Physical battle awaits Nevada

Darrell Moody

Michigan State has been one of the top programs in the country in the last 10 years, and that fact isn't lost on the University of Nevada basketball team as it prepares for its first NCAA appearance since the 1984-85 season.

The 10th-seeded Wolf Pack faces the seventh-seeded Spartans Thursday at 4:30 p.m. at Key Arena in Seattle, home of the NBA's Seattle SuperSonics. The winner will likely face second-seeded Gonzaga on Saturday.

"I distinctly remember seeing them play at least three times in the last month and a half," Nevada coach Trent Johnson said. "All I do is watch basketball. They are a physical, intense and possession-by-possession team.

"They remind me of the last two (WAC) teams we faced. Sure they are big and strong, but we played Rice and they are physical. and we played UTEP and they are pretty physical. We just need to relax and do the things we're capable of doing."

Respect is there, fear isn't.

"I've seen them on TV a lot," said Seattle native Marcelus Kemp, who comes off the bench for the Wolf Pack. "They're a pretty good team. All we have to do is play hard. We can win; we can do this.

"We didn't shoot as well as we're capable of, but our offensive game will come. They have a good post guy (Paul Davis), but if we play good defense and rebound, we should be fine."

The 6-foot-10 Davis and his backup, Jason Andreas, will be a challenge for Wolf Pack centers Sean Paul and Nick Fazekas. Paul likes to play against big, physical centers, and Fazekas is better against the more athletic, quicker centers. Wolf Pack fans could see Paul and Fazekas in the lineup at the same time quite often against the Spartans.

Tom Izzo, MSU's personable head coach, said he saw the Wolf Pack earlier in the year, and has been watching tape of the Kansas game.

"I had a chance to see Nevada play earlier in the year," Izzo told reporters Sunday night. "I know that they have one real good player (Kirk Snyder) who is supposed to be going pro and a couple of big guys (Kevinn Pinkney and Nick Fazekas). They are really an athletic team.

"Snyder is an NBA-caliber guard, both in strength and ability. Nevada is a team that does some things that bother us, like penetration and phenomenal offensive rebounding. They may be as a good an offensive rebounding team as I've seen."

Snyder is coming off a 17-for-46 effort from the field in the WAC tournament, which was unusual for him. He did enough other things, however, to win MVP honors at the tournament.

Izzo's concerns about Nevada's offensive rebounding is well founded.

Nevada averaged more than 10 offensive rebounds during the WAC tournament thanks to the efforts of Jermaine Washington, Snyder and Pinkney. The Wolf Pack are outrebounding their opponents by 6.2 per game. Washington, in fact, has 12 more offensive rebounds than defensive rebounds, which is rare.

Izzo pointed out that this is the Spartans' seventh straight trip to the NCAAs, and that was accomplished despite the fact that MSU played the toughest schedule in the country.

"I think that only eight or nine teams have done that, and that's quite a feat," Izzo said in a MSU press release. "I think we are the only Big Ten team that has gone to that many consecutive NCAA tournaments. so that is a plus.

"We are getting better and shooting better. I thought it was a good sign at our last game against Wisconsin. Wisconsin shot a higher percentage, but the shots they took were contested."