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INDIANAPOLIS 鈥� Before Norm Ellenberger, coach of that 1978 UNM Lobos squad considered by some to be the best team in program history, ever stormed the sidelines of the Pit, he learned his craft in another historic gym.

Norman Dale Ellenberger, while also being a star football and baseball player at the Butler University (he even threw a no-hitter once), was the team captain from 1952-54 under legendary Paul D. "Tony" Hinkle 鈥� the namesake of historic Hinkle Fieldhouse in Indianapolis.

Another former Lobo basketball coach, one Stephen Todd Alford, still holds the Hinkle Fieldhouse high school scoring record in the arena where plenty of Hoosier state prep legends were made (he dropped in a nice 57-point game, without a 3-point line, to lead New Castle鈥檚 Chrysler High School to a 79-64 win over Broad Ripple in 1983 in Hinkle).

Wednesday, during an open practice at Hinkle ahead of Thursday's NIT semifinal between the UNM Lobos and Tulsa Golden Hurricane, current Lobos coach Eric Olen and former coach Fran Fraschilla, who led the Lobos to three consecutive NITs and is now an ESPN broadcaster working Thursday's game, were meeting each other for the first time. Unbeknownst to either, some of that thick, rich history one feels in the air the second they walk into Hinkle, had some shared Lobo DNA with the two men.

Embracing the history of Hinkle 鈥� this history they know and the history they don鈥檛 鈥攚hile still locking in on the task at hand is a tricky balance Olen is cognizant of this week.

"We're trying to do both," Olen said when talking about some of the history that his team is a part of while also not wanting to squander the opportunity presented them.

"I think this is a cool experience for our players, to come here to Indianapolis, to play in Hinkle Fieldhouse, to be in the semifinals of the NIT, especially with the NCAA Tournament, the Final Four happening here at the same time. It's a cool experience. You can feel the energy downtown, even though it hasn't started yet.

"We're excited that our guys get that experience, but we also understand why we're here. And you know, we want to play good basketball. We want to represent New Mexico the right way here on a big stage. 鈥� I don't have concerns about being distracted. We know why we're here and it's cool to be here, and we want to play well while we're here."

Throwing shade(s)

Deyton Albury is seeing things in a different light this week in Indianapolis.

The Lobos senior point guard who suffered an eye injury Feb. 28 against San Diego State that required him to wear protective sunglasses while playing the past month 鈥� both to protect physical contact to the eye and because bright lights were causing sensitivity issues 鈥� is shades free for the NIT.

"I just started without shades like last week, and it's been better," he said.

Albury went through the portion of UNM practice that was mandated to be open to the media for 15 minutes without sunglasses and, despite having played pretty good over the past month, he's confident in shedding the shades this week.

The Lobos create 'issues'

Tulsa head coach Eric Konkol gave his general thoughts on the Lobos 鈥� a team he and his team have had a week to scout and prepare for.

His take: They're really good.

"We've had a lot of time to get ready for New Mexico, as they have for us," Konkol said. "... New Mexico poses a lot of issues, just based on how they organize their offense and defense. It's much more of a player-driven scout than even a play-driven scout, although there are actions that we need to address.

"But they're a really good basketball team. Frankly, anybody that's playing this time of year is good."

Grumpy old man

Luke Haupt didn't want to talk about it. You know how those old guys can get.

Haupt was asked Wednesday about his freshman teammate Jake Hall telling a story earlier this week about looking up to Haupt while growing up in San Diego, and more specifically about being a seventh grader when Haupt was a high school senior and one of the best players in southern California. Haupt just grinned and played the part of the grumpy old man in the locker room.

"We talked about that a little yesterday," Haupt said. "I don't know what brought it up, but I try to avoid it because it makes me feel a little older than I want to be right now."

Copying each other's notes?

Monday, Olen chose a grading system analogy to explain how his team will have to play to beat Tulsa.

"If we play well, then we can have success," Olen said. "But we absolutely have to play well. We can't put a C-plus out there and expect to have success against a really great team like Tulsa.

Wednesday, Konkol chose a very similar way to explain what is needed from his team.

"We're going to have to play really good basketball," Konkol said. "We can't come out and have a C or even B-minus effort. We've got to play really well."

Speaking of grades, some failing ones

Neither Albury nor Haupt have even lived in sa国际传媒官网网页入口 a year yet and apparently , the Indy 500 wasn't exactly the biggest sport growing up in the Bahamas or San Diego in the 2000s.

So, maybe some grace can be given.

But after the NCAA had an Indy car with NIT decals waiting for the team upon their Tuesday night arrival in the city that is home to the iconic Indianapolis 500, the question was posed: Do you guys know the name Unser?

"No," said both Haupt and Albury.

Not even the name of that busy street on the west side of sa国际传媒官网网页入口?

Blank stares.

Neither knew of Bobby, Big Al or Little Al or sa国际传媒官网网页入口's ties to one of the greatest racing families in sports history, or even the street named after them in sa国际传媒官网网页入口 (how often would a couple college students not from New Mexico be that far west in the city, anyway?)

As for their coach, Olen does know the name Unser, though not the road in sa国际传媒官网网页入口, and did acknowledge that his Alabama upbringing made him a tad fonder of the NASCAR side of racing than the IndyCar side of the sport.

Miles from where he started

If the story of Hinkle is that of the little guy, the underdog who was never supposed to make it this far, Tulsa guard Miles Barnstable is your lead character this week with these four NIT teams.

Sure, you can come up with some scenarios for the Lobos to be that, or Illinois State out of the Missouri Valley Conference fits the mold a bit, too. (Sorry Auburn. Nobody's giving you underdog love this week, not when a losing conference record this season still managed to get you airtime on national television with the coach's dad lamenting the horror of you not being in the NCAA Tournament while the other three NIT semifinalists had 23-, 26- and 29-win seasons and didn't have their dad's campaigning for them on CBS sa国际传媒官网网页入口).

No, the "little guy" story this week is Barnstable.

The 6-2 guard from Sheboygan, Wisconsin, pretty much wasn't recruited out of high school, played two years at Division III University of Wisconsin-Whitewater, where he led the Warhawks to the Division III final four in 2023.

After one year at D-I St. Thomas in Minnesota, he transferred to Tulsa where broke the program record for 3-pointers this year (99 and counting) in an all-conference season and is now in his second final four in four seasons of college.

"I did not envision this at all," Barnstable said. "... I think about this a lot actually, it's just so crazy for where I started, and then to where I'm going to finish my college career and how cool it would be to be able to get to the final four my first year and then end up at another final four in the NIT. It's just so cool to me."

Olen he knows

Olen has exchanged texts with new UNM Lobo women's basketball coach Amy Eagan, and looks forward to getting to meet her next week in person.

The two have similar backgrounds 鈥� immense success at the Division II level (Eagan was a D-II National Coach of the Year and Olen had his UC San Diego team among the nation's best numerous times). And both, whether they or anyone in the UNM administration would publicly admit it or not, have a certain level of proving themselves to do to to win over skeptical Lobo fans.

The Journal asked Olen Wednesday if he had any words of advice for Eagan.

"I think experience takes care of that," Olen said. "She's won so many basketball games and has had so much success ... I don't think you get to the level of success that she's had without having a lot of conviction and confidence in what you're doing. And so I would expect her to just bring that with her; bring some authenticity of who she is and play the same way.

"Success leaves clues. Winners, win. She's had so much that, we expect nothing different when she gets here. I'm excited to meet her."

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