On to the next: Lobos turn page on big win with nonconference finale

Eric Olen has gone 38-7 in his last 45 games.

And coming off a huge road victory as 9.5-point underdogs at VCU on Wednesday night, the first-year Lobos coach's name was making the rounds on social media, collecting the praise of national writers who thus far hadn't paid much attention to the job he and his UNM staff have been doing.

But considering the company he's now keeping thanks to his 30-5 NCAA Tournament run last season at UC San Diego and this season's 8-2 record with the UNM Lobos, it's no wonder the praise started to flow.

Top win percentage since the beginning of last season:

• Jon Scheyer, Duke — .918 (45-4)
• Kelvin Sampson, Houston — .880 (44-6)
• Ben McCollum, Iowa/Drake — .867 (39-6)
• Eric Olen, New Mexico/UC San Diego — .844 (38-7)
• Randy Benett, Saint Mary's — .844 (38-7)

So, have at, Eric. Take your bow!

"I mean, stats are fun. I like numbers, but none of that matters," said Olen, seemingly just a breath away from dropping a 'bah humbug' on the flowery praise coming his way.

"What happened last year, a huge percentage of those numbers are a different place, a different time — have no relevance on what we're doing. We're just focused on getting better. ... We've made some progress, for sure. But I think our ceiling is very high. I have high expectations for our group, and I think we have a long way to go in terms of getting there, which is encouraging, right? Because we are getting some good results. We're playing some good basketball, and I think we can still really improve."

To be fair, Olen is hardly going scorched Grinch. He's a coach who spent November with a team winning games but not as impressively as some outside the program may have wanted and now he's got a team winning games everyone outside the program wants to heap praise on them for when he sees obvious needs to be addressed.

And that is why he, like many other coaches, tries to maintain the constant demeanor of not letting the highs get too high or the lows get too low.

So, as the Lobos prepare to close out nonconference play Sunday afternoon against Florida Gulf Coast with the possibility of going 9-2, Olen's task is to keep winning (and keep the program's 17-game home win streak alive) while not allowing anyone associated with the team to begin to think they've arrived.

"We have some things that we're not doing well," Olen said. "... Our last three Division I games, we've given up over 40% defensive rebound rate. That's not winning basketball. We've had good results in spite of that, but if we don't correct it, we're not going to continue to have the results that we want."

Olen said there are some areas his team was doing well in earlier in the year that they have slipped on recently, which may be masked by improvements in other areas. The goal, obviously, is to minimize the natural regressions that come throughout a season and maximize the progress.

"That's kind of why we always just talk about the general approach to improving all the time, because it's a constant process," Olen said. "And, you know, we had a really good week. Beat two really good teams (Santa Clara and VCU). We played really well. I don't want to take away from those performances, because the guys were fantastic in those games. But we don't have it all figured out. You know what I mean? One possession games like we were in (at VCU), they can go either way. A couple bounces here and there, and that game goes the other way. And we feel totally differently about ourselves as a team. ...

"You have to have enough confidence to stick to the plan when things aren't going well, and you have to have enough humility when they are to evaluate what you're not actually doing well and still be hungry to get better and not feel like you've made it."

Brotherly love

The Howell brothers — Chris the player and Mikey the assistant coach — have some company.

Florida Gulf Coast have three sets of siblings.

J.R. (graduate transfer senior) and Chase (freshman) Konieczny and BB (sophomore) and George Washington III (junior) are a pair of brothers. However, neither Chase nor BB has appeared in a game this season.

FGCU assistant coaches Ryan and Will Chlebek are also brothers. Their grandfather was a football head coach at Boston College, Eastern Michigan and Kent State.

Series history

This is the first time FGCU and New Mexico have played in men's basketball.

This is only the second game FGCU will ever play in the Mountain time zone and first since the program's first season in Division I — a 91-59 loss at Arizona State.

It is an unusual East Coast to New Mexico jaunt for a team to make for just one game in December, but it's coincidentally the same double-time zone jump the Lobos just made, having gone to Virginia for just one game (against VCU).

While the UNM/VCU series was a home-and-home series (VCU played in the Pit last season), the FGCU game is a one-off. UNM will pay the Eagles $92,000 to play the one game in Albuquerque.

Toy drive

Your elf better get off that shelf. He's got work to do.

UNM and Nusenda Credit Union are holding a toy drive to benefit the UNM Children's Hospital.

Fans can donate new, unopened toys at the entrance to Sunday's game.