NUNEZ: The Olen roster reconstruction is underway
New UNM head men’s basketball coach Eric Olen answers questions from the media at his introductory press conference on Tuesday. Photo Courtesy of UNM Athletics
The clock is ticking.
The honeymoon phase for Eric Olen was too short.
Olen was formally introduced as the new UNM men’s basketball coach at a press conference at the Davalos Basketball Center on Tuesday.
He needs a coaching staff and a team.
As of today, 12 of the 13 scholarship players from last year’s Lobo basketball team have either graduated or entered the transfer portal.
The NCAA Division I college basketball transfer portal closes on April 22.
Whether you call it a rebuild or a reload, Olen has a short window to assemble a coaching staff and replenish this Lobo basketball roster for the 2025-26 campaign.
At his introductory press conference, Olen said he is working to build a roster in short time.
“Recruiting is non-stop. We’re working through the portal, but we have to make good decisions. We have to be smart about how we approach and build the roster. We want to build a roster that complements each other; that makes sense,” Olen said. “In terms of the combination of skill sets, we’re going to work with urgency, but we’re going to be thoughtful in our decision-making and recruit the right people to fit what we’re trying to do. So, we’re working at that constantly, we hope to have that done as soon as possible—but we’re not going to allow the timing and the pace to put us into a situation where we make bad decisions.”
Olen has a vision for what he wants his team to look like. He wants his team to be aggressive on defense and play with pace on offense. His wish list for the transfer portal would be guys that fit that style of basketball.
He may have to make some concessions.
From his UCSD team last year, Olen lost his top three players in scoring and steals, and two of his three top players in assists to graduation.
Nordin Kapic was Olen’s only other double-figure scorer last year.
He entered the transfer portal this week and would have one more year of eligibility.
Photo courtesy of UCSD Athletics
Kapic averaged 10 points, five rebounds, and shot 30 percent from the 3-point line on 176 attempts. He was a 6’8 forward who often jumped the opening tip for UCSD last season as the biggest starter on the floor.
For as good as UCSD was at stealing the ball in 2024-25, they lacked size and rim protection. They gave up 14 offensive rebounds and 13 second-chance points to Michigan in their NCAA Tournament loss. UCSD was No. 331 out of 355 NCAA Division I teams in blocks, with only two per game.
“If we’re able to find and add a little more size and rim protection, there’s other ways to kind of accomplish what we’re trying to accomplish defensively,” Olen said on the Taking Grammar Podcast with The Albuquerque Journal’s Geoff Grammar.
Olen seems to understand his defensive schemes may need to be tweaked. The Mountain West, as we know it for at least one more year, has teams that are bigger across the board than teams in the Big West. Teams like San Diego State and Boise State have traditionally brought physicality and size that can wear down smaller teams throughout the conference season. UCSD under Olen in 2023 found this out the hard way, losing at home on a buzzer beater to SDSU after giving up an offensive rebound:
Olen reaffirmed at the press conference on Tuesday that he will develop new schemes on both offense and defense to fit whatever personnel lands on his roster. Perhaps he considers adding some more size and rebounding while also sticking to his offensive and defensive identities as best he can.
Olen would also hope to fill his roster with high school commits for 2025. While still the head coach at UCSD, Olen previously offered a scholarship to 3-star guard Isaac Williamson from Eastvale, California. Williamson originally committed to UNM under Richard Pitino’s coaching staff in October 2024, but has recently announced that he is reopening his recruitment in light of the coaching change. Perhaps Olen can rekindle that relationship and convince Williamson to re-commit.
Two other class of 2025 3-Star commits to Olen at UCSD have recently reopened their recruitment when Olen took the job at UNM.
Uriah Tenette, of Prescott High School in Arizona, averaged 29 points, six rebounds and over five assists while shooting 35 percent from the 3-point line. He committed to UCSD under Olen in October.
Tenette gained some national attention for scoring 54 points against McDonald’s All-American and USC 5-star commit Alijah Arenas in a high school game on December 27, 2024. Click below and sweep twice to the left to see Tenette’s highlights vs. Arenas:
Tenette looks like a crafty three-level scorer that can score at the rim, in the mid-range, and beyond the arc.
Tenette’s size could be a concern. He is listed at 5-feet-11-inches on MaxPreps.
But size doesn’t always matter.
After all, the Lobos had recent luck with another undersized guard from the State of Arizona - Jalen House turned into a Mountain West Conference Tournament MVP.
The other 3-Star former UCSD commit is Jake Hall, listed as a 6’4 shooting guard from San Diego, California.
Hall originally announced his commitment to UCSD last July.
Hall finished his senior season with Carlsbad High School and averaged 28.5 points per game, 7.1 rebounds per game and 3.8 assists per game while shooting 40 percent from the 3-point line on 176 attempts.
Hall scored over 3,000 points in his high school career. He was nominated to play in the McDonalds All-American Game and is a former San Diego Section Player of the Year.
“My goal is to start and prove I can play at UCSD,” Hall told Walker Armstrong of the Coast News Group in California back on January 21, 2025.
Hall could find an opportunity to play at UNM given scholarship availability and a pool of NIL money. Before he committed to UCSD, Hall’s account on X shows that he received scholarship offers from Montana State, California Baptist University, Yale, Cornell and UC Santa Barbra.
Olen said he was still having conversations with players from last year’s Lobos team, though no names were mentioned.
Lobo Nation would feel better if Jovan Milicevic or Kayde Dotson—two promising recruits from the Pitino era who showed flashes of potential last year—committed to Olen.
Dotson and Milicevic were among the leaders for UNM in 3-point shooting percentage: Milicevic at 45 percent and Dotson at 41. These percentages could fit Olen’s offensive philosophy to space the floor.
The clock continues to tick, but Olen seems ready to rebuild and reload UNM for next season.
