Eric Olen
| Current position | |
|---|---|
| Title | Head coach |
| Team | New Mexico |
| Conference | Mountain West |
| Record | 0–0 (–) |
| Biographical details | |
| Born | October 15, 1980 Mobile, Alabama, U.S. |
| Playing career | |
| 1999–2004 | Spring Hill |
| Coaching career (HC unless noted) | |
| 2004–2013 | UC San Diego (assistant) |
| 2013–2025 | UC San Diego |
| 2025–present | New Mexico |
| Head coaching record | |
| Overall | 240–119 (.669) |
| Tournaments | 0–1 (NCAA DI) 5–4 (NCAA DII) 0–1 (CBI) |
| Accomplishments and honors | |
| Championships | |
| 3 CCAA regular season (2017, 2019, 2020) 4 CCAA tournament (2017–2020) Big West tournament (2025) Big West regular season (2025) | |
| Awards | |
| 2× Big West Coach of the Year (2024, 2025) 2× CCAA Coach of the Year (2017, 2020) | |
Eric Olen (born October 15, 1980)[1] is an American college basketball coach who is the current head men's basketball coach at the University of New Mexico. He was previously the head coach at UC San Diego from 2013 to 2025.
Playing career
[edit]Olen grew up in Mobile, Alabama and prepped at McGill–Toolen Catholic High School. Olen went on to play collegiately at Spring Hill College, where he was part of three straight NAIA national tournament appearances for the Badgers, including an Elite Eight appearance in 2000.[2]
Coaching career
[edit]Olen joined his former college coach Bill Carr as an assistant at UC San Diego in 2004, and stayed in the role until 2013 before being promoted to head coach after then head coach Chris Carlson left for an administrative role with the West Coast Conference.[3][4] Olen has since led the Tritons to three CCAA regular season titles and four consecutive conference tournament titles in addition to four NCAA Division II tournament appearances.[2] He guided the Tritons men's basketball program into its status in NCAA Division I as members of the Big West Conference beginning in 2020-21.[5]
Head coaching record
[edit]| Season | Team | Overall | Conference | Standing | Postseason | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| UC San Diego Tritons (California Collegiate Athletic Association) (2013–2020) | |||||||||
| 2013–14 | UC San Diego | 15–11 | 11–11 | 7th | |||||
| 2014–15 | UC San Diego | 16–11 | 14–8 | T–4th | |||||
| 2015–16 | UC San Diego | 24–8 | 15–5 | 2nd | NCAA Division II Sweet 16 | ||||
| 2016–17 | UC San Diego | 27–6 | 17–3 | 1st | NCAA Division II Sweet 16 | ||||
| 2017–18 | UC San Diego | 21–11 | 15–7 | T–3rd | NCAA Division II Round of 64 | ||||
| 2018–19 | UC San Diego | 26–8 | 17–5 | T–1st | NCAA Division II Round of 32 | ||||
| 2019–20 | UC San Diego | 30–1 | 21–1 | 1st | Tournament cancelled | ||||
| UC San Diego Tritons (Big West Conference) (2020–2025) | |||||||||
| 2020–21 | UC San Diego | 7–10 | 4–8* | ||||||
| 2021–22 | UC San Diego | 13–16 | 7–11 | 8th | |||||
| 2022–23 | UC San Diego | 10–20 | 5–13 | 9th | |||||
| 2023–24 | UC San Diego | 21–12 | 15–5 | 2nd | CBI First Round | ||||
| 2024–25 | UC San Diego | 30–5 | 18–2 | 1st | NCAA Division I Round of 64 | ||||
| UC San Diego: | 240–119 (.669) | 158–79 (.667) | |||||||
| Total: | 240–119 (.669) | ||||||||
|
National champion
Postseason invitational champion
| |||||||||
* Due to the 2020–21 season being the first year of transitioning to DI, games in the Big West did not count towards the Tritons' standings and conference record.
References
[edit]- ^ Heidi VanDerveer [@Hoops4Heidi] (October 15, 2020). "Wishing a Happy Birthday to @CoachEricOlen this cute little boy turned into a hooper, evolved into an excellent coach and an even better person. I am lucky to work with him and more fortunate to call him my friend! @UCSDtritons @UCSDmbb @UCSDwbb" (Tweet) – via Twitter.
- ^ a b "Eric Olen - Head Coach - Men's Basketball Coaches". University of California, San Diego.
- ^ "Eric Olen Takes Over as UC San Diego Head Men's Basketball Coach". goccaa.org.
- ^ Guardian Staff (October 21, 2013). "UCSD Names New Head Coach".
- ^ "UC San Diego makes it official: It's joining Div. I, Big West". San Diego Union-Tribune. November 27, 2017.