A more experienced Wolf Pack ready to open WAC season

BY JOE SANTORO

Special to the Nevada Appeal

Make no mistake, the Wolf Pack men's basketball team didn't ask North Carolina senior Tyler Hansbrough for his autograph, didn't brush off Tar Heels coach Roy Williams' chair each time he stood up and didn't wipe sweat from the brow of anyone wearing baby blue and white Wednesday night at Lawlor Events Center.

  Yes, the young and wet-behind-the ears Wolf Pack respected the top-ranked team in the nation. But they didn't fear them.

  "We came into this game to win," Pack coach Mark Fox said after the 84-61 learning experience the Tar Heels handed the Pack. "We're not into moral victories. My expectations are to win."

  If you are still searching for a reason why you should be optimistic about this Pack team as it opens Western Athletic Conference play tonight (7:05 p.m.) against the Idaho Vandals at Lawlor Events Center, take heart. Everything you need to know about the character of this team could be summed up on the scowls and frustration etched across their faces after the loss to the best team in the country.

  "We just made too many mistakes," said freshman Luke Babbitt, arguably the best player on the floor on Wednesday with 22 points and seven rebounds. "You can't make that many mistakes against a team like North Carolina."

  The Pack, now 7-6 as it heads into a pivotal stretch of 12 WAC games in six weeks, stood toe-to-toe with North Carolina and took the Tar Heels' best body punches for the first eight minutes of the game, building a potential ESPN instant classic lead of 14-12. Babbitt came out and set the tone, hitting his first two shots.

  "We played the first two-thirds of the first half with a purpose," Fox said. "We had the tempo we wanted and played exactly the way we wanted to."

 "We had the game going the way we wanted," Babbitt said.

  But then reality, fatigue, history and experience (Hansbrough's 120 career starts are more than the 103 combined by the Pack's entire roster) set in.

  "We came out with a lot of energy," sophomore guard Armon Johnson said. "But in the second half we just couldn't put it together."

  In the end, the challenge of pulling off the most shocking upset in college basketball this year was too much for the Pack to handle. The Pack held its own against the Heels and didn't even play all that well, making just one 3-pointer, getting just eight points from their bench and shooting just 35 percent on the night.

  The good news is that this team is now fully dry behind the ears. Playing the best team in the land can do that for you. It's called instant maturity.

  "There's no shame in losing to Carolina," Fox said.

  There is only shame, Fox added, in not learning from a loss to Carolina. The Pack fully expects to take the lessons learned from Wednesday night and carry them throughout the WAC season.

  "We were able to see a great example of what the final product of working hard and doing things right should be," said Fox of the Tar Heels. "Carolina is as complete a team and as good as you can be. We'll be able to learn from this."

  Idaho comes into tonight's game at 6-7. The Vandals have struggled since joining the WAC entering the 2005-06 season, compiling a 7-41 league record. The former Big Sky and Big West Conference school is also just 4-49 away from home overall since jumping to the WAC. And, oh yeah, they bring a nine-game losing streak against the Pack into Lawlor tonight.

  "We're ready for the conference season," Babbitt promised. "We'll learn from this (the loss to Carolina) and use it to make us better."