The coaching carousel in college basketball has been hot ever since the season ended, with high-profile openings being filled all over the place. New Mexico basketball lost its head coach, Richard Pitino, when he left to go to the Big East and be the new head coach at Xavier.

Now, New Mexico has found its replacement. UC San Diego head coach Eric Olen is coming to Albuquerque to be the new head coach of the Lobos, according to ESPN's Pete Thamel.

“Sources: New Mexico has agreed to a five-year deal to make UC San Diego’s Eric Olen the school’s next head coach,” Thamel reported on X, formerly Twitter. “He led the school to the 2025 NCAA tournament in its first year it was eligible. He’s gone 51-17 the last two years and won the Big West this year at 18-2.”

Olen's UC San Diego squad was one of the best mid-major teams in the country this season. The Tritons won the Big West Conference Tournament after also collecting the regular season conference title, helping them advance to the NCAA Tournament for the first time ever. UC San Diego almost pulled off a first-round upset over No. 5 seed Michigan, but eventually fell in a very close 68-65 contest.

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Olen was the coach at UC San Diego for 12 seasons, five of them at the Division I level. The Tritons were a perennial powerhouse at the Division II level under Olen before moving up to Division I, where he found success in his fourth season. He finished his career at UCSD with a 240-119 overall record.

Now, Olen will have more resources to work with at a New Mexico program that is coming off of back-to-back NCAA Tournament appearances under Pitino. Olen has plenty of work to do to replace star big man Nelly Junior Joseph, who is graduating, and point guard Donovan Dent after his decision to transfer to UCLA.

Regardless of the talent going out the door, Olen will have the chance to bring some of his players over from UC San Diego. He has shown that he knows how to build a winner at this level, so New Mexico basketball fans should be very excited about this hire.