Grammer: Eric Olen's first roster build went from zero players to 26 wins; Year 2 starts with Hall, Tenette

Playing into April for the first time in program history, Olen and the Lobos haven’t had much time to take a breath between the final buzzer (a painful sound Thursday night in Hinkle Fieldhouse in Indianapolis) and the opening of the transfer portal on Tuesday. The Journal has learned the program plans to focus on keeping a core of freshman guards Jake Hall and Uriah Tenette. Until Sunday, it was thought the retention efforts would also be heavily focussed on keeping 7-foot-1 center JT Rock in the fold, too, as the praise heaped on him by the staff had grown tremendously and the potential of the former Top 100 national high sch0ol recruit seemed to start coming to fruition.

But Rock had a surprising Sunday night announcement that he was entering the transfer portal, several hours after the far more anticipated announcement that freshman center Tomislav Buljan was entering the portal. So, to fill in around that backcourt duo (and to be clear, the transfer portal opens on Tuesday, so anything can happen), the general wants and needs are clear: * Rebounding (they're losing the league’s best in Buljan and now don’t have Rock, the starter they thought would be here). * Size (they’re losing some good size in Buljan, Rock and graduating senior Luke Haupt.

If Hall and Tenette are the core, the Lobos could use some big guards to help out on defense). * Depth (they needed more of that this season). * Skill (players who can shoot from the outside, handle the ball and defend without fouling are valued more than players who can jump out of the gym and block shots).

* Basketball IQ (one of Olen’s favorite terms is about his team's need to “make good end-of-drive decisions,” which is to say players on offense make the plays that lead to the highest success rates and on defense force their opponents to go away from their first choice). A good start toward bringing in players who fit what Olen is looking for would be to get commitment announcements from one or both of the international big men who took recruiting visits to the Pit this season — 6-9 Benny Schuch of Austria and 6-11 Fynn Lastring of Germany. Keeping Hall a priority Clearly, Hall’s bond with Olen (who recruited him since the age of 14, knows the family well and has even offered younger brother, combo guard Dax Hall, a scholarship) is UNM’s best shot at keeping the Mountain West Freshman of the Year.