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Uriah Tenette played 971 minutes for the UNM Lobos this past season against Division I competition.

That alone is a remarkable stat for a 5-foot-10 point guard out of Prescott, Arizona, who few expected to get that much court time for any Division I team after he was, for lack of a better term, largely overlooked in the recruiting process a year ago despite having scored 2,752 points in high school.

The fact that the 2025-26 Lobos were statistically at their best in the minutes the high-flying true freshman point guard was on the court (UNM outscored opponents by 282 points when Tenette was on the floor — best on the team and third best in the Mountain West) is something that probably deserved far more attention than it received.

It turns out, fans and media will get another chance to appreciate him.

On the chaotic first day of the NCAA transfer portal, Tenette fittingly calmed things down and gave the program its first dose of stability this offseason after two big men — Tomislav Buljan and JT Rock — had already announced their departures over the weekend.

"I'm back," were the words that appeared at the end of the 17-second video Tenette posted Tuesday to social media that showed a slow motion highlight of one of the dozen or so highlight reel dunks he threw down in the Pit this season.

His post was followed shortly thereafter by a posting from the official UNM Lobo team social media accounts that read: "Real Ones are returning to sa���ʴ�ý������ҳ���," with an image of Tenette.

This past season, Tenette averaged 10.6 points, 2.8 rebounds, 2.9 assists and 1.4 steals. He played starters minutes, though only started once before the team's six postseason games — where he started twice in the team's two Mountain West Tournament games and all four of the team's NIT games. His 3.09 assist-to-turnover ratio ranked in the 98th percentile of players in all 365 Division I teams.

Tenette is technically the first Lobo from this past season's roster to announce he is coming back, but the program does have a desire to roll out some announcements over a period of days to give more attention to each one and capitalize on the "Real Ones" branding they have been utilizing since the football season.

Tenette's announcement was accompanied by a specially designed "Real Ones 2026" logo and a link to a page where the school is asking fans to donate to the Lobo Alliance -- the fundraising arm of the department specifically geared at revenue sharing payments for athletes.

The "Real Ones" phrase was made popular by UNM football coach Jason Eck, who first used the phrase during the season referring to how sa���ʴ�ý������ҳ���, and UNM, isn't for everyone, but is for "real ones."

It is unclear who or when the next "Real Ones" announcement for the Lobo men's basketball team is planned.

Pons moves ons

Timeo Pons, your favorite Lobos' favorite Lobo as the unofficial most liked teammate, was never seen at a Lobos game this season without a smile on his face.

And he never saw a shot in a game he didn't like, no matter how short a stint on the court he had.

Tuesday, the affable 6-9 freshman guard from France announced via his Instagram page he would be leaving UNM and entering the transfer portal. Pons played in 13 of 37 Lobo games, averaging five minutes, 2.6 points, 1.0 rebound and seven of his 10 made shots on the season were 3-pointers.

He will have three years of playing eligibility left.

"Thank you for everything," Pons posted on Instagram along with a series of six photos of him playing at UNM or interacting with teammates.

"He's fun to watch play," Olen said with a bit of a chuckle after that Dec. 1 game vs. NMHU in which Pons scored a season-high 11 points and dished out three assists while hitting three 3-pointers. "He has an enthusiasm when he's out there."

After that game, several teammates packed the Pit media room to watch him do his postgame media interview, smiling and giggling throughout the presser happy for their teammate getting his rare moment in the media spotlight.

"I love the American life and the college life," Pons said after than Dec. 1 win. "To be with all my friends and to be able to play basketball."

Before coming to the United States, and more specifically to UNM, Pons averaged 7.4 points and hit a team-high 11 3-pointers in seven games for Team France in last summer's FIBA U19 Basketball World Cup in Spain.

Other familiar names...

The transfer portal should fly past 1,000 names soon for men's basketball, and several of them aren't just Lobo players entering, but former Lobos entering after playing at their post-UNM schools.

Players with Tuesday portal announcements included former UNM guards Tru Washington (leaving the University of Miami) and Braden Appelhans (leaving Drake University).

Both transferred out of UNM one year ago after Richard Pitino left to work at Xavier.

Coach Coop

Lobo basketball legend Michael Cooper will be taking over the head coaching position at Division II Cal State Los Angeles for the coming season.

The Naismith Basketball Hall of Famer has been the Associate Head Coach of the Golden Eagles since 2023 and confirmed the move to the Journal in a text message Tuesday afternoon, shortly after it was .

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