Santoro: Wolf Pack in need of an ‘I’ll make it’ guy

Sports Fodder:

The time has come for the Nevada Wolf Pack's leadership to come to the surface. Someone has to rise up, take ownership of this rapidly sinking season, put the team on his back and right the ship. If that doesn't happen, if the Wolf Pack continues to play its all-for-one, one-for-all, there's-no-stars-here-there's just-teammates, everyone-gets-credit type of basketball, well, the next two months are going to be frustrating to watch.

Make no mistake, we are not talking about off-the-court leadership. The Wolf Pack, one of the most experienced teams in the Mountain West, likely has a ton of great leaders, starting with head coach Steve Alford and his assistants. And the roster is filled with a bunch of grizzled vets such as K.J. Hymes, Tre Coleman, Nick Davidson, Brandon Love, Xavier DuSell, Kobe Sanders and Daniel Foster. That's not the issue. The issue of leadership comes into play on the court.

The Wolf Pack has lost four close games in a row and six of its last eight because nobody has been able to command the ball down the stretch, make big shots and carry his teammates to victory. The Pack basically plays the same way in the first five minutes of the game as it does in the last five minutes. That's not how you win close games. If it was the Pack wouldn't be 8-7 overall and 0-4 in Mountain West games with six of its seven losses by five points or less.

Nobody knows the value of an on-the-floor, give-me-the-ball leader in crunch time more than Alford. He was exactly one of those clutch players himself for Bobby Knight and the Indiana Hoosier in the 1980s. Alford was the model for Jimmy Chitwood in the movie "Hoosiers,” who confidently told Coach Norman Dale during a timeout in the final seconds of the state title game: "I'll make it."

The Pack needs an "I'll make it" player right now.

Alford had those type of players throughout his first five seasons in Nevada. Jalen Harris, Grant Sherfield, Jarod Lucas, Kenan Blackshear and Dez Cambridge used to dominate the ball and the shots when games needed to be won down the stretch. They infused their teammates with the confidence needed to win close games. Yes, they weren't always successful. But they never shied away from the responsibility.

Before Alford got here the Pack, this century, also had big-time closers such as Deonte Burton, Cam Oliver, Jordan Caroline, Caleb and Cody Martin, Malik Story, Nick Fazekas, Armon Johnson, Luke Babbit, Marcus Marshall and others. This is not a new concept in basketball. The sport is filled with selfish, confident, brash, look-at-me players because, well, those are the types of players that win games.

This current Pack roster is filled with capable, talented, hard-working, coachable and skilled players that, by game's end, can certainly flash productive and impressive numbers. But in basketball, it's not about how many numbers you have on the stat sheet. It's when you earn those numbers.

Davidson and Sanders seem to be the logical answers to this Wolf Pack concern. Both have the ability to take over games and carry their teammates down the stretch. Both clearly have multiple skills that can win a basketball game.

It's time they show it when it counts the most.

It's time for the Pack to start playing follow the leader.

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Don't be all that concerned about this current Pack slide. Yes, 8-7, 0-4 as we head into the meat of the Mountain West schedule isn't anywhere near what we expected, especially after the team started 6-1. A berth in the NCAA Tournament seemed like a given at 6-1.

Well, it's not a given now. But it also isn't a pipe dream. This team can still get to the NCAA Tournament and maybe, if things fall just right, could even still win the Mountain West regular-season and tournament titles.

Don't be shocked if 8-7, 0-4 quickly turns into 11-7, 3-4 over a rapid-fire eight-day stretch from Jan. 11-18. The Pack will be facing the three worst teams in the conference (not named Nevada) right now over those eight much-needed, victories-on-a-silver-platter  days. The Wolf Pack needs to win all three of those games (a few blowouts would be nice) to rebuild confidence and momentum before things get too serious. Losing to Air Force, San Jose State and Fresno State, in particular, would suggest that things are more serious than we think right now.

Keep in mind that every coach in the Mountain West seems to be on a never-ending crusade to brainwash its fan base, its administration and the NCAA Tournament selection committee constantly telling us how competitive the conference games are on a weekly basis. That's what coaches do to save their jobs and also to keep their fickle, attention-deficit players focused throughout a long season.

But this is still the Mountain West, no matter how the coaches paint it. It's not all that difficult to go to Air Force and San Jose State and routinely play in front of less than 2,000 fans. You also don't need to be the 1976 Indiana Hoosiers to win at Wyoming, Fresno State, Colorado State and UNLV, where the arena is no more than half-filled to capacity on most every night.

Yes, Utah State, Boise State, New Mexico and San Diego State are difficult places to visit and steal victories. But it's not impossible. And all of them can certainly be beaten when they leave the comfort of their building and the lazy officials who are influenced by their fans.

There is still a well-worn, time-tested path for Pack success this year.

If the Pack beats the mediocre-to-bad teams remaining on its schedule (10 against UNLV, San Jose State, Fresno State, Wyoming, Colorado State, Air Force) and merely splits its six remaining games against  San Diego State (2), Boise State (2), New Mexico and Utah State, we will be looking at a Wolf Pack team heading into the conference tournament at 21-10, 13-7 and in position to get an at-large bid to the NCAA Tournament.

It's the Mountain West, folks. There's never a need to panic in early January.

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We don't know for sure why Alford decided to tinker with his starters once the conference games began by putting Xavier DuSell and Brandon Love on the bench and rotating K.J. Hymes, Daniel Foster and Justin McBride into the starting lineup. But we are sure Alford must have had a good reason to start changing a team that won eight of its first 11 games.

All we know is that the Pack hasn't won since.

The 6-foot-10 Love, who started 34 games at Texas State last year and 11 of the first 12 Pack games this year, has basically disappeared. He's played just a total of 12 minutes over the last three games combined. He's taken just three shots (missed them all) and hasn't scored a point with three rebounds, no blocks and a steal. This is the same guy who averaged 7.5 points with 4.2 rebounds and a block a game over the first dozen games.

The 6-5 DuSell, a veteran of four Mountain West seasons (three at Wyoming, one at Fresno State) before this year, started the Pack's first 12 games and was averaging 8.1 points as one of the best 3-point shooters in the country at 43 percent (28-of-65). The last three games he's played just 39 total minutes and scored 15 points on 3-of-5 3-point shooting.

Sticking Love and DuSell on the bench is not all that disturbing by itself. The two, after all, might be better suited to a bench role anyway and were only averaging roughly 20 minutes a game as starters. But Alford has replaced them with a guy (Foster) wh rarely shoots, one (Hymes) who can't do much of anything but dunk and another (McBride) who is young and erratic and is already back on the bench.

The changes clearly hurt the chemistry on the floor and has left the Pack stuck in neutral on offense. And, yes, those changes produced a losing streak. The changes also produced a lineup down the stretch in close games that has absolutely zero continuity and rhythm.

The Pack, to be sure, is still highly competitive and could have won each of the last four games. So, Alford didn't exactly sabotage the season. Maybe what he is doing will benefit everyone in the long run, even if the short run has been painful.

We'll find out starting Saturday if the Pack starts losing to bad teams.

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The Baltimore Ravens should beat the Pittsburgh Steelers, the Buffalo Bills should beat the Denver Broncos, and the Philadelphia Eagles should beat the Green Bay Packers this week when the NFL playoffs get going. The other three games are toss-ups.

The Los Angeles Chargers can go to Houston and beat the Texans, the Washington Commanders can go to Tampa and beat the Bucs, and the Minnesota Vikings can go to Los Angeles and beat the Rams. But winning on the road in the NFL playoffs is not easy. Still, we're picking the Chargers and Vikings to do it while the Bucs should win and defend their home turf and beat the Commanders.

Want a Super Bowl matchup? How about Chiefs and Eagles?

It is almost literally impossible to beat the Chiefs and Patrick Mahomes in Kansas City in the AFC playoffs. And, after all, when was the last time Lamar Jackson and Josh Allen won a big game on the road in the playoffs?

The Eagles are a better football team than anyone else in the NFC right now because the Detroit Lions are physically limping into the playoffs.

We'd like to see the Lions against the Bills in the Super Bowl. That would be the most interesting Super Bowl in years and could be a wild shootout. So, yes, fingers crossed that I'm wrong about that Chiefs-Eagles prediction. Watching Mahomes and the Chiefs go up against the boring Eagles in a Super Bowl? Well, I'm already yawning.

•••

If you are the Tennessee Titans, do you pick Colorado's Shedeur Sanders or Travis Hunter with the No. 1 pick?

How about neither?

The safe pick for the Titans would be Sanders because the Titans should never pass up what could be a franchise quarterback. Sanders is legit and even made his papa Deion look like a legit head coach the last two years in Colorado. Hunter, too, is a wonderful talent on both offense and defense but will he make that much of an impact on the Titans with Will Levis throwing him the ball?

The Titans, who handed the ball to Derrick Henry and won a lot of games in recent years before Henry left for the Baltimore Ravens to help Lamar Jackson, should seriously consider Boise State's Ashton Jeanty with the top pick.

Jeanty might be the safest pick in this draft. He's tough, durable, talented either running or catching the ball and would immediately help an NFL team. Boise State depended on him like the Titans used to depend on Henry and he produced 2,601 rushing yards and 29 touchdowns on 374 carries as well as caught 23 passes. He caught 43 passes for 569 yards and five touchdowns the year before when the Broncos didn't rely on him to run the ball on nearly every play.

Jeanty, though, has a couple strikes against him. NFL teams don't draft running backs with the No. 1 pick anymore and the Broncos play in the Mountain West. Can anyone justify picking a Boise State player with the No. 1 pick? Probably not. So Jeanty will likely slip to the Dallas Cowboys at No. 12 or even the Pittsburgh Steelers at No. 24.

Jeanty is clearly a Top 20 talent and if the Miami Dolphins (No. 13), Arizona Cardinals (No. 16) or Houston Texans (No. 19) pass on him they should fire their general managers before they hand the draft card to the commissioner. The Los Angeles Chargers at No. 22 (coach Jim Harbaugh loves a running game) also should never pass on Jeanty. And neither should Tampa Bay (No. 21), Denver (No. 20), Cincinnati (No. 17), New Orleans (No. 9), Carolina (No. 8) or Jacksonville (No. 5).

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Former Boise State quarterback Kellen Moore, who has been calling plays in the NFL for the past six years (Dallas 2019-22), Los Angeles Chargers (2023), Philadelphia (2024), is reportedly going to interview for the head coaching openings in Jacksonville and New Orleans soon. Why the Chicago Bears, New York Jets and New England Patriots also haven't requested an interview yet with Moore says more about those inept organizations than it does about Moore.

There is no question that Moore is one of the brightest offensive minds in the game and has been since he was the smartest quarterback in college football, when he went 50-3 as a starter from 2008-11 at Boise State. And, no, it wasn't his fault Kyle Brotzman couldn't kick straight on a late November night in 2010 at Mackay Stadium.

For some reason Moore, though, wasn't even drafted by the NFL in 2012. Busts like Brandon Weeden of Oklahoma State went No. 22 overall to Cleveland, Arizona State's Brock Osweiler went in the second round to Denver, San Diego State's Ryan Lindley went in the sixth round to Arizona and even Chattanooga's B.J. Coleman, an FCS quarterback, went in the seventh round to Green Bay. Northern Illinois' Chandler Harnish was the last pick of the draft by Indianapolis.

But the guy who went 50-3 in college and passed for 14,667 yards and 142 touchdowns wasn't even picked.

Moore, though, was just six-feet tall (probably, in reality, 5-10 or 5-11), threw left-handed, couldn't run all that well and likely couldn't break glass with his fastball. All he could do was run a complicated Boise State offense, seemingly always find the open receiver and then get him the ball. He was also a tremendous leader and a coach on the field. And, oh yeah, he also beat Oregon three times and TCU, Virginia Tech, Utah, Oregon State, Georgia and Arizona State once each — not to mention some pretty talented Nevada teams three times.

Well, he now designs complicated offenses, trains quarterbacks to throw the ball to the open receiver and is a coach on the sideline or press box for some pretty successful NFL teams. Can he be a tremendous leader as a head coach? Don't bet against him.