Nevada’s beats SDSU 75-66, historic night for the program Nevada Men’s Basketball may be in trouble after the regular season

By Derek Raridon

After a lackluster season prior, the Nevada men’s basketball team has made a resurgence in the 2022 to 2023 season. Currently sitting at 22-9 going into the Mountain West Conference Championship, the program has surprised those in and out of Reno with their play. This is especially true for their home games, where they have gone 14-1, something they haven’t done since the 2018 to 2019 season.

Yes, the program has definitely been the major highlight of the Nevada winter sports season. However, all trains must come to a stop at some point, and from what it seems, the men’s basketball one will end after March 4.

Why is this? How will a program so dominant collapse so soon? The answer is simple, the team is just not that good when it comes to away games, especially recently.

Men’s basketball has had 13 road games this season. Of those games, the team lost seven of them, capping off their losing away record with a 71-80 loss versus the University of Wyoming Cowboys. For a team to be virtually unbeatable at home, it’s a strike in the heart to not compete as efficiently on the road.

These losses, particularly those in the last five road games, were not statistically expected. In their last month of road games, Nevada played University of Nevada, Las Vegas, University of New Mexico, Utah State University, Fresno State University and Wyoming. Of these five, Nevada lost three of them, dropping to UNLV, Utah State and Wyoming.

Adding salt to the wound is that two of these schools, UNLV and Wyoming, are both sitting seventh and eleventh, respectively, out of 11 teams in the conference, and both of these losses were by six or more points. The program’s recent losses aren’t coming from teams that are at the top of the conference, these are losses coming from the bottom of the Mountain West barrel.

By Jalen Robinson

With the seconds winding down on the clock and the student section on the verge of rushing the court for the second straight home game, the University of Nevada, Reno men’s basketball team had the home crowd of 9,357 rumbling at the game against San Diego State University.

The impressive win over No. 23 SDSU on Jan. 31, marks the first time in program history the Nevada men’s basketball team has won consecutive home games versus ranked opponents. The Nevada Wolf Pack now move into sole possession of second place in the Mountain West Conference, trailing only Boise State and San Diego State both tied at 8-2 atop the conference.

The contributions from key players — Tré Coleman, Will Baker, Kenan Blackshear and Jarod Lucas — propelled the Wolf Pack to a nine-point victory over the SDSU Aztecs, 75-66. This core four tallied up 74 of the winning points.

Lucas, senior transfer guard from Oregon State, put up 26 points with help from Baker, scoring 19 points while grabbing eight rebounds. Approaching the game the Wolf Pack having previously lost every game SDSU since 2018.

Although trailing at halftime by 2 points to the Az- tecs the Wolf Pack still held onto hope. Grabbing an early lead in the second half the Aztecs looked to secure sole possession of first place in Mountain West, but with 9:27 seconds left in the second half, neither team could secure anything larger than a 3-point lead.

Blackshear secured a layup putting the Pack up 67-62 with 1:57 to play, eventually leading to a much needed conference win.

The Wolf Pack now eye the Mountain West Conference tournament with only eight games left — all being conference foes. Although it won’t be a cakewalk, the Wolf Pack are scheduled to play the University of New Mexico again; a team they just beat and bumped out of the No. 25 spot national ranking. After the Lobos, Nevada look to finish the season out with three home games with senior night set against arch rivals the UNLV Rebels.

The road to the Mountain West Conference Tournament and March Madness is theirs to lose and everything is within reach.