lobos flash big-big wrinkle with Buljan, Rock on court together in blowout

Here are some notes, quotes, stats, trends and other odds & ends I emptied out of the old notebook after Tuesday's 98-61 UNM Lobos win over the Air Force Falcons in the Pit:

Some big-big news

JT Rock gave a curious answer Monday to a reporter's question that had been posed a few times, at least, earlier in the season to his head coach.

What if the 7-foot-1 redshirt sophomore was ever on the court at the same time as UNM's only other big man, starting 6-9 forward Tomislav Buljan? Could that particular two-man combination ever happen for the Lobos — a pairing that through the first 25 games hadn't occurred even once this season?

"I mean, I think it could be good, but I'm not necessarily in charge of that decision," Rock said. "So, I mean, I think it could be good, but we'll kind of go with what the coaches think and try and win any way we can."

Eric Olen, the first-year Lobos coach, had basically shot down the notion of the two bigs playing together all season as something that just wasn't going to fit into what the Lobos do, not to mention a lack of other big men create concerns of foul trouble arising by them overlapping minutes.

As it turned out, Rock's answer — one in which in hind sight now seems as though he was trying not to say the wrong thing — stopped short of telling reporters on Monday that with the weekend "bye" in the Lobos schedule (they hadn't played since last Wednesday's road win at Grand Canyon), the team has been trying Rock and Buljan together in practice.

Then came the 6:50 mark of the first half of Tuesday night's 98-61 blowout win over Air Force.

When Rock checked in the game after a media timeout with the Lobos leading 32-25, Buljan did something he hadn't done all season. He didn't sit down on the bench.

For the first time all season, the big-big combination was on the court together, albeit against a struggling Air Force team that might not be the best litmus test of success or failure of any lineup combination at the moment.

Nevertheless, the big-big lineup did, statistically, net some positive feedback on the scoreboard. The two big men were on the court for two stretches — on in the first half, one in the second — for a total of 6 minutes, 42 seconds. The Lobos outscored Air Force by seven points in that time. That's basically about the same as the rest of the game, which was basically about a 40-point win in a 40-minute game.

Usually, the Lobos play a four or even five out offensive system that having two big men on the floor at the same time might tend to cause some clogging inside on offense or some problems on the perimeter defensively if one of the bigs was asked to guard a smaller, faster player rather than the other team's center. And in the Mountain West, there are very few teams playing with the traditional center/power forward type combination.

So, what was Olen's takeaway from the experiment?

"I thought they did some good things," Olen said. "I think we got to look at the film to really see which of the aspects of that work the way we wanted to or didn't. With kind of the way (Air Force has) been playing, with playing a lot of two bigs, we felt like it was an opportunity to kind of match them. Then one of those guys (Caleb Walker, out injured) wasn't available. But Tomislav is a pretty versatile defender, so we just sort of stuck to our plan, regardless."

Buljan slid to the "4" spot and Rocked manned the middle at the "5".

And it was something we may see again, at least some this season.

"Yeah. We want to be multiple in how we can play, and if there's an opportunity where it makes sense and we think it can help us — I think it's good that we've at least kind of done it with the lights on," Olen said. "We had a little break here (no game over the weekend), so we got a little time to practice. That's hard to come by in the course of the season, because you're always just kind of preparing for the next game. So being able to take two days and really practice and focus on ourselves gives us an opportunity to potentially look at different lineups, work on different potential solutions for what's ahead."

Lobo point guard Deyton Albury, said he likes the idea of the big-big line up being a wrinkle for the Lobos moving forward.

"I kind of like the big-big lineup. Not much teams in the conference has big-big lineups, so I feel like there's an advantage there," Albury said. "The way they played in practice, it was actually working good too. I was actually not on that squad. I was on the opposing squad, and the way those guys were rebounding, and just the energy that comes with playing with those two bigs is crazy, so I'd like to see it."

Buljan ended Tuesday's game with seven points and 10 rebounds in 25:18 on the court. Rock had 12 points, was 2-for-2 from 3-point range, grabbed four rebounds, blocked three shots and also fouled out in 18:26 on the court — something Olen might not see as an advantage of the extended minutes for Rock if overlapping time with Buljan leads to foul trouble.

Nevertheless, like the zone defense UNM showed the final 6:33 of last week's win at Grand Canyon after having not played it since a Nov. 20 loss to Nebraska, the Lobos have now given opposing teams something more to throw on the scouting report and spend time on in practice when preparing to play.

The gamer

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

• Lobos roll over Falcons for the second time this season

20 and counting

Tuesday's win makes Eric Olen the fifth coach in Lobo history to reach 20 wins in his debut season at UNM.

Here's a look at the five UNM coaches who had 20 or more wins in their first season, listed here in order of their final record in that debut season:

• 27-7 — Craig Neal (2013-14)
• 24-9 — Steve Alford (2007-08)
• 22-11 — Dave Bliss (1988-89)
• 21-6 — Norm Ellenberger (1972-73)
• 20-6* — Eric Olen (2025-26)

*The Lobos have, at minimum, six more games this season — five in the regular season and at least one Mountain West Tournament game.

Speaking of round numbers

Eric Olen's 20th win as Lobos coach wasn't the only nice round number achieved with Tuesday's Lobos win.

• 20 — Lobo wins this season
• 40 — Lobo wins over Air Force in the Pit (40-3)
• 70 — Lobo wins over Air Force all-time (70-27)

Chol on a roll

Antonio Chol didn't score in double figures for six-consecutive games between Jan. 21 and Feb. 7, including a three game stretch of just 4 points (at San Jose State), 2 points (vs. Utah State) and 4 points (vs. Boise State).

Through it all, Olen repeatedly had his back, telling reporters asking about the 6-foot-9 junior guard's scoring struggles that he was doing everything asked of him. Chol was taking the shots he was supposed to in order to make the offense work, they just happened to not be going in.

Well, last Wednesday at Grand Canyon (12 points and a pair of first half 3-pointers) the shots fell. And Tuesday vs. Air Force (20 points, five made 3-pointers), they were falling again.

And what did Chol do in the postgame press conference when I asked him about breaking out of that funk he was in? He made sure he shouted out the guys who had his back through it all.

"I really congratulate the staff, especially on Coach Olen and Tank (assistant coach Tom Tankelewicz)," Chol said of his recent big games. "They really kept my confidence high, even when I wasn't making shots. ... I just congratulate them so much because I don't think I could have had this breakthrough without them."

Chol's Tuesday stats:

• Points: 20 (season high)
• 3-pointers: 5-10 (season high for makes)
• Rebounds: 5
• Assists: 1
• Turnovers: 0
• Steals: 1
• Blocked shots: 0

Speaking of that blocked shot, did you see the excellent, right place at the right time photo from the great Mike Sandoval for the Journal?

Steve Kirkland Stat of the Night

UNM hoops Sports Information Director Steve Kirkland passed along a gem after Tuesday's game. I was even teasing it on social media, I was so impressed with his digging this one up.

Tuesday's win, coupled with the Lobos win at the U.S. Air Force Academy last month, gives UNM the largest season sweep in Mountain West history, by point differential.

Largest season sweeps in Mountain West history

• 79 points — New Mexico vs. Air Force in 2025-26 (won 91-49 in Clune; won 98-61 at The Pit)
• 78 points — Utah State vs. San Jose State in 2020-21 (both games in Logan, 107-62 and 85-52)
• 72 points — Colorado State vs. Nevada in 2014-15 (won 98-42 at Moby and 78-62 in Lawlor)

While that was the largest sweep in Mountain West history, it's just second largest in UNM history with a somewhat surprising opponent being at the business end of a WAC sweep in the 90s.

Largest home-and-home sweeps in UNM history

• 84 points — vs. BYU in 1996-97 (won 74-32 at The Pit; won 90-48 in Provo)
• 79 points — vs. Air Force in 2025-26 (won 91-49 in Clune; won 98-61 at The Pit)
• 73 points — vs. NMSU in 1964-65 (won 86-38 at Johnson Gym; won 62-37 in Las Cruces)

Frank Mercogliano Stat of the Night

Frank got in on the action, too. He pointed out this gem on the halftime stat sheet:

Air Force had five rebounds in the first half — two offensive boards and three defensive rebounds.

Of those three defensive rebounds, two were on missed free throw attempts by the Lobos and one, at the 8:26 mark of the half, was off a missed Antonio Chol 3-pointer.

That means of the nine missed shots the Lobos had in the first half, Air Force rebounded one.

ONE!

That means UNM had eight offensive rebounds on nine missed shots in the half, which is absolutely insane.

If the Lobos didn't have five first half turnovers, or miss four free throws, they could have had 70 points over the first 20 minutes because Air Force wasn't exactly able to close out any possessions by securing rebounds.

By game's end, eight Lobos had multiple rebounds, including point guard Deyton Albury with a season-high nine.

"We always want everybody to rebound," Olen said. "But they were missing their two best defensive rebounders. So once we kind of knew those two guys were out in (Eli) Robinson and (Caleb) Walker, we just felt like we had a potential for real advantage there. And so we did emphasize really trying to go to the glass."

Holm, sweet Holm

Albuquerque's own Holly Holm is always welcome in the Pit. And the former UFC and multi-time boing champion got a nice warm welcome when introduced in the second half of Tuesday's game.

Of course I noticed since the infamous 2024 Flex Cam showdown between Holly and I, the good folks at UNM haven't put us on the flex cam again during the same game. I get it. Why embarrass the champ like that?

Speaking of champs

Bullriding legend and New Mexico Sports Hall of Famer Ty Murray was also on hand Tuesday in the Pit helping a fan out with a roping promotion during a timeout.

Half the story

UNM's 67.9% shooting clip in the first half (19-of-28) was the program's best shooting percentage for a half since hitting 22-of-30 shots (73.3%) in the second half against Houston Baptist on Dec. 22, 2019.

The Lobos scored 55 points in the first half Tuesday, 61 in that 2019 second half vs. Houston Baptist and won that game, 107-88.

3s Company

The Lobos are hitting 3-pointers lately like ... well, like we all thought they might all season, but that wasn't really what they were doing much of the first couple months. Not like this, anyway.

Tuesday, UNM hit 15-of-31 (48.4%) 3-pointers against Air Force, a season high for made 3s vs. a Division I opponent (they also hit 19 vs New Mexico Highlands).

That's double digit 3-pointers made in nine of the team's past 12 games.

And since that dreadful 3-for-13 showing in the blowout home loss to the Utah State Aggies, the Lobos have been on a particularly efficient heater — knocking down the triples without taking a disproportionate amount of them.

Lobos 3-point shooting past three games

• 15-31 (48.4%) — 98-61 win vs. Air Force
• 9-16 (56.3%) — 70-64 win at Grand Canyon
• 11-24 (45.8%) — 91-90 loss to Boise State
• 35-71 (49.3%) — PAST THREE GAMES

The national average on 3-point shooting is 33.9%

And it's not just Jake hall doing it, though he was a nice 3-of-6 from deep in the win. Seven Lobos hit at least one 3-pointer and Antonio Chol's 5-of-10 led the charge.

The four Lobos with multiple made 3s on Tuesday were Chol (five), Hall (three) and Rock and Tajavis Miller with two apiece.

Who are those guys?

For those wondering where Air Force head coach Joe Scott was on Tuesday night, he's been suspended since just prior to the team's Jan. 17 game against Nevada while the Academy investigations his treatment of cadet athletes.

In his place is Interim Head Coach Jon Jordan, left, and Tuesday's in-game head coach (unique set up, I know), Associate Head Coach David Metzendorf.

Lead the way

UNM has had leads of more than 30 points in six games this season, including leading by as many as 42 points in Tuesday's win over Air Force.

No. of games UNM led by 30+ in past decade

• 5* — 2025-26 season
• 3 — 2024-25 season
• 5 — 2023-24 season
• 2 — 2022-23 season
• 0 — 2021-22 season
• 0 — 2020-21 season
• 1 — 2019-20 season
• 2 — 2018-19 season
• 4 — 2017-18 season
• 1 — 2016-17 season

*The Lobos have, at minimum, six more games this season — five in the regular season and at least one Mountain West Tournament game.

Timeo time!

The Lobos' victory cigar, Timeo Pons, got the crowd, and the UNM bench, excited on Tuesday night.

Whenever the 6-foot-9 freshman guard from France gets in the game, no matter the score, you know it's green light time for him.

His defense may still have issues, but nobody is questioning his offense, showing that off again Tuesday with a personal 7-0 run at one point.

Return of the kill shot!

I haven't had an update of my favorite stat in quite awhile, largely because the Lobos sort of took a break from making them happen.

The stat I'm referring to is the "kill shot" — a 10-0 or better scoring run for a team in a game.

Through 15 Mountain West games, the Lobos have had 10 kill shots and have allowed just three. But they had been on a five-game stretch without a single kill shot until last week's road win at Grand Canyon when UNM opened the game with an 11-0 kill shot.

Tuesday, they had another — a 12-0 run in the second half that pushed a 75-47 lead to 87-47 with 4:50 left in the game.

Meanwhile, in the student section...

A student section full of Fatheads and one actual size of yours truly...

Rematches

The Lobos are now 3-1 in rematches this season:

Rematch wins (Game 2 vs. a team)

• San Jose State
• Grand Canyon
• Air Force

Rematch losses (Game 2 vs. a team)

• Boise State

Attendance...

The announced attendance for Tuesday's Air Force at New Mexico game in the Pit: 12,291

Pit games 2025-26:

• 14,639 — Jan. 24 vs. Nevada
• 14,419 — Feb. 4 vs. Utah State
• 14,379 — Feb. 7 vs. Boise State
• 13,763 — Jan. 3 vs. Wyoming
• 13,614 — Dec. 6 vs. Santa Clara
• 12,785 — Dec. 20 vs. San Jose State
• 12,512 — Jan. 13 vs. Grand Canyon
• 12,291 — Tuesday vs. Air Force
• 12,204 — Dec. 14 vs. Florida Gulf Coast
• 12,037 — Nov. 26 vs. Alabama State
• 11,924 — Jan. 21 vs. Fresno State
• 11,689 — Nov. 11 vs. UC Riverside
• 11,513 — Nov. 8 vs. UT Arlington
• 10,726 — Nov. 5 vs. East Texas A&M
• 10,164 — Dec. 1 vs. D-II New Mexico Highlands

Series notes

The Lobos lead the all-time series with Air Force, 70-27. That includes a 40-5 home record and 40-3 in the Pit.

UNM has won its last five games against Air Force.

Plus/minus...

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

NEW MEXICO

• +32 Jake Hall (26:31)
• +31 Luke Haupt (23:44)
• +25 Tomislav Buljan (25:18)
• +24 JT Rock (18:26)
• +23 Deyton Albury (26:57)
• +20 Antonio Chol (26:43)
• +14 Uriah Tenette (23:37)
• +9 Tajavis Miller (20:37)
• +7 Timeo Pons (8:07)

AIR FORCE

• +3 Sam Imade (2:19)
• +3 Brendan Martin (2:19)
• +3 Elliott Taite (2:19)
• +2 Josh Gatete (3:50)
• -17 Justin Hinds (11:52)
• -19 AJ Patterson (16:55)
• -19 Riley Dering (22:07)
• -25 Ethan Greenberg (30:47)
• -25 Kam Sanders (29:40)
• -26 Kolby Giles (24:44)
• -31 Lucas Hobin (30:11)
• -34 Wesley Celichowski (22:57)

Line 'em up...

The UNM Lobos played nine players and used 11 unique lineup combinations on Tuesday. The Falcons played 12 players and used 16 unique lineup combinations.

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

STARTING LINEUP

• WHO: Deyton Albury, Jake Hall, Luke Haupt, Antonio Chol, Tomislav Buljan
• POINT DIFFERENTIAL: +11 (28-17)
• TIME ON COURT: 11:35
• NOTE: Starters go +11 in 11:35 of play and win by nearly 40 ... I may be an Aggie, but even I can tell that's a pretty good pace. 16 of UNM's 48 rebounds came when the starting five was on the floor together and it was that stat more than probably any that sort of defined Tuesday's blowout. Even when UNM would miss, Air Force still couldn't mange to end the possession with a rebound.

BEST LINEUP

• WHO: Deyton Albury, Jake Hall, Luke Haupt, Timeo Pons, Tomislav Buljan
• POINT DIFFERENTIAL: +7 (7-0)
• TIME ON COURT: 2:14
• NOTE: Hey, why isn't Time Pons in the starting lineup with stats like these? (Answer: See the next lineup in this section). For a flash of a couple minutes, it was all Pons, all the time as the scorer from France went on a personal 7-0 scoring run, leading to the Lobos bench going crazy for him.

WORST LINEUP

• WHO: Uriah Tenette, Deyton Albury, Tajavis Miller, Timeo Pons, Antonio Chol
• POINT DIFFERENTIAL: -5 (8-13)
• TIME ON COURT: 2:58
• NOTE: Welp, that was bad. Giving up 13 of Air Force's 61 points in under three minutes of play late in the game is why we're talking about this game as the fourth biggest Mountain West win for the Lobos and not the biggest. This was on pace to be a game with the Falcons in the upper 40s until the closing moments when this lineup let the Falcons get loose a little bit. It's not worth nit-picking too much, but I did just note in my Around the Mountain column on Monday night a couple of occasions late in blowouts where the Lobos let other teams go on mini, seemingly inconsequential runs that didn't affect the outcome, but did diminish, ever so slightly, the potential games they could have had in the computers (I know some people hate that, but it is part of the equation for many of the ratings the NCAA Tournament Selection Committee looks at, so this happening now in three games starts to add up).

AND THEM?

• NOTE: Eh, let's not do this.

VIDEO: Eric Olen, Deyton Albury and Antonio Chol

Here's the postgame presser video with UNM coach Eric Olen, Deyton Albury and Antonio Chol:

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.

Meanwhile, in San Jose...

San Jose State has looked like a team for awhile that was going to, eventually, pick off some good team. Tuesday, they did it against Steve Alford's Nevada Wolf Pack, the team that had been closest on the Lobos' tails in the standings.

SJSU got 29 points and nine assists from Colby Garland in an 87-71 win over the Wolf Pack, closing out the game 23-15 over the final 10 minutes — a stat I noted when the Lobos played them in the bay a few weeks ago as being the biggest weakness during league play because of a lack of depth.

Also, tip of the cap time to Tim Miles for his 50th Mountain West win.

Meanwhile, in San Diego...

You thought the shocker in San Jose was all we were going to point out in this ETN? Ha!

How about Grand Canyon going into Viejas and earning the season sweep of the San Diego State Aztecs with a 73-63 road win, throwing a wrench in that whole two teams are running away with this conference narrative?

Around the Mountain...

There were four games Tuesday in the Mountain West. Here's a look at the league's scores and some upcoming games:

TUESDAY

• Wyoming 92, Fresno State 82
• New Mexico 98, Air Force 61
• San Jose State 87, Nevada 71
• Grand Canyon 73, San Diego State 63

WEDNESDAY

• Boise State at Utah State, 8:30 p.m. MT (FS1)
• Colorado State at UNLV, 9 p.m. MT (CBS Sports Network)

SATURDAY

• UNLV at Air Force, 1 p.m. MT (TheMW)
• San Jose State at Boise State, 2 p.m. MT (TheMW)
• San Diego State at Colorado State, 4 p.m. MT (CBS Sports Network)
• New Mexico at Fresno State, 6 p.m. MT (CBS Sports Network)
• Wyoming at Grand Canyon, 6 p.m. MT (TheMW)
• Utah State at Nevada, 8 p.m. MT (FS1)

Mountain West standings

Here are the conference standings through Tuesday's game:

• 12-2 Utah State
• 12-3 San Diego State
• 11-4 New Mexico
• 10-5 Grand Canyon
• 9-6 Nevada
• 8-6 UNLV
• 7-7 Boise State
• 6-8 Colorado State
• 6-9 Fresno State
• 5-10 Wyoming
• 2-13 San Jose State
• 0-15 Air Force

• • •

Here are the home/road standings through Tuesday's games with road wins counting as a +1 and home losses as a -1:

• +5 Utah State
• +4 San Diego State
• +3 New Mexico
• +3 Grand Canyon
• +2 Nevada
• +1 UNLV
• 0 Boise State
• -1 Colorado State
• -1 Fresno State
• -3 Wyoming
• -6 San Jose State
• -7 Air Force

Stats and stats...

Here is the postgame stat sheet I posted after Tuesday's game: New Mexico 98, Air Force 61

And if you prefer the digital version, here you go: New Mexico 98, Air Force 61

Grammer's Guesses

I go 2-2, the coin goes 2-2.

You might think that means I didn't go home late from Tuesday's game and wake up my unsuspecting daughter to talk trash, but you'd be wrong.

Of course I did. 

SEASON STANDINGS:

• Grammer's Guesses: 49-39
• My daughter's coin: 43-45

Up next

• For New Mexico: The Lobos play at Fresno State on Saturday at 5 p.m. PT/6 p.m. MT in the SaveMart Center. The game will be televised on CBS Sports Network.
• For Air Force: The Falcons hostUNLV on Saturday at 1 p.m. MT. The game will be streamed on TheMW.com.

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