Santoro: Time to rebuild — yet again — for Wolf Pack

Sports Fodder:

The Nevada Wolf Pack men's basketball team has been gutted once again.

The Wolf Pack, in the here-today, gone-tomorrow world of the transfer portal era, has become a pop-up store at the mall. It emerges for all to see in early November but by late March all you see are empty shelves, stray pieces of paper blowing in the wind and a deflated Steve Alford left to pick up the pieces. The Pack each season lasts roughly five months and then vanishes like clockwork. That now annual disappearing act happened once again this past week with the opening of the transfer portal as the Pack lost arguably its two best returning players.

Nick Davidson, the Pack's leader in most statistical categories last season, and Justin McBride, the top weapon off the bench, both announced on social media this week that they have jumped into the transfer portal. The 6-foot-8, 210-pound Davidson averaged a team-best 15.8 points and 6.5 rebounds last season while the 6-8, 230-pound McBride added 7.8 points (third on the team) and 4.2 rebounds (second). Davidson started all 33 games last year while McBride had three starts among his 33 appearances.

And now they are gone, just days after the season ended with a 67-59 loss to Colorado State in the Mountain West tournament in Las Vegas.

The loss of McBride was always possible. McBride, after all, transferred to the Pack just a year ago from Oklahoma State. He got just three starts all season despite the fact that the Pack never seemed to have more than two starters playing well at the same time all year long. Giving a transfer portal purchase just three starts is daring him to jump into the portal again.

But the loss of Davidson is a bit shocking. Davidson, who started the past two seasons after coming off the bench as a freshman, seemed like a Pack fixture, His father Kirk, after all, played two seasons for the Pack in the early 1990s as a backup center. Davidson has just one more year of eligibility remaining. He seemed like a lock to spend his whole career at Nevada.

Nothing, though, is a lock in the transfer portal era.

The loss of Davidson and McBride, as well as departing seniors Kobe Sanders, Xavier Dusell, Tre Coleman, Brandon Love, K.J. Hymes and Daniel Foster, leaves the Pack roster almost bare heading into another off-season of rebuilding. The top two most experienced returners right now, if they also don't leap into the portal by the April 22 deadline, are 6-foot point guard Tyler Rolison (7.4 points, 2.0 assists 0.9 steals, 2.9 rebounds in 32 games, eight starts) and 6-4 guard Chuck Bailey (2.4 points, 1.3 rebounds in 31 games off the bench).

Jordan Malmlov and Jeriah Coleman played a combined 63 total minutes last year and also are currently on the roster. The Wolf Pack finished 17-16 this past season and did not play in the postseason.

And now they are starting over once again.

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Davidson, according to a few internet reports, could be headed to the USC Trojans and former Wolf Pack head coach Eric Musselman.

Musselman's Trojans, who will play in the inaugural College Basketball Crown tournament in Las Vegas on April 1 against Tulane despite a 16-17 record, seems like a good fit for Davidson, considering he is from the Los Angeles area (Mater Dei High in Santa Ana, Calif.). Musselman, who knows the Mountain West well after coaching the Wolf Pack for four seasons (2015-16 to 2018-19) also grabbed Chibuzo Agbo, a 6-7 forward, out of Boise State in the portal last year after getting the USC job.

The Wolf Pack, though, also seemed like a good fit for Davidson. His father Kirk spent two seasons as Ric Herrin's backup at Nevada for coach Len Stevens. He only came to Nevada in the first place for that very same reason. What changed? The younger Davidson seemed to thrive at Nevada, averaging 11.7 points and 6.0 rebounds in his three seasons and 100 games (67 starts). He came off the bench for 33 games as a freshman in 2022-23 and started all 67 games the past two years. He went over 1,000 (1,165) career points this year. The website on3.com, though, currently ranks Davidson as the eighth-best player in the portal. That's why players jump to the portal. The see greater opportunities elsewhere. Loyalty to your father's alma mater is fine coming out of high school. Three years later a player develops his own loyalties.

Davidson will clearly be missed and difficult to replace. He had 11 double-doubles at Nevada and also put together a dozen games of 20 or more points and a dozen with 10 or more rebounds. He seemed to plateau this year as the Pack lost 13 of its last 22 games. His free throw percentage dipped to a career-low .699 this year. He also had 34 fewer rebounds this year compared to last year despite playing 111 more minutes. He also saw his field goal percentage dip from .545 in 2023-24 to .500 this year as opposing defenses converged on him more in the paint because of the Pack's lack of quality outside shooters. Davidson also shot .655 inside the 3-point circle as a sophomore and fell to .487 this past season.

So maybe he wasn't ever going to turn into Nick Fazekas. But just keep in mind the Pack likely won't be able to sign one of the top seven players in this year's portal ahead of Davidson. He will definitely be missed.

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The mass exodus of players off this year's roster is nothing new for Alford, who has always had a busy offseason since coming to Nevada.

Don't forget that when he first arrived in Nevada, he took over a depleted roster that had been gutted by graduation and transfers off the 2018-19 roster (Caleb and Cody Martin, Jordan Caroline, Tre'Shawn Thurman, Trey Porter, Jordan Brown, Corey Henson). Basically, everyone of value with eligibility remaining was in the portal when he arrived in town.

So, Alford, shall we say, is used to this.

Alford then lost Musselman-era holdovers Jalen Harris, Lindsey Drew and Jazz Johnson off his first (2019-20) Pack team. Zane Meeks and Kane Milling jumped ship off his 2020-21 team while 2021-22 was the last year in a Pack uniform for Grant Sherfield, Desmond Cambridge and Warren Washington. The 2022-23 season was the last in Nevada for Will Baker and Darrion Williams while the 2023-24 team was the last in Nevada for Jarrod Lucas and Kenan Blackshear.

So, yes, Alford is very familiar with having to rebuild at least half a roster come spring and summer. But this year's mass evacuation might be the toughest rebuilding job Alford has faced at Nevada from top to bottom. Tyler Rolison (eight starts) is the only player returning for the 2025-26 season that started a game at Nevada last year. Those eight starts are the fewest Alford has taken from one year to the next by far since he's been the Pack head coach. The previous low was 32 (31 by Robby Robinson and one by K.J. Hymes going from 2019-20 to 2020-21). Davidson (33) and McBride (three), don't forget, combined to start 36 games last year and will now take that experience elsewhere.

The good news is that there are always plenty of players available each offseason. So, don't worry, the Pack will have a full roster for the start of the 2025-26 season despite rumors to the contrary. The bad news is that hardly anybody (coaches and teammates included) will know who they are.

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The sport of Division I college basketball is in a state of flux right now at both ends of the state. That should give UNLV-hating Pack fans some solace in this time of uncertainty.

The UNLV Rebels, who finished 18-15 this season, fired head coach Kevin Kruger after the season and replaced him with former Georgia Tech and Memphis coach Josh Pastner. Rebel players, not surprisingly, have flooded the transfer portal, led by Dedan Thomas and Jaden Henley. Thomas led the Rebels in scoring at 15.6 points a game and Henley was second (12.5).

The change from Kruger to Pastner seems like change just for change's sake. Kruger, the son of former Rebel coach Lon Kruger, was a solid 76-55 in four years at UNLV with four winning records. Yes, he never won anything of note but neither has any Rebel coach since the program last went to the NCAA Tournament in 2013. Pastner is a strange hire for UNLV. He was one of the top young coaches in the nation from 2009-10 through 2015-16 at Memphis, going 167-73 in seven seasons with four NCAA Tournament appearances. But his career leveled off at Georgia Tech from 2016-17 through 2022-23, going 109-114 with just one NCAA Tournament in seven years. And he hasn't even coached the last two years.

Hiring a veteran coach whose career had stagnated, though, might be the norm in the Mountain West going forward. The 2025-26 season will be the last in the Mountain West without Boise State, San Diego State, Colorado State, Fresno State and Utah State, who will all join Washington State and Oregon State in the new Pac-12. The conference in 2026-27 looks like a place only young coaches with no head coaching experience or veteran coaches who failed elsewhere might be interested in.

The Mountain West has replaced their five departing schools with Grand Canyon, Hawaii, UTEP and UC Davis. That's not a group the NCAA Tournament selection committee is all that interested in.

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How long will Alford remain at Nevada? Well, it could be 10 more minutes or 10 more years or anything in between. Stay tuned.

Why Alford came to the Mountain West in the first place in 2019-20, of course, has always been a mystery. But that mystery will only deepen starting in 2026-27 when the Mountain West replaces Boise State, Colorado State, San Diego State, Utah State and Fresno State with the likes of Grand Canyon, Hawaii, UTEP and UC Davis.

Will Alford want to spend winter nights in El Paso and Davis, Calif., and spend a whole day on a plane going back and forth to Hawaii every year?  Of course not. Seems a bit strange at this stage of his career. The Mountain West, starting in 2026-27, will be a college basketball wasteland, a step ahead of the Big Sky Conference. Make that a small step.

If you think it is difficult to recruit to the Mountain West now, well, wait until the conference loses southern California (San Diego State), the Central San Joaquin Valley (Fresno State), Idaho (Boise State), Utah (Utah State) and Denver (Colorado State). Dealing with NIL and the transfer portal has already driven Alford a little crazy. Trying to find a meal after a game in El Paso and Davis in the winter might send him over the edge.

Alford and the Pack, though, could dominate the Mountain West, such that it is and will be, starting in 2026-27. UNLV will always be a challenge, as will New Mexico. But nobody is losing sleep the night before a game against San Jose State, Hawaii, Wyoming, Grand Canyon, UTEP, Air Force and UC Davis. Then again it could be a peaceful and stress-free way for a veteran coach like Alford to spend the final three years of his contract, maybe even getting to two or three NCAA Tournaments as a bonus.

But will Alford get his competitive juices flowing in a watered-down Mountain West? Probably not. Yes, he already sprinkled some cool and relaxing water on those juices when he first came to Nevada after competing in the Pac-12 (UCLA) and Big Ten (Iowa). But the Mountain West starting in 2026-27 might put him to sleep.

The Mountain West that Alford joined in 2019-20 was one of the most underrated conferences as far as coaching talent was concerned. It likely gave Alford plenty of gratifying and interesting challenges going up against the likes of Brian Dutcher (San Diego State), Kevin Kruger (UNLV), Jerrod Calhoun, Craig Smith, Ryan Odom and Danny Sprinkle (all Utah State), Niko Medved (Colorado State) and Leon Rice (Boise State). They will all be gone from the Mountain West by 2026-27. A couple (Kruger was fired and Medved took the Minnesota job this week) are already gone. New Mexico's Richard Pitino might also be gone by the weekend.

The Mountain West starting in 2026-27 might not be enough to keep Alford interested and motivated.