Lobos' fresh start includes freshmen coming up big

Jake Hall scored 3,106 points in high school in California. Uriah Tenette scored 2,752 points in high school in Arizona.

Maybe we shouldn’t have been so surprised that their matching 14-point games in Wednesday’s season opening win over East Texas A&M marked just the first time a freshman, never mind two of them, led the Lobos in scoring in a season opener in nearly two decades. The last time it happened was when Jonathan Wills scored 13 points on Nov. 9, 2007, on the road at Colorado in the first UNM game coached by Steve Alford.

Then again, the pair had committed to Eric Olen and UC San Diego before their senior seasons of high school — a move that doesn’t exactly lead to recruiting ranking services putting a bunch of stars next to your name no matter how good a senior season you have.

“We’re not worried necessarily about age as much as are they good players (with) the right mentality and approach to the game,” said Olen.

“Do they fit what we’re trying to do? I think that it’s nice to have a balance (in experience on the roster). I think we have some older guys, as well, who are who are playing good basketball. So, I like the way our team complements each other, and I’m confident we’re going to continue to improve throughout.”

Hall got the start in his college debut and showed he’s more than just a 3-point shooter (he did hit two 3s, but also had four 2s including a pair of low-post moves that made the team’s highlight clips posted on social media).

Tenette added five assists and three steals off the bench and was dubbed “MVP” for the game on KenPom.com, a distinction that site’s algorithm automatically places on the player who had the best statistical impact.

Throw in Wednesday’s eight-point, 15-rebound game from Tomislav Buljan, a nontraditional freshman who is 22 year old and has played professionally in Croatia, and the Lobos have three first-time college players who are already major contributors.

And they’ve long since won over their veteran teammates.

“Oh, man, it’s great. Those guys are insane,” senior guard Tajavis Miller, who scored 11 points off the bench Wednesday, said when asked about the impact of the freshmen. “You guys haven’t even seen half of it. It’s a lot more that they could do — that I’m excited for them to do and just be able to show you guys what they got.”

Speaking of youngins

UNM has a kids-get-in-free promotion Saturday, allowing patrons to get up to two free general admission tickets for kids 12-and-under with the purchase of an adult ticket.

Olen noted such promotions seem inline with the school’s approach to keeping Lobo basketball as a tradition that spans generations.

“I love that we’re having promotions to get more kids in the building,” Olen said earlier in the week. “One of the first things we did when we got here was a youth camp and had all our players there, meeting some of the younger Lobo fans.

“This is a generational fan base. There’s so many people that I’ve met who have said, ‘I’ve been coming since ….’ I just think that’s really unique and special. This is a way to kind of keep that going and make sure that we don’t lose that generational nature to the fan base, because I think it’s really, really special.”

Series notables

UNM leads the all-time series against UTA 5-0. Four of those wins have been particularly notable.

Most recently, Donovan Dent took the ball coast-to-coast for a game-winning layup in the final seconds for an 82-80 win Nov. 16, 2023, in the Pit.

And back in the 1990 Lobo Classic, UNM won 136-99, scoring a program record for points vs. a Division I opponent (and they did it hitting 2-of-8 3-pointers). In that game, Lobo Vladimir McCrary scored 35 points and pulled down 13 rebounds; Luc Longley had 24 points on 12-of-12 shooting to go along with five assists and six blocked shots and not one, but two Lobos — Jimmy Taylor and Ike Williams — each dished out 10 assists (UNM had 40 in the game).

Who are these voices?

Saturday’s game has been picked up by the Altitude Sports network out of Colorado. Wednesday’s game was also picked up the network and aired on Altitude 2. Saturday’s will be on the primary Altitude network.

The broadcasts have moved UNM’s primary basketball radio team of Robert Portnoy and Hunter Greene off radio and over to TV while UNM’s primary women’s basketball announcer, J.J. Buck, will lead Saturday’s radio call with former Lobo Daniel Faris as analyst.

Noncon success

The strength of schedule is what it is. But there’s no questions the Lobos are also handling their business against nonconference opponents over the past few seasons when the transfer portal world and high roster turnover seems to be leading to more big upsets (see Boise State, UNLV and Fresno State all this week).

UNM’s nonconference winning percentage since the 2022-23 season is .894 — fifth best among Division I’s 365 teams. The Lobos, 34-4 in that stretch, trail only Purdue (31-3, .912), Oklahoma (36-4, .900), Mississippi State (36-4, .900), and Utah State (36-4, .900).

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