Nevada is the King of the Mountain In Men’s Basketball

With the return of the Martin twins and Jordan Caroline from the NBA draft, the Nevada Wolf Pack basketball team has prognosticators picking the Pack to be a national power this year. Andy Katz has the Pack picked as the fifth best team in the country and Ken Pomeroy has the Pack as the fourth highest-rated team in the country.

At the end of last season the Pack was missing Lindsay Drew to injury and Caleb Martin was hurt for most of post-season play. The bench was so empty a couple of football players suited up for the Wolf Pack at the end of the year. Even with a limited bench and no height over 6-7 the Pack still made it to the Sweet Sixteen by riding Caroline, and the Martin twins along with Halice Cooke and Kendall Stephens.

Nevada did lose sharp shooting Kendall Stephens and Halice Cooke but on the bright side, Jordan Caroline, Caleb and Cody Martin all choose to return to Nevada for their senior years. In addition to the returning core, Eric Musselman has added length to the roster in the form of 6-10, 230, Trey Porter a graduate transfer who averaged 13.2 pts, 6.2 rebs, 1.3blks per game for an Old Dominion team that went 25-7. Nevada also added five-star recruit and McDonalds All-American Jordan Brown. Brown is the highest rated recruit to ever sign with the Wolf Pack. He should make an immediate impact in his freshman year.

In a couple of interviews that I listened to Coach Musselman is as excited as I have ever heard him. He stresses how this is a different team and how great it will be to be able to play Jordan Caroline at the three, his natural position, instead of the five that he played this year. He also emphasized how the addition of height will help them add that shot blocking and shot altering dimension that was missing from last years squad. This years team will have it all. Seniors and transfers who have been in the system for a year and are ready to roll, plus the addition of freshmen and post players.

Last year Nevada was a very good team that got by on great shooting, lots of hustle and guts and grit. This year’s team will not have to rely on football players to warm the bench. This years team is deep and complete and that is why the experts are picking this team to go farther than any team in Nevada history.

Here is the Musselman presser, and another one.