New-look Lobos have unique perspective on underdog mindset for Wednesday's season opener

On Monday, Hawaii Pacific, a Division II team with classes in a former Honolulu strip mall, pulled off the upset of college basketball's opening night, knocking off the Boise State Broncos, 79-78, in Boise.

UNM Lobo guard Luke Haupt wasn't cheering for a fellow Mountain West team going down, but he did have a pretty unique appreciation for what the Sharks pulled off Monday night.

The sixth-year college player, who spent his first five seasons playing against Hawaii Pacific while he was starring at Division II Point Loma in San Diego, California.

"Opportunity," Haupt said when asked about the game — a microcosm of November college basketball that is littered with upset-minded smaller schools taking on much larger, better-resourced programs like those in the Mountain West.

"I had a few when I was at Point Loma, where we got to play D-Is. You're so excited to play those games, because you want to show what you're able to do. And there's a lot of good basketball at all levels of the NCAA. I think you saw that (Monday) night, and I think it's been like that for a few years now."

On the other side of the coin, Haupt and his fellow Lobos — 14 new players making up one of only three Division I programs (out of 365) to not have a single player back from last season — are now that bigger program being hunted.

East Texas A&M, Wednesday night's opponent for the Lobos in their season opener in the Pit, is by no means a Division II program. But the Southland Conference school collecting a $100,000 game check from the Lobos to play the game is looking for more than just a payout.

"For us, don't take any game for granted," Haupt said of the Monday night lesson to be learned from Boise. "We have an opportunity to go start 1-0 and we're really excited to do that, and really focused."

First-year Lobos coach Eric Olen, meanwhile, shares Haupt's unique perspective on how good basketball at a lower level can be, despite the lack of media attention.

He hardly needed Monday's game to serve as any sort of wake up call about the dangers of overlooking any opponent.

"On a large scale, people who focus on Division I basketball probably don't understand how good some of the Division II teams and players are," Olen said. "I'm maybe a little bit biased with my experiences ... but Luke's a really good basketball player. And the last team that we had in San Diego (UC San Diego 2024-25) had six Division II transfers and we were 35th in the NET (rankings)."

That was a higher NET ranking, for a team out of the Big West, than any Mountain West team last season, including the league champion and second-round NCAA Tournament participant Lobos.

So, what can fans expect in Wednesday's opener that would put their mind at ease? After all, the Lobos' two exhibition outings didn't exactly set a fire under the fan base.

"I'd like to see us continue to build on our start on the defensive end first and foremost. I think that sort of sets the floor for us, if we're really guarding and making it difficult for them, maybe we can turn some defense into offense," said Olen, whose Tritons last season ranked third in the country in defensive turnover rate and whose Lobos held Washington State and Northern Arizona to a combined 36.4% shooting overall (23.9% from 3-point range) and forced 35 turnovers in two exhibition games.

"But even if the offense takes a little bit of time to come around, we have a lot of confidence in those guys that it'll get to where we want it to be. And I think as long as we show up and defend and really compete on that end of the floor, that'll put us in a good position."

ON THE AIR: Regional television network Altitude Sports has picked up broadcast rights for nine Lobo home games — a partnership extended after the network did the same for select Lobo football games.

In both sports, the network picked up games that weren't first selected by the Mountain West's primary broadcast partners CBS Sports and Fox Sports.

The affected games will be broadcast on either Altitude or Altitude 2 (check your cable provider or streaming service or visit Altitude's "How to Watch" link www.altitudesports.com/how-to-watch) and also streamed online at TheMW.com.

As a result of the agreement, the primary radio broadcast team of Robert Portnoy and Hunter Greene will shift to television while the radio broadcasts will now be handled by Jeff Siembieda and former Lobo and Eldorado High School graduate, Daniel Faris.

The games being picked up are:

• Wednesday: East Texas A&M (Altitude 2)

• Saturday: UT Arlington (Altitude)

• Nov. 11: UC Riverside (Altitude 2)

• Nov. 26: Alabama State (Altitude 2)

• Dec. 1: New Mexico Highlands (Altitude 2)

• Dec. 14: Florida Gulf Coast (Altitude)

• Dec. 20: San Jose State (Altitude)

• Jan. 13: Grand Canyon (Altitude 2)

• Feb. 17: Air Force (Altitude)

SEASON TICKETS: UNM has sold 8,535 season tickets for men's basketball. That's the highest total in more than a decade and up from last season's 8,253 with tickets remaining on sale through the end of next week Nov. 14.

Tickets can be purchased in person at the Lobo ticket office or online at GoLobos.com/tickets.

FAMILY FEUD: It's Miller vs. Miller as Lobo senior guard Tajavis Miller takes on the school where his mother, Brittany, is the head softball coach.

Mom was a star pitcher in the Big Ten in college and when the younger Miller committed to play for the Lobos as a transfer from North Dakota State in May, the Journal asked him if he could hit a pitch off mom.

"Haha, she’s got some heat, not gonna lie," he told the Journal. "I might be able to connect if she’s being nice, but if she’s bringing her A-game? Let’s just say I might have better luck sticking to basketball."

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