Jaelen House, left, has returned to play for the Lobos. (Adolphe Pierre-Louis/Journal)
Jaelen House will call the Pit home for another season.
As the team expected, the 6-foot point guard on Wednesday filed his paperwork with the NCAA to withdraw his name from NBA Draft eligibility, meaning he’s coming back for at least one more season to play with the UNM Lobos.
The senior who was voted an All-Mountain West player this past season by league media and coaches, could have two seasons remaining to play if he chooses to utilize an extra year of eligibility due to COVID-19.
He and the other 283 early entrants who filed formal paperwork with the NCAA in the spring to enter the NBA Draft — most of whom, like House, did so in order to get NBA feedback on their games, not with the intent of actually leaving school — had until midnight ET on Wednesday to pull their names out of the process or lose eligibility for the coming season.
But, as in House’s case, had he pulled out his name sooner, he wouldn’t have been able to have any more workouts with NBA teams and he was in Boston on Wednesday morning before UNM formally made the announcement about his return public in the afternoon with a social media post that included his saying, “I’m back.”
Most Lobos — with the exception of House, fellow guard Jamal Mashburn Jr., and sophomore center Sebastian Forsling, each of whom have summer commitments over the next month — will be in Albuquerque this week to start summer classes and workouts.
RAM TOUGH: Mountain West Player of the Year David Roddy had a different announcement than House on Wednesday.
Colorado State’s 6-6, 255-pound forward announced via social media that he would, in fact, remain in the NBA Draft after feedback from recent workouts with NBA teams, including his performance at last month’s NBA Combine.
“It breaks my heart to leave early, but thank you for making it such an amazing time,” Roddy wrote in a social media post.
UNLV’s Donovan Williams, a 6-6 forward who scored 29 points against the Lobos in a January win in Las Vegas, Nevada, then was held to just three points in a March loss to UNM in the Pit, also announced he will remain draft eligible and pursue a professional career at some level. He does not appear on any NBA Mock Draft projections.
WELCOME, WELCOME: The Lobos on Wednesday made official two additions to the men’s basketball team.
As reported last month in the Journal, Danny Walters is the team’s new video coordinator, replacing Robert Edwards, who will be taking a Director of Basketball Operations job at UM-Kansas City.
Walters most recently worked as video coordinator with South Alabama.
UNM also announced the hiring of Ben Felz to his sports medicine staff as the men’s basketball team trainer.
Felz spent the past two seasons as an assistant athletic trainer at Northern Kentucky.
He spent seven years prior to that as an assistant athletic trainer at Minnesota, where he worked with Richard Pitino.
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