Former Nevada player Virgil Green, new coach Ken Wilson, and athletic director Doug Knuth on Dec. 10, 2021 at Mackay Stadium. (Photo: Nevada Athletics)
That doesn’t mean the 2022 season will be void of accomplishments. Wilson, it seems, has done a solid job of restocking the roster with intriguing transfer portal refugees and those players alone, combined with the ones who were left behind and feel abandoned and disrespected by Norvell and his carpetbagger staff, will be enough to keep this team competitive.
The Pack will likely start 3-0 this fall after glorified scrimmages against New Mexico State, Texas State and Incarnate Word. So six or seven wins and a bowl game will be just fine for Wilson’s honeymoon year. Wilson gets a one-year honeymoon where mediocrity will not only be tolerated, it might even be applauded. But that’s it. By this time next year Wilson better be talking about chasing a division title and a conference championship. Honeymoons don’t last forever.
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The heartwarming narrative surrounding the Wilson hire, that he wants to spend the rest of eternity as the Pack coach, was all well and good when he was hired. That was just Wilson and the Pack telling fans what they wanted to hear after the Norvell nuking of the program. But from this point on it’s not about what Wilson wants. This isn’t his program, no matter what Chris Ault and Wilson believe. It’s Northern Nevada’s program. It’s now about how long Pack fans want him around. So, yes, he has to win.
Filling your roster with local walk-ons is nice. It will sell a few tickets. But you know what really sells tickets up on north Virginia Street? Winning. There will be no honeymoon in 2023. Brian Polian went 4-8 in his first year (2013) and then won seven games and took the Pack to a bowl game the next year. Jay Norvell won three games his first year (2017) and followed that up with eight wins and a bowl win the next year. Chris Ault won five games the third time he took over the program in 2004 and then won nine games in 2005. In this day and age of transfer portal players it’s easy to rebuild a roster every winter. By Year Two you better win something important.
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You know what game Wilson is almost guaranteed to win practically every year? UNLV. In Wilson’s 19 years as a Wolf Pack assistant under head coaches Chris Ault, Jeff Horton and Jeff Tisdel, the Wolf Pack went 17-2 against the Rebels. Young Pack fans have been led to believe that Ault never lost to the Rebels in his career. But Ault’s record against UNLV before Wilson came to Northern Nevada was a disturbing 2-5. Yes, he was fortunate he only had to play UNLV seven times his first 13 years as head coach.
With Wilson on his sideline, though, Ault went 13-2 against the Rebels. Since Ault and Wilson left the program after the 2012 season the Pack has gone an unacceptable 5-4 against UNLV. A record of 8-1 would have been unacceptable.
Well, Wilson is back. Ault is now the unofficial head coach emeritus. This year’s game is Nov. 26 at Allegiant Stadium. Rebels beware. No need to buy any red paint for the Fremont Cannon for the rest of eternity.
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The game of the year this fall at Mackay Stadium, without question, will be Oct. 8 when Norvell and the Colorado State Rams (and about a dozen or so former Pack players and recruits) come to town.
As far as Pack fans of a certain age (over 40) are concerned, it will be Oct. 28, 1995 all over again. That was when Jeff Horton brought his Rebels to Reno for the first time after leaving the Pack after the 1993 season. Fights erupted before and after the game on the field. Helmets, empty and full beer cups and punches were thrown. The Fremont Cannon was treated as rudely as a Kardashian during NBA All Star weekend. Ault after the game expressed his disgust for the entire state of Nevada. But he won the game so he wasn’t all that disgusted.
The similarities between UNLV-Nevada in 1995 and Nevada-Colorado State in 2022 are too strong to ignore. Norvell and Horton abandoned the Pack suddenly and unexpectedly. Ault replaced Horton and Wilson, one of Ault’s assistants in 1995, replaced Norvell. The only thing that might keep the festivities at Mackay Stadium on Oct. 8 a bit more civil and classy than they were in 1995, is that Colorado State is not UNLV. There is no Pack rivalry with Colorado State. Well, at least not before Norvell moved there a few months ago. But a victory on Oct. 8 will be the signature win in Wilson’s first year back in Nevada.
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It will take an unbelievable turnaround – maybe the greatest in school history – for the Wolf Pack men’s basketball team to win the Mountain West tournament next month and go to the NCAA tournament. The team, if it is healthy, has the talent to do it. But that talent so far has built a 12-14 overall record, 6-9 in the Mountain West and just lost for the second time this season to UNLV.
Nevada will have to win four games in four days in Las Vegas to win the tournament, something that has never been done in the Mountain West. Anything is possible, but four wins in four days? The Pack has only won as many as four games in a month this year one time. That was back in November when it could pick and choose the opponents. We checked, but the Pack won’t get to play San Jose State four times in Las Vegas next month.
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There’s still time to fix things but, so far, this has not been the type of Wolf Pack basketball season anyone (especially coach Steve Alford) envisioned back in October. The Pack, after all, was picked to finish third this year by the media and even received two first-place votes. Right now it looks like the Pack will finish somewhere between sixth and eighth.
What happened?
Well, there have been a few injuries but all teams suffer injuries. But the most significant development this year that hardly ever gets mentioned is that 6-foot-7 forward A.J. Bramah was kicked off the team just four games into the season. That changed everything. Bramah, who played two seasons at Robert Morris and was a scoring (15.4) and rebounding (8.7) force, averaged 13 points and seven rebounds over his first three games with the Pack this year. And he did it off the bench in just 23 minutes a game. He played just 16 minutes in his fourth game and was then booted off the team. The absence of Bramah has left the Pack bench bare, a glaring flaw that has plagued this team all year long. The Pack bench is arguably the weakest in the league, especially on offense. Bramah might have been the most physical player on the Pack roster this year. He could score, rebound and play defense. Had Bramah remained on the roster all year the Pack would likely be in the Top 3 or 4 in the league right now with legitimate NCAA tournament hopes.
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Losing Kane Milling and Zane Meeks off last year’s roster – another development that has been largely ignored – was also unfortunate for the Pack. Milling and Meeks, members of the Pack the last two seasons (2019-21), were role players but would have made a huge impact on this Pack team, especially on offense. Both players, though, transferred from Nevada after last year.
The 6-9 Meeks went to San Francisco, where he is averaging 5.6 points and 2.3 rebounds in 22 games off the bench. The 6-4 Milling is now averaging 6.4 points and 2.6 rebounds for UC Davis (six starts in 18 games). Both players can shoot the three and would have given the Pack bench a much-needed burst of offense. Stick Bramah, Milling and Meeks on this Pack team and it is a completely different season.
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The Wolf Pack’s men's basketball roster this year, it must be noted, is void of any players from the state of Nevada. The Wolf Pack, in fact, is the only team in the 11-team Mountain West that does not have a single player on its roster from its home state. Nobody expects the Wolf Pack to have an all-Nevada roster. Nevada is not, after all, California, which has at least eight players on each of the San Diego State, Fresno State and San Jose State rosters.
But even Utah State has seven players this year from the state of Utah. The state of Nevada has proven it can produce numerous players that have helped the Wolf Pack. Over the last three decades or so the Pack has had Nevada high school products such as Luke Babbitt, Armon Johnson, Kevin Soares, Curry Lynch, Sean Paul, Matt Ochs, London Wilson, Kris Hackbusch, Lamont Allen, Keith Olson, Keith Fuetsch, Brice Crook, Olek Czyz and others. It’s the University of Nevada. Not the University of the Transfer Portal.