Bitter is better for young Pack squad

By JOE SANTORO

  RENO -- Mark Fox wants his Nevada Wolf Pack men's basketball team to play with the look of a team that has just taken a bite out of a rotten apple.

  "I don't want that bitter taste from last Saturday out of my kids' mouths ever," said Fox, referring to the 72-62 loss to the Utah State Aggies in the Western Athletic Conference championship game. "I don't want that taste out of them ever."

  The 21-12 Wolf Pack will host the 19-12 Texas-El Paso Miners tonight (8 p.m.) at Lawlor Events Center in the first round of the 16-team College Basketball Invitational.

  "I remember when we lost in the WAC Tournament the last time here," said Fox, recalling an even more bitter 73-72 loss to Boise State in the 2005 quarterfinals. "I forced myself to watch the championship game when UTEP won it on our floor. I wanted it to be as painful as it could be because I never wanted to forget it."

  Fox, obviously, is hoping the experience of watching UTEP on the Wolf Pack's home floor won't be as painful tonight.

  "We're excited to be playing," Fox said. "The more experience this team gets, the better. I think our kids have a good spirit, too. It took a while for us to drag it out of them (in Monday's practice) but I think they're ready."

  The Wolf Pack will be making its second consecutive appearance in the CBI. The Pack lost to Houston, 80-79, last year at Lawlor in front of 4,252 fans in the inaugural CBI.

"To be real honest, I was very disappointed we didn't make the (32-team National Invitation Tournament)," Fox said. "Last year we won our league (tied for first in the regular season) and didn't make it and this year we finished second and got to the league championship and didn't make it. I don't think that speaks well for how they (the NCAA, which now runs the NIT) look at our conference."

  Wolf Pack Associate Athletic Director Keith Hackett said Monday that the Wolf Pack put in the required bid of $60,000 to host the first-round CBI game. "That's our total cost to host the game," Hackett said. "Last year we exceeded that and we expect to recover all of our costs again this year."

  The CBI could mean as many as five home games for the Wolf Pack. The tournament is single-elimination through the first three rounds with a best-of-three format (home-away-home) in the finals. Each home game, Hackett said, would cost the school $60,000. The winner of the Nevada-UTEP game will play the winner of tonight's Northeastern-Wyoming game on March 23. If both winners put in bids to host the game the CBI will pick the home team based on potential tickets sold.

  "When you can give your kids as many chances to play at home, it's always nice," Hackett said.

  Fox, though, said he wanted his team to head out onto the road for tonight's game.

"Our students are on spring break and we had a couple thousand seats empty for the championship game last week when everybody was in school," Fox said. "I just told our athletic department that I would have preferred a road game. No disrespect to our fans but I thought it would be good for our kids to get away."

  UTEP and Nevada fit the mold of what the CBI is looking for, said Rick Giles, president of the Gazelle Group, the New Jersey-based sports marketing firm that runs the CBI.

  "We want our teams to be full of underclassmen and we want them to be playing for next year," said Giles Monday afternoon on WFAN radio in New York. "This tournament is very good for a young team."

  Both Nevada and UTEP start two freshmen and two sophomores. UTEP also features 6-foot-5 senior shooting guard Stefon Jackson, who is averaging 24.2 points a game (fifth nationally) and is the Conference USA's all-time leading scorer with 2,299 career points.

  "He's a terrific player," Fox said. "But he's not a one-man show."

  The Miners, coached by Tony Barbee, are as big a team as the Pack has seen all year with 6-11 freshman Arnett Moultrie, 6-10 sophomore Wayne Portalatin, 6-6 freshman Jason Jones and 6-6 sophomore Julyan Stone in the starting lineup. Tavaris Watts, a 6-8 senior, comes off the bench along with 6-7 sophomore Gabriel McCulley and 6-foot sophomore Randy Culpepper (17.4 points a game).

  "They are long, lean and athletic," Fox said.