College Hoops Top 50

Last Year: 26-8; 13-5 in the Mountain West Conference, lost in the First Round of the NCAA Tournament

Head Coach: Steve Alford (Sixth Year; 96-59 at Nevada, with two NCAA Tournament appearances)

Projected Starting Lineup

PG Tyler Rolison – 6’0″, 186 Sophomore

G Kobe Sanders – 6’9″, 207 5th-year Senior

W Tré Coleman – 6’7″, 225 5th-year Senior

F Nick Davidson – 6’10”, 238 Junior

F/C KJ Hymes – 6’10”, 225 5th-year Senior

Experienced Reserves

G Amire Robinson – 6’3″, 196 Sophomore

G Chuck Bailey III – 6’4″, 220 Sophomore

G Xavier DuSell – 6’5″, 200 5th-year Senior

W Daniel Foster – 6’6″, 215 5th-year Senior

F Justin McBride – 6’7″, 238 Sophomore

F Brandon Love – 6’10”, 230 Senior

F Yuto Yamanouchi-Williams – 6’10”, 230 Junior

C Jeriah Coleman – 7’1″, 248 5th-year Senior

There are coaches who don’t always know how to adapt, and there are those who are rather more adept at rolling with whatever changes will surely come. As much as it can be said for just about any coach out there, Nevada’s Steve Alford has a knack for adapting. Now, he just has to figure out how to keep opponents from running away from his Pack in the second halves of NCAA Tournament games. 

After two straight winless trips to the NCAA Tournament led by the outstanding, experienced guard duo of Kenan Blackshear and Jarod Lucas, the Wolf Pack is in search of new alphas. With a few key, proven supporting actors returning, Alford didn’t have to completely rebuild his roster, but he appears to have effectively retooled for the upcoming season while keeping an eye on the future, too. See, there’s this thing called the transfer portal; and after getting comfortable with it for a couple of seasons, Alford and his staff went all-in on the market of available players this spring. 

Nevada has netted a shooting star to stabilize the backcourt, a high-energy guy at forward, there are three promising newcomers who have played two or fewer years of collegiate ball, and that’s not all. In rising star forward Nick Davidson and fifth-year guard Kobe Sanders, the brightest gem among Nevada’s transfers, Alford believes that he’s got another squad with the pieces to go Dancing. 

After he delivered on a whole bunch of promise last season as the team’s third option, fans in Reno are excited to find out just how much better Davidson can become. A multi-purpose 4-man with genuine range on his jumper and plenty of savvy in the post, Davidson also spent his breakout year demonstrating that he will attack the rim with all sorts of abandon. A great outlet for all of the smooth passes Blackshear and Lucas provided, Davidson finished effectively all around the paint. Now, he’ll have to manufacture a few more of his own looks.

Some stretch bigs aren’t don’t have much of an aggressive streak, but Davidson slashes to the goal with a desire to drop the hammer when defenders close out on him. Though streaky from the outside, he has knocked down 50 triples across his first two seasons, opening up plenty of opportunities for Davidson to bring the people out of their seats. As Davidson continued to improve throughout his second campaign, his confidence and patience inside grew noticeably after the new year. Over the Pack’s final 13 games, he averaged 15.0 points and 8.3 rebounds on 57.0% shooting from the floor. It was over that final stretch that Davidson’s three-point shot heated up as well, and if he can match or best the 34.9% rate he posted over the final two months of the year over a full season, Davidson should become one of the better players in the Mountain West Conference. 

After slowly improving for three years at Cal Poly, Sanders simply exploded last winter. The big, lanky guard transformed into a play-making, bucket-getting, show-stopping star. After averaging 6.2 points, 2.4 boards, and 1.8 assists across the first three seasons as a Mustang, Sanders went off for 19.6 points per contest, sank 174 free throws in 29 games, and posted career-high’s in just about every category they keep track of. Sanders had scored 20+ points in a game just once coming into camp last summer. He would go on to hit 20+ in 13 different games last year, and Sanders dropped a 30-piece six different times. Now, the big question is: can he do it all again in the Mountain West? 

A naturally exciting playmaker who’s listed at 6’9″, Sanders can be a major matchup problem. The desire and skill he showed in attacking off the bounce last season has remade Sanders into a threat anywhere inside the arc. His gliding quickness, repertoire of mid-range shots and high release point allow Sanders to get into a decent look from just about wherever he wants. Though he’s yet to become a high-volume three-point shooter, Sanders can heat up from the outside and become truly difficult to guard. Nevada’s biggest hope isn’t that he morphs into a long-range bomber, though: most of all, Alford needs Sanders to embrace his playmaking abilities like never before. If Sanders can keep on creating shot opportunities for his teammates without the offense bogging down or falling victim to turnovers, it should allow the Pack to put its best five players on the floor together for maximum minutes. 

A naturally exciting playmaker who’s listed at 6’9″, Sanders can be a major matchup problem.

The other reason that Nevada isn’t relying on Sanders to be its primary deep threat is that Mountain West lifer Xavier DuSell has come aboard. The league’s scouting reports have been filled with exhortations to guard DuSell any time he’s got the ball on the perimeter for years. Those efforts haven’t completely worked, though. DuSell arrives in Reno as the proud owner of 261 made three-balls and a 39.5% career clip from the land of trey. After playing three years for Wyoming, DuSell enjoyed a career season with Fresno State last winter. His 88 makes and 39.5% mark from distance for the season each led the MWC. Though he isn’t exactly the same type of player as Lucas, DuSell will cause similar consternation for the Wolf Packs’ opponents when they’re drawing up a gameplan. 

As key to the Pack’s perimeter as anyone, Tré Coleman returns for a fifth season in Reno. A starter since his freshman year, Coleman is likely to finish this season having played more games than anyone in the history of Nevada hoops. The reason that Coleman has averaged nearly 30 minutes per game across the many seasons he’s played is that he does absolutely everything well. An outstanding defender who can check virtually any non-big out there, Coleman has twice been selected to the Mountain West’s All-Defense team. Coleman is both a playmaker (132 career steals as well as 53 blocked shots over the past two seasons) and the type of blanket-coverage stopper who routinely makes life very unpleasant for the opposing team’s best scorer. 

He’s also knocked down 113 career triples, and Coleman hit 40 of them at a 37.0% rate last season in what was his best offensive season. As if all of that wasn’t enough, he pursues loose balls with constant and rambunctious energy, and Coleman has grown considerably as a setup man over the past two years. Across that span, Alford has trusted him more and more as a ballhandler and secondary playmaker, and Coleman has rewarded his coach by handing out 180 assists against just 74 turnovers. He hasn’t stopped improving since he got to Reno, and on this team which will rely on him like never before, Coleman’s next step will add to his rock-solid legacy. 

Three other players from last season’s rotation also return, and each of them should continue to provide a key presence to Alford’s equation. Tyler Rolison is a promising young guard who gained valuable experience as the only freshman to earn a constant role in last year’s veteran rotation. Capable of scoring as well as creating for his teammates, Rolison trusts his skills and has already shown a confidence in forcing the other team to react when he goes to work. He scored in double figures just three times as a rookie, but Rolison contributed key minutes (which included four assists and a pair of important steals) in a victory at MWC champ Utah State, and Rolison played his best ball of the season during Nevada’s 10-1 run to finish the regular season. This year, Alford is expecting Rolison to act as a primary facilitator at times, and to run things smoothly without or alongside Sanders. 

KJ Hymes and Daniel Foster join Coleman in entering their fifth seasons with the Pack. Well, for Hymes, it’s his sixth season in Reno, but he had to take a redshirt two seasons ago due to persistent back problems. After returning, Hymes started 31 games, and played his healthiest campaign in years. Now, he’s looking to put an exclamation point on his career with another full season of his best production yet. A solid rim protector with the mobility and awareness to cause problems defensively, Hymes has become reliable at the back end of the Pack’s defense. He’s not a prototype bruiser and occasionally finds himself in foul trouble, but Hymes has become a more efficient player as his career has gone on. He used to try and launch triples, but Hymes has learned that his bread is buttered best close to the basket. Davidson will see lots of attention this year, and Hymes knows how to cash in good looks and provide steady support. 

Foster brings the same help-out-everywhere approach as the Pack gets from Coleman. Though not as much of a shooting threat as his veteran counterpart, Foster has averaged nearly 20 minutes across 100 career games with the Pack. Though he usually comes off the bench, Foster played the fifth-most minutes on the team last winter because he seems to always be in position to help out when help is most needed. With his infectious energy and physical style on defense, the 6’6 Aussie can guard a great many different players, and Foster regularly outworks the opposition for rebounds that they could have had. He can shoot it a bit, but most of Foster’s points come on hard cuts to the rim and this year, he’ll look to cash in more regularly than ever. 

Five Stats Which Tell The Tale (with national ranks)

+8.3 – Average Score Margin (28th)

0.450 – Free Throw Attempts Per FG Attempt (6th)

72.1% – Team Free Throw Percentage (177th)

36.4% – Team 3FG Percentage (42nd)

31.5% – Opponent 3FG Percentage (48th)

New to Nevada’s frontcourt are a trio of big guys who bring varied experiences and skills, and each of them has been selected with an eye toward the future. Brandon Love, who arrives after posting a career year for Texas State, will be expected to contribute most immediately. Like Hymes, he’s not a wide-body, but Love’s energy and defense around the rim should pair similarly well with Davidson. Love ranked fourth in the Sun Belt – a league which featured some prodigious swatters – in blocked shots last year. Both his wiry strength and quickness inside are a genuine problem for people trying to score, and those attributes also translate for Love on the offensive end. He led the Bobcats with 30 putback attempts last winter, shooting 64.3% on those tries, per Hoop-Math. Love’s 54.9% overall on his shot attempts was a career high, and he kept on contributing even as injuries and inexperience created some inconsistency in the Bobcat backcourt. 

Last season didn’t quite go according to plan, but Yuto Yamanouchi-Williams has become almost as adept at rolling with change as his newest head coach. A native of Japan who prepped in California and has played for two colleges already, Yamanouchi-Williams also signed with two MWC schools in the past few months. After a promising freshman year at Lamar, Yamanouchi-Williams transferred to Portland last fall, intending to redshirt. The Pilots ended up needing him right away, though, so Yamanouchi-Williams hit the floor, flashed more of his considerable potential…and then suffered a season-ending hip injury after 12 games. After signing with Wyoming this spring and then being granted his release following the departure of head coach Jeff Linder, Yamanouchi-Williams is ready to get healthy, get comfortable, and stay awhile in the Biggest Little City in the World. A developing post scorer with legit range on his jumper, Yamanouchi-Williams has tantalizing skills in a 6’10” package. 

Five Out-of-Conference Games to Keep an Eye on

N VCU/Seton Hall – November 22

N Vanderbilt – November 21

N Charleston Shriner’s Classic third game – November 24

vs Washington – November 9

vs Washington State – December 3

Among the youngsters Alford and his staff have added are versatile sophomores Chuck Bailey III and Justin McBride. At Evansville last year, Bailey proved that he can drive for baskets and has the foundation of an impact scoring repertoire. He was streaky as a freshman, but Bailey likes to put a defender on his heels to create space for a pull-up jumper. He’s also got the physical strength to finish closer to the rim, and Bailey looks like he’ll be a productive off-guard for the Pack. McBride couldn’t buy a made free throw last year at Oklahoma State, but he’s shown the ability to make outside jumpers and just needs to add consistency. He was extremely efficient scoring the ball inside as a rookie, though; McBride sank 70.4% of his two-point tries. Jeriah Coleman and Amire Robinson were deep reserves for Alford last year and are back. At 7’1″ he’s Nevada’s biggest player, and will hope to help out when the team really needs size. Robinson can score and pass the rock, and the Packs’ coaches would love to see him emerge as a solid backup at the point. 

The Wolf Pack has come a long way over the past couple of years, and now, they expect to be in competition for an NCAA Tournament bid each March. With a solid non-conference slate ahead, Nevada will be facing a half dozen quality opponents before Mountain West play begins. As they test themselves, things will surely be difficult for Alford’s squad without the reliability of Lucas and Blackshear. That doesn’t necessarily mean that things will be worse. If Sanders, DuSell, and Rolison can combine to give the returnees the support they need, Nevada can continue rising.

In securing at-large bids in back-to-back campaigns, the Pack has reached a new level. Headed forward, they’ll be one of the flagship programs of the reconfigured Mountain West. The next step, clearly, is staying awhile after they’ve gotten to the Big Dance. It may not be quite the same group this winter, but after two straight tourney bids that ended quickly, there’s a hungry Pack in Reno and they remain on the hunt.