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Wear your favorite jersey day at the Eric Olen Basketball Camp at the Pit brought out some big names Wednesday morning.

Wemby was there. Plenty of LeBron bouncing around. Kobe, Curry and Joki膰, too.

And while this was the first of two kids summer basketball camps hosted by the UNM Lobos men's basketball team, jersey day is never limited to just hoops.

Welcome Messi 鈥� of both the Barcelona and Argentina variety 鈥� and the two L.A. Dodgers baseball jerseys and even the one cherry red Brian Urlacher No. 44 Lobos football jersey twirling around as a girl worked on dribbling while doing a spin move.

Naturally, though, Lobo basketball jerseys were king on Wednesday for the 97 campers and the more than a dozen "coaches" (Lobo players, managers and coaching staff members). And while there were multiple Jake Hall No. 23 Lobo jerseys at the camp, Jake Hall himself wasn't one of the people wearing it on Wednesday.

Instead, just like all the other kids who wore a jersey of a basketball star they grew up watching, Hall donned the jersey of a player he grew up watching in San Diego: Lobos teammate and fifth-year senior Chris Howell.

"I watched Chris at Torrey Pines High School (growing up)," said Hall, the 2024 CIF San Diego Section Player of the Year as a junior, talking about his current Lobo teammate and 2021 CIF San Diego Section Player of the Year Howell.

"He was a great player. And now, he's also a great teammate. But now he's also a great friend of mine. So it's been amazing to share this experience with him."

Hall wasn't alone in the Howell tribute 鈥� albeit sporting last season's No. 8 Howell jersey (Howell changed his number to 5 for the coming season).

Beni Schuch, the 6-foot-9 wing from Vienna, Austria, who has been at UNM less than two weeks now, also donned Howell's jersey on Wednesday as he coached kids on passing drills in the northwest corner of the Rudy Davalos Practice Facility.

"I've gotten to be good friends with Chris," Schuch said. "I love him as a player. I love the way he plays, the way he puts others into actions. So, I just thought, why not (wear his jersey)? ...

"He's my older brother on this team, for sure. He's my mentor, kind of. He really helps me out, tries to push me in situations where I feel like I can't go no more, but he pushes me."

As for the camp itself, Thursday (a half day) is the final day of the three and a half day camp this week 鈥� the first of two offered this summer for kids entering grades first through eighth.

"It鈥檚 a great opportunity for our players to get to know some of our younger fans," Olen said. "Our guys enjoy it and we hope to provide a really fun experience for the kids. We always want our guys to appreciate the position they are in and get a glimpse of what Lobo Basketball means to this community."

Later this month (June 26-28), UNM will host a team camp for varsity and junior varsity high school teams from around the region. The next kids camp, open to boys and girls, is July 27-30.

"This is so much fun being out here with the kids," said Schuch. The 19-year-old newcomer to the U.S. had never been on the coaching side of these camps before this week but he was beaming with a smile throughout the day.

"Our coaches told us, the biggest thing is if you have fun, they have fun. So I'm just trying to have the most fun with these kids. It's been going great."

That's the 1!

Lobo sophomore point guard Uriah Tenette assumed it was a Deyton Albury jersey when he first saw a couple of campers wearing Lobo No. 1 jerseys. Albury wore that jersey this past season when younger teammate Tenette donned the No. 4 (freshmen don't get first dibs on jersey numbers, after all).

But with Albury having moved on, Tenette is back to wearing No. 1 this season. None of the official team jerseys have come in yet, so the 5-foot-10 point guard has yet to actually wear his own jersey.

That didn't stop a shipment of the new "Tenette" No. 1鈥檚 from arriving at the Lobo Den shop at the Pit recently and two campers on Wednesday were already sporting the jersey of their favorite Lobo 鈥� even before he's gotten one himself.

"It's a little wild still to see people wearing my jersey, but especially now with the No. 1 on it without me even knowing (they were out, already)," Tenette said.

"... These camps are great just thinking about going from being that kid at these camps, wearing someone else's jersey to now being on this side of it and seeing them wear mine."

As for the jersey Tenette wore on Wednesday?

That would be the No. 2 of former Lindenwood hoops legend Charisse Williams, UNM's strength and conditioning coach who started 96 games for the Lions from 2015-2019.

"Oh, 'Young Money' Reese can ball," Tenette said with a knowing smile. "She wore my jersey (Wednesday at the camp) so I said I'd wear hers."

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