RENO - The Nevada Wolf Pack men's basketball team never lost faith in itself.
"We always knew what we were capable of," senior center Dario Hunt said this week as the Wolf Pack prepared to face the San Jose Spartans tonight (7 p.m.) and the Hawaii Warriors on Saturday (also 7 p.m.) at Lawlor Events Center. "We see what we can do in practice."
That confidence didn't dim even last season when the Pack finished 13-19 and out of the postseason for the first time in nine years.
"We're using last year as motivation," Hunt said.
That motivation has led to a nine-game winning streak, a 12-3 record that includes a signature 78-71 victory at Utah State last Saturday to go to 2-0 in Western Athletic Conference play and a vote in the ESPN/ USA Today coaches' Top 25 rankings this week.
"We've come a long way," Hunt said. "After last year we're on a mission."
And there is still a long way to go, warns head coach David Carter.
"We haven't done anything but win some games," Carter said. "Our goal is to win a (WAC) championship and go to the postseason. We haven't done that yet."
It appears, though, that they are on the right path. This is just the 11th time in school history that the Wolf Pack has started a season at least 12-3. In three of the last four times they earned a trip to the postseason.
"We know there is still a long way to go," Hunt said. "We're only two games into the (WAC) season. Nobody is complacent."
But they are confident. The win at Utah State was just the school's third in Logan, Utah in 19 games dating back to 1938.
"We showed courage to go in there and do what we did," sophomore point guard Deonte Burton said.
The Wolf Pack never trailed in Logan, jumping out to a quick 15-6 lead less than four minutes into the game. Utah State did pull even briefly (56-56) and stayed close until the final minute. But the Pack, with Burton scoring 25 points (and winning WAC Player of the Week honors on Monday), always had an answer for the defending WAC champs.
"That was a giant step for us," Carter said, "in terms of building confidence. The mental part of our game was very strong, our maturity level was good. We stayed with our game plan. We didn't get rattled."
The are now, officially, the team to beat in the WAC.
"I don't see too many teams in our conference, if any, going in there and getting a win like we did," Hunt said.
The key now for the Pack is preventing teams in the WAC from going into Lawlor and getting a win.
The Pack, 7-1 at home, opens a stretch of four consecutive home games on Thursday. They have won eight in a row at home against San Jose State dating back to March 2002. They have also never lost at home to Hawaii, Saturday's opponent at Lawlor. The Pack is 14-0 in Reno against Hawaii since the rivalry started in 1947.
"We just had a hard road trip (at Idaho and Utah State)," senior forward Olek Czyz said. "It feels good to be a home and not have to travel for a while."
San Jose State (6-9, 0-1), which lost its WAC opener, 82-69, last Saturday at Hawaii, seems to base its success on the play of guards Keith Shamburger and James Kinney.
The 6-foot-2 Kinney, who played at Ohio in 2009-10 and averaged 9.7 points before spending a year at Eastern Utah College, is averaging 16.3 points a game. The 5-11 Shamburger, whose Gardena Serra high school team beat Burton's Compton Centennial team (74-50) for the California Southern Section Division III title in 2010, is averaging 14.7 despite going 1-for-6 from the field at Hawaii.
"We have to guard the 3-point line against them," Carter said. "We have to defend the perimeter and contest their shots."
Hawaii, despite their lack of success in Reno down through the years, might be the tougher challenge for the Pack this week. The Warriors (9-6, 1-0) have won seven of their last nine games and have beaten Xavier and Clemson this season. San Jose State, on the other hand, has already lost to teams such as Weber State, Cal Poly and Montana State.
Hawaii is led by guard Zane Johnson (14.7 points a game), center Vander Joaquin (12.6 points,. 9.5 rebounds) and forward Joston Thomas (12.2 points, 5.3 rebounds) as well as a deep bench that includes Trevor Wiseman (7.3 points, 6.1 rebounds) and Shaquille Stokes (9.6 points).
"We're not satisfied," said Czyz, who had 14 points at Utah State. "We've won a lot of games but we have bigger goals than that. We want to be champions."