Unique Senior Night for an appreciative Luke Haupt, Lobos teammates

Eric Olen remembers the closed door scrimmage his UC San Diego team had with nearby Division II Point Loma Nazarene in the 2021-22 season.

A local player Olen was familiar with, but didn't pursue particularly hard in recruiting, had his way with Olen's Tritons that day.

Five years later, on the eve of playing Colorado State for the UNM Lobos' final home game of the season, and in the second Senior Night for current UNM guard Luke Haupt (he also had one last year at Point Loma), Olen told the story of how he missed not once, but twice in recruiting the 6-foot-7 "glue guy" and leader for this year's Lobos team.

"Yeah, I screwed up twice," Olen said, noting he didn't recruit Haupt well enough out of high school, nor two years ago when Haupt entered the transfer portal but ultimately decided to stay at Point Loma.

"We recruited him out of high school, and it was (during COVID). ... I didn't know enough about the league to understand how impactful he could be. And so he went to Point Loma and he absolutely dominated us in a closed door scrimmage as a freshman. And I knew then I had screwed it up."

A few years later, Haupt entered the NCAA's transfer portal, ready to give DI basketball a try.

"I talked to him and his dad, and was like, 'Hey, I screwed it up. I was wrong. He was way better than (I realized) and we'd love to have him,'" Olen said. "Ultimately, he decided to go back to Point Loma. And I was like, 'Alright, well, we'll recruit you again. I'm never gonna make that same mistake again. Anytime you're available to recruit, we are going to recruit you, and we want you in our program.'

Last spring, and after a five-year run at Point Loma in which he played in a COVID season that didn't count toward eligibility, and a medical redshirt season after a severe knee injury, Haupt entered the portal again to finally test those DI waters.

"Third time's a charm," Olen said Tuesday, referring to landing Haupt when the coach got the UNM job.

Wednesday night, Haupt will join five teammates and team manager, in one of the more unique pregame Lobo Senior Night ceremonies ever — honoring six players who haven't lived in Albuquerque a calendar year, three of whom are international players, one who is the brother of a UNM assistant coach, and even one freshman.

Yes, a freshman (more on that below).

Haupt, who did have a "Senior Night" last spring at Point Loma, where he earned an undergraduate degree in Business Administration with a minor in Marketing and a Masters in Sports Management, acknowledged the modern era of senior night ceremonies probably isn't quite what they once were for fans and people involved, but that doesn't make his experience at UNM this past season any less special.

"To be able to do it in front of these fans who have supported us so much... throughout this one year," Haupt said of Senior Night, "I think it's going to be special. And it's going to be kind of bittersweet, having it be the last home game, but also knowing that we got a chance to do everything we want to do, still."

Being honored

The list of Senior Night honorees who will be recognized in an on-court pregame ceremony at 7:45 p.m.: manager Lucas Kedge and players Deyton Albury, Luke Haupt, Chris Howell, Tajavis Miller, Milos Vicentic and even freshman Tomislav Buljan.

The future, part 1

Both Buljan and Howell will go through senior night ceremonies though both plan to pursue postseason appeals with the NCAA to try and get another year of eligibility.

For Buljan, the NCAA last summer ruled he was eligible to play for the Lobos despite having been paid as a professional player in his home country of Croatia, but they stipulated he would only have one season to play.

Note: the Journal is working to verify whether or not the 23-year-old forward is the first Mountain West Freshman of the Year candidate going through a Senior Night ceremony.

He plans to pursue a second season by submitting paperwork about his income while playing professionally.

So, is the first-time college student a freshman or a senior?

To Olen, the answer is yes.

"He's both," the coach said. "Academically, he's a freshman. Eligibility wise, he's a senior. He's versatile that way."

As for Howell, who came over from UC San Diego with Olen but was injured in the first half of his 11th game of the season with an oblique strain and hasn't played since, there remains hope he could get a medical redshirt waiver after the season.

The NCAA's rule for medical hardship waivers seems to indicate Howell is ineligibile to get a season back due to injury because he played in an 11th game. UNM, however, is looking at precedence in cases where such waivers have still been granted.

The future, part 2

While Saturday brought fans the end of the San Diego State/UNM series, as current Aztecs head coach Brian Dutcher has said he won't schedule nonconference games at altitude, fellow Mountain West defector CSU has other plans.

The Journal confirmed with both Olen and Colorado State head coach Ali Farokhmanesh this week that both have every intention of continuing the 86-year-old, 136-games-long series.

Series notes

UNM leads the all-time series over CSU 83-53, including winning the past five games between them.

The Lobos are 53-13 in Albuquerque and 48-6 in the Pit vs. the Rams (the Lobos were 5-7 vs. CSU in Albuquerque before the Pit opened.) — the last loss to CSU in the Pit coming Feb. 17, 2022, when Isaiah Stevens had 12 points, seven assists and two steals and David Roddy had 31 points, nine rebounds and three steals in an 83-68 Rams win. 

Well, shoot, they shoot well

The Lobos have played three games (1-2 record) against teams ranked inside the top 50 in the country in effective field percentage — a metric weighted to account for 3-point shots being worth more than 2-point shots.

Unfortunately for UNM, two of those teams are rematches this week to conclude the regular season.

• Nebraska: 55.9% (29th) — beat UNM, 84-72, on Nov. 20 in Kansas City
• Colorado State: 58.7% (8th) — lost to UNM, 80-70, on Jan. 6 in Fort Collins
• Utah State: 57.5% (13th) — beat UNM, 86-66, Feb. 4 in the Pit

For comparison sake, UNM's effective field goal percent is 53.7%, which ranks 82 of 365 Division I teams, and defensively the Lobos are holding teams to a 48.7 effective field goal percentage.

Reach Geoff Grammer at ggrammer@abqjournal.com or follow him on Twitter (X) @GeoffGrammer.