UNM hires UCSD’s Olen as new head basketball coach

Men's Basketball
Written By Ryan Tomari

From La Jolla by the Sea to the Peak of the Sandias.

The University of New Mexico and its Vice President and Director of Athletics, Fernando Lovo, have found UNM’s new coach: Eric Olen, according to multiple sources and national reports on Sunday.

“We’re thrilled to welcome Eric Olen as the new head coach of Lobo Men’s Basketball,” Lovo said in a statement from UNM’s Athletic Department. “Eric is a proven winner with an incredible track record. Beyond the accolades and success on the court, he is a values-driven leader who puts student-athletes first. We’re confident he’ll bring tremendous energy and vision to our program.”

ESPN’s Pete Thamel reports Olen’s deal is five years.

Olen comes from the UC San Diego, where he was the head coach from 2013 to 2025.

In the last two seasons with the Tritons, Olen posted an overall record of 51-17. This past year, UCSD went 30-5 and 18-2 in the Big West. The Tritons won the Big West regular season championship and the Big West Conference Tournament, which secured the program’s first bid into the Division I NCAA Tournament.

UCSD lost to Michigan in the first round, 68-65.

“I am honored to be the next Head Coach of New Mexico men’s basketball… I can’t wait to get to work and write the next great chapter in New Mexico basketball history,” Olen said in a statement made by UNM.

Olen was 240-119 since 2013, and before UCSD jumped to Division I and the Big West, he led the Tritons to three straight Division II Tournaments from 2016 to 2019.

UCSD was 30-1 overall and 21-1 in the California Collegiate Athletic Association in 2019-2020 before the 2020 tournament was canceled due to COVID-19.

Olen will replace former UNM head men’s basketball coach Richard Pitino.

Pitino left the Lobos for the same position at Xavier in the Big East Conference.

Ryan Tomari

Host of The University of New Mexico-centric sports show “The Pit Press Live!” and “The Pit Press Podcast,” Ryan Tomari wrote the famous prognosticating column that led to former UNM head coach Mike Locksley’s infamous blowup at ABQ Uptown Sports Bar. Tomari is equal parts New Jersey and New Mexico, although his tenure in the Land of Enchantment is more successful than 2-26. It took him a decade to get his bachelor’s degree in history from the University of New Mexico. Still thinking two plus two is five, he’s a statistics class away from a print journalism degree, but he doesn’t really need it after spending his college years at the Daily Lobo, the beloved and bedraggled independent voice known affectionately by students as “The Daily Low Blow.” Rising to sports editor, Tomari covered the failed Locksley experiment, New Mexicans’ jilted love affair with former UNM men’s head basketball coach Steve Alford and the abrupt retirement of former UNM women’s head basketball coach. He worked in media relations for the Albuquerque Isotopes. He spent a year with the Albuquerque Journal before returning closer to his family roots in Central New Jersey, where he worked for CBS Sports, cutting highlights and doing research during live broadcasts of NFL, college football and basketball games. Tomari loves the tortured New York Mets, and joyously took in David Tyree’s miracle-helmet catch and Mario Manningham’s toe-tapping “insurance” clutchness that aided the New York Giants’ blissful Super Bowl runs. A sports nerd, Tomari has an encyclopedic knowledge of baseball and still regrets not approaching baseball icon Tony Gwynn at Bandido Hideout decades ago. He misses his late father, Stephen, a Rutgers graduate who started his Ph.D. at Wichita State University before moving to New Mexico to take a job at Sandia Labs. And he enjoyed every moment of Wichita State’s magical tourney run in 2013. Tomari has a 7-year-old son, Aidan, who loves his home state because it’s “not that new and not that old,” prefers green over red chile and considers 1990s Homer Simpson the “best thing since sliced bread.” His radio personality is a little bit Jim Rome and a little bit Jay Mohr – sharp, comedic and endearing. He’ll never regret calling the new Lobo men’s head basketball coach “Rich” on air. Strike that Richard Pitino.

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