University of Nevada Athletics

ABOUT THE PORTLAND STATE VIKINGS- Portland State is 6-4 after falling 78-67 to Portland on Saturday night.  The Vikings have dropped their last two games.  Second year head coach Tyler Geving led the Vikings to a 13-19 record a year ago, giving him a career mark of 19-23.
 PSU boasts four players averaging double figures in scoring led by 6-4, sophomore guard Chris Harriel's 14.9 points per game.  Guard Melvin Jones (5-10, Sr.) and forward Chehales Tapscott (6-5, Jr.) average 12.7 and 12.6 points per game respectively.  Tapscott is the Vikings leading rebounder at 8.2 per game.  Charles Odum, a 6-4, junior guard is scoring 12.3 points per game off the bench.  Jones averages 3.0 assists per game and Odum 2.7.
 The Vikings are averaging 76.8 points per game and defensively allow 76.7 per game.  PSU is shooting 45.4 percent from the field and 33.5 from behind the 3-point arc.  Opponents shoot 48.9 percent overall and 34.3 percent from 3-point range.  On the boards PSU averages 34.3 per game and opponents average slightly less at 33.5.  PSU has attempted 234 free throws making 184, good for 78.6 percent.  In comparison opponents have attempted just 166 and made 110 for 66.3 percent.

HUNT LEADING THE WAY  - Junior forward Dario Hunt is averaging near a double-double scoring 12.9 points per game and grabbing 9.5 rebounds per outing.  The 12.9 ppg is tied with Malik Story for the team lead and ninth in the WAC.  The 9.5 rpg tops the conference and team.
 Hunt also ranks eighth in field goal percentage (48.1 %), ninth in blocks per game (1.1 bpg), first in offensive rebounds (4.3 orpg) and fifth in defensive rebounds (5.2 drpg) in the WAC.
 In the Pack's game versus San Francisco State he scored a career-high 25 points and pulled down 12 rebounds which were game highs as he posted his third double-double of the season.  It was his fourth career double-double.  The 25 points marked the second game of 20 or more points in his career with the first being 21 points against BYU last season.  He finished with five blocks, one off his career best against the Gators.
 Hunt led the Pack in scoring the first four games of the season and in rebounding the first three games of the year.  It marked the first time in Hunt's career that he has led the team in scoring in any contest and the first time he reached double figures in more than two consecutive games.  In 10 games he has topped Nevada in scoring five times with two being game highs and reached double figures eight times on the year.
 He has grabbed 12 of more rebounds in three consecutive games until finishing with seven vs. ASU in the last game.  Eight times he led the Wolf Pack in rebounding with two of those rebounding efforts tying for the honor.  Six of his rebounding totals were game highs. 

YOUNG GUNS- Nevada has used three different lineups the first 10 games of the season but both have been dominated by young players.  Three freshmen have started in each of the 10 games along with a sophomore and a junior.  Freshman point guard Deonte Burton has started all 10 games as has sophomore transfer Malik Story and returner Dario Hunt.  Freshmen Jordan Finn made his first career start versus Arizona State on Saturday.  Freshman Kevin Panzer has made seven starts, Jordan Burris six, Jerry Evans, Jr. three and Devonte Elliot three.
 Newcomers have scored 525-of-671 points on the season which equates to 78 percent of the offense.  After junior Dario Hunt's 12.9 points per game, the next 10 players in scoring average are all first-year players.

CZYZ SOLID IN DEBUT- Duke transfer Olek Czyz had a solid performance in his first game in the Silver & Blue after sitting out a year due to NCAA transfer rules.  Czyz finished with 10 points and seven rebounds in 24 minutes against Arizona State off the bench.  The 6-7, forward was called for two quick fouls in the first half playing just six minutes.  All his statistics were achieved in his 18 minutes played in the second half which included a thunderous put back dunk on a missed shot that brought the Wolf Pack faithful to their feet.  The seven rebounds tied for game-high honors. 

BURTON ON POINT- Freshman Deonte Burton has started all 10 games at point guard in his first season at Nevada and is third on the squad averaging 11 points per game.  Burton leads the team averaging 3.5 assists per game which is fifth in the WAC and his 1.52 assist to turnover ratio is sixth in the conference.
 He produced his first double-double in a Nevada uniform and the first of the season for a Pack player with 10 points and 11 assists in Nevada's 76-75 loss to Pepperdine.  The 11 assists are the high by any player in the WAC this season.  The last Pack double-double by a guard also came in a one-point loss when Armon Johnson totaled 13 points and 10 assists in an 80-79 setback at home to New Mexico State on Mar. 12, 2010 in the first game of the WAC Tournament. 
 Last season Luke Babbitt led the Pack with 16 double-doubles and Johnson totaled two while Dario Hunt and Joey Shaw had one each.
 Burton scored in double figures in the first three games of his Pack career.  Something that was not accomplished by six former Pack players that went on to NBA careers; Johnson, Babbitt, Nick Fazekas, Ramon Sessions, JaVale McGee or Kirk Snyder.  Burton scored 17 in the season opening 81-66 victory over Montana then finished with 10 versus Pacific and Pepperdine.
 After scoring in double figures the first three games of the season Burton struggled failing to score in double digits the next three contests averaging 5.7 per outing.  He has since reached double figures in the last four games including a career-high 18 points versus Arizona State in the Pack's last game.  His 15 points versus UNLV tied Malik Story for team-high honors and marked the first time he has led the team in scoring.  He totaled 11 points at Houston and 12 versus San Francisco State.  On the year he has produced seven double figure scoring performances.

HUNT BLOCKS JONES LOOKING FOR FAZEKAS  - Junior forward Dario Hunt 's five blocks in the San Francisco State game gave him 144 in his career and moved him past Edgar Jones (1975-79) into second place on the career list.  The five blocks was one off his career high of six that has occurred three times with the last coming versus Hawai'i on Jan. 30, 2009.
 Hunt began the year fourth on the list but has passed both Jones and Matt Williams (1987-91) this season.  Next on the chart is Nick Fazekas (2004-07) who totaled 192 during his four seasons.  His 144 blocks has come in 78 games while Jones' 142 were in 101 games and Fazekas' 192 were accomplished in 131 contests.  Based on average Hunt's 1.85 per game is best among the three at the top of the list.  Fazekas averaged 1.5 blocks per game and Jones 1.4 during their careers.
 Hunt has two of the top four block seasons in school history with 67 during 2008-09 season ranking third and his 66 last year is fourth.  The 67 is the freshman record at Nevada.

STREAK ENDS AT SEVEN  - Nevada snapped its seven-game losing skid defeating San Francisco State, 78-64 on Dec. 11.  The Wolf Pack opened the season with an 81-66 home victory on Nov. 13 but went on to drop seven in a row, six were played away from Lawlor Events Center and the seventh was versus top 25 UNLV.   The seven-game skid was the longest since the 2000-01 team dropped eight in a row. 
 The last Nevada team to start the year 1-7 was the 1990-91 team under the direction of head coach Len Stevens.  The 1990-91 Pack squad ended the year 17-14.

TELL ME A STORY  - Indiana transfer Malik Story has been one of the top offensive weapons for Nevada in his first season in the Silver & Blue, starting all 10 games.  After Story's 19  point performance versus Arizona State on Friday he and Dario Hunt lead the team in scoring at 12.9 points per game which is tied for ninth in the WAC. 
 Six times this season he has scored in double figures including a career and game-high 21 at Houston.  Twice he finished with nine points in a game and once totaled eight.  His lowest output of the season was three versus Pacific.  His only back-to-back double figure scoring games were 15 versus UNLV and the 21 at Houston. 
 He has led the team in scoring in three games; versus Boston University (14 pts), at Houston (21 pts), tied Deonte Burton for the honor in the UNLV game as both totaled 15 points and versus Arizona State (19 pts).
 The Pack's top long range shooter and one of the best in the WAC this season Story is making 48 (24-of-50) percent of his 3-point attempts, which is tied for second in the conference.   His 2.4, 3-point shots made per game is fourth in the WAC.  He has made a 3-point shot in every game but versus San Francisco State when he was 0-for-1 from behind the arc.

10,862 AND COUNTING - Nevada has flown 10,682 miles to play six games this season away from Reno.  The Wolf Pack flew 7,782 miles to play five games between its first home contest on Nov. 13 with Montana and a second home game on Dec. 4 versus UNLV.
 In breaking down the trips, the Wolf Pack flew 388 miles each way to Los Angeles for a total of 776 miles to play Pacific and Pepperdine at UCLA's Pauley Pavilion in the 2010 Dick's Sporting Goods NIT Season Tip-Off on Nov. 15-16.
 Next was a road trip east of 2,275 miles to Washington, D.C. to take on George Washington and Boston University in the consolation bracket of the Dick's Sporting Goods NIT Season Tip-Off, Nov. 22-23.  Returning to Reno was another 2,275 for a total of 4,550 miles.  The fifth game was a road trip to Brookings, S.D. to play South Dakota State on Nov. 30, which is a flight of 1,228 miles, times two to account for the return home so add 2,456 miles for the entire trip.  The team traveled a combined 7,782 miles before playing its second home game at Lawlor Events Center on Dec. 4 with UNLV.  A trip to Houston, Texas to play the University of Houston on Dec. 6 added another 3,080 miles.  This is all before Western Athletic play gets underway with trips to Hawai'i (5,130 miles round trip) and Louisiana Tech (3,180 miles round trip) in the future.
 The last Nevada team to start the season with so many road games was the 1963-64 team that began the season with six road games to start the year and went 1-5 away from Reno.  Three of those contests were played in Alaska and one was at Montana.  The 2005-06 team played four-of-five games to start the season on the road and won all four on the way to a 25-9 record.

DOUBLE-DOUBLES - Dario Hunt has posted three double-doubles on the season while Deonte Burton produced the Pack's first double-double of the season.  Burton's came versus Pepperdine on Nov. 16 when he totaled 10 points and 11 assists.  It was the first double-double of his career.
 Hunt's third double-double of the season came against San Francisco State when he scored a career-high 25 points and grabbed 12 rebounds.  His first of the year was a 10 point, 10 rebound effort in the Boston U game.  Against UNLV he totaled 14 points and grabbed 13 boards.

WOLF PACK PICKED TO FINISH THIRD IN WAC  - Nevada has been picked to finish third in the Western Athletic Conference by both the league's coaches and media.  The Wolf Pack received 47 points in the coaches' polls to finish behind Utah State and New Mexico State.  In the media poll the Pack totaled 190 points to again rank behind Utah State and New Mexico State.

NEVADA 0-4 IN 2010 DICK'S SPORTING GOODS NIT SEASON TIP-OFF  - Nevada went 0-4 in the 2010 Dick's Sporting Goods NIT Season Tip-Off.  The Wolf Pack lost 64-53 to Pacific and 76-75 to Pepperdine in the two games played at UCLA's Pauley Pavilion, Nov. 15-16.  The next week the Pack lost at George Washington 58-56 and 66-57 to Boston University in the two games played at GW's Smith Center in Washington, D.C.  Overall Nevada is 1-5 in the preseason NIT going 1-1 in the 2003 event defeating Vermont 69-49 at home then falling 93-79 at #1 Connecticut.

BREAKING DOWN THE PACK  - The Nevada bench has scored 237 points, an average of 23.7 ppg this season compared to 200 for its opponents, 20 ppg.  After outscoring the opponents bench the first six games of the year the Wolf Pack were outscored in three consecutive games but in the Arizona State game the Pack bench totaled 26 points and the Sun Devil bench 15.
 The Pack holds an 80-65 advantage on fast break opportunities and has outscored opponents 294-268 in the paint through 10 games. Unfortunately the Pack has turned the ball over 155 times which has led to 178 (17.8 ppg) opponent points while 121 turnovers for the opponents have resulted in 117 (11.7 ppg) points for Nevada.

NEVADA ONE OF TOP WAC TEAMS OVER LAST SEVEN PLUS SEASONS
Over the last seven plus seasons dating back to 2003-04, Nevada has turned in a 171-73 record, the second-most wins of any WAC team during that time (.700 winning percentage). In conference games, Nevada has won 90 games, the most in that same time period. The top three teams in wins (both overall and WAC) over the last seven plus seasons:

Overall Record (Pct.)              WAC Record (Pct.)
1.  Utah State 183-58 (.759)   1.  Nevada 90-26 (.776)
2.  Nevada 171-73 (.700)        2.  Utah State 60-20 (.750)
3.  Boise State 134-100 (.572) 3.  Boise State 64-69 (.481)

WINNING AT LAWLOR  - The Wolf Pack has won 75 of its last 92 contests at Lawlor Events Center, dating back to the start of the 2005-06 season. The Pack went 15-2 last year and has won nine of its last 11 home contests which include two wins this season.  The Wolf Pack has turned in a 103-21 record at Lawlor Events Center since the start of the 2003-04 season (.830 winning percentage).
 Nevada has also captured 33 of its last 39 WAC regular-season home games (.846) and 39 of its last 47 home games against WAC opponents (.830) counting the 2006, 2009 and 2010 WAC Tournaments (dating back to the 2005-06 season).
 In addition to its 15-2 home mark, Nevada put up some gaudy offensive numbers at Lawlor Events Center last season. The Wolf Pack averaged 82.9 points per game and shot 50.6 percent from the field in its 17 home games. Sophomore Luke Babbitt averaged 22.6 points per home game, while junior Armon Johnson and senior Brandon Fields added 15.5 and 14.5 ppg, respectively. Johnson shot the ball particularly well at home, making 55.7 percent of his shots at Lawlor (107-192). He also dished out 6.8 assists per home game. Senior Ray Kraemer knocked down 52.2 percent of his three-point attempts at home (35-67), including a perfect 4-of-4 outing Jan. 13 vs. Utah State.

RECORD AT LAWLOR EVENTS CENTER (since 2003-04)
Year Overall       WAC Play
2003-04 15-0        9-0
2004-05 13-4        7-2 (also 0-1 in WAC Tournament)
2005-06 17-1        7-1 (also 3-0 in WAC Tournament)
2006-07 15-1        8-0
2007-08 13-3        7-1
2008-09 13-8        5-3 (also 2-1 in WAC Tournament)
2009-10 15-2        7-1 (also 1-1 in WAC Tournament)
2010-11 2-2          0-0
Totals 103-21      51-8 (54-11 with WAC Tournament)

SIX ESPN TV GAMES IN 2010-11 - University of Nevada men's basketball games will air on ESPN's family of networks six times this season.  The Wolf Pack will make three appearances on ESPNU, two games will air on ESPN2 and one will be a regional ESPN telecast.
 Home games on Dec. 17 with Arizona State, Dec. 31 versus Hawai'i and Jan. 8 with Utah State will be shown on ESPNU.  Road games at Idaho on Jan. 12 and at Utah State Feb. 2 can be seen on ESPN2.  The Feb. 24 Idaho at Nevada game will be a regional ESPN telecast.

WOLF PACK LAYUPS

Second-year head coach David Carter is 23-21 at Nevada, which is his first collegiate head coaching position.

Nevada is 0-4 in games decided by three points or less.  The Pack lost by a point 76-75 to Pepperdine (11/16), suffered a two-point setback at George Washington (11/22) and twice lost by three points at Houston (12/6) and at home to Arizona State (12/17).

Nevada has led in 8-of-10 games except for two home games vs. UNLV and Arizona State.

Nevada has outrebounded 6-of-10 opponents on the season, all coming in the last eight games.  South Dakota State (36-35) and Arizona State (36-35) are the only teams to win the battle of the boards in the last eight games by one, 36-35 in both games.

Three times in the last seven games the Wolf Pack has outrebounded their opponent by 10 or more.  Nevada outrebounded Houston by a season high 18, 53-35.  The Pack outrebounded George Washington (45-35) and Boston University (47-32) by 10 or more boards.

Nevada allowed a season-high 82 points in back-to-back losses at South Dakota State (Nov. 30) and at home versus #23/24 UNLV (12/4).

Deonte Burton's 11 assists vs. Pepperdine is the top mark in the WAC this season.

Burton has made 14-of-16 free throws in each of the last two games connecting on 7-of-8 vs. SF State and Arizona State.

Dario Hunt's 18 rebounds at Houston is the high in the WAC this season.

Hunt's five blocks in the San Francisco State game is tied for the top mark in the WAC this season.

Nevada's 2-8 record is at the bottom of the WAC standings.

Nevada is averaging 15.5 turnovers per game having turned the ball over 10 or more times in each contest.  The season-high was 22 at South Dakota State but the Pack also had 20 at George Washington.

The 82-65, 17-point loss at South Dakota State was the largest setback of the season. 

Derrell Conner's 15 points at South Dakota State marked the first time this season Nevada's leading scorer came off the bench and is his career-high.

Hunt had a stretch of grabbing 12 or more rebounds in three consecutive games snapped vs. ASU when he totaled seven.  The three-game stretch was 12 vs. SF State, 18 at Houston and 13 vs. UNLV.  He also reached double figures with 10 vs. Boston University giving him a stretch of four double figure rebound games in the last six.

Devonte Elliott (14 at Georg Washington) and Kevin Panzer (11 at Houston) has the Pack's two other double figure rebounding games.

Nevada has started four newcomers in every game this season, three freshmen, a sophomore transfer along with junior returner Dario Hunt.

For just the second time this season Nevada had four players score in double figures as Malik Story (19), Deonte Burton (18), Olek Czyz (10) and Dario Hunt (10) reached double digits in the ASU game.  The first occurrence was versus Pepperdine on Nov. 16 when Jordan Burris (15) joined by Hunt (16), Story (15) and Burton (10).

Nevada has had seven or more players score in every game this season.  A season-high 11 scored in the 81-66 victory over Montana.  Five times nine players scored and three times 10 players scored in a game.  A season low seven scored in the Houston game.

Five or more newcomers have scored in every contest this season with nine new players scoring in the Pacific contest.  Seven times eight new players have scored points for the Pack and once seven with a season low five new players scoring at Houston. 

A total of 25 times six different Nevada players have scored in double figures led by Dario Hunt's eight occurrences.  Deonte Burton has reached double figures in seven games while Malik Story scored double figures six times.  Twice Derrell Conner and once Jordan Burris and Olek Czyz accomplished the task off the bench.

Nevada's 67.1 points per game ranks seventh in the WAC and its 70 points per game allowed are seventh.