Nevada-SDSU: Three keys for Nevada...

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Three keys for Nevada to win

1. Strong second-half start: SDSU has struggled at the beginning of the second half. It has out-scored its opponent in the first five minutes of the second half just six times in 23 games, per the San Diego Union-Tribune, and has been out-scored during that stretch in nine of its 10 losses. In the first game between the two teams, Nevada opened the second half on a 7-3 run to take control of the game. For whatever reason, SDSU has struggled to start second halves this year. Nevada must capitalize on that weakness.

2. Second-chance success: SDSU has been an excellent rebounding team during its run of 11 straight postseason appearances, but that?s not been the case this year. The Aztecs have been out-rebounded in MW play and has been the league?s worst defensive rebounding team in MW action. Nevada should get its share of offensive rebounds and second-chance points. The Pack was plus-12 on the glass in its win earlier this year over SDSU. It was plus-11 in second-chance points. Nevada needs to repeat that success.

3. Hold down SDSU from three: The Atzecs aren?t great on offense. They are last in the MW in scoring, last in free throws attempted per game, last in 3-point shooting and shoot just 48.6 percent inside the arc (206th nationally). SDSU has become reliant on the 3-point shot (it has attempted the second most threes per MW game in the league), but hasn?t hit the shot at a high rate. If Nevada, which leads the MW in 3-point defense, keeps the Aztecs at 30 percent or less from three, it will win this game.

 

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The Wolf Pack hasn?t had much success in San Diego. Nevada is 1-5 all-time at SDSU, including losses by 13, 15 and 24 points at Viejas Arena since moving to the MW (its one win came in overtime in 1998, when Nevada was in the Big West). But this SDSU team just isn?t of the same vintage of previous SDSU teams. The Aztecs have been much better at home (7-3) than on the road (2-7) this season, but it?s still been far from perfect in San Diego. SDSU has dropped MW home games to New Mexico and Colorado State and simply haven?t been able to close out games this season, which is something it did in ruthless fashion in previous years. Nevada had a major slip-up the last time it hit the road (a lopsided loss at Utah State) and appears to have learned its lesson from that game. Nevada knows its margin for error to win the MW title is small given there are only six conference games left after this one. The Wolf Pack will take care of business in a hard-fought game.

--Chris Murray
Reno Gazette

 

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The Nevada team with San Diego stamp



Nevada coach Eric Musselman brought his team to San Diego a couple days early for Sunday?s game against SDSU at Viejas Arena.


They landed Friday, got on a bus and drove north. The first stop was the outdoor basketball courts at La Jolla Rec.

?Whenever I get mad at them, I constantly refer to the guys at La Jolla Rec that I used play with,? said Musselman, a USD alum and for years a regular in the Saturday morning pickup games there. ?I say, ?The guys at La Jolla Rec would get that rebound, or the guys at La Jolla Rec would take that charge.?

?They?ve been giving me a hard time about wanting to see the rec, and then when we pulled up and we walked out on the court, they said: ?Where?s the indoor court?? And I?m like, ?No, this is it, this is the spot.?




They posed for a photo under one basket before continuing to La Jolla Shores and lunch at Jeff?s Burgers on Avenida de la Playa. Saturday is dinner hosted by Musselman?s mother, a longtime La Jolla resident.

The symbolism is apparent: The team is from Reno, the blueprint is from San Diego.

On Sunday afternoon at 1, the Aztecs face the 19-5 team that has replaced them, temporarily and perhaps indefinitely, atop the Mountain West. It?s a team that looks and acts a lot like they do, or at least they used to.

The recruiting philosophy. The gritty transfers. The hard-nosed rebounders. The shot blockers. The offensive freedom. The competitive fire. The hunger. The swagger.

Musselman concedes any similarities are not coincidental. He calls San Diego ?home,? went to USD, played against the Aztecs, went to games when there were ?crickets in the gym,? knows what they used to be like and what they?re like now, witnessed the miracle on the Mesa.

Usually, new head coaches in a league analyze at the best team and emulate that formula. Musselman, when he took over a Nevada program two years ago that had finished 10th in the 11-team Mountain West, already knew what it was.

?Anybody who is from here and has spent many years here, it?s almost unfathomable what Coach Fisher has done,? said Musselman, 52, who will be making his first coaching appearance in San Diego because the Wolf Pack did not play at SDSU last year. ?I was following the Aztecs way before I got in the Mountain West. It wasn?t like all of a sudden I got the job at Nevada and said, ?I want to look and see what San Diego State did (to get good).?

?I think a lot of the stuff we?ve done is even subconsciously based through time, reading about them, following them.?

The first order of business was finding players and, just as Fisher did with SDSU, Musselman found value in the transfer market - the scrap heap of players, for better or worse, leaving other programs.

Their first commitment came from Marcus Marshall, a 6-foot-3 sharpshooter from Missouri State with one year of eligibility remaining. Marshall is from Minnesota, and his father knew the Musselman name - Bill, Eric?s father, was head coach at University of Minnesota and the NBA?s Minnesota Timberwolves. He committed to Nevada without taking a visit and leads the conference in scoring (20.1 per game).

They got 6-8 forward Cameron Oliver, who initially committed to Oregon State but never enrolled after head coach Craig Robinson was fired. Oliver, a sophomore, was the Mountain West preseason player of the year.

They got 6-7, 235-pound bruising forward Jordan Caroline, a transfer from Southern Illinois who Fisher calls ?by far the best rebounder in the league,? through a mutual friend of Musselman and Caroline?s father.

They got former Arizona State commit Lindsey Drew through Phil Handy, on the coaching staff at the Cleveland Cavaliers with Drew?s father. The connection: Handy played for Musselman at the USBL?s Florida Sharks and was on his coaching staff at the D-League?s Reno Bighorns.

But it?s more than that.

?Eric Musselman has gone a great job of pushing, pulling, doing what he needed to do, to get them to compete,? Fisher said. ?They?re not complicated in terms of how they play. But they play with a swagger that?s indicative of a team that believes they?re going to win.

?I talked to our team about watching them play their game against UNLV (on Wednesday). Even early in the game, when it wasn?t over, they had a swagger on the bench. They were laughing and smiling. Yes, winning helps create that, but that helps create winning.?

Fisher should know. It has been of hallmark of his teams on Montezuma Mesa, and a missing ingredient on a team that a year ago was undefeated through 11 conference games and enters Sunday tied for seventh place at 5-6.

So it probably wasn?t a coincidence that Fisher?s thought of the day Monday was a single word: ?Fight.?

?That doesn?t mean fistfight,? he explained. ?That means to have a will and a determination to compete, and results take care of themselves.?

It adds another layer of intrigue and incentive to Sunday?s game, one team trying to prove it is the new king of the Mountain West, the other trying to gain some sort of footing from sliding further down, the team picked second that is in first facing the team picked first that is in seventh, the future versus the past.

?It?s hard, you know, to continue to carry that confidence when the results that you want aren?t showing up,? said junior Trey Kell, who is four points short of 1,000 for his career. ?I think there are players on this team that still have confidence. I have confidence in myself and this team, for sure. But you can?t continue to carry that confidence and be overly excited about everything when you?re having the losses that we have.?

 

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Aztecs update: A victory today would reverse the season?s maddening trend consecutive victories or defeats. They have won three in a row, lost three, won four, lost three, won three, lost two, won two and now lost one. The most recent loss, though, was arguably the worst of the season - 76-71 at San Jose State after winning all six previous Mountain West meetings by a minimum of 15 points. Max Hoetzel sat out Tuesday?s game with a heel injury and is questionable. Zylan Cheatham played with the stress reaction in his foot but was limited to 11 minutes. Trey Kell needs four points to become the 31st SDSU player to reach 1,000 for his career. Jeremy Hemsley had 30 points in the first meeting, 25 in the second half. Sunday?s game is a ?White Out,? where fans are encouraged to wear white. Tickets, however, are available after students did not pick up their full allotment again.

Wolf Pack update: It is technically in second place, a half-game behind 9-3 Boise State after the Broncos beat Air Force on Saturday, but it beat the Broncos 76-57 in Boise last month. They play in Reno on Feb. 22. Marcus Marshall leads the MW in scoring (20.1), Lindsey Drew is first in assists (5.3), D.J. Fenner is first in 3-point accuracy (48.5 percent) and Jordan Caroline is second in rebounding (9.3). And Cameron Oliver, the other starter and maybe their top NBA prospect, is top 10 in scoring (15.3) and rebounding (8.2). Wednesday?s game against UNLV set an attendance record at the Lawlor Events Center with 11,841. Nevada scores the most points per game in the MW (79.9) and SDSU allows the least (63.9). The Wolf Pack?s at-large NCAA resume took a hit with last week?s 74-57 loss at Utah State. Its RPI is a respectable 41 but it has no Top 50 wins.