ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (KRQE) – The University of New Mexico officially welcomed Eric Olen as the head coach of its men's basketball program on Tuesday. UNM president Garnett Stokes, UNM athletic director Fernando Lovo and Olen all spoke in an introductory press conference. Contract details for new Lobo basketball coach Olen, who comes to UNM from UC San Diego, spent the last 21 seasons with the Tritons as either an assistant or head coach. He helped the program navigate the jump from NCAA Division II to Division I and the Big West conference. He earned multiple conference championships and the first NCAA Tournament bid in program history. Despite his long tenure at UCSD, Olen said the opportunity to coach a program with the prestige of UNM was too good to pass up. "This place is special," said Olen. "Everything about this excites me. When I think about the potential of what we can do here, the kind of teams that we can build. You know, we're about building great basketball teams and putting special groups together and see what we can accomplish." After the conclusion of the season, and the departure of head coach Richard Pitino, a majority of the Lobos' players entered the transfer portal. Building a roster is now a top priority for Olen as he molds the future of Lobo basketball. Whether it be trying to retain UNM players, bring in players from UCSD or look into the unknown, Olen has a plan for the kind of players he wants in cherry and silver. "We will recruit players with a chip on their shoulder," Olen said. "I gravitate towards players that have something to prove." "We are evaluating players now and its more costly to miss than it is to hit," said Lovo. "So, his ability and his process that he has in place to make sure that we are evaluating players correctly, he is absolutely prepared and has done that and done a hell of a job doing it" At UNM, Olen will have access to more resources, including NIL, than he did at UCSD. UNM athletics, Olen and the 505 Sports Venture Foundation are currently planning on how to allocate money for players for the upcoming season. "The reality is that money is a huge part of the process now," Lovo said. "We are going to continue to push to be at the top of the mountain west and amongst our peers in that and that is our goal." "Be thoughtful in our decision making, recruit the right people that fit what we are trying to do, said Olen. "We are working at that constantly and hope to have that done as soon as possible, but we aren't going to allow the timing to put us in a situation where we make bad decisions." The transfer portal is currently open. Olen has already started to have conversations with players and recruit them. Also on Tuesday, former Lobos head coach, Richard Pitino, was introduced at Xavier. Pitino thanked the people of New Mexico and said he would not have been offered a dream job like Xavier if it was not for his time with the Lobos. "I learned in order to succeed, at the highest, highest level, you cannot do it alone," said Pitino. "So many people there helped me win those conference championships, helped me go back to the NCAA tournament, and I'm truly, truly grateful for them. It was very, very emotional and hard to say goodbye to so many special people." ...read more read less