Apr. 24—They’re going to Kansas City.
Eric Olen’s first season as the UNM men’s basketball coach will feature the program being one of four teams competing in the two-day Hall of Fame Classic in Kansas City, Missouri, in November.
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The Lobos will join Kansas State of the Big 12, Mississippi State of the SEC and Nebraska of the Big Ten in the Nov. 20-21 event at the T-Mobile Center.
Specific game matchups, broadcast information and details about how to purchase tickets have not yet been announced.
It’s the second time the Lobos have played in the T-Mobile Center in Kansas City, also doing so Dec. 14, 2013, in an 80-63 loss to a No. 13 Kansas Jayhawks team stacked with future NBA players Joel Embid, Andrew Wiggins, Wayne Selden, Frank Mason and Tarik Black as well as college basketball All-American Perry Ellis.
As for this go ’round in Kansas City, the Lobos will be in a field in which all four teams ranked in the Top 75 in this past season’s NCAA NET rankings and top 65 in KenPom.com (UNM was second best in both of those rankings, but have had 100% roster and staff turnover since the end of the season).
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Mississippi State is coached by Chris Jans, the former New Mexico State head coach, who has an all-time record of 5-3 against the Lobos. Mississippi State and UNM have never played before.
The Lobos are 2-4 all-time vs. Kansas State and 1-0 vs. Nebraska.
FORMER LOBO UPDATES: Former UNM Lobo assistant coach Ryan Miller, who last month was hired as the head coach of the Murray State Racers, on Thursday announced he has hired Eldorado graduate and former UNM Lobo Cullen Neal as an assistant coach.
Miller was most recently an assistant with the Creighton Blue Jays while Neal was most recently an assistant at Hawaii.
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On the Murray State roster is 6-3 junior guard Patrick Chew, the son of former Lobo Associate Head Coach Isaac Chew, who recently followed Richard Pitino to Xavier University.
Another former Lobo assistant coach, Drew Adams, was hired earlier this month as an assistant coach at Indiana.
