Twenty-two wins have impressed us with how much this Wolf Pack team has grown.  The fifth loss showed us that the Pack still has some work to do before it fully matures…

Follow Scott Daniel’s Twitter musings @GameFodderLive.

Don’t look now, dear.  Our kids are growing up so fast.

Now, now.  Dry your eyes.  They’re growing, but they’ve not yet grown.  The nest won’t be empty for another year.  We have some time.  As they showed us in Saturday’s tough loss to Iona in the Bracket Buster, they’ve made tremendous strides and are on the cusp of full adulthood.  But it also showed us that they’re not quite there yet.

Relax, dear.  They are still Teen Wolves.

This is not the first time I’ve used a human development allegory with the Carter-coached Pack.  Last season, I took to calling the team with two freshman starters and no scholarship seniors on the roster the “Baby Pack.”  The tag truly fit for the first two months, as they struggled mightily through their non-league slate and into the early weeks of conference play.  Then, in early February, their voice cracked and their clothes no longer fit.  So I threw them an impromptu “Pack Mitzvah”, sans the Diamond Dave cover band, and affixed a more befitting nickname:

This team is more like a teenager beginning to assert his independence while still occasionally displaying the immaturity of his childhood.  They shine in flashes of brilliance, but they’re still not sure what they want to be when they grow up.  They are two teams inhabiting one uniform.

They are now the Adolescent Pack, caught between the young and inexperienced team that lost to Boston University and the self-assured squad that manhandled Hawaii.  As the WAC regular season reaches its crescendo and the tournament approaches, it is up to them to decide which of these two teams they wish to become.

“Cannon Fodder: A Tale of Two Teams,” February 6, 2011.

Over a year later, it is clear that when our young teen came to his crossroads, he chose the wise and diligent path.  He’s the squeaky kid who had an 8-inch growth spurt over the summer, growing facial hair and developing a full Adam’s Apple.  So whereas last year the Pack resembled a gang of restless 14-year-old freshmen who never cleaned their room when asked, battled acne, and bummed rides from the cigarette-smoking junior in P.E., this year’s version is more like the level-headed 18-year-old senior.  He takes AP classes, serves on student council, and drives the Honda Accord he paid for himself with Starbucks tip money.  He is responsible, respected by his peers, and the world is his oyster.  He looks and acts the part of an adult.

Pump your brakes.  He’s still a teenager who breaks curfew, sneaks a drink at parties, and has some mold in his bathroom.

The Iona game provided a perfect microcosm of who, exactly, this team is: these guys may be older and wiser, but they are yet Teen Wolves.

The 16-game win streak obscured that fact.  Sure, there were impressive wins in there, most of them front-loaded (e.g. Bradley, Washington, Arizona State, at Utah State, both Hawaii wins, and New Mexico State).  But lost in that shuffle were games where Nevada opted to slack off and play to the level of their opponents, either requiring late runs to put away lesser foes who had no business competing with us in our own gym (e.g., Cedarville, Nebraska-Omaha, Cal State-Bakersfield) or digging ugly wins out of the muck of defeat in the last minute (e.g., Louisiana Tech, Utah State at home).  That lax and sloppy play caught up to them in the discomfiting 4-point home loss to Idaho, when the Vandals simply outshot, outhustled, and outplayed Nevada.  That game was the equivalent of the conspicuous “D” on the progress report that reminds us that, underneath all the accomplishments of our grown son, he is still somewhat of a kid in a grown man’s body.

The Iona game gave us a better barometer of where the Pack stands heading into its final three WAC regular season games.  According to the most recent update of RealTimeRPI.com, the Gaels stood at #52, three spots ahead of the Pack at #55.  They are the third toughest opponent on our schedule behind UNLV and BYU.  We traveled 2,710 miles and lost by 6 to a team that features a former Arizona starter in Lamont Jones and a probable lottery pick in Scott Machado.  Moral victory, right?

No.  Not really.  The Pack lost the game in a ten-minute stretch that spanned both halves, and much of that time was spent with Deonte Burton on the bench in foul trouble.  Olek Czyz had 28 points and dominated the undersized Gaels inside with a wicked left hand.  Burton scored 21, and Hunt went to In ‘N Out for the double-double “animal style” with 15 points and 14 b0ards.

Still, the smooth play was interlaced with some ugly warts that have seemed to plague the Pack in its tight losses throughout the year.  They’re almost there, and they’re almost ready to leave the house and pursue real life as full-fledged adults.  But those warts need to be lanced if that growing up is to be completed this year or next, when the Pack enters a much tougher Mountain West Conference.

We’ve sent our Teen Wolves to the guidance counselor, and these are the five kinks that need to be ironed out:

Don’t Give Into Your Impulses

Teenagers are impulsive.  Adults, ostensibly, have the capacity to rise above their first instincts or impressions to assess all options and make the best possible decision in a given situation.  It takes years of learning, but those who are mature are able to make those decisions in the blink of an eye.

Yesterday, Jerry Evans had the ball about 16 feet away from the basket, with his defender giving him a wide berth that even Isaiah Frey would call generous.  Evans’ immediate decision should have been to take the easy jumper.  Instead, he caught the ball and got into a driving posture.  He went to the rack and took his man with him, where he was met by a clogged drain of Iona defenders and Nevada teammates.  On impulse, he traded a likely two points for a shot in traffic.  It didn’t fall, and Iona snagged the rebound.

Sometimes, the impulse decisions work.  Some of the three-bombs dropped by Burton and Story this year look absolutely foolish when the ball leaves their hands, only to make us look foolish when they touch all thread and no metal (example: Story’s end-of-the-half turnaround 3-point miracle that reminded me of Ethan O’Bryant’s game-winner against Long Beach State in the 1994 Big West Tournament).  But impulsive decisions are necessary when the game or shot clock is winding down.  Resisting bad impulses can help avoid those situations in the first place.

Improve on Your Weakest Subject

If you want to get into Harvard or Princeton to study English literature, it’s all well and good to win writing contests, ace your SAT verbals, and have straight A’s in liberal arts subjects.  But that “C” in Trigonometry is for sure going to keep you out of the Ivy League.

Nevada’s free throw shooting this year has been absolutely god-awful, and is in large part responsible for narrowing our margins of victory or, in at least a couple of instances, outright preventing it.  It is perplexing, sometimes, to consider how well the Wolf Pack can shoot the long-range three-pointer, but has a difficult time sinking an easy jump shot with no defender or time constraints.

It’s fundamental, and it could make the difference between playing Indiana at a neutral site or Wyoming at Lawlor come March.  Grab your Lombardi passes, boys, and drop ‘em like it’s hot.

Stop Leaving Things on the Floor

As I write this, I have a pile of unsorted laundry sitting in the middle of my bedroom, and I’m 30.  So take this one with a grain of salt.  Still, we shouldn’t leave things on the floor.

That includes the basketball, and I’ve seen it happen on a couple of occasions this season that have been absolutely frustrating.  Losing control of the ball near mid-court and turning it over?  Happens way too often.  Even more perplexing: our big men grabbing a board and then, instead of going back up with the ball, putting it on the ground and allowing the defense to assert an artificial height advantage.

Every frontcourt player with significant minutes is guilty of this.  Yesterday, it was Dario Hunt and Davonte Elliott who put the ball on the floor and allowed the smaller, guard-driven Gaels to sneak in and take it.  Like free throws, this is fundamental.  We have a size advantage over virtually every team we play.  Few teams have a 6′8″ wing guy like Jerry Evans, or a 6′7″ backup like Jordan Burriss.  When I say we tend to play down to the other team’s level, I mean that both literally and figuratively.

Instead, we need to elevate.

Help Out Once in Awhile

A responsible adult will see to it that all things around the house are done, and not just his chores alone.  A teenager, respectful as he is, does only what is on his list, and doesn’t offer to do anything else.  Sometimes, there’s a call for “Help!” that just goes unanswered.

Yesterday, Olek Czyz was locked in a one-on-one with an Iona guard (either Jones or Machado) near the top of the key.  There is simply no way that Czyz can match that sort of quickness; it’s literally not in his DNA.  Machado/Jones knew this and drove to the right off Czyz’s front foot.  Olek gave chase to no avail.  Machado/Jones scored an easy lay-up.  There was no weak side help to assist.

It’s one thing to provide help in a zone defense.  The “starfish” will expand and contract and shift to the ball, resulting in double-teams that suffocate the opponent.  It’s quite another thing to do it in a man-to-man defense.  Then again, that’s why God gave us two eyes: to keep one on your man, and the other on the ball.  If you see that the ball is headed to the bucket uncontested, and you’re in range to do something about it, it’s your job to provide assistance.  It may leave your man open, but if the score is imminent, that doesn’t matter.

Keep one eye on the ball, and prevent easy baskets when you can.

Lock the Doors When You’re At Home

Locking the door is something everybody does when they leave the house, from the time they first get a key.  When at home, it’s easy to overlook the fact that a burglar or home invader can strike even while you’re in the living room watching TV.  To be cautious, you should always lock the door.

We’ve had plenty of home invaders this year, and we’ve done what is necessary to shut most of them down.  Most of them.  Somehow, we left the door unlocked for Missouri State and Idaho, and nearly did so for the likes of Longwood.  Our road warrior status is awe-inspiring.  The Pack has dominated on the home floors of teams that do tend to lock their doors (including an impressive win against the Chicago-area Bradley Braves in the Windy City).  I would be slightly more impressed if none of our five losses came at home.

The 2003-2004 team, which I admittedly hold nearest and dearest to my heart as a then-senior, struggled mightily on the road, and only overcame two halftime deficits all season.  Part of what made that team special?  They refused to let a single team come to Lawlor and take anything out of our house.  Not Kansas.  Not UTEP.  Not Fresno State, Hawaii, Rice, SMU, UTEP, Boise State, San Jose State or Louisiana Tech.  Not Pacific, not Vermont, and sure as hell not Alabama State.

Why is that important?  Because every home loss creates pressure to compensate with a more difficult road loss. Our two home losses this year, to Missouri State and Idaho, were both games that, in retrospect, Nevada should have won.  The Bears were a 27-win team last year; now they’re at 87 in the RealTimeRPI and only 3 games over .500.  We beat Idaho by 18 on their home court.  Shift those games to the win column, and we’re looking at a 24-3 Wolf Pack team that is at least hovering on the tournament bubble.

Of course, this is just the nit-picky criticism.  Teenagers thrive on positive reenforcement and carrots, not sticks.  I’ll tell you what, Teen Wolves.  You see that banner that the mascot gets to hang in the rafters as a national champion?  If you improve in all of these areas, I’m pretty confident you’ll get a banner, too.