Olen’s Blueprint: Creating Chaos on Defense to Light It Up on Offense
UNM guard Deyton Albury and UNM forward Antonio Chol exchange high-fives during practice this Fall. Photo courtesy of UNM Athletics
Everyone talks about Eric Olen’s dynamic pace and space offense.
Lobo fans can’t wait to watch this year’s UNM men’s basketball team light it up from the 3-point point line, play fast and run in transition.
But to play that way, the Lobos will need to get stops and generate turnovers on defense.
With 14 newcomers, this team has embraced a defensive style that fuels the up-tempo, run-and-gun approach Olen envisions.
“We play hard,” said redshirt senior guard Luke Haupt before Lobo basketball practice on Thursday. “We put teams in uncomfortable situations. We see it in practice against ourselves, guarding, going against our own defense. You get to a spot on the floor and you don’t want to be there.”
That intensity mirrors what Olen built last season at UC San Diego. In 2024–25, the Tritons overwhelmed opponents with aggressive, disruptive defense UCSD allowed the lowest amount of points per possession, according to Synergy Sports. The Tritons forced 15.91 turnovers per game which was eighth best in NCAA Division I while forcing nearly 10 steals per game.
Lobo fans can expect a similar approach this season. Like Haupt, junior forward Antonio Chol echoed the team’s mindset in preseason practices:
“The intensity is really high,” said Chol. “The intensity we play with on defense has become so normal that even in practice when we’re playing, it's very hard to get an open shot.”
What’s the Defensive Scheme?
Last season, Olen’s UCSD team ran a tricky 2-3 matchup zone that could Lobo fans a glimpse of how this year’s Lobo team will play on defense.
In this clip, Aiden Chang, an assistant coach at Elmhurst University breaks down Olen’s matchup 2-3 zone in under two minutes. Each player has man-to-man responsibilities but only on a certain area of the floor. The defense switches everything. At the same time, players gamble for steals, trap and are constantly applying ball pressure.
“People thought we were playing a little more zone than we were playing,” Olen said on the Talking Grammar Podcast in March. "We played a fair amount of man where we’re switching some of the ball screen stuff… From (last) season, I think there was definitely some difficulties from opponents in navigating (if it) was a match-up zone or was it man.”
Regardless of the scheme, one thing is clear: Olen has his players locked in.
“Obviously, he’s a great coach,” Chol said. He plays fast. He wants to turn people over and get out in transition.”
We Don’t Have Enough Bigs!
Some Lobo fans have questioned whether Olen and his coaching staff recruited enough traditional post players.
At Thursday’s media availability before practice, camera crews had to adjust their tripods to get the right angles of JT Rock (7-1), Chol (6-9), and Haupt (6-7). Olen who stands over 6-5, was the shortest person interviewed by the media.
“We have really good positional length, Olen said. “Obviously, JT has great size, Tomislav has good size. On the perimeter spots I think we have good size too. Antonio (Chol) (6’9), Timéo (Pons) (6-8), Keven (Patton Jr.) (6-8), Luke (Haupt) (6-7) and Chris (Howell) (6-6) have good positional size.”
Olen is used to playing lineups with less traditional bigs and lots of long versatile wings. His tallest player in the starting lineup last season at UCSD was Nordin Kapic, standing at 6-foot-8, but the other four starters were all 6-foot-4 and over: Hayden Gray (6-4), Tyler McGhie (6-5), Chris Howell (6-6), and Aniwaniwa Tait-Jones (6-6).
“We’re just excited that everybody cares, Olen said. “Whatever their questions are and however we build the roster, there will be questions about whether we’re too big or too small or this, that and the other. It’s fun that everybody is engaged and thinking about our program all the time. That’s part of the excitement of being here.”
