Lobo basketball: How quickly fans forget preseason struggles of past years

In March 2023, the UNM Lobo men’s basketball team ended a decade-long postseason drought.

That second-year Richard Pitino squad — one that was picked fifth in the preseason Mountain West poll and boasted a starting five of Jaelen House, Jamal Mashburn Jr., Javonte Johnson, Josiah Allick and Morris Udeze with guards K.J. Jenkins and Donovan Dent coming off the bench — won 22 games and got invited to play in the NIT.

But the team certainly didn’t set the world on fire in October that season, going 1-1 with a win over a Division II team in the Pit and a loss — yes, a loss — to a Northern Arizona team in a scrimmage.

“This was very beneficial,” Pitino told the Journal after the Oct. 15, 2022, loss to NAU. “I wish we were allowed to do four or five of these.”

Of course, Lobo fans had other heartbreak that day as the UNM football team lost at New Mexico State, 21-9.

In 2025, with UNM football being a long-awaited fall success story, some Lobo fans seem to be diving in head first focusing their frustrations on a Lobo basketball team that also was also picked fifth in the preseason Mountain West poll and also went 1-1 in October preseason games.

The difference, however, is this version has an entirely new coaching staff, an entirely new roster of players and actually beat Northern Arizona, 64-54, in the Pit on Thursday night.

Still, there is some uneasiness about coach Eric Olen’s squad and much of that revolves around a team that, by design, fires up far more 3-pointers than Lobo fans are used to and, over the past eight days, missed a ton of those 3-pointers.

Give the new guy a chance seems to be the reasonable approach to a — doublechecks notes — win in his first game in the Pit. On the other hand, even the new guy shared in some of that frustration from Thursday night.

“I thought we really struggled. I thought our shot selection, we regressed,” Olen said after the 10-point win.

“I was hoping we’d take a step, but I thought we regressed in that area.” UNM lost its first preseason game, 74-66, at Washington State last week.

Olen is the architect of highly respected and unique offensive and defensive schemes — which helped the UC San Diego Tritons make it to the NCAA Tournament last season — and his first two exhibition games at UNM offered the coach 80 total minutes to see what combinations of players performed best against opponents who weren’t wearing the same jerseys.

“Not everybody plays the way that we play,” Olen said. “With a group that — they’ve all played a lot of basketball, but we haven’t played together. And because we’ve just been practicing against each other ... we feel like we’re getting close to learning all we can learn in practice.

“That’s why these exhibitions are really valuable for us, because we’re getting to see them in a variety of combinations against schemes and coverages that we don’t see as much.”

About that crowd

Relative to Lobo fan expectations, Thursday’s announced crowd of 9,728 — which was in reality was closer to about 6,500 fans — was a disappointment.

Relative to the expectations of the new Lobo players, coaches and, well, basically most of college basketball (remember, the Lobos played last Saturday in Pullman, Washington, in front of a generously announced 670 fans), Thursday night’s crowd was not just decent, but very good for a weeknight exhibition.

“It’s amazing. It’s more people than I’ve ever seen in a gym in a home game for me wherever I’ve been at,” Lobo senior guard Chris Howell said. “... It truly means a lot to me. Truly means a lot to the guys in the locker room. So we really appreciate all the fans.”

Added Olen: “It was fun. I think everybody was excited about it. And to kind of finally get a taste of that, and to feel the Lobo Nation a little bit, it was a lot of fun for all of us, and we’re excited to build on it and can’t wait to get started with the regular season.”

Kids get in free

Like UNM did for five of six UNM Lobo football home games this season, it is offering a kids 12-and-under-get-in-free promotion for next Saturday’s afternoon basketball game against UT-Arlington.

The promotion varies slightly between venues. For football games, the purchase of an adult general admission seat to the north end zone section comes with two free children’s tickets in that section. For basketball games, there are specific, assigned seating options, largely because there isn’t an entire section to assign for such a promotion in the Pit.

So, fans wanting to take advantage of the promotion, which allows for up to two free children’s tickets to the UTA game (2 p.m. start on Nov. 8), must visit a specific link at GoLobos.com and choose from the available seats.