The following is a piece from contributor Magpie Waters:
23rd ranked Nevada had a grind-it-out type of tough road win in Ft. Collins against the Eustacy-less Colorado State Rams. Winning on the road has always been a tough task for any team in the Mountain West Conference even if you’re the first place leading Nevada Wolf Pack.
Nevada had a very rough night shooting the ball at Moby hitting a meager 36 percent of their two’s and only 30 percent from 3 point land. Nevada took 11 mid-range shots and made only two of those. CSU didn’t shoot much better; it was a very physical game and give the Rams credit for not letting Nevada run them out of Moby.
Moby can be a very hostile environment and a tough gym to win in but it was only at 45 percent capacity with quite a few boisterous Pack fans in attendance as well. Nevada should be a top draw since they are leading the conference but people are not showing up to Moby this year.
Next, Nevada will be taking on in-state rival UNLV in the Governor’s Series match up. UNLV is coming off a 92-90 overtime loss at Taco Bell Arena in Boise. The Rebels are kind of an enigma, losing several early conference games at home and winning several on the road. UNLV has played its best basketball on the road this year so this may not be a gimme game for the Pack. Probable one and done UNLV freshman Brandon McCoy is playing his best basketball of the year, scoring over twenty points a game and grabbing double digit boards in three of the last 4 games.
Nevada is 19-1 this year when not ranked and 0-3 when they are ranked. If all goes well, by week’s end Nevada should be 2-3 when ranked. Lawlor has been a tough place for opposing teams to get a win this year with only San Francisco and 20.
Some Nevada notes:
• The Wolf Pack has won 20 or more games in 11 of the last 15 seasons.
• The Pack’s three consecutive 20-win seasons is the second longest streak behind the seven from 2003-2010.
• Of the Pack’s 1,995 points this season 61.4 (1,224-of-1,995) percent is from first year players.
• The Martin twins, Caleb (19.8) and Cody (13.5) combine to average 32.8 points per game which accounts for 39.4 percent of the Pack’s points.
• Kendall Stephens scored 15 points at Colorado State giving him 1,001 in his collegiate career. Stephens joined Jordan Caroline(1,227) and Caleb Martin (1,027) as 1000-point scorers in their collegiate careers. Caroline is 76 from his 1,000th at Nevada.