On March 30, the University of New Mexico announced its hire of the 23rd head coach of the men's basketball team, Eric Olen. He took over the job less than a week after previous head coach Richard Pitino announced he would move to Xavier University.
This marks the third major hire in Lobo athletics over the last four months, alongside new athletic director Fernando Lovo and head football coach Jason Eck.
Olen is under contract with the Lobos for five years, with a base salary of $1.2 million and an additional $50,000 per year, for a total payout of $6.5 million. He can receive further compensation by achieving athletic performance goals, like a Mountain West regular season championship or NCAA Tournament.
Olen brings winning experience to the program, having been the head coach at the University of California San Diego for 12 years, according to the UC San Diego Tritons. He led the Tritons to their first NCAA tournament in 2025 — the school's first year of eligibility for the tournament after transitioning from Division II to Division I. He finished the season with a 30-5 record.
He had a 0.669 winning percentage as the Tritons' head coach, over both Division I and II. He won Big West Coach of the Year the last two consecutive seasons.
Olen will have his work cut out for him, as he inherits a program that has made two consecutive NCAA tournaments, won a conference tournament in 2023-24 and a regular season championship in 2024-25, and seen consistent improvement over the last four years.
“No one will ever have higher expectations for our team and this program than me,” Olen said during his introductory press conference.
Olen will have to get busy building a roster and staff, as all of the assistant coaches from last season have either also accepted positions at Xavier or coaching jobs elsewhere, and nearly the entire roster is either entering the transfer portal or graduating. Olen was able to get three assistant coaches from UCSD to follow him to Albuquerque: Tom Tankelewicz, Sam Stapleton and Mikey Howell.
As of Sunday, April 6, only two players from the 2024-25 roster have not entered the transfer portal or been on track to graduate next month. These two are Ibrahima Sacko and Deraje Agbaosi, with only Sacko appearing in a game and Agbaosi having an injury redshirt.
“We will recruit players who have a chip on their shoulder,” Olen said at the press conference. “I gravitate toward players with something to prove.”
Olen plans to have a fluid offensive system that relies on the players making decisions rather than set plays, along with creating offense through defense, he said.
UC San Diego had a tenacious defense — which ranked third in turnovers last season — and an offense that took care of the ball, having the fifth-best offensive turnover percentage. Lobo fans may expect to see something similar next season in The Pit.
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Jaden McKelvey-Francis is a beat reporter for the Daily Lobo. He can be reached at sports@dailylobo.com or on X @jadenmckelvey
