Nelly Junior Joseph, key Lobo basketball transfer, has arrived from Nigeria

Rejoice Lobo fans.

Nelly Junior Joseph, the 6-foot-10 transfer from Iona who has been patiently waiting through a student visa hold-up in his native Nigeria, touched down at the Albuquerque Sunport on Tuesday afternoon and was already walking down the Pit ramp with sneakers on and a basketball on his hip to work out by Tuesday night.

Yes, he’s back.

And just in time for the Thunderwolves of CSU-Pueblo. Junior Joseph is expected to to see minutes in Thursday’s 7 p.m. exhibition opener in the Pit.

Lobo basketball coach Richard Pitino, who has patiently answered numerous questions in recent weeks about the Junior Joseph situation time and again by basically repeating that he simply didn’t know exactly when the new Lobo would be allowed to return to the United States, posted on X (formerly Twitter) at 6:25 p.m. Tuesday a picture of Junior Joseph walking down the ramp — an image that promptly garnered a couple hundred “likes” despite it not saying a word or even indicating who was in the picture.

Junior Joseph posted on his Instagram story feed a video of his slow trip down the Sunport escalator with a picture of Mayor Tim Keller welcoming him on a City of Albuquerque video board with scrolling pictures of the city with the message: “Go Lobos. Ahead. Ahead.” Junior Joseph later posted a video from inside the Rudy Davalos practice facility at UNM with his nameplate lit up above his locker reading: “#23 Nelly Jr Joseph. Edo State, Nigeria.”

His arrival means the Lobos now have their projected starting center for a 2023-24 season in which they are picked to finish third in the preseason Mountain West media poll and are projected by numerous national prognosticators to end a decade-long NCAA Tournament drought.

While the return of preseason all-conference guards Jaelen House and Jamal Mashburn Jr. remains the headline for the team’s season, the addition of several key Division I transfers — maybe most notable of the bunch being Junior Joseph — has catapulted the Lobos back on the national radars for college hoops fans and media around the country.

Unfortunately for the team and for Junior Joseph, who has been both working out and taking online classes all semester and remains fully eligible to play, he’s been away from the team all summer and fall preseason.

In July, he participated in the four-team GLOBL Jam tournament in Toronto. That event featured a host team from Canada, a team from Germany, Team USA was represented by the Kentucky Wildcats and Junior Joseph’s Basketball Africa League, a select team of top college-aged players from numerous African nations.

Against the Kentucky Wildcats, a team ranked No. 16 in the country in the preseason Associated Press Top 25 poll, Junior Joseph scored 18 points on 6-of-9 shooting, was 6-of-8 from the free throw line and added nine rebounds and two steals.

Junior Joseph was a two-time first team All-Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference selection in his three seasons playing at Iona for former head coach Rick Pitino, Richard Pitino’s father, who now coaches at St. John’s.

When Iona played the Lobos in the Pit in December — an 82-74 UNM victory — Junior Joseph had 21 points and three steals.

Sebastian Forsling, a 7-foot junior from Sweden, and JT Toppin, a 6-9 freshman from Dallas, have been filling in most of the minutes at the “five” spot for the Lobos during preseason practice.

Forsling has been among the Lobos who were hurt over the past several weeks, which, in addition to Junior Joseph’s absence, lead UNM to cancel the Oct. 14 Lobo Howl event because the team was running out of healthy bodies and didn’t feel comfortable holding an open scrimmage in front of fans.

The Lobos had a previously planned media session scheduled for Wednesday afternoon in which Junior Joseph is not expected to be made available to media, but Pitino will surely be taking more questions about the big man’s return.