UNM BASKETBALL
Lobo hoops notebook: UNM recognizing The Pit's 60th anniversary
UNM launches season begins unveiling plan to commemorate 60 years of the Pit, while a non-Lobo past Pit star passes away.
As season ticket sales for UNM Lobo men鈥檚 and women鈥檚 basketball began last week, the school released both a new logo and video commemorating this, the 60th anniversary season of the iconic Pit.
The logo has a cherry red circle with the lettering 鈥60 years鈥 on the front, including the years 1966-2026 and the new official name of the arena beneath it reading, 鈥淭he Pit 鈥 Powered by Nusenda鈥.
While specific plans have not yet been released, the university has said it will lean into the history of the arena and honoring its past this season, especially leading into the Dec. 1, 1966, anniversary of the first regular-season game played in the Pit -- a 62-53 Lobos win over Abilene Christian.
UNM has three games yet to announce on its nonconference schedule for this 2026-27 season, and there is currently not a Dec. 1 (a Tuesday) game being played. It is unclear if that is still a possibility.
In the video UNM school released this week, introducing the new logo is nostalgia overload for Lobo fans.
饾檾饾櫎饾櫔 饾櫑饾櫄饾櫌饾櫄饾櫌饾櫁饾櫄饾櫑 饾櫓饾櫇饾櫄 饾櫅饾櫄饾櫄饾櫋饾櫈饾櫍饾櫆 馃棧锔
— New Mexico Lobos (@UNMLOBOS)
馃毃Lobo Nation馃毃 This season, join us in celebrating 60 Years of The Pit - Powered by Nusenda 馃憦
Both Men鈥檚 and Women鈥檚 Basketball season tickets are on sale now! 馃師锔 |
鈥淚 can鈥檛 recall the actual game itself, but I can remember the feeling of coming to play,鈥 the voice of former UNM Lobos head coach Bob King can be heard saying at the video begins.
鈥淚t was 鈥 we were kind of awestricken, and so were the people that came in to play. When you came down the ramp, it鈥檚 quite a feeling. It鈥檚 one you won鈥檛 forget.鈥
Throughout the 1 minute, 20 second video, images of the arena鈥檚 construction, as well as Lobo legend players, memorable moments and lots of fan pictures and videos.
Season tickets, meanwhile, can be purchased online at .
RIP to non-Lobo Pit legend
If the Pit is iconic locally for its love of the Lobos, its lore outside of the Land of Enchantment is built on a game the home team wasn't even playing in.
And one of the legends of that game 鈥 NC State鈥檚 upset over the heavily favored Phi Slama Jama Houston Cougars in the 1983 National Championship game played right here in Albuquerque 鈥 died earlier this month.
Cozell McQueen, who will forever be known to many for standing on a basketball rim 10 feet above the court in the Pit after the win with a huge smile and a red-and-white poster that read 鈥淧ack Power,鈥 died earlier this month, the school confirmed on Aug. 5. He was 64.
According to reporting by the Associated Press, McQueen was diagnosed with glioblastoma, an aggressive form of brain cancer, last year. McQueen contracted meningitis and developed an intestinal obstruction in the weeks leading up to his passing, his wife shared on Facebook.
Pictures in the Journal and ones transmitted world wide of the 6-foot-11 McQueen standing on the basket with the sign have become iconic reminders of that game, albeit certainly not at the same level as the vision of seeing a young Jim Valvano, NC State鈥檚 head coach, scrambling around the Pit floor, frantically looking for someone to hug after the final buzzer sounded.
League schedule notes
This past Tuesday, a handful of Mountain West schools, including UNM, began releasing their 2026-27 conference schedule for men's basketball.
The schools were given the shell schedule the previous week and it was left up to the schools to decide whether to release them now, knowing that some games could be changed when the league's television partners go through the process of selecting broadcasts (games as currently scheduled could still shift to another day if TV deems it necessary) or wait a few more weeks for all the final dates to be set in stone after the broadcast schedule is finalized.
Another bit of an FYI for fans concerning Hawaii鈥檚 full membership in the league, is how the Mountain West went about handling the Rainbow Warriors鈥 scheduling 鈥 both in terms of finances and logistics 鈥 with teams having to spend so much time in transit.
For Hawaii, the league told the Journal, its men鈥檚 basketball team in league play will get one three-game road trip, then three two-game road trips to account for nine road conference games.
For all other teams traveling to Hawaii, the MW saw to it teams had either a home game or bye in the schedule slot both before and after the Hawaii road game.
Player breakdowns coming
Part two of the Journal's hourlong conversation with second-year UNM Lobos basketball coach Eric Olen 鈥 Episode 128 of the Talking Grammer Podcast 鈥 will be available wherever you listen to podcasts and available to watch at ABQJournal.com and on the on Monday morning.
In it, Olen breaks down, player-by-player, the 2026-27 roster for the Lobos.
Part 1 of the conversation, , is already available online.
Geoff Grammer covers Lobo men鈥檚 basketball and other sports for the Journal. Reach him at ggrammer@abqjournal.com or follow him on Twitter (X) .