Lobos Jamal Mashburn Jr., Sebastian Forsling enter NCAA Transfer Portal

Mar. 25—He was the first player on board when Richard Pitino took the job at UNM three years ago.

Monday, Jamal Mashburn Jr. made it official for those who hadn't been reading the tea leaves or reading the writing on the wall during a difficult, injury-plagued senior season.

The 6-foot-2 shooting guard from Miami with one season of playing eligibility remaining on Monday officially entered the NCAA Transfer Portal, signifying the end of one of the highest-scoring three-year stints in UNM Lobo basketball history. Those three years coincided with a rebuild project that took the program from winning four Division I games in 2021 to ending a decade-long NCAA Tournament drought this March.

Mashburn, who followed Pitino to Albuquerque as a transfer after playing his freshman season at Minnesota, did not make any public announcements or social media posts about his decision, but the Journal did confirm his entry into the NCAA's transfer portal as a potential graduate transfer who is expected to complete his degree work in the coming weeks. And he confirmed with the Journal that he absolutely will be walking in person at UNM's graduation in May.

He was one of two 3-year Lobos who entered the transfer portal on Monday, along with his close friend and roommate, 7-foot fan favorite center Sebastian Forsling of Sweden, who did make his announcement known on social media.

Entering the transfer portal is not necessarily an indication that a player is fully committed to continue playing in college. Both Mashburn and Forsling, who is a part of his home country's junior national team, can each pursue professional playing opportunities in the United State or overseas. Having their names in the portal does allow for them to still play in college next year if, by the start of the fall semester of the 2024-25 season, either decides to do so and has a place to play.

Maybe not so coincidentally, Mashburn, a fourth-year senior who can play a fifth season due to having played in the 2021 COVID season, walked onto Bob King Court for the March 6 pregame Senior Night along with his mother and with Forsling, a junior.

That was the last game either will play in the Pit as Lobos.

Mashburn, after one season at Minnesota, flourished in three years as a Lobo.

In 94 games as a Lobo, he scored 1,629 points, ranking No. 10 all-time in UNM history. He averaged 17.3 points per game while at UNM. He was a three-time All-Mountain West selection and led the team in scoring his first two seasons (18.2 and 19.1 points per game respectively). While nursing a strained tendon in his right (shooting) thumb all season, he took a statistical step back this past season at 14.1 points per game and shot just 36.0% (he was at 42.8% in each of his first two seasons).

When asked prior to Senior Night about his decision on the transfer portal and his basketball future, Mashburn said he would punt on talking about that until the offseason, choosing to focus on the game and getting his degree — the first in his family to do so.

"I mean, my dad has all the accolades," the younger Mashburn joked, referring to his highly decorated basketball star father, who won a national championship at Kentucky playing for Rick Pitino and was a longtime NBA star. "So it's good to get one thing under my belt, and I hope (to) keep racking them up against him."

Along with a photo of himself holding the Mountain West Tournament championship trophy, Forsling, known for his smile and constant attempts from the bench to get fans up and cheering for the Lobos, thanked the fan base for being his "family while I have been away from mine."

"You have made me feel better during the hardest of times," Forsling wrote to the fans. "I truly have no words for the amount of support that I have received from you guys and you will always be family to me."

He also noted he will always be a Lobo and added he came to this decision "for my own mental health."

Forsling, whose father, Bengt Forsling, became well known among Lobo fans on social media for his regular posts about watching Lobo games back home in Sweden, often at times like 3 or 4 a.m., played 70 games over three seasons for the Lobos. He averaged 1.6 points, 1.7 rebounds and shot 57.3%.

While he did score a career-high 8 points in this season's opener vs. Texas Southern, arguably his best game came as a freshman on Feb. 15, 2022, when he scored zero points. But his defense in 19 minutes, especially in the first half against All-Mountain West center Graham Ike, helped the Lobos beat No. 22 Wyoming that night in the Pit.

----The NCAA's transfer portal is open until April 30, meaning players can enter by then if they want to transfer this season to another program and be eligible to play in the 2024-25 season. That is not the deadline to sign with a new program, but a player must be in there by then to be eligible for the transfer.

As of Monday evening, the Lobos know they are losing Mashburn and Forsling as transfers and Jaelen House, Jemarl Baker Jr. and Isaac Mushilla to expired eligibility.

They are bringing in three freshmen — 6-2 Beaumont, Texas, combo guard Kayde Dotson; 6-10 power forward Jovan Milicevic, who is playing this season in Arizona but is from Toronto and whose parents are from Serbia; and Dylan Chavez, the 6-6 shooting guard from La Cueva High School who has agreed to be a preferred walk-on.