Nevada Basketball: Wolf Pack take on Boise State for first place in the Mountain West

The Nevada Wolf Pack will travel up to Idaho on Wednesday to face off against the Boise State Broncos with first place on the line in the Mountain West Conference.

The Wolf Pack are coming off a loss on Saturday at home to Fresno State and despite the final score, the Wolf Pack were simply outplayed by the Bulldogs on Saturday. Nevada is looking to get back to the basics before their critical showdown against Boise State on Wednesday night.

“We wanted to make sure we focus on the details more and more” said Wolf Pack forward Leland King. King also went on to say, “If you want to be a great team or a tournament team, you can’t do the good things or great things sometimes, you have to do them all of the time”.

The Wolf Pack must do the good things well as they face a Boise State team that is 34-4 at home in the last three seasons. Since joining the Mountain West in 2012, Nevada is 1-3 against the Broncos and those three losses were by 21, 26 and 32 points respectively.

Not only will the Wolf Pack have to deal with playing in the tough confines of the Taco Bell Arena, they also must deal with defending junior small forward Chandler Hutchison (17 pts per game and nine rebounds per game) and point guard Paris Austin who is averaging 11 points and three assists per game. Hutchison is shooting 52 percent from the field and 42 percent from the three-point line and the Wolf Pack are aware that on defense they must contain one of the best players in the conference.

“Chandler Hutchison is playing at the level of an MVP”, Nevada head coach Eric Musselman said on Tuesday. “He can really score in the transition and does a lot of good things”.

For Nevada to win, they must not only defend Hutchison but also rebound the ball better. In the last two games, Nevada has struggled rebounding the ball and has lacked consistency in this facet of the game. The Wolf Pack must also get good shots from the three-point line as well to win. The Broncos have only allowed 81 made three-pointers this season and opponents are only shooting under 30 percent from the arc this season. The Wolf Pack are one of the best three-point shooting teams in the Mountain West so it will be quite the test for Nevada to get the three-point shot going against the Broncos.

If the Wolf Pack can hit their threes, shore up their rebounding efforts and contain Hutchison, the Wolf Pack will have a good chance to get a rare win in Boise and take over sole possession of first place in the Mountain West.

Game Info:

When: Wednesday 7 pm

Where: Taco Bell Arena in Boise, Idaho

TV/Radio: CBS Sports Network/94.5

Online: None