A longstanding tradition when new coaches are formally introduced at the University of New Mexico is slipping on a cherry red sports coat.
Eric Olen did Tuesday at a packed news conference inside the school’s basketball practice facility, then nervously tugged at the lapel and adjusted the shoulders.
“I gotta be honest,” he said, leaning into the microphone, “it might take me a minute to get used to this jacket. This is the first time I’ve worn red in over 20 years.”
The acclimatization process involves more than breathing the air at 5,100 feet and wearing cherry red and silver instead of blue and gold.
The blazer fit. Now we’ll see if the job does.
Olen went from living near the ocean to swimming in a fishbowl, trading the anonymity (and at times apathy) of UC San Diego for one of college basketball’s most ionate (and at times demanding) fanbases. He got in an Uber the next day, and the driver instantly recognized him.
“Lobo basketball is more than just a team,” New Mexico athletic director Fernando Lovo said before slipping the blazer on Olen. “It’s part of the identity of this university, this city and this great state. It connects generations, creates memories and represents the pride of New Mexico. That is why this hire was so important.”
University president Garnett Stokes talked about finding a basketball coach “who can fully appreciate just how seriously we take our Lobo basketball, someone who knows what kind of fishbowl we’re in, the microscope you’re under every time you walk down the ramp to the deafening roar of the Pit.”
And then added: “It’s exciting. Maybe it’s intimidating.”
No pressure, Coach.
Olen is the latest piece in a transformation of New Mexico’s athletic department, starting with the 36-year-old Lovo being named AD on Dec. 1. Two weeks later, he hired 47-year-old Jason Eck from Idaho as football coach. Now, 44-year-old Olen.
But ADs come and go at UNM with little fanfare, and the football team has two winning seasons in the last 17.
Basketball, though, is a different animal, regularly filling the 15,411-seat Pit, regularly posting 20-win seasons, regularly producing pros, regularly being the primary investment vehicle for emotional capital in a state without major professional sports. In Richard Pitino’s final season, the Lobos went 27-8, were the Mountain West regular-season champions and won a game in the NCAA Tournament.
‘This is not my program, it’s not about me,” Olen told several hundred fans and media jammed into the Davalos Basketball Center. “This is bigger than any single coach or individual. Lobos, this is your program. Being the head coach at New Mexico is a responsibility I take very seriously.
“That’s why I know I’m in the right place. I love being part of something bigger than myself. It gives me so much purpose every day.”
For the past 21 years, that came at UCSD, first as an assistant coach under Bill Carr and Chris Carlson, then as head coach at the Div. II level, then as head coach of a program making the awkward, postseason-less transition to Div. I.
Olen has quietly built winning teams before, most notably 30-1 in their final year at Div. II before the pandemic wiped out the national tournament. But he largely operated in the prodigious shadow cast by SDSU and soldout Viejas Arena.
That started to change this past season, when the Tritons played the Aztecs close in the opener and finished 30-5, claiming the Big West’s automatic berth to the NCAA Tournament in their first season of eligibility. Playing No. 5 seed Michigan within a rimmed-out 3 of overtime put Olen squarely on the national coaching radar, if it wasn’t already.
Olen said the right things about being content to stay at UCSD, but a clause in a new contract signed last summer was the biggest hint that he might be willing to leave La Jolla. He got a $160,000 annual raise and a five-year deal, which usually is accompanied by a higher buyout should another school poach him.
But he artfully negotiated a buyout in the opposite direction, from $712,000 in the previous contract to a mere $150,000, making him that much more attractive in an era when athletic departments are diverting every penny possible to player compensation.
Four Mountain West jobs opened this spring. Olen had been eyeing one in particular all along – with a dedicated practice facility, with millions in NIL dollars, with charter flights for road trips, with a buy budget to schedule nonconference home games, with a rich history and a rabid fan base.
“This is a special place in of college basketball,” Olen said. “It’s arguably the best home environment in all of college basketball. I think anyone who’s in coaching and working their way up – I spent a lot of time in Div. II – you dream about an opportunity like this. We loved UC San Diego. We still care about it. But this different, this is special, and it was too good to up.”
Olen will bring much of San Diego with him. On Thursday, Carlsbad High guard Jake Hall announced he had decommitted from UCSD and would be following Olen to New Mexico. On Friday came news that three Tritons assistants will as well: Tom Tankelewicz, Sam Stapleton and Mikey Howell.
Olen’s contract is worth $6.5 million over five years, starting at $1.2 million for 2025-26, or nearly three times what he made at UCSD. That ranks fourth in the Mountain West behind SDSU’s Brian Dutcher ($2.5 million), Utah State’s Jerrod Calhoun ($1.85 million) and Nevada’s Steve Alford ($1.35 million).
There’s also a $30,000 moving allowance, a country club hip and a courtesy car, plus numerous performance bonuses that would add another $100,000 for a season similar to what UCSD just had.
New Mexico received a reported $375,000 buyout from Pitino’s departure to Xavier but protected itself much more in case Olen becomes the object of someone else’s eye. It would cost $2.65 million if he left in year one, just over $2 million in year two.
“Everyone tells us this: This is unlike any job in coaching and college athletics,” Garnett, the university president, said. “It’s a special job that requires a special coach, and Fernando has found him. … He brings with him a culture of excellence, both on the court and in the classroom, a proven winning record and an absolute ability to build and sustain a fantastic basketball program.
“In short, he’s exactly our kind of coach. And now he’s our guy.”
Olen arrived in Albuquerque on Monday night on a private jet with his family. It was their first time in the city.
The first stop was the Pit, site of the North Carolina State’s historic buzzer-beating victory against Houston in the 1983 NCAA final.
“Walking onto the floor gave me chills,” Olen said. “I’m so fired up to feel it (full) in person.”
The weather was less hospitable, with 60 mph wind gusts whipping up a dust cloud that obscured the Sandia mountains abutting the city and triggering a health alert for people with respiratory conditions.
At the news conference inside the Davalos Center, one question after another probed the adjustment for a guy who has spent his entire life in two places – Mobile, Ala., and San Diego – that are by the sea.
“We’re excited to be here – everyone, my wife, my girls, my family,” Olen said. “We are thrilled to be here. I was told earlier that you guys have lots of beaches, just no water.”
There also was the obligatory question about his chile preference, red or green.
“I’m fired up to try it,” Olen said. “I would say prior to the taste test I’m leaning green, but I’ve heard good things about Christmas.”
Nothing blue or gold about it.
