Mid-majors get a rough deal compared to the power conferences that generally put many of their programs into the NCAA Tournament. However, life is a little different in the MWC, a league that has gotten a fair amount of at-large bids to the Big Dance in recent years. It’s currently some of the most exciting basketball at the mid-major level and there are several notable programs.
However, notable mid-major programs face a constant issue, as two MWC teams lost their head coaches to power conference teams while another made an unrelated change of their own. This offseason saw three head coaching changes and they were all very notable. UNLV took measures to bolster their program with former ACC head coach Josh Pastner while Colorado State did the right thing in promoting Ali Farokhmanesh to the top job after Niko Medved’s departure.
That third coaching change is where our attention turns today as New Mexico had a big opening after Richard Pitino fled for Xavier and the Big East. This certainly wasn’t the first time the Lobos put together a great season or lost their coach in such a manner, and they didn’t repeat similar mistakes. New Mexico nabbed a rising head coach in Eric Olen instead of settling for an assistant or marquee name and they just might have hit a home run.
After playing collegiately at Spring Hill in Alabama, Olen spent more than two decades out at UC San Diego, first as an assistant before becoming the head coach in 2013. He built the Tritons into a premier D2 program, with four straight trips to the postseason before a dominant pandemic-shortened season in 2020. UC San Diego transition to D1 shortly thereafter and the work started anew.
Olen built the Tritons from flailing D1 newcomer to an NCAA Tournament team over the last half-decade, culminating in last year’s 30-win season and Big West title. On the heels of that success, he’ll take over a New Mexico program that Pitino left in great shape. Obviously, with the transfer portal it’s not as easy to inherit a great program, as much of that talent already left in the offseason.
While two great hires were also made in the MWC, New Mexico stands out because they’re bringing a rising name in this sport into a program where he can truly build a winner. Things are changing in the future for these programs and this league, but New Mexico has the resources to compete for league titles regularly and Olen has shown that he can build a program. Can he achieve even more success with these Lobos in the coming years?