'His offense is the wave of the future': Olen impresses New Mexico's prep coaches

The University of New Mexico men’s basketball fan base probably would have forked over good money to spend time inside this particular room at the Albuquerque Convention Center.

With an array of the heaviest hitters among the state’s high school basketball coaches providing a rapt audience, new Lobo coach Eric Olen was a popular guest speaker at the New Mexico High School Coaches Association’s annual conference.

Over the course of 75 minutes on Friday morning, the easygoing Olen spoke at length and in detail about how the Lobo men are going to look come next season, outlining many of the specific offensive concepts UNM will feature in the Olen era.

Bottom line, the Lobos expect to be one of the highest-scoring teams in the country.

“A lot of this stuff comes from Europe, believe it or not,” said Volcano Vista’s Greg Brown, coach of the four-time defending Class 5A boys state champions. “It’s European-style basketball. The pace, the spacing, and like, the NBA now is leaning toward this style of play. It’s gonna be fun to watch. It’ll have a nice flow to the game.”

A near standing-room-only group of roughly 200 coaches heard Olen repeatedly stress the importance of UNM winning the points-per-possession metric.

He discussed how the Lobos will attack space. He illustrated their variety of ball screens. He talked about the necessity of rim pressure from UNM’s guards and offensive and defensive rebounding percentages per minutes played.

If you were into analytics, this was most certainly the place to be, and it offered a rare chance for a large number of already accomplished New Mexico prep coaches to become students.

Volcano’s Brown was one of a handful of multiple-time state champion coaches in the room as Olen, with the help of slides and video, described and visualized UNM concepts.

“He’s an outstanding speaker, and he hit some spots and brought up some good points that I didn’t even think about,” Hobbs girls coach Joe Carpenter said. Carpenter took copious notes throughout Olen’s appearance. “We run similarities to what he runs, and he gave us a few different actions, and I think that will improve our team.”

It is obvious UNM and Olen will be a high-scoring bunch, and the new Lobo leader laid out some of the basic tenets of his blueprint with a hint of self-deprecating humor.

“We’re gonna space the floor. That’s a path to being efficient offensively,” he told the coaches.

And he reiterated what he’s already said since being hired: This Lobo team is going to launch 3-pointers. Often.

“He has a method to his madness,” Highland girls coach Lonnie Neal said. “I think he’s gonna be great. Our fans, they love offense.”

And the state’s coaches were impressed by the newcomer.

“He’s wanting to give back to the coaches of New Mexico, and that’s the cool part,” longtime Eldorado boys coach Roy Sanchez said, and he also echoed Volcano Vista’s Brown’s thoughts on Olen’s offensive schemes.

“His offense is the wave of the future,” Sanchez said. “Five out, no real permanent post guys playing free basketball, not a lot of set plays.”

And this point, Olen made clear: He prefers to lay the conceptual groundwork and then set his players loose within that framework during a game.

“It’s not based on going from Point A to Point B, and being so rigid,” Sandia Prep boys coach Damian Segura said. “He gives players the freedom to make decisions within a structure. That’s when you get the best results, when the players have ownership.”

Segura, like most, found Olen’s presentation compelling.

“It’s not just predicated on getting the best players, but building a program with sustained concepts and fundamentals and being able to build that from the ground up,” he said.

Olen’s approach had something else coaches found appealing.

“He’s a real guy,” Brown said. “Like, you can connect with him. His humility is refreshing. And you can tell he’s a basketball guy. He knows how to communicate, he knows how to teach. He’s pretty step-by-step oriented.”

Olen afterward said part of the transition from coaching at the UC San Diego to moving to Albuquerque is networking, which was partly what Friday was also about.

“Honestly, I was excited to be here and meet some of the coaches, and have them hear about how we think about (basketball),” he said. “And try to develop some relationships.”