Nevada Athletics
Grading the Nevada Wolf Pack’s 73-59 men’s basketball victory over the Loyola Marymount Lions at Lawlor Events Center on Saturday.
STARTERS
JAROD LUCAS: A
Lucas only needed a half of basketball to bury Loyola Marymount.
The shooting guard scored 14 points in the first half as the Pack took a 12-point (38-26) lead at the break. Lucas added six more points in the second half to finish with 20 on 7-of-10 shooting as the Pack cruised to another easy victory.
This is the Jarod Lucas, the one that makes shots from the floor, that the Pack needs this season to be truly special. Lucas is now a respectable 30-of-74 from the floor this year (.405) but more than half (16) of those field goals have come in just two of the six games (against Portland on Nov. 18 and against Loyola on Saturday).
Lucas was also 5-of-6 from the line against the Lions and is a red-hot 37-of-39 for the season, scoring a third of his 109 points this year on free throws. Lucas took just two 3-point shots (he made one) against Loyola, equaling his fewest attempts beyond the arc in his two-year Pack career. He was 6-of-8 on shots inside the arc after making just 12-of- 33 over the first five games.
The 6-3 Lucas took control right from the start, scoring the Pack’s first seven points on 3-of-3 shooting in the game’s first three minutes. He then added seven more points over eight minutes late in the opening half.
KENAN BLACKSHEAR: C+
Blackshear played the role of utility man on Saturday.
The 6-6 point guard wasn’t his normally aggressive self on offense, likely because his shot wasn’t falling (just 2-of-9 from the floor). And he didn’t pick up a foul in a game (on offense or defense) for the first time in his three-year Pack career.
But he supplemented his five points (the first time this year he didn’t score in double figures) with five assists, two steals and three rebounds. His five assists led to 11 Pack points.
He also had two steals in a span of just 51 seconds that led to layups by Nick Davidson and Jarod Lucas and a 47-27 lead four minutes into the second half.
NICK DAVIDSON: B
Davidson played just 20 minutes but his hard work and hustle paid off in 12 points, two rebounds and two blocks.
Davidson scored eight points in the first nine minutes of the second half on three layups and a pair of free throws. He then blocked a Loyola shot and pulled down the rebound and then sat the bench over the final 9:35.
Davidson was 6-of-6 from the line after not going to the line at all over the two previous games. The 6-foot-8 Davidson getting to the line is another thing the Pack needs to become truly special this year. He is now 17-of-17 from the line on free throws this year after going 69-of-86 (.802) as a freshman.
TRE COLEMAN: B+
Coleman returned to the starting lineup after a brief one-game absence and turned in one of his best halves of basketball in his four-year Pack career.
The 6-7 Coleman scored 10 points in the first half, making his first five shots and had four rebounds and an assist. For Coleman to score 10 points in a half is truly meaningful. He’s now scored 10 or more points in an entire game just 18 times over his four seasons.
Those 10 points, though, were all the points Coleman scored on Saturday. He picked up three fouls in the first four minutes of the second half and then played just four more minutes the rest of the game.
Coleman had a steal and an assist in the first 91 seconds of the game and then had four layups over a span of a dozen minutes as the Pack took a 33-22 lead with 4:19 to go in the first half.
He blocked a shot and pulled down the rebound and drained a jumper 17 seconds later off a feed from Kenan Blackshear for a 35-22 lead with 3:31 to go before halftime.
Coleman, always a defensive standout, is averaging a career-high 8.7 points a game this year and is blossoming into one of the most well-rounded and versatile players in the Mountain West.
K.J. HYMES: C
Hymes didn’t sulk or quit on him himself and salvaged his performance on Saturday in the final nine minutes with hustle and hard work.
The 6-10 center did almost nothing productive until those final nine minutes, playing just eight minutes, picking up three fouls, missing his two field goals and scoring just one point with a turnover and two rebounds.
But Hymes was sent back out on the court with 9:35 to go and he came alive. Yes, the game was all but over (the Pack led 57-34) and Loyola was ready to head out of town but Hymes took advantage of the opportunity. He scored seven points, pulled down three rebounds and was 3-for-3 from the line in just six minutes before heading back to the bench with 3:33 to play.
Hymes has now gone 13-of-17 from the line over his last two games after a 2-of-8 performance the first four games.
BENCH
HUNTER McINTOSH: C
McIntosh had seven points, two assists, a rebound and a turnover in his 18 minutes. But most of those numbers (five points, an assist and a turnover) came in garbage time in the game’s final five minutes.
McIntosh hit a jumper in the paint for a 25-18 lead with 7:16 left in the first half but much of his night was punctuated by three fouls.
JAZZ GARDNER: D
Gardner had little impact on this game. The 7-foot freshman played just 10 minutes, scored three points, pulled down just one rebound and picked up a foul.
He missed three of his four shots, including his lone 3-pointer.
The good news, though, is he finally did make his first college free throw (he was 1-of-2 after going 0-for-1 over the first five games). It’s still not a great look, though, for a 7-footer to be 2-of-7 on threes (he’s attempted at least one in every game) and just 1-of-3 from the line.
DANIEL FOSTER: A
Foster was brilliant off the bench in just 21 minutes and as consistently productive as any Pack player on Saturday.
The 6-6 Foster scored eight points, pulled down seven rebounds, handed out three assists and had two steals and a block.
Foster scored four points with an assist, steal, three rebounds and a block in his first four-plus minutes on the floor early in the first half. He then had an assist, two offensive rebounds, a steal and two points in his first three plus minutes early in the second half.
Foster’s experience and work ethic is the perfect stabilizing force for this young Pack bench that also has three freshmen.
TYLER ROLISON: C
Rolison, much like K.J. Hymes, salvaged his evening in the final few minutes of the game after a dreadful start.
The 6-foot freshman first entered the game with 12:53 to go in the first half and promptly committed a foul 18 seconds later. The second time he stepped on the floor, with 13:42 left in the second half, he took him just two seconds to commit a turnover.
After that turnover he missed a jumper, committed a foul and misfired on a 3-pointer in a span of just under five minutes. But the next three minutes reminded everyone of why the Pack trusts the freshman with significant minutes so early in his career.
He had three assists, a steal and a layup over 3:11 to put a positive spin on his night. He fed Foster for a layup, Lucas for a jumper and McIntosh for a 3-pointer.
JERIAH COLEMAN, AMIRE ROBINSON: Incomplete
Robinson, a 6-4 freshman, played the final 3:33 and grabbed a rebound. Coleman, a 7-1 junior, played the final 2:20 of the first half and the final 3:30 of the second half and had a rebound, a block and missed a layup.
COACHING: A
Steve Alford likely had the Pack’s ugly 3-of-22 shooting performance in the second half of last year’s 64-52 loss at Loyola Marymount in his mind on Saturday night.
Alford had his Pack on Saturday go inside for a 36-16 edge in points in the paint (they took just eight threes all game long, making two) and, in so doing, earned a lot of easy shots and got the Lions in serious foul trouble along the way.
Loyola committed 27 fouls, saw two of its starters foul out and basically were helpless as their entire starting lineup was basically obliterated. The five Loyola starters combined to score just 20 points on 7-of-31 shooting (2-of-13 on threes) with 16 fouls and seven turnovers.
OK, yes, this wasn’t the Loyola Marymount of three-plus decades ago that featured Hank Gathers, Bo Kimble, Terrell Lowery and coach Paul Westhead. Those Lions’ teams averaged 112 points a game in 1989-90 and shredded the Pack for 130 points at Lawlor on Dec. 30, 1988 and 145 the following year in Los Angeles.
They didn’t even score half that on Saturday.
This wasn’t even the Loyola Marymount of last year that had senior Cam Shelton score 24 points (more than all the Lion starters combined on Saturday) in a 12-point win over the Pack in Los Angeles.
A lot of things have contributed to the Pack’s 6-0 start. Great scheduling and the home court advantage in five of the six games are two of the biggest reasons.
But Alford is the biggest reason by far.
The 59-year-old coach has convinced a good-but-not-great collection of Pack talent to play incredible team basketball right now.
OVERALL: A
The Wolf Pack is simply not even allowing teams up for air this year.
The Pack on Saturday never trailed in an entire game for the third time this year in six games. The Pack has now trailed over its six games for just 3:55, less time than it takes for the ringing in your ears to stop from the crowd noise after yet another Pack run this year.
The Pack has trailed for just 49 seconds over its last five games. It hasn’t trailed in a game in the second half all season long after leading by 9, 11, 40, 10, 21 and 12 at halftime. The biggest deficit all season has been three points (15-12) to Sac State midway through the first half in the season opener.
So, yes, we don’t have any clue about how this team will perform under pressure.
The good news is the Pack is the team applying all the pressure so far. But keep in mind that not even the 32-0, perfect 1975-76 Indiana Hoosiers, the team a young Steve Alford grew up watching in rural Indiana, ever went through a season without having to deal with any adversity.
So enjoy this, Pack fans. It can’t last forever.
Right?