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Jake Hall coming back was nice and all, but that news was so Thursday.

Friday was back to work for the UNM Lobo men's basketball coaching staff with a pair of campus recruiting visitors and a late afternoon signing of another versatile wing expected to add depth to a rapidly filling roster for the coming 2026-27 season.

Tunde Vahlberg Fasasi, a 6-foot-7 senior-to-be from Stockholm, Sweden, announced his signing with the Lobos Friday evening via social media.

The versatile Swede averaged 11.9 points and 4.1 rebounds per game this past season for Colonial Athletic Association team William & Mary, located in Williamsburg, Virginia. Vahlberg Fasasi played two seasons at La Salle before that and will have one year of playing eligibility remaining for the Lobos.

Aside from Vahlberg Fasasi鈥檚 individual upside, Lobos coach Eric Olen 鈥� always in the solving the Rubik's Cube mindset of fitting talent and skill sets together rather than just accumulating players then figuring out the fit 鈥� said the newest addition is the type to make all five spots on the floor better at a given time.

"We feel good about his fit and how his game is going to translate," Olen said. "I think he's able to do so many different things that he helps make sure other guys are in positions of strength, because he can sort of fill holes as they come up."

Vahlberg Fasasi has experience in the Sweden National Team system, having played at times with former Lobo center Sebastian Forsling. He's played more extensively on Sweden's U18 and U20 teams in recent years, even averaging 19.4 points for the U18 team in the 2022 FIBA European Championship, where he was named to the All-Tournament team.

This past season at William & Mary, he scored a career-high 25 points to go along with six rebounds, three assists and a block in an 88-75 win over Old Dominion on Nov. 30.

UNM is up to eight players for the coming season and, like plenty of other schools around the country, are still trying to finalize their frontcourt/big men signings for next season.

'Real Ones' message

UNM continues to capitalize on the "Real Ones" mantra started when football coach Jason Eck's made locker room comment to his players this past season about sa国际传媒官网网页入口 not being for everyone, just "real ones."

Now, it's a fundraising campaign for UNM as players 鈥� both football and basketball 鈥� are announcing their returns to UNM, or when new players commit to become Lobos.

Player announcements on social media have included links on donating to the Lobo Alliance, the fundraising arm of the Athletics Department that handles the revenue sharing money.

Friday, Olen posted a message on social media with pictures of returning Lobos Hall, Uriah Tenette and Chris Howell, about how valuable the fans are to the recruiting process.

"Over the past year, since I came to UNM, I've been constantly amazed by the passion and enthusiasm of Lobo Nation.

"This state deserves a team to celebrate. Our mission is assembling a championship-caliber roster that matches the greatness of our fan base. We are excited about our progress thus far, beginning with the return of Jake, Uriah and Chris and the commitments from some of the incredibly talented transfers and freshmen. We are confident that we will add even more skilled and hard-working players soon.

"This wouldn't be happening without the support of each and every Lobo fan. Playing in the Pit, with the deafening environment you create, is a major selling point in recruiting. We truly appreciate your excitement for what we are building, and thank you for your role in helping us take Lobo basketball to even greater heights."

The realer ones

Don't fear, Lobo Nation. Three of the team's elite student managers 鈥� Aaron Ortiz, William Jacobs and Nick DiGregorio, not to mention graduate assistant/videographer Johah Semintal 鈥� are coming back, too.

Jacobs held a press conference fielding questions about the decision to return next year and even had a graphic showing him as a "Real One" announcing the return, pretty much identical to the graphics UNM is using for the player announcements.

The graphic and video of the spoof news conference can be found on the always high-level X account the managers run, .

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