Lobo basketball: UNM schedules home and home exhibition series with Washington State

They won’t meet up as conference foes, but the UNM Lobos and Washington State Cougars will play.

In a home-and-home men’s basketball exhibition series, anyway.

According to a copy of the contract reviewed by the Journal, the series will include an Oct. 25 exhibition in Pullman, Washington, home of the Pac-12 Cougars, and a return exhibition in the Pit in October 2026.

It will be the first game of the Eric Olen coaching era for the Lobos, who also have an Oct. 4 Lobo Howl intrasquad event scheduled in the Pit for fans to get their first glimpse at the team and an Oct. 30 exhibition in the Pit against Northern Arizona.

The regular season starts Nov. 5 in the Pit.

The Washington State exhibition fills the final vacancy on UNM’s schedule — one of two preseason contests that the NCAA mandates be either an exhibition game open to the public that follows standard game rules or a closed-door scrimmage that allows for coaches to have some control over altering the style of play or format.

The Lobos had a closed door scrimmage scheduled for October against Santa Clara, but the two schools instead transitioned that into a home-and-home regular season series that begins this season with a Dec. 6 game in the Pit.

The NCAA now allows for Division I teams to play other Division I teams in the preseason. Previously, such games were allowed only in the regular season or postseason, in closed-door scrimmages or in exhibitions approved by the NCAA that had a charitable component.

This October features dozens of top-level Division I schools playing each other in exhibition games, including games with local interest as UCLA and former Lobo point guard Donovan Dent playing at San Diego State on Oct. 17 and Murray State, coached now by former UNM Lobo assistant Ryan Miller, playing at Xavier, coached by former Lobo head coach Richard Pitino, on Oct. 18.

Other notable exhibitions

Here are some of the notable DI exhibition games in October, many of which have been reported by CBS Sports’ Jon Rothstein:

• Grand Canyon at Baylor, Oct. 10 (Bryce Drew coaching against brother Scott Drew)
• North Dakota State at Minnesota, Oct. 16
• UCLA at San Diego State, Oct. 17
• Iowa State at Creighton, Oct. 17
• Nevada at Utah, Oct. 17
• Saint Mary’s at Arizona, Oct. 18
• Murray State at Xavier, Oct. 18
• BYU at Nebraska, Oct. 18
• UNLV at Washington, Oct. 19
• VCU at Villanova, Oct. 19
• Kansas at Louisville, Oct. 24
• North Carolina at BYU, Oct. 24
• New Mexico at Washington State, Oct. 25
• Michigan at St. Johns, Oct. 25
• Colorado State at Creighton, Oct. 25
• USC at Grand Canyon, Oct. 25
• UC Irvine at UCLA, Oct. 28