Nevada Team Report

GETTING INSIDE

It has been a whirlwind of an off-season for Nevada, which has a new coach in David Carter, but when the dust settled for practice the Wolf Pack still had arguably two of the top five players in the WAC.

That’s how the league coaches saw it last season, when guard Armon Johnson and forward Luke Babbitt were selected first-team All-WAC.

Johnson averaged 15.5 points, 4.3 assists and 3.6 rebounds per game in his sophomore season. Babbitt, completely living up to his McDonald’s High School All-American hype, averaged 16.9 points and 7.4 rebounds as a freshman.

Given the usual improvement between freshman and sophomore seasons, Babbitt, who has an all-around game and 3-point range, projects as the frontrunner for WAC Player of the Year honors.

Nevada had won at least of a share of the five consecutive regular-season WAC championships before finishing second last season. It’s Carter’s duty to keep that kind of success rolling in Reno. He was a 10-year assistant with the Wolf Pack before being elevated to the head-coaching position when Mark Fox left after last season for Georgia.

“We’ve won a lot of championships here,” Carter said in the Reno Gazette-Journal. “I’ve always won championships everywhere I’ve been. So that’s going to be the most fun, trying to live up to that expectation.”

He has a good start on that with Babbitt and Johnson.

But it was, at times, a trying off-season. Forward Malik Cooke transferred to South Caroline, forward Ahyaro Phillips was kicked off after legal trouble, two recruits asked out of their letters-of-intent, and two recruits will miss at least the first semester because of academic issues.

The Pack has five newcomers to go with eight returning players, but the team does begin the season with more questions than usual.

“It’s a new everything,” sophomore forward Dario Hunt told the Reno Gazette-Journal. “We’re ready to get started and see how everything goes. We have really good chemistry, for the most part everybody’s back and I think our core is really strong right now.”

NOTES, QUOTES

• Nevada averaged 66.1 points per game last season, fifth in the WAC, and first-year coach David Carter wants his players to run a bit more this season. “We’re working on a more up-tempo style,” Carter told the Nevada Sagebrush, the school’s student newspaper. “We’re going to play a little faster this year, so the guys got to be in shape.”

• PG Armon Johnson is an all-conference performer, but he still needs to improve his shooting. He made only 25-of-90 attempts from behind the arc last season (27.8 percent). Long-range shooting is a major weakness, as the Pack made a mere 30.6 percent of its 3-point attempts last season … and doesn’t appear to be much improved.

• PF Luke Babbitt is one of 50 players on the preseason Wooden Award watch list.

Last Year:   21-13 overall, 11-5 in the WAC

Head Coach:   David Carter, first year as head coach

Quote To Note:   “You can feel the buzz in the air. Everybody is really excited; I can’t even explain it. I’m getting goose bumps just thinking about it.”—G Armon Johnson, in the Reno Gazette-Journal, on his preseason anticipation.

STRATEGY AND PERSONNEL

Scouting The Newcomers:   Two players in the freshman class—F Devonte Elliott and G Jerry Evans—won’t show up until the second semester, if at all, after running into academic problems. PF Keith Olson is a 6-9, 240-pound sophomore walk-on transfer from Northern Arizona. He will be eligible for the second semester and might be able to help against some of the WAC’s beefier posts.

Key Early-season Games:   Among WAC teams, Nevada plays the non-conference schedule with the most meat on it. That should be good exposure for budding superstar Luke Babbitt, if nothing else. The highlight game for the entire league comes when the Wolf Pack plays at defending national champion North Carolina on Nov. 29. That might be over-reaching for Nevada, which will have a chance in other top matchups that include Brigham Young (in Las Vegas on Dec. 22) and at Virginia Commonwealth (Nov. 27).

Program Direction:   To be determined. Nevada has been the flagship program of the WAC in the past several seasons, through its winning and willingness to play tough out-of-conference schedules. Making David Carter the coach is a fairly painless and seamless transition, but can he handle the job? His star power appears set for the next two seasons, and he’ll keep the beat going if he can continue to recruit standout freshmen while much of the league is grabbing a mix of transfers.

Probable Starting Lineup:   PG Armon Johnson, SG Brandon Fields, F Joey Shaw, PF Luke Babbitt, PF Dario Hunt

Roster Report:  

• Incoming freshman F Devonte Elliott is not in school for the first semester because of academic reasons. He could join the team for the second semester, and his 6-9 frame would give the Wolf Pack an option for needed height.

• Incoming freshman G Jerry Evans is not in school for the first semester because of academic reasons but could join the team for the spring semester.

• G Malik Story will sit out this season after transferring from Indiana. He will have three years of eligibility remaining after playing in 31 games for the Hoosiers, averaging 5.9 points and 2.2 rebounds.