University of Nevada Athletics

PACK IN WAC TOURNAMENT - Nevada has participated in 10 Western Athletic Conference tournaments since joining the league in 2000.  The Wolf Pack are 14-8 all time and won the 2004 title in Fresno, Calif. and the 2006 tournament played in Reno.  The Pack defeated UTEP, 66-60 to claim the 2004 crown and Utah State 70-63 in overtime in 2008.
    Nevada made two other finals appearances falling in 2003, 75-64 to Tulsa and 72-62 to Utah State in 2009.
    The 2011 tournament marks the first time that the site will not feature a WAC school.  It is the fourth time that Las Vegas will host the tournament.
 
BURTON NAMED WAC FRESHMAN OF THE YEAR, HUNT AND CZYZ HONORED  -
    University of Nevada freshman Deonte Burton became the fourth Wolf Pack player to earn WAC Freshman of the Year honors since joining the conference for the 2000-01 season.  Burton joined Ramon Sessions (2004-05), Armon Johnson (2007-08) and Luke Babbitt (2008-09) as former Pack players to claim the lofty honor.  The previous three are all currently on NBA rosters.
    Burton was also named to the newcomer and honorable mention squads.  In 16 conference games, he averaged 15.8 points per contest and 3.4 assists per game, while shooting 48.7 percent from the field.
    Junior Dario Hunt was a repeat selection on the WAC all-defensive team and also earned All-WAC second-team honors.  Junior transfer Olek Czyz garnered his first honor in the Silver & Blue being named to the newcomer team.
   
NEVADA’S LAST GAME - Aggies 77, Wolf Pack 68
LAS CRUCES, N.M. (AP) - Troy Gillenwater scored 21 points to lead New Mexico State to a 77-68 victory over Nevada on Saturday night.
    The Aggies (15-16, 9-7) secured the No. 3 seed and a first-round bye for next week's Western Athletic Conference tournament in Las Vegas.
    Gordo Castillo had a double-double, with 15 points on 4-of-6 shooting from 3-point range, and 10 rebounds for New Mexico State. Christian Kabongo and Tshilidzi Nephawe each scored 10 points.
    Dario Hunt and Deonte Burton led Nevada (12-18, 8-8) with 14 points each and Derrell Conner and Kevin Panzer each had 10 points.
    The Aggies finished the game shooting 54 percent from the floor, outrebounded Nevada 35-25, and finished 7 for 12 from 3-point range and 16 for 24 from the free-throw line.

THE PACK VS. FRESNO STATE THIS SEASON
JAN 3 - BULLDOGS 80, WOLF PACK 74— FRESNO, Calif. (AP) - Tim Steed scored 20 points and Greg Smith added 15 points and nine rebounds as Fresno State held on to defeat Nevada 80-74 on Monday night.
    The Bulldogs (6-6, 2-0 WAC) made 7 of 8 free throws in the final 2:52, reversing a season-long weakness, to hold off Nevada.
    Olek Czyz scored a game-high 26 points on 10-of-12 shooting for the Wolf Pack (4-11, 1-1). Deonte Burton added 16, and Dario Hunt had 13 points and 12 rebounds for Nevada.
    Reserve Kevin Olekaibe scored 14 points for Fresno State, including two free throws with 22.7 seconds left that sealed the win.

JAN 27 - WOLF PACK 79, BULLDOGS 76 — RENO, Nev. (AP) - Dario Hunt had 24 points and 11 rebounds Thursday night as Nevada held on to beat Fresno State 79-76.
    Deonte Burton added 17 points and Malik Story 13 for the Wolf Pack (8-13, 5-3 Western Athletic), who won their fourth consecutive game.
    Tim Steed had 26 points to lead the Bulldogs (8-11, 3-5). Kevin Olekaibe added 19 points and Greg Smith had 18 points and 10 rebounds.
    Steed banked in a 3-pointer with 6.1 seconds left to pull Fresno State within 78-76. After Burton made 1 of 2 free throws to extend the lead to three, another Steed 3-point attempt from the top of the key bounced off the rim at the buzzer.
    Nevada, which was ahead 39-33 at halftime, led by as many as 13 points in the game. The Wolf Pack outrebounded the Bulldogs 38-25 and had 14 second-chance points.

BURTON ON POINT— A starter in all 30 games, freshman point guard Deonte Burton was named the WAC Freshman of the Year, to all-WAC honorable mention team and to the WAC newcomer team.  The 6-1 guard is tied with Malik Story first on the team in scoring at 13.6 points per game which is ninth in the WAC.  His 3.6 assists per game is fourth in the conference.
    Burton scored a career and game-high 24 points at LA Tech and made a career-best four, 3-pointers in five attempts.  In the last four games he is averaging 17.8 points, is shooting 47.8 (11-of-23) from behind the arc and 43.5 percent (20-of-46) from the field.  In the last six contests he is connecting on 51.6 (16-of-31) percent of his 3-pointers.
    Burton’s 23 double figure scoring games is tied with Malik Story’s for tops on the team.  On the year he has led the Pack in scoring in 10 games which ranks second to Dario Hunt’s 12.  His five 20-point games is one less than Hunt’s six.
    Scored a team-high 21 points and grabbed a team and career-high eight rebounds in the Pack’s 69-67 overtime loss at Hawai`i on Feb. 14.  At Hawai`i he made 6-of-12 field goals including 3-of-5, 3-pointers.  Made two free throws with 50 seconds left in the second half to tie the score at 59 and send the game into overtime.  He just missed a 3-pointer at the end of regulation that would have won the game.
    A 1.59 assist to turnover ratio is fourth in the WAC.  In total he ranks in five categories in the WAC.  In WAC only action he is tied for fifth in scoring averaging a team-high 15.8 points per game and appears in six additional categories.
    Named Jan. 17-23 Verizon WAC Player of the Week after averaging 20.0 points, 6.0 assists, 3.0 steals and 3.0 rebounds per game, shot 75.0 percent (15-of-20) from the field and 71.4 percent (5-of-7) from three-point range
    Burton put together a stretch of five outstanding games in a row averaging 20 points, 2.4 rebounds, 3.8 assists and 2.2 steals starting with the Jan. 12 game at Idaho through the Jan. 27 home contest with Fresno State.  Burton shot 65 percent from the field, 58 percent from the 3-point line and 71 percent from free throw line in leading the Pack to a 4-1 record.  He topped the team in scoring in the first four games and three times posted games highs.  The five-game stretch began with a then career-high 23 at Idaho, followed by 20 at Boise State, 22 versus New Mexico State, 18 against LA Tech and 17 in the Fresno State game. 
    Since WAC play began he has improved his 3-point shooting making 45.5 percent of his opportunities connecting on 30-of-61 attempts to rank second in the WAC.  He leads the team in free throws made (125) and attempted (167) while ranking second in percentage (74.9).  On the year he is making 4.2 free throws per game.  Only twice this season has he not attempted a free throw, both coming at home versus SJSU and UC Irvine.
    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 tied for 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, the first game of the WAC Tournament. 
    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, Luke 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 reach double digits the next three contests averaging 5.7 per outing.  He has since reached double figures in 20 of the last 24 games which included a stretch of nine in a row until finishing with nine in the home game with Utah State.   The nine game stretch of double digit scoring is the longest by a Pack player this season.  In the game just prior to the last 20 he also totaled nine points.

CZYZ AMONG WAC LEADERS, NAMED TO WAC NEWCOMER TEAM — In his first year at Nevada junior forward Olek Czyz was named to the WAC newcomer team.  Czyz averaged 13.8 points per game in WAC play to rank 11th in the conferrence.  On the year his 12.4 points per game is fourth on the team and his 5.8 rebounds is second.
    Czyz scored a game-high 25 points in the Pack’s 72-66 loss to Boise State and tied his career-high with 11 rebounds to record his second double-double of the season.  He connected on 9-of-10 field goals including both 3-point attempts but was 5-of-10 at the free throw line.  It was his fourth 20-point game of the season.
    His first 11 rebound performance was just two games versus UC Irvine.
    At SJSU (2/12) Czyz made two free throws with three seconds to play to tie the score at 72 to send the game into overtime where the Pack prevailed 84-76.  His  first free throw bounced high off the iron before dropping through the net and his second was dead center.
    Ten of the Pack’s 12 wins has come since he was inserted into the starting lineup against Portland State.  He became eligible to play for the Pack on Dec. 17 versus Arizona State after sitting out one year after transferring from Duke.
    Czyz ranks in four categories in WAC play; 11th in scoring at 13.8 per game, fifth in field goal percentage making 56.8 percent of his opportunities, is first in 3-point field goal percentage at 46.8 and is 14th in rebounding grabbing 5.6 per game.
    He had a stretch of seven consecutive double figure games snapped in the home game with LA Tech on Jan. 22.  In the very next game he just missed a double-double as he grabbed nine rebounds to go along with his nine points in the Fresno State game.
    He put together three consecutive 20 point games to start the conference season.  On the year he has scored in double figures in 13-of-21 games played.  He began WAC play scoring 23 versus Hawai`i, totaled 26 at Fresno State and 25 against Utah State.  All three point totals were game highs with the 23 against UH tying teammate Dario Hunt for the honor.  The 26 points at Fresno State is the second most by a Pack player this season. 
    At Fresno State he made his first 10 field goals before missing two, 3-pointers in the last 2:14 of the game.  He finished 10-of-12 from the field which included 2-of-4 three pointers and was good on 4-of-5 free throws.
    He set then career highs in back-to-back games with nine rebounds at home versus Utah State and 10 at Idaho which were also game highs.
    At Idaho his 14 point, 10 rebound performance marked his first double-double at Nevada.
       
TELL ME A STORY — Indiana transfer Malik Story has been one of the top offensive weapons for Nevada all season as his 13.6 points per game is tied with Deonte Burton for first on the team.  The 13.6 points per game ranks 10th in the WAC.  Story’s 2.0 assists per game is second on the team and he is tied for fourth in rebounding at 2.9 per contest.
    In 21 of the last 26 games he has scored in double figures and totaled nine in three of the contests during the stretch.  He topped the team in scoring seven times. 
    Story scored a career and team season-high 29 points at San Jose State (2/12) to help the Pack to an 84-76 overtime victory over the Spartans which earned him Feb. 7-13 WAC Player of the Week honors.  He made 11-of-21 field goals which included three, 3-pointers and made of 4-of-5 free throws.  In addition he dished out a career-high six assists.  He scored 21 of the 29 points after halftime.  Played a career-high 43 minutes at SJSU and then totaled 41 at Hawai`i as the Pack split a pair of road overtime games.
    One of the Pack’s top long range shooter he had his best game from behind the 3-point arc in the WAC opener versus Hawai`i making 6-of-11 attempts to account for all 18 of his points in the game.  The six, 3-pointers is the high by a Pack player this season and equals Brandon Fields’ high from last season when he connected on 6-of-10 at San Jose State on Feb. 25, 2010.
    He ranks 10h in scoring (13.6 ppg), is 12th in 3-point percentage (36.8%) and fourth in 3-point shots made (2.23 mpg) in the WAC.  On the year he has made 67-of-182 attempts from behind the 3-point arc.  He has made a 3-point shot in all but two games, versus San Francisco State when he was 0-for-1 from behind the arc and against Boise State going 0-for-6. 
    Story has produced three 20 point games this season with 21 at Houston (12/4), 20 versus Portland State (12/20) and the 29 at SJSU (2/12).  His lowest output was three versus Pacific, the second game of the season on Nov. 15.   

HUNT LEADER OF THE PACK — Junior Dario Hunt earned second-team All-WAC honors and was a repeat selection on the WAC Defensive Team.  The 6-7 forward is averaging near a double-double at 12.6 points and WAC best 9.9 rebounds per game.  The 9.9 rebounds is 24th in the latest NCAA statistics and his 1.7 blocks is 81st.
    His 51 blocks this season is tied with Nick Fazekas total from the 2004-05 season for the sixth best year in school history.
    Twice this season he grabbed a career-high 19 rebounds within a stretch of five games versus San Jose State (2/5) and Idaho (2/24).  The 19 rebounds is the best total at Nevada since Richard Sturgis had 19 versus UTEP on Jan. 27, 2001.  It is also the high in the WAC this season.  His previous career best was 18 at Houston back on Dec. 6.  He has six double figure rebounding games in the last seven.
    He leads the WAC in rebounding (9.9), blocked shots (1.7), offensive rebounds (3.67) and is second in defensive rebounds (6.2). 
    In the UC Irvine game he recorded his team leading 10th double-double of the season with 20 points and 13 rebounds.  It was his team leading sixth 20-point game of the season. 
    On the season he has 14 double figure rebounding games, 22 times has led the team in rebounding with two of those efforts tying for the honor and 18 game-high totals on the year. Four times he just missed double figures in rebounds finishing with nine.   
    He has also led the Pack in scoring in a team-high 12 games with three of the efforts tying for the honor.  Four times he posted game highs which includes the tie with Olek Czyz in the Hawai`i game as both scored 23 points.  On the year he has scored in double figures 20 times.
    Hunt has doubled his scoring output from last season when he averaged 6.5 points and seven rebounds per game.  In 30 games this season his 378 points, 296 rebounds and 104 free throws made are career season highs. 
    In the last 18 games he has seven double-doubles to his credit and just missed an eighth when he totaled nine rebounds to go along with his 23 points versus Hawai`i.  In the 79-76 victory over Fresno State, he recorded his eighth double-double of the season and second versus the Bulldogs this season, finishing with 24 points and 11 rebounds. 
    He made 19 consecutive free throws during a three-game stretch until missing his first opportunity in the second half of the FS game.  A much improved free throw shooter he is shooting 69 percent from the charity stripe this season.  Last year he shot 47 percent from the free throw line and as a freshman 46 percent.
    In the USU home game he did not grab a rebound for the first time in his career.  He fouled out of four games in a row; at FS, vs. USU, at Idaho and at BSU.
    For the first time in his career he had back-to-back 20 plus point games, finishing with 21 at Portland (12/27) and 23 versus Hawai`i (12/31).  He also scored a career-high 25 points versus San Francisco State this season.  Six of his seven career 20 point games has come this season.
    In the San Francisco State game he scored a career-high 25 points and pulled down 12 rebounds which were both game highs as he recorded his third double-double of the 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 reached double figures in the first five.  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.        

DOUBLE-DOUBLES — Three players have combined to produce Nevada’s 13 doubled-doubles on the season.  Junior forward Dario Hunt has 10 while junior Olek Czyz has two and freshman Deonte Burton one.
    Hunt posted his 10th double-double in the Pack’s 74-63 victory over UC Irvine finishing with 20 points and 13 rebounds.  In Nevada’s 20-point home victory over San Jose State he scored 16 points and grabbed a career-high 19 rebounds for double-double number nine.  The 10 double-doubles is second most in the WAC this season.  Hunt has seven in the last 15 contests.  He posted back-to-back double-doubles with 21 points and 14 rebounds at Portland after scoring 16 points and grabbing 14 rebounds at Washington.  In his career he has 11 double-doubles to his credit.
    Czyz posted his second of the season in the Boise State game finishing with 25 points and 11 rebounds which were both game highs.  His first double-double at Nevada came at Idaho when he scored 14 points and grabbed 10 rebounds.
    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.  The 11 assists is tied for the high in the WAC this season.

BREAKING DOWN THE PACK  — The Nevada bench has scored 523 points, an average of 17.6 points per game this season compared to 511 for its opponents, 17 ppg.  The Pack bench has outscored opponents in 14-of-30 games. 
    Unfortunately the Pack has turned the ball over 432 times which has led to 447 (14.9 ppg) opponent points while 366 turnovers for opponents has resulted in 392 (13.1 ppg) points for Nevada.

YOUNG GUNS EQUAL 79% — Nevada has used six different lineups through 30 games but all have been dominated by young first-year players.  Freshman point guard Deonte Burton has started all 30 games as has sophomore transfer Malik Story and junior returner Dario Hunt.  Freshmen Jerry Evans, Jr. and Kevin Panzer have started 18 and 10 games respectively.  Three other freshmen Jordan Burris six, Devonte Elliot three and Jordan Finn three have made starts.  Junior transfer Olek Czyz has started 19 games after sitting out a year under NCAA transfer rules after leaving Duke and became eligible on Dec. 17.  Adam Carp earned his first career start on Senior Night
    Newcomers have scored 1664-of-2095 points on the season which equates to 79 percent of the offense.  Other than Hunt’s 12.6 points per game 10 of the top 11 scorers are first year players.

PACK 3-13 AWAY FROM RENO — Nevada is 3-13 away from Reno have gone 3-10 in true road games and 0-3 at neutral sites.  The Wolf Pack’s three road victories were 69-67 at Boise State on Jan. 6, 84-76 at SJSU on Feb. 12 and 73-70 at LA Tech on Mar. 3.

HUNT CLOSING IN ON FAZEKAS  — Junior forward Dario Hunt ranks second in school history with 184 blocks, eight back of Nick Fazekas’ (2004-07) total of 192.  Hunt is averaging a WAC best 1.7 blocks per game which is 81st in NCAA I.
    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 is 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.  His 184 blocks has come in 98 games while Jones’ 142 were in 101 games and Fazekas’ 192 were accomplished in 131 contests.  Based on average Hunt’s 1.9 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 three of the top six 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.  His 51 this season is tied for sixth.

HUNT PASSES WILLIAMS FOR SEVENTH — Junior forward Dario Hunt’s 19 rebounds against Idaho moved him past Matt Williams (1987-91) into seventh on the Nevada career list.   Next on the list is Ric Herrin’s (1989-93) total of 815.  Hunt was not in the top 10 when the season began but has passed four former players to grab the seventh spot.  In his two plus seasons Hunt has 681 rebounds which averages out to 6.9 per game.

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 181-83 record, the second-most wins of any WAC team during that time (.686 winning percentage). In conference games, Nevada has won 98 games, the most in that same time period.

WINNING AT LAWLOR  — Nevada has won 82 percent of its games over the past seven plus seasons posting a 110-24 record at Lawlor Events Center.  The Wolf Pack has posted a 55-11 WAC mark during that same stretch, a winning percentage of 83.