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Lobo hoops notebook: First game of Olen era announced, Amzil signs pro deal and more
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The first glimpse of the new-look Lobos in game action will come Oct. 30 in the Pit against Northern Arizona.
The exhibition game will be followed up in the 2026-27 season with NAU — the season opener for the Lobos — also in the Pit, on Nov. 10, 2026.
UNM has not played the Lumberjacks in a regular season game since 2009, but has played NAU — in Albuquerque and in Flagstaff — multiple times over the past decade in closed-door scrimmages.
In the last regular season game on Dec. 16, 2009, the Lobos beat the Lumberjacks 91-57, led by six players scoring in double figures: Roman Martinez (17), Phillip McDonald (14), Dairese Gary (11), Jamal Fenton (11) and Curtis Dennis (10). That season’s Mountain West Player of the Year, Darington Hobson, had to settle for just nine points, nine assists, five rebounds and a steal.
The Lobos improved to 11-0 with the win.
And for the real nostalgia junkies, the officiating crew that night was David Hall, Kelly Self and Rick Hartzell, who also happened to be a finalist for the UNM Athletic Director job the year the university hired Paul Krebs.
Amzil’s deal
Former UNM Lobo forward Mustapha Amzil just signed his first professional contract.
The 6-foot-9 Amzil, from Finland and of Moroccan decent, has signed with KB Trepca basketball club in Mitrovica, Kosovo — the back-to-back champions in the Kosovo Basketball Superleague.
In two seasons at UNM, Amzil played 67 with 34 starts and averaged 8.8 points, 4.4 rebounds and 1.0 made 3-pointers per game on 29.0% shooting from beyond the arc.
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He may not be the last Amzil to play in the Pit, either.
Abdullah Amzil, Mustapha’s 6-7 younger brother, last month signed to play college basketball at UC Davis, who will be joining the Mountain West — in all sports other than football — starting in the 2026-27 season.
New podcast interview
Episode 112 of the Talking Grammer podcast, a conversation with new UNM Lobo assistant coach Mikey Howell, is available on the Journal’s YouTube page or wherever you get your podcasts.
In Episode 112 of the Talking Grammer podcast, I catch up with new UNM Lobos assistant coach Mikey Howell, a former point guard at UC San Diego who played for new Lobos head coach Eric Olen and for the past three seasons also coached under him at UCSD. It's the fifth and final episode in a five-part series with the new Lobo assistant coaches.
Howell, the older brother of Lobo senior guard Chris Howell, talks about his success as a player under Olen as the lead point guard of a 2020 UC San Diego team that was 30-1 and the favorite to be the 2020 Division II National Champion before the tournament was cancelled due to COVID.
This is the fifth and final episode of a series of assistant coach podcasts by the Journal. Find all episodes of Talking Grammer, including conversations with new Lobo assistants Tom Tankelwicz (Episode 104), Michael Wilder (106), Sam Stapleton (108), Mike Roberts (111) and Howell (112) by searching “Talking Grammer podcast” on YouTube or any major podcast platform.
Odds & ends...
• On May 26, the Journal reported about Brandon Mason Jr., a junior-to-be at Albuquerque’s ABC Prep school, going from former Lobo ball boy to now being offered a scholarship by the UNM Lobos.
Monday, Mason’s former Lobo ball boy partner-in-crime, Lyris Robinson, a rising junior guard at Bella Vista College Prep in Scottsdale, Arizona, announced he also received an offer from the Lobos.
Brandon Mason Jr. is the son of former NMSU Aggie player and Lobo assistant Brandon Mason. Lyris Robinson is the son of former Lobo assistant Jerome Robinson. Both of the young recruits have more than a dozen major scholarship offers from Division I programs and are two of the best prospects in the southwest in the Class of 2027.
• Former NMSU Aggie Pascal Siakam, now playing for the appropriately named Indiana Pacers, has been selected to drive the honorary pace car at Sunday’s Brickyard 400 NASCAR event at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway.
• Former Colorado State Ram and current Sacramento King guard Nique Clifford this week was named to the All NBA Summer League first team.
