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Call it a delayed debut.

While fans got their introduction to freshman stars Uriah Tenette and Jake Hall last season in the Pit, it wasn't until Wednesday that Eric Olen saw those two guards walk on the court in the Rudy Davalos Practice Facility with something they didn't have this past season. A vision from two years ago finally came to fruition.

While still growing his then-skyrocketing coaching profile with methodical roster construction and efficient offensive and defensive schemes two years ago at UC San Diego, Olen and his staff had a vision 鈥� a three-piece future of Tritons basketball.

"Our ideal recruiting class for that season 鈥� what we were really hoping to do was have a Uriah, Jake and Hudson (Mayes)," Olen said Wednesday at the first official summer workout for the 2026-27 Lobos.

Instead of that trio taking the court together this past season as freshmen, Mayes originally committed to Central Michigan before ending up at UC San Diego anyway after a coaching change at Central Michigan. Olen had already taken the UNM job and was followed to sa国际传媒官网网页入口 by Tenette and Hall.

"We actually talked to him about coming to New Mexico after that coaching change last spring, (but) that didn't work out at that time," Olen said. "... He's someone that we've been recruiting since he was in high school, and we think we have a pretty good understanding about what he brings."

Wednesday, Hall, Tenette and Mayes took the court together as teammates for the first time along with seven other Lobos 鈥� fellow returner (and another former UCSD guard) Chris Howell and six other newcomers in freshmen Dax Hall, Jake's younger brother, and Benjamin Schuch and transfers Rytis Petraitis, Imran Suljanovic, Tunde Vahlberg Fasasi and AJ Pierre-Jerome. Two more Lobos 鈥� Federico Grani of Italy and Fynn Lastring of Germany 鈥� are yet to arrive in the country.

As for Mayes' first impressions of his new teammates? Well, he's pretty excited about what this season can bring.

"I definitely have high expectations for this team. I think we can win the Mountain West regular-season championship and tournament championship, go to the NCAA tournament and win games there," Mayes said. "... I think we have the team to do it and the coaches to do it."

Mayes did note that the other former UCSD guard on the roster 鈥� Howell, who was granted a medical hardship waiver for this past season and was allowed to rejoin this year's roster as a fifth-year senior 鈥� has really been leading the charge on getting him, and the other newcomers, acclimated to what they are about to be a part of.

"Chris kind of took me under his wing," Mayes said. "He's told us multiple times, let me know if you need anything. He's giving us rides. He's kind of the older brother of the group. He's paved the way for anything we need or anything to expect."

Saint Mary's 2-for-1

During Wednesday's open-to-the-media practice, UNM announced a three-game, three-year scheduling agreement with West Coast Conference power Saint Mary's College.

The Lobos will host the Gaels this season (Dec. 12 in the Pit), play in Moraga, California, in a yet-to-be-scheduled game in the 2027-28 season and then play the last game of the series in the Pit in the 2028-29 season.

The rare 2-for-1 agreement sees UNM paying SMC $100,000 to play this season. The two teams have a more standard no-payment home-and-home set up for the final two games, according to a contract requested and reviewed by the Journal on Wednesday.

The Lobos played at SMC in November of 2022 (a Lobos win) and 2023 (a Gaels win) 鈥� both "buy" games in which SMC paid UNM to play the games.

SMC, which has played in the five consecutive NCAA Tournaments and won games in three of those five, finished this past season ranked No. 24 in the NET rankings and No. 26 in KenPom. UNM was ranked 46th in each.

What about the practice?

If all you saw of the 2026-27 Lobos was Wednesday's practice, you should be worried. Not a lot of shots fell. Not a lot of defense was being played (as in none since they were working on putting in some very basic offensive sets). Not a lot of all-out hustle or running and diving.

The good news is, that was all by design. As much as fans may want to hear otherwise, this is June. Practice 1. And with a roster of players including returners who played into April, international players who were still playing oversees a couple of weeks ago and some transfers coming off injuries.

Relax.

"We're not gonna have the most rigorous day today or this week," Olen noted. "It's kind of, what can we do where we can still kind of build their capacity safely. We don't want to have injury early. ...

"We're just doing some kind of skeleton offensive installation right now, just trying to give them some basics, so that as we ramp up their fitness and capacity and their volume, when we get to a place where we're ready to kind of turn it up a little bit, they're prepared for that physically, and we have the things in place where that can be productive."

Who else?

The NCAA now allows 15 players on a men's basketball roster. The Lobos have 12.

So....

"We're kind of continuing to evaluate if there's someone out there that we can add that would provide value," Olen said, noting the team could stand pat at 12 if the right fit doesn't come along.

"We're not just adding players to add players. I don't think that's productive. So, if we feel like it's someone that can add value, we'd be excited to do it, but we don't feel like we have to add someone."

Local offer/visit

David Lunn, who last week announced he'd be leaving sa国际传媒官网网页入口 for his last year of high school to attend CATS Academy prep school in Boston, announced on Wednesday that he has received a scholarship offer from Olen and the Lobos.

Lunn, 17, is a 6-foot-4 combo guard for five-time defending Class 5A champion Volcano Vista 鈥� he has been a part of the past three 鈥� and told the Journal last week: "I feel like this (going away to prep school) will allow me to prepare for college next year. This year, we felt it was time to think about it."

He averaged 20.6 points, 4.8 rebounds and 3.3 assists as a junior at Volcano Vista.

Of his UNM offer, Lunn wrote on his X account post: "Grateful to receive an offer from @UNMLoboMBB. Thank you @CoachEricOlen and @coachstapes10," the latter referring to UNM assistant coach Sam Stapleton.

Reach Geoff Grammer at ggrammer@abqjournal.com or follow him on Twitter (X) .