BY DARRELL MOODY
Nevada Appeal Sports Writer
This year's Sierra League boys basketball race is shaping up just about how many people expected it five games into the 14-game league season.
Bishop Manogue remains the team to beat. The last three playoff spots are shaping up as a battle between Douglas, Fallon, Carson, Galena and Damonte Ranch. It's early yet, but I don't see South Tahoe or Wooster being serious contenders for a top-four finish.
Even Carson coach Bruce Barnes acknowledged that it wouldn't surprise him to see Douglas, Fallon, Carson, Damonte Ranch and Galena knocking each other off during the course of the season.
Carson came just short of making the playoffs two years ago when it lost to North Valleys in an elimination game to decide the fourth entrant into the playoffs.
"The last couple of years we always seem to lose a game or two we should have won," senior guard Matt Rutledge said. "Last year we lost against South Tahoe and the year before it was Damonte Ranch."
One thing that sticks out about the Carson team is the consistency of scoring from players not named Barnes or Paul Cagle III. In this day and age, it's tough for two players to carry a team offensively, unless their names are Luke Babbitt and Armon Johnson.
- As I write this, the Nevada basketball team had won three straight conference games, and quite possibly has turned the corner.
Still, one thing is quite clear. The Western Athletic Conference will be a one-bid conference, and the only way Nevada gets to the NCAA Tournament is to win the post-season tournament in Reno coming up in March.
The performance of two players " Brandon Fields and Joey Shaw " concerns me. From an offensive standpoint, both have been inconsistent.
Fields scores 17 points against Louisiana Tech, helping the Pack past Louisiana Tech, and then turns around and goes scoreless in a 19-minute effort against Boise State on Thursday.
Starting with the North Carolina game and through the Boise State game, Fields had three games where he scored five, six and two, respectively.
Shaw, meanwhile, has struggled at the offensive end. He has suffered through games of three, eight, zero and nine. He is averaging around eight a game, but I know that coach Mark Fox envisioned him to be a double-digit scorer night in and night out.
Both players need to be more consistent scorers. Neither is shooting 40 percent from the floor, and Fields was one of the top 3-point shooters in the conference a year ago. Shaw tends to play out of control, which leads to poor shot selection and turnovers.