UNM's little big man, Uriah Tenette, announces return for sophomore season

Lobo hoops transfer portal tracker The Journal is keeping tabs on all offseason roster moves for the Lobo men’s basketball team — who is leaving, who is returning, who hasn’t decided — on its Transfer Portal Tracker (CLICK HERE). 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. Run it back. ❤️ pic.

twitter. com/P0qpS8jOZD — Uriah✝️ (@uriahtenette) April 7, 2026 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 Albuquerque," with an image of Tenette. This past season, Tenette averaged 10.