Santoro: Pack can hit the wall again — or break through it

Sports Fodder:

The Nevada Wolf Pack has had plenty of experiences with fans storming basketball courts or football fields in recent years.

Most of those so-called celebrations were harmless and positive, like after the 2010 landmark football victory over Boise State at Mackay Stadium and in basketball when coach Eric Musselman would rip off his shirt at Lawlor Events Center and celebrate with fans.

But some haven’t been so positive and harmless. There was the 2019 basketball loss at Utah State when Pack fans and coaches complained of negative interactions with some Aggies fans who stormed the court. That led to the Pack’s Jordan Caroline pitching a fit and punching the glass of a fire extinguisher box and numerous Pack assistant coaches arguing with stadium security in the hallway near the Pack locker room.

The issue of fans storming the court became an issue nationally once again this week when Duke basketball player Kyle Filipowski was knocked to the floor by a fan and suffered an ankle injury after a loss at Wake Forest. Filipowski said he was also deliberately punched in the back by numerous fans as he tried to get off the court.

Players, coaches and some media members, understandably, now want to ban fans from running out on the court after games. That, of course, is a perfectly justified response.

Fans do not belong on the court or a football field. It is dangerous for everyone involved. What would have been the response this week if, for example, Filipowski turned around and punched a fan in the face and then was jumped on by a hundred fans? You don't think a college athlete would do that to you if you knock him down? Try knocking him down at a bar or frat party and see what happens.

But short of putting up a fence or wall between the seating area and the courts or lining the playing fields and courts with hundreds of security personnel and dozens of German Shepherd dogs, ropes and tasers, it’s not going to go away.

You can ban it all you want. But do you think college students care about that? Do you take victories away from teams? That is ridiculous. Do you eliminate everyone under the age of 50 from events? Do you fine universities a million dollars each time it happens?

It would still happen.

Filipowski should have taken Ron Burgundy’s advice in Anchorman and kept his head on a swivel and bolted to the locker room like a pulling guard in Vince Lombardi’s old Green Bay Packers’ sweep, knocking fans back into their seats.

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Baseball fans used to run out on the field after momentous victories all the time. New York Mets fans, who tore up the Shea Stadium turf and left it looking like a vacant lot in Brooklyn after the 1969 World Series, come to mind.

What about Bill Mazeroski after hitting the game-winning home run in the 1960 World Series? Hank Aaron rounding the bases after hitting his record 715th home run in 1974? Chris Chambliss after his home beat the Kansas City Royals in the 1976 playoffs?

These days, we almost never see such group fans outbursts in baseball other than the occasional fan or two that runs out on the field (like with Ronald Acuna last year).

What is baseball doing to prevent such fan outbursts other than, you know, making its product less attractive to those under the age of 35? Well, for one, they don't have student sections or drunken boosters who think they are still students.

•••

We are now at the point of the season where the Nevada Wolf Pack men’s basketball team traditionally hits a wall. We’ve seen it every year since the 2017-18 team went to the Sweet 16.

• There was the loss in the second game of the Mountain West tournament followed by the shocking loss in the first game of the NCAA Tournament in 2018-19.

• The 2019-20 team lost its last regular season game and first Mountain West tournament game.

• The 2020-21 team lost two of its last three regular season games and second Mountain West tourney game.

• The 2021-22 team lost its last four regular season games and second Mountain West tournament game.

• And, last year, the Pack lost its last four games of the year, two in the regular season and one in the Mountain West and NCAA tournaments.

Will this year be different? The Pack on Tuesday morning got out of bed with a 22-6 overall record and 9-5 in the Mountain West with four regular-season games remaining. A regular-season championship is still very much in focus, as is an NCAA Tournament invitation. There is also not a team in the Mountain West the Pack should fear in the postseason tournament in Las Vegas the second week of March.

The Pack has won six of its last seven games. There has been no wall yet, just a minor speed bump at the end of January that produced four losses in five games.

This team, like those Wake Forest fans storming the court, seems capable of leaping any wall in a single bound.

•••

Is the Wolf Pack already a lock to get an invitation to the NCAA Tournament? It would seem so. Nevada has already won 22 games, the same number of victories it had last year when it was invited.

But all of that positive thinking could evaporate quickly if, say, the Pack loses three of its last four regular-season games and its first Mountain West tournament game.

The Pack is currently ranked No. 42 in the latest NET rankings, behind five Mountain West teams. Will six Mountain West teams get an invite?

Just keep in mind that the most teams the Mountain West has ever sent to the NCAA Tournament in one year is five (2013). The last time a non-Power Six conference got as many as six bids was the Atlantic 10 in 2014. And, of course, the NCAA Tournament selection committee is always looking for reasons to not pick teams from mid-major conferences.

But the needle is clearly pointing upward for the Mountain West this year. Four teams from the conference were invited in each of the last two years and last year San Diego State reached the tournament championship game.

It certainly wouldn’t be a fantasy to suggest that five Mountain West teams will go to the tournament this year. Six, too, isn’t so far-fetched.

Those six right now appear to be Nevada, Utah State, Boise State, San Diego State, New Mexico and Colorado State. UNLV could also supplant one of those six if it wins the league tournament on its own court.

Four (Nevada, Utah State, Boise State and San Diego State) appear to be locks, with Colorado State and New Mexico a bad two weeks away from falling out of consideration.

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Will Wolf Pack fans storm the court on March 9 when the Pack beats UNLV at Lawlor Events Center to wrap up the regular season and possibly a league title and No. 1 seed in the postseason tournament?

It would be surprising if they didn’t, especially if there aren’t 200 security personnel and two dozen German Shepherds lining the court. Then again if those security personnel and German Shepherds buy a ticket, well, anything is possible.

If any fan base has a right to storm the court after a big win over its top rival and winning a league title, it is Pack fans. Pack supporters have suffered enough in recent years and have certainly earned the right to run out on the court by filling Lawlor Events Center up to the tune of about 8,200 fans a game this year, a number that will go up with 10,000-plus to see the UNLV game.

Pack fans, we're well aware, have been known to throw various objects at UNLV players and coaches at Mackay Stadium through the years. And the words coming out of the Lawlor stands most nights would make the cowboys at the Yellowstone Dutton Ranch blush.

That's all just part of the charm of college sports. But, just to be safe, we offer even more advice from Ron Burgundy. Stay classy, Northern Nevada and, of course, keep your head on a swivel.

•••

There are still four games remaining in the regular season, but the Pack’s Steve Alford should be the clear choice for Mountain West Coach of the Year.

The only other coach that should even be considered is Utah State’s Danny Sprinkle — who has done a tremendous job in his first season with the Aggies — if the Aggies win the regular season (they are currently on top at 10-4 and tied with Boise State).

This is Alford’s best performance since he came to the Pack five years ago. This Pack team, more than any Alford has guided at Nevada, has played as a team. There are no stars (see Jalen Harris, Grant Sherfield, Desmond Cambridge in past years) hogging the ball and the shots. Even Jarod Lucas and Kenan Blackshear have shared the ball much more and have deferred to teammates much more often this year than they did a year ago. And we've seen tremendous development by Nick Davidson and Tre Coleman because of it.

Alford has somehow found a way to instill a team-first, all-for-one-and-one-for-all mentality in this NIL, pay me, play me or I’ll walk, selfish, look-at-me era college sports now finds itself in.