Pitino entering what he refers to as 'Year One' with Lobos
May 19—ALBUQUERQUE
When the University of New Mexico's Richard Pitino was still the men's basketball coach at Minnesota, he'd give Gophers football coach P.J. Fleck at hard time about referring to a program's first year under new leadership as "Year Zero."
It referred to a coach trying to pick up the pieces from the old regime and trying to build toward a brighter future without missing a beat. That first year was, in Fleck's eyes, merely planting one's stakes in the ground and establishing a presence.
The real work, he'd tell Pitino, wouldn't start for a good 12 months. All the progress made in that first year wouldn't start to make an impact until the second season — or, in Fleck's mind, Year One.
"When we first got here, adding eight guys off of Zooms was not even a little bit ideal," Pitino said. "Trying to build a foundation was challenging. It's always going to be challenging when you take over the situation we took over."
Regardless of how the timeline is defined, a coach's job isn't easy when pinned against the backdrop of a pandemic, social distancing, a recent history of turmoil and years of losing. The Lobos had seen their previous two coaches fired for underperforming and their early exits meant a number of players jumped ship along with them.
Entering his second season as the hoops boss at UNM, Pitino is only now starting to get his foot in the door with recruiting. Hired a year ago to take over a program that won just six games during the disastrous COVID-19 season of 2020-21 that ended with Paul Weir's dismissal, Pitino and his staff had to replace more than half the Lobos' roster without being allowed to recruit players in person.
They added six new players to the fold this offseason, signing three high school recruits in the early signing period and three more in the past nine days. That includes a pair of 6-8 veterans through the NCAA transfer portal, Josiah Allick of Kansas City and Morris Udeze of Wichita State.
The latest player to jump in is actually a walk-on. Sandia Prep senior Mac Manzanares, the son of UNM assistant athletic director and former New Mexico Highlands AD and men's basketball coach Ed Manzanares, was added to the roster Wednesday as a non-scholarship player.
Pitino said he's done recruiting for next season and is focusing all his efforts on 2022-23. Of course, anything can happen over the next few months that might necessitate another move, but for now the roster is set.
In an era of players entering the portal at virtually any time, Pitino said it's only natural to keep an active presence in the recruiting game even if there aren't any scholarships available.
"Not unless we get some crazy phone call," Pitino said when asked if he anticipates any changes to the current roster. "In my mind, we're done."
The schedule for the upcoming season will likely be finalized in the coming week or two. Pitino said only one open date remains in the non-conference slate.
The Lobos are coming off a 13-19 season, Pitino's first since moving over from Minnesota. He told a gathering of local media Wednesday that landing Allick and Udeze made the team better, that they were the team's top two recruiting targets the last few months.
Combine that with the three prep players who rank as the top freshmen class in the Mountain West and it's clear that Year One is going much more smoothly than Year Zero.
Looking back, Pitino said he now sees the wisdom in Fleck's words.
"He's right," he said. "I mean, I feel like just now we're starting, so how it translates to winning games I don't know but I feel really, really good that we're moving in the right direction."
NOTES
Sebastian Forsling, a 7-foot center who started 13 games for the Lobos as a true freshman last season, has returned home for the summer to play for the Swedish national team. ... None of the 13 scholarship players are on campus right now. Pitino has them all reporting for eight weeks of summer workouts starting next month. "The summer is as low-stress of a situation — everybody's loving the coach because playing time hasn't been given out," he said. "It all changes late fall there, so I try to keep an open mind." ... When asked how he addresses players looking to earn a little money through the NCAA's new name, image, likeness initiative that gives athletes an opportunity to profit through endorsements, Pitino said he often tells them about the responsibilities of obligations and making a positive image by putting oneself out there. In other words, it's similar to a coach getting paid for his media obligations that puts him in front of a camera or microphone several times a week. "I just try to tell them what I deal with," Pitino said. "I explain the things that I do in my job that I don't want to do — like be at a press conference talking to — no, just kidding."
