“I didn’t see it go in, to be honest,” smiled Wolf Pack guard Deonte Burton. “I was ready to go back on defense. But then I heard the crowd react.”

The largest Lawlor Events Center basketball crowd in over three years (9,988) erupted in unison as Burton’s wild 3-pointer with 11 seconds (courtesy of WolfPackFilms) to play gave the Wolf Pack a 53-52 victory over the Utah State Aggies on Thursday night.

“It was a lucky shot,” said Burton, who landed forward on his chest as the ball fell through the basket. “I had confidence but it was lucky it went down.”

It was lucky and historic.

Burton’s prayer of a shot gave the Wolf Pack its 16th consecutive victory, equaling the longest winning streak in school history that was set in 1965-66.

“I’ve seen Deonte make those shots all the time in practice,” smiled junior guard Malik Story.

Don’t believe him.

“That was one of the luckiest shots I’ve ever seen,” senior center Dario Hunt said. “But I’ll take it any day.”

With the Pack trailing 52-50, Burton leaned into and under Utah State’s Preston Medlin just to the right of the top of the 3-point circle.

“I think he was trying to get fouled,” Wolf Pack coach David Carter said.

“I did get fouled,” Burton said without hesitation.

No foul was called.

“I thought he got fouled a little bit,” Carter said. “I understand they don’t want to call a foul in that situation. But when it went in, I was happy.”

The Pack, winners of 18 of their last 19 games, are now 19-3 overall and 8-0 in the Western Athletic Conference. Utah State, which has won the last four WAC regular season titles, fell to 12-11 and 4-4.

“Sometimes you have to be lucky,” Carter said.

Neither team had much luck or success until Burton’s shot. The Wolf Pack led just 19-18 at halftime in the lowest scoring first half in a Pack game this season.

“They were controlling the tempo and we had no tempo at all,” Carter said.

Both teams combined to miss 38-of-54 shots from the field, 14-of-16 3-pointers and six of nine free throws in the first half.

“Our offense was stagnating,” said Burton, who was 0-for-7 from the field and didn’t score in the first half. “We were standing around too much, not enough movement.”

“Our offense didn’t click that well,” said Story, who scored 10 of the Pack’s 18 first-half points. “It was a fun game to play in but it was hard on offense.”

Carter was happy to get to the halftime locker room with a slim lead.

“They had a great game plan on defense,” said Carter of Utah State. “But we tried to go one-on-one too much and we didn’t do a good job of trying to get the ball inside.”

Both offenses returned to normal in the second half. Utah State, which shot 29% in the first 20 minutes, was a sizzling 52% in the second half. The Pack also improved from 30% to 44%.

“It turned into a possession by possession game,” Carter said. “The guys really had to fight for this one.”

Utah State took a 36-29 lead with just under 14 minutes to go on a 3-point play by guard Brockeith Pane. The Aggies still led 42-37 after a 3-pointer by E.J. Farris with just over nine minutes to play.

It was Utah State’s offense, though, that did all the stagnating in the final nine minutes.

A jumper by Story tied the game at 42-42 with 7:20 to play and a Burton 3-pointer evened things at 46-46 with five minutes left. Story then drained a 3-pointer for a 49-48 lead with four minutes left but the Pack needed a free throw by Burton to tie the game at 50-50 with 2:34 remaining.

Pane, though, hit a short jumper in the lane for a 52-50 Utah State lead with 2:11 to play as the Pack was mired in a stretch of 3:49 without a field goal, from Story’s 3-pointer with four minutes to go until Burton‘s game-winner with 11 seconds to go.

Fortunately for the Pack, though, Utah State stopped scoring in the final two minutes. The Aggies couldn’t even get a shot to the rim.

The Pack’s Devonte Elliott blocked a shot by Ben Clifford with 27 seconds to go, keeping the Utah State lead at two (52-50). Elliott also blocked a layup by Morgan Grim to preserve the victory with one second to play.

“Devonte was huge,” said Hunt, who also had two blocks. “But that’s the type of team we have. We have a lot of people who can step up at any time and help us win.”

Burton also came up big on defense, swatting away an in-bounds pass under the basket intended for Kyisean Reed with five seconds to play.

“I just saw the guy rolling in to get the lob and I had to step up,” Burton said.

“They only had five seconds so I didn’t think they had time for penetration,“ said Carter of the Aggies’ in-bounds pass with the Pack up 53-52. “But I also didn’t think they’d go for the lob at that time. Deonte did a real nice job.”

The Pack’s biggest crowd since 10,526 showed up on New Year’s Eve 2008 (an 84-61 loss to No. 1 North Carolina) saw their silver and blue heroes improve to 12-1 at home this season. The Wolf Pack will host Idaho on Saturday night (7:05 p.m.) at Lawlor Events Center.

“This one was just ugly,” Hunt said. “One through five (the five starters) all played an ugly game.”

Until one unexplainable shot that was so ugly, it was, well, a thing of beauty.

“This just might be one of those seasons when you get shots like that to go down,” Hunt said.

FINAL STATS

Image Gallery
Photos by Silver and Blue Sports photographer Mark Rauh

“The competition should be steep and fierce,” the Nevada Wolf Pack head coach said after announcing his 22-player football recruiting class on Wednesday at Legacy Hall. “We already had a nice nucleus coming in but these players we’ve brought in today are going to make the competition for spots as good as we’ve seen around here in the last few years.”

The Wolf Pack added 13 offensive players and nine defensive players to its depth chart. The recruits come from four different states: California (18), Texas (two), Nevada (one) and Florida (one).

“This is a nice class, better than last year,” Ault said. “We have added a lot of skill and some people who will come right in and give us immediate help.”

Ault said he expects the five junior college players the Pack signed — defensive backs Nigel Haikins and Markus Smith, defensive linemen Shane Pennix and Cortez Woods and wide receiver Nigel Westbrooks — to compete for extensive playing time immediately in the fall. He also wants his 17 new freshman to have the same mindset.

“We don’t want them to come in with the thought of red-shirting that first year,” Ault said. “We want them to come in with the thought of competing.”

Ault added that the Pack might not be finished recruiting this spring. “We may not be done yet,” he said. “I’d like to add another wide receiver and running back. We’ll see.”

Ault was pleased on Wednesday — the first day recruits could sign a National Letter of Intent — but that wasn’t the case right after the holidays.

“About two and a half weeks ago I called a recruiting meeting because I wasn’t real happy where this thing was going,” he said. “But starting about 10 days ago, it started to turn around and I think we came up with a quality class. Our coaches have done an outstanding job bringing in people to compete right away and give us excellent depth for the future.”

The move to the Mountain West Conference this fall, Ault said, had a negligible affect on this year’s recruiting class.

“Very little,” he said. “We used that in recruiting but the kids we signed came here because of us. We sell us. For these kids, the big plus was the University of Nevada and the tradition we have here in football. I wanted guys who wanted to be here, who wanted to put on the silver and blue.”

A close look at the Wolf Pack’s 2012 football recruiting class:

ABE ABDELKARIM, Allen (Texas) High School: A huge (6-foot-6, 315-pound) offensive lineman who comes out of a huge (6,000 students) high school in football-crazy Texas.
“He wasn’t noticed that much his junior year despite his size but he just blossomed his senior year,” Ault said.

Abdelkarim also had an offer from UTEP.

“He will do nothing but get better,” Ault said.

ALEX BERTRANDO, Del Oro High School (Loomis, Calif.): Bertrando will have to put on some weight (6-2, 210 pounds) before he can become a major contributor.

“He fits in very well into our scheme,” Ault said. “He’s an excellent prospect and could play either inside (linebacker) or outside.”

Bertando was the Sacramento Bee’s Defensive Player of the Year this fall.

REGGIE COATES, Crespi Carmelite High School (Encino, Calif.): A gray shirt, Coates originally signed with the Wolf Pack in February 2011 over offers from Colorado State, Iowa State and Tulsa. He has already enrolled at Nevada for the spring semester.

An outstanding all-around athlete — he was also a basketball star at Crespi — Coates is 6-1, 240 pounds and has the makings of becoming another Brandon Marshall.

Coates had 61 tackles and four sacks as a high school senior in 2010.

CHARLES FARAIMO, Grant High School (Sacramento, Calif.): The 6-2, 270–pound Faraimo, Ault said, “has a chance to get on our depth (chart) next year.”

Faraimo had 78 tackles and two sacks this past season.

“Charles really liked the Nevada campus and he is 100 percent committed to Nevada,” Faraimo’s father, Charles, told 247sports.com this fall.

Faraimo, a defensive tackle, is considered a run stuffer.

“He will be a very exciting defensive lineman,” Ault said. “No question, he will make things happen.”

TRAVIS GARDNER, Eastlake High School (Chula Vista, Calif.): Gardner, a 6-foot, 195-pound wide receiver, originally gave a verbal commitment to Washington State last summer.

Gardner caught 16 passes for 231 yards and no touchdowns this season and missed five games with a broken wrist.

“He came back to play in the playoffs,” Ault said. “He’s a tough kid.”

An excellent football, basketball and track athlete, Ault called Gardner “one of the sleepers in the class.”

In addition to Washington State and Nevada, Gardner also had an offers from New Mexico.

JARRED GIPSON, Cypress Creek High School (Houston, Texas): The 6-foot, 220-pound Gipson, Ault said, will likely end up at wide receiver but could also develop into a linebacker.

“He can play on either side of the ball,” Ault said.

Gipson had offers from Northwestern State, Southeastern Louisiana and Texas State.
“He’s very intelligent” said his high school coach Greg McCaig, “and because of that he’s able to do a lot of things.”

Gipson was current Utah State quarterback Chuckie Keeton’s top wide receiver target in 2010 at Cypress Lake High. He moved from safety to tight end for his junior year.

BRIAN GUENDLING, Poway (Calif.) High School: Guendling, a 6-4, 220-pound defensive end, also had offers from Idaho and New Mexico State.

“His height and athleticism will work to his advantage n the defensive line but we might also move him out to outside linebacker,” Ault said.

Guendling was the Defensive Player of the Year in the Palomar Conference this fall.

NIGEL HAIKINS, Diablo Valley College (Berkeley, Calif.): Haikins expects the 5-10, 205-pound Haikins to challenge for a starting cornerback spot this year.

“We brought him in to compete and we’re anxious to see him do it,” Ault said.

Haikins, a junior this fall, graduated from Ygnacio Valley High School in Concord, Calif.
He also had an offer from Illinois.

AISEA HANSEN, Kaiser High School (Fontana, Calif.): An offensive lineman, Hansen is 6-3, 310-pounds.

“He’s as wide as he is tall,” Ault said. “He’s a big, strong athlete who will fit in well with the Union. He’s a load.”

Hansen was named to the First Team All-CIF team this fall and also had offers from San Diego State and Fresno State.

HASAAN HENDERSON, Las Vegas High School: One of the Pack’s top prizes in this recruiting class, the 6-5, 210-pound Henderson is already drawing comparisons to a former Wolf Pack quarterback.

“He’s physically gifted and multitalented,” Las Vegas High coach James Thurman told the Las Vegas Review-Journal this fall. “Hopefully he could be the next (Colin) Kaepernick if it all works out.”

Henderson passed for 5,426 yards and 64 touchdowns and rushed for 1,351 yards and 15 touchdowns in three seasons at Las Vegas High.

“We had him in our quarterback camp last summer,” Ault said. “The first year we did that was when Kap was (going into his senior year). That’s how we found Kap. So we really got to know (Henderson). This kid has great upside.”

Henderson ran a one-back offense at Las Vegas “with a little pistol thrown in,” Ault said.

ANDREW MAIN, Los Alamitos (Calif.) High School: Main, like Coates, is currently enrolled in classes in the spring semester. He also signed with the Pack originally in 2011.

Main spent the past year adding 20 pounds and is now 6-3, 270 and can play wither guard or center on the offensive line.

“He’ll come in right away and compete,” Ault said.

MARQUIS NEWELL, Sarasota (Fla.) Riverview High School: The 6-foot, 175-pound Newell is a cornerback with “tremendous speed,” Ault said.

“He is a track star who jumped 6-10 in the high jump,” Ault said. “He’s very fast. “His track speed will make him a viable defensive back as we move forward.”

Newell also played wide receiver in high school.

SHANE PENNIX, Grossmont College (Spring Valley, Calif.): Pennix, who will be a junior in 2012, turned down offers from Boise State, Indiana, BYU and Texas Tech to sign with the Wolf Pack.

Ault expects Pennix to come right in and compete for a starting role.

“He can really run,” said Ault of the 6-3, 240-pound defensive end. “We’re expecting him to enhance our pass rush with his excellent speed off the edge.”

JERICO RICHARDSON, Bishop Alemany High School (North Hills, Calif.): A versatile athlete, Richardson is currently the starting point guard at Bishop Alemany. His backcourt partner is Marqueze Coleman, who recently signed a Letter of Intent to play basketball at Nevada.

“He was very quick to tell me, ‘I’m the point guard,’” Ault said, smiling. “I tell him (Coleman) what to do out there.”

Richardson is a 5-11, 175-pounder. He originally gave a verbal commitment to UCLA in September.

“He is a great athlete with tremendous upside who can do it all,“ Ault said.

MARKUS SMITH, Riverside Junior College (Riverside, Calif.): Ault expects the 6-1, 185-pound Smith to “make an instant impact” in the Pack secondary.

Smith, a junior this fall, also had an offer from San Jose State.

“He will definitely compete this year,” Ault said.

CHRIS SOLOMON, West Covina (Calif.) High School: Solomon rushed for 1,790 yards and 20 touchdowns as a junior and just under 1,400 yards and a dozen touchdowns this past season.

“He is also an outstanding defensive back,” Ault said. “That’s the kind of athlete he is.”
The 6-foot, 185-pound Solomon also had offers from Arizona, Arizona State and Colorado before deciding on Nevada.

“We think he is the future for us,” Ault said.

XAVIER STEPHENS, Tulare (Calif.) Union High School: Stephens will also likely be a big part of the Pack’s future. The 5-11, 235-pounder was on Ault’s radar all recruiting season.

“I told (assistant coach Barry Sacks), ‘I want that big back,’” Ault said. “We really wanted this kid.”

Stephens comes from the same high school that produced brothers Virgil and Jeremiah Green for the Wolf Pack.

“He’s a big, strong back who runs north and south,” Ault said.

Stephens rushed for 4,130 yards in his career with 83 touchdowns. He had 1,405 yards and 36 touchdowns this past year.

UNLV also offered Stephens a scholarship.

“I’m pretty excited about playing at Nevada,” Stephens told the Tulare Advance Register this fall. “I’ve been running the pistol offense (in high school), so I‘m used to it. I hope to do great things for them.”

TYLER STEWART, Sierra Canyon High School (Simi Valley, Calif.): Stewart (6-4, 210) was also discovered by Ault at his quarterback camp last summer.

“He comes from a very sophisticated offense in high school,” Ault said. “He is one of the premier quarterbacks in Southern California.”

Ault had high praise for Stewart, who passed for over 5,000 yards combined the past two seasons.

“He is a very smooth thrower,” Ault said. “He’s better than Chris Vargas when Vargas was a senior in high school and Vargas was a great thrower with a nice, smooth motion.”

Stewart originally gave a verbal commitment to San Jose State this fall and also had offers from Colorado, Hawaii, Bowling Green and Fresno State.

CODY TUTTLE, Westlake High School (Newbury Park, Calif.): Tuttle, a 6-3, 220-pound tight end, could have an immediate impact for the Pack.

“He is a very dedicated, skilled and competitive athlete,” Ault said.

Tuttle, who also had an offer from Western Michigan, committed to the Pack last April.

“He is very focused, knows exactly what he wants out of a college,” Ault said. “And he has great hands.”

Tuttle played quarterback, wide receiver, tight end, linebacker and defensive end in high school.

“I have a passion for football and will play anywhere that helps my team,” he told a recruiting Web site this fall.

RANDY UZOMA, Canoga Park (Calif.) High School: Uzoma is an explosive athlete, who grew up in Nigeria, who is just learning the sport of football.

Uzoma burst upon the recruiting scene last summer after taking part in a high school combine in Long Beach, Calif. The 6-1, 200-pounder ran a 4.47 40-yard dash at Long Beach.

“He is a gifted athlete with great speed,“ Ault said. “He can probably play on either side of the ball.”

Uzoma also had offers from San Jose State, Oregon, Air Force and Idaho.
He returned five kickoffs for touchdowns as a junior.

NIGEL WESTBROOKS, Palomar College (San Marcos, Calif.): Westbrooks is being counted on heavily in 2012 by the Wolf Pack.

“He is the top junior college wide receiver we went after,” Ault said. “He is the guy we anointed to take Rishard Matthews’ place. We‘re expecting big things from him this year.”

The 6-1, 185-pound Westbrooks caught 52 passes for 729 yards and 11 touchdowns this season at Palomar, the same school that produced former Pack linebacker and defensive coordinator Andy Buh.

Westbrooks, who had 10 catches for 130 yards and four touchdowns in one game against Saddleback this fall, also had an offer from Colorado State and gave a verbal commitment to Bowling Green before signing with the Pack.

CORTEZ WOODS, American River College (Roseville, Calif.): Woods, a defensive tackle, should also play a major role with the Pack this fall.

“He has the talent and attitude to be an outstanding defensive lineman,” Ault said.

The Woodcreek High School graduate (Roseville, Calif.) is 6-3, 275 pounds.

American River College went 21-1 in Woods’ to seasons, including an 11-0 season and a Capital City Bowl victory in 2011.

Woods had 52 tackles, 18.5 tackles for a loss, and 6.5 sacks this season in the 10-game regular season.

Nevada PG Deonte Burton is taking control - photo by Mark Rauh

“We kind of put all our eggs in one basket at point guard,” the Nevada Wolf Pack men’s basketball head coach said of his narrow recruiting focus two years ago. “We wanted Deonte (Burton). And if he had gone to UCLA I don’t know what we would have done.”

Wolf Pack starting point guard Armon Johnson had just declared his intention to jump a year early to the NBA. Carter’s Wolf Pack was suddenly in desperate need of a new leader in the spring of 2010.

“There weren’t many point guards out there at the time, guys that could come right in and help us right away like we needed,” Carter said. “Back in December (2009), we kind of had an inkling that Armon was going to leave. We knew we had to get a point guard in case he left. That’s when we started to focus in on Deonte.”

The Pack wasn’t alone in its interest in Burton. The 6-foot-1 combination guard was on his way to a You Tube-filled highlight film festival of a season, averaging 21 points, six rebounds and five assists for Compton Centennial High in Southern California.

UCLA wanted Burton. At the other end of the country the Cincinnati Bearcats wanted him. Just about every California college that needed a point guard had him on its recruiting radar.

“We knew he was being recruiting heavily,” Carter said. “But I knew we had to get him.”

Carter, a former point guard in high school and college, knows a point guard when he sees one. And he simply fell in love with the idea of Burton running his Wolf Pack offense for the next four years.

“In April, I knew we were close,” Carter said. “But Cincinnati and UCLA gave him offers. I didn’t know if we would get him. I wasn’t too worried about Cincinnati because I didn’t think he’d go that far away from home. But I was real nervous about UCLA.”

Burton shocked all of Southern California by signing with the Wolf Pack in late April 2010.

The reason? Coach Carter.

“He was a big factor in my decision,” said Burton, who has started every game for the Pack the past two seasons and is a huge reason why the Wolf Pack is 17-3 right now and riding a 15-game winning streak. “I knew he (Carter) played point guard at Crenshaw High School (in Los Angeles). That was big for me.”

Carter, who won two state championships at Crenshaw as coach Willie West’s point guard and went on to start for four years at Saint Mary’s, leading the Gaels to the 1989 NCAA Tournament, is a point guard savant.

“I’ll always have a good point guard,” Carter says matter-of-factly. “I know what to look for. I played the position. I know what it takes to be successful at that position.”

Adrian McCullough, Andre Hazel, Jerry Petty and Todd Okeson handled the point guard position in Carter’s first four seasons at Nevada as Trent Johnson’s assistant. Those four didn’t exactly make fans forget great Pack point guards of the past like Billy Allen, Kevin Soares, Eathan O’Bryant, Curtis High, Darryl Owens, James Fontenet, Robin Kennedy and Johnny High. But they helped build the Pack ship just the shame as a young coaching staff (head coach Johnson and assistants Mark Fox and Carter) had to build a program from the ground up.

Everything, though, clicked in the 2003-04 season as Okeson became the all-around, dependable, floor leader at point guard that Carter had been looking for since he came to Nevada.

“Nevada has had terrific point guard play over the last decade,” said Fox, now in his third season as the head coach for the Georgia Bulldogs. “And David (Carter) has been the one consistent factor in the development of each of them.”

Okeson, though, came to Nevada because of Fox.

“Coach Fox knew him from his connections in Kansas,” Carter said. “I had never seen him play in person. I saw some tape of him and I saw that he could shoot the ball well. But Trent didn’t really like him at first, thought he was too small. And I was worried about his body, too. I didn’t know if he could take the physical pounding. But I saw that he had that toughness, that calm toughness.”

The 6-foot, 165-pound Okeson helped turn around the Wolf Pack basketball program, averaging 11.2 points and 3.9 assists in 2003-04 as the Pack advanced to the Sweet 16.

“As a player it was easy to relate to him because he had been in the same situations as I was in,” Okeson said. “Having a coach that had success playing point guard in college gives him credibility and the trust of young guards looking to develop their game.”

Okeson shared the point guard duties with Petty as a junior in 2002-03 before taking over as the full-time starter as a senior.

“Coach Carter was always in my ear giving me advice and instruction on how to become the best point guard I could be,” Okeson said. “He has high expectations for his point guards. He expects his point guards to run the team, to get their teammates the ball in favorable positions to score, all the while looking for your own shot. His knowledge of the position and his ability to relate to his players is what makes him not only a great point guard coach but also a great head coach.”

Fox, who coached with Carter as an assistant under Johnson for four years and was the Pack head coach for five years with Carter as his top assistant, gave Carter total control over the most important position on the floor.

“When I was at Nevada, I had complete trust of David’s leadership of that position,” Fox said.

Ramon Sessions, a talented scorer and play-maker from Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, took over for Okeson at the point in 2005-06 and led the Pack to three more NCAA Tournament appearances in a row. Armon Johnson came from Reno’s Hug High in 2007-08 and led the Pack to three more postseason appearances (two College Basketball Invitationals and one NIT) before Burton took over in 2010-11.

“All four of them (Okeson, Sessions, Johnson and Burton) have four fairly different types of games,” Fox said. “Ramon and Armon were scoring guards in high school who always had the ball in their hands. But I felt when we recruited them, with David’s knowledge and ability to teach them, that both those kids could become terrific full-time point guards. One of my last recruiting days at Nevada was to go see Deonte work out. Watching him (Burton) play this year, it’s not surprising to me that David’s been able to do it again.”

Sessions finished his career in second place on the Wolf Pack’s list of career assists with 478. Johnson is fourth at 445. Burton, after a little more than a year and a half, already has 208 assists.

Sessions, who had the good fortune to play with Nick Fazekas in his three Pack years, averaged 4.9 assists a game in his 98-game career. Johnson, who played with such talented scorers as Marcelus Kemp and Luke Babbitt in his three Nevada seasons, averaged 4.4 in his 101 games. Burton, who is often times his own leading scorer, has averaged 3.9 assists in his 53 games.

Carter has a full checklist of qualities he looks for in all point guards. He selects his point guards on what he sees with his own two eyes and also what he feels in his gut.

“All of those guys (Okeson, Sessions, Johnson and Burton) have that it factor,” Carter said. “When I’m looking for a point guard, that’s what I have to see. It’s a toughness, a fearlessness, a competitiveness.”

And that’s just the first things he looks for.

“The things I look for in all point guards are their decision-making abilities, how they lead their team out on the floor,” Carter said. “Is he out there just looking for his own shot or is he looking to put his teammates in a good position to score? What is his demeanor?

“I saw Deonte score 30 points in the first half of one game in high school. That didn’t impress me. I already knew he could score. What I was interested in was his demeanor in the second half. Did he change? Did he become selfish or did he continue to lead his team? He went out there and didn’t try to pad his numbers. He went out there and always did what his team needed. That’s leadership.”

There is also something else that Carter looks for in his prospective point guards.

“I need to see their relationship with their head coach,” Carter said. “I need to see how he interacts with his head coach during a game. Does he listen to the coach? Does he communicate with his coach? Does that coach lean on him during a game? Does the coach ask him questions? Very seldom will you find a good point guard who is quiet on the floor and during timeouts. I want to see how he leads the team on and off the floor.”

Carter puts tremendous trust and faith in his point guards. That’s something that Nance taught him at Saint Mary’s.

“Coach Nance would look at me in the huddle and ask me what I thought, what plays we should run at certain times,” Carter said. “That instilled in me a great confidence that he trusted me. He trusted my leadership, my knowledge of the game.

“That’s something I try to do also. When we’re in the huddle, I’ll ask Deonte what he thinks and if he thinks a play I just called will work. A lot of times he’ll say, ‘No, Coach. That won’t work, let’s do this.’ And I’ll do what he suggests. The point guard sees a lot more just by being out on the floor. Coach Nance taught me to trust the point guard because a coach can only see so much from the bench.”

Burton’s gut feeling about Carter when he made his college choice has proven true the past year and a half.

“I knew he likes his point guards to be able to shoot and score and also to be able to run the team,” Burton said. “To play for him as a point guard you also have to be a leader of your team and you have to be an extension of him out on the court. That’s the most important thing. He has to know that he can trust me.”
Burton trusted Carter immediately.

“He can see what I see out there,” Burton said. “He knows what I’m thinking and he can correct all my mistakes. That’s big for me as a point guard because I know he’s experienced everything I’m experiencing out there.”

Carter was a pass-first point guard at both Crenshaw and Saint Mary’s. At Crenshaw he led the Cougars to a perfect 24-0 season his senior year and averaged 11.1 points and 6.6 assists. He did, however, score a pair of baskets in the final two minutes of the state title game to send the game into overtime.

At Saint Mary’s under coaches Bill Oates (1985-86) and Lynn Nance (1986-7 through 1988-89), he started 105 games and finished with the school’s all-time career assist record of 498 (since eclipsed by Kamran Sufi with 507). Carter’s career average of 4.45 assists a game is third in school history and his 130 career steals are fourth.

“I wasn’t the best athlete, the best shooter,” Carter said. “But I understood the game. I understood the commitment you have to have to be successful.”

“I have had many conversations with David’s high school coach, Willie West of Crenshaw, and his college coach, Lynn Nance of Saint Mary’s,” Fox said. “Both have said that David was a terrific leader on the floor because of his mind, his vision and his instincts. He was a champion because of those traits and not his pure speed and quickness. And those are the things he has been able to instill in Nevada’s players.”

Okeson might not have come to Nevada originally because of Carter. But, he says, he succeeded at Nevada because of Carter.

“If you buy into what he’s saying, the sky’s the limit,” Okeson said.

The Air Force Academy caught up with Ault on a recruiting trip in Los Angeles in December 1977 and talked with the Pack coach for over three hours about becoming its new head coach.

“I told them I still had a job to do in Reno,” Ault told the media just over 34 years ago. “I really mean that. I’m very loyal to Reno. I owe everything to the university.”

After his second season as the Wolf Pack’s defensive coordinator, a 38-year-old Andy Buh — like Ault a former Pack player — abruptly left Nevada last week to become the linebackers coach at Wisconsin.

“That was a big surprise to me,” said Ault, who added that Buh also was offered the defensive coordinator’s job at Washington State and turned it down. “I knew he went to interview with (Wisconsin) but when he told me he was going to take the job, it caught me off guard.”

Ault then uttered some familiar words when discussing Buh’s sudden departure, words that he spoke just over 34 years ago when he told Air Force he wasn’t interested (the Falcons eventually gave the job to a 36-year-old Bill Parcells).

“The job is not done yet,” said Ault, referring to the present-day task of building the Pack defense. “He (Buh) left here too early. No question. We made nice strides on defense with Andy the last two years. But the job isn’t done. No question about it. When I hired him I never thought he’d leave in two years.”

The last thing Ault thought he would have to do this off-season — after finishing 7-6 and getting ready to join the Mountain West Conference in the fall — is find a new defensive coordinator.

“I’m very concerned about this,“ Ault said. “This sets us back. I hated to lose Andy. I felt we were building something here. In all my years of coaching Andy was the most complete coordinator I’ve ever had. He was very accountable. I could go to him and talk about anything.”

The average tenure of a Wolf Pack defensive coordinator under Ault is slightly less than two years. In Ault’s 27 seasons as head coach, a total of 15 men have held the title of defensive coordinator.

Ken Mizell did it for five years (1988-92). Marty McGuffey (1976-78), John Smith (1979-81) and Barry Sacks (2004-06) did it for three. Mike Dolby (1982-83), Bill Miller (1984-85), Don Wnek (1986-87), Tim DeRuyter (2005-06), Nigel Burton (2008-09) and Buh (2010-11) did it for two. Five only did it for one year. Don Dunn and Steve Caldwell shared the job in 1994, Mike Gillhamer did it alone in 1995, Dave Fipp was a co-coordinator in 2004 with Sacks and Ken Wilson took over in 2007.

“Coach Ault hasn’t been too involved with the defense the last two years because he trusted Andy and our staff,” said Wilson, the current Wolf Pack Associate Head coach as well as defensive ends and special teams coach and a Nevada assistant for 18 seasons. “His involvement with the defensive coordinator all depends on his comfort level. He hasn’t been too hands on lately because he had a great comfort level with Andy. There have been years when he’s been more hands on, like with Dave Fipp and Nigel (Burton) but that’s only when he feels things aren’t going well.”

Ault just smiles when asked about his relationship with his defensive coordinators down through the years.

“If I was a defensive coordinator I’d love to coach on my staff,” Ault said. “With the way our offense controls the football, if I was a defensive coordinator I’d love to be a part of that. I leave those guys alone. I let the defensive staff take charge of the defense. I had a great relationship with Andy and we still do.”

Ault, who also has to find a new offensive line coach (Cameron Norcross, who doubled as the running game coordinator, also left last week for Fresno State), said he can go a few different directions with his two new openings.

“We are rare in Division I college football in that we have five defensive coaches and four offensive coaches,“ Ault said. “Most schools have five on offense, four on defense.”

The Wolf Pack has had five defensive coaches since 2006 when Sacks and DeRuyter were co-coordinators, Wilson coached linebackers, Marty Long took care of the defensive line and Kim McCloud coached the secondary.

“I did it because I wanted to put extra emphasis on the defense,” Ault said. “I invested more resources in the defense. But I haven’t gotten the results on defense that I expected.”

Ault hinted that he might go back to four defensive coaches and five on offense, possibly hiring a quarterback’s coach to relieve some of his own duties on offense. Ault is currently the offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach and spends all his time on the practice field with the quarterbacks.

“That’s kind of where my mind is at,” said Ault of the possibility of adding an addition offensive coach. “That’s something I’d like to do eventually, possibly hire an offensive coordinator/ quarterback coach. That is not what we are offering right now, but it is something I’m thinking about. But a lot of things have to happen before we can do that.”

A switch back to five coaches on offense and four on defense would mean that one of the four remaining defensive assistant coaches would take over as defensive coordinator. And there are plenty of qualified candidates because all four have been a defensive coordinator at some point in their career.

Wilson was the Pack coordinator in 2007 under Ault and from 1996-98 under head coach Jeff Tisdell. Sacks, who now coaches defensive tackles, was a co-coordinator from 2004-06 under Ault. Secondary coach Mike Bradeson was UNLV’s defensive coordinator from 2000-04 and cornerbacks coach James Ward was Idaho State’s defensive coordinator from 1999-2003.

Sacks said Friday that he doesn’t want the job.

“Not at all,” Sacks said. “Everybody has to have a defined role on a staff and I love my role right now.”

Wilson said he would “do whatever Coach Ault thinks is best for the program.”

“The job as coordinator is a lot of fun,” Wilson said. “It’s exciting, designing different defenses. That last time I did it (in 2007) we had a lot of injuries and our defense just depended each week on who was healthy. We were scrambling that year. But the first time I did it (1996-98) we had things going pretty good.”

Wilson’s defenses from 1996-98 included such standout Pack players as linebackers DeShone Myles and Mike Crawford, defensive tackle James Cannida and defensive back Don Morgan. It was Wilson’s defense that turned in one of the top defensive performances in Pack history in an 18-15 victory over Ball State in the 1996 Las Vegas Bowl.

Ault, though, said Wilson is much too valuable in his current role.

“He’s my Associate Head Coach and that’s where I want him,” Ault said. “He does a great job with that.”

That leaves Bradeson or Ward as Ault’s top candidates if he decides to stay in house to find his next coordinator.

“Hopefully one of the guys on the staff gets it so that we can keep that continuity,” Wilson said. “Mike (Bradeson) would make a great coordinator. He knows our defense inside and out. James would also be very good. We have a very unique staff in that all four of us have been coordinators. We have a lot of good minds on that side of the ball.”

Continuity, Wilson and Ault both said, is the key on defense.

“We have to do what’s best for our players and the best thing would be to keep our continuity on defense,” Wilson said. “It’s important that we don’t force our kids to have to learn a brand new defense.”

Buh’s departure has definitely threatened the Pack’s defensive continuity.

“Continuity and longevity is the key factor in college coaching,” Ault said. “Our offense has been successful for many years because we have that continuity and longevity on that side of the ball. It’s been me. We haven’t had that on defense.”

Giving the job to Bradeson or Ward would guarantee the continuity that Buh started to build the past two years would continue. And it would also allow Ault to tinker with his offensive staff.

“I love Andy Buh,” Sacks said. “We were on the right track with Andy.”

Ault said he expects to name a defensive coordinator by Feb. 15.

“Probably sooner,” he said.

“Coach Ault knows what he’s looking for,” Sacks said. “He always finds the right man for the job.”

And just like in 1977, that job isn’t close to being finished.

“We are going into a very critical era for this football program,” Ault said. “We’re going into a new conference and that is always a tough thing to do. We need to get the right people in here.”

“I tell my guys, ‘You are going to be haunted by the ghosts,’” said Nevada coach David Carter, a believer in all things spiritual and mystical when it comes to the Wolf Pack basketball Gods. “I tell them, ‘The ghosts are real. They are there. Those ghosts came before you.’”

Nick Fazekas, Ramon Sessions, Kevinn Pinkney, Kirk Snyder, Todd Okeson, Gary Hill-Thomas, Marcelus Kemp, Jermaine Washington, Sean Paul, Kyle Shiloh, Mo Charlo, Denis Ikovlev.

The Wolf Pack’s Ghosts of NCAA Tournaments Past, every single one of them.

You just know that when the lights are turned off at Lawlor, when the crowd has safely journeyed back home, the music and the scoreboard are turned off and the doors are locked, those ghosts come down from the rafters. They effortlessly slip on their spotless blue and white Nevada uniforms, step out on the court and whip Kansas, UNLV, Michigan State, Gonzaga and Texas all over again.

They never lose. That’s the beauty of being a ghost. Ghosts are eternally undefeated. Every shot that leaves their fingers is true and perfect. Every pass crisp and smart. And at the end of the night, before they fly back up to the rafters, they cut down the nets and lift a cute cheerleader on their shoulders and a trophy above their heads.

“I challenge my team to be as good as those ghosts,” said Carter, who knew all those silver and blue ghosts personally.

The Pack ghosts take on quite a few different forms. They are the banners that hang from the ceiling, like long and flowing tombstones, complete with dates and titles. Some of them have even taken on a lifelike form, sat courtside, shaken hands and exchanged hugs with well-wishers and gobbled popcorn and soft drinks.
But, mostly, their most chilling and frightening form has been the thousands of empty, comatose seats at Lawlor, night after night.

Until now.

The ghosts are being pushed out of Lawlor, finally, after five years. A crowd of 7,016 — the first gathering of over 7,000 fans at Lawlor for a Pack basketball game since March 6, 2010 — showed up to see the Wolf Pack beat Fresno State, 74-61, last Saturday night.

Ghosts? What ghosts? The Wolf Pack has its longest winning streak — 13 games — since the ghosts won 14 in a row from January to March, 2006.

“I didn’t get to watch those teams that much,” said Pack senior forward Olek Czyz, who was winning high school state titles at Reno High when the ghosts were frightening foes from coast to coast from 2004-07. “But, really, we don’t focus on what those teams did that much. This group, we don’t look at those teams. We are focused on what we have to do.”

This Pack team doesn’t believe in ghosts.

“I’ve heard about those teams,” sophomore point guard Deonte Burton said. “I know there have been some great players who played here.”

But that’s about the extent of his knowledge of the eerie demons that live in the Lawlor rafters.

“No, I never really heard about all those teams or those players before I came here,” Burton said, not intending any disrespect.

One of the strengths of this year’s Pack team is its innocence. And, to be sure, it would be a shame to shatter that innocence just when the party is getting started at Lawlor once again.

But the reason for the innocence is because the ghosts have left them alone before now. There was no reason, after all, for the ghosts to rattle their chains in the middle of the night, no reason to howl when this team was going 13-19 a year ago.

Why bother? A ghost, after all, has to conserve its energy. Why waste all of their ghostly powers on a team that had a knack of scaring itself, a group that didn’t even go to a postseason tournament? Last year’s team didn’t even know enough to be afraid of ghosts.

So the ghosts left them alone.

Until now.

This Pack team, to this point, has only been compared to itself. All of the questions they’ve had to answer, all of the expectations they’ve had to meet were all based on last year’s 13-19 season. All of the questions have been about their improvement from a year ago, how much they’ve matured, how the mindset has changed this year, how much weight they’ve lost or gained, how good it must feel to be in a winning streak.

The expectations heaped upon this team this year, to be honest, have not been great. Last year, don’t forget, they couldn’t even get invited to a dot com tournament. That’s why, after all, 7,000 fans didn’t show up for a game this year until the winning streak hit 13.

But that’s all about to change. The ghosts are waking up.

The more this team wins, the more it will be compared to the 2004-07 ghosts. The expectations will rise with every victory. The Malik Story of 2011-12 will no longer be compared to a pudgy and winded Malik Story of 2010-2011. He’ll now be compared to sleek and tireless NBA draft pick Kirk Snyder. Deonte Burton won’t be compared to a deer-in-the-headlights, wide-eyed Deonte Burton of 2010-11. He’ll now be compared to a fearless, smart, coach-on-the-floor NBA draft pick Ramon Sessions.

Burton, Story and Czyz and the rest of this team will get to know Fazekas, Sessions, Snyder, Pinkney and Charlo better than they want to know them. They’ll hear about the tournament wins over Michigan State, Gonzaga, Texas and Creighton, the Western Athletic Conference regular season and tournament titles and, yes, the way northern Nevada was in a Wolf Pack basketball frenzy for four seasons.

And, you can be sure, Carter wants them to hear about it.

“It’s a challenge,” Carter said. “You want to be challenged by those teams. Those are the expectations we have in this program. That’s why when people ask me about winning 12 or 13 games in a row I always answer that we haven’t done anything yet. Our goals are not about winning streaks. Our goals are higher than that.
We want to win championships.”

It might be too early — and a little unfair — to start comparing this year’s team to the ghosts. No matter what happens this year, after all, the best for this group might be yet to come. The bulk of this group will be back the next two years, just like the 2003-04 team that created the ghosts.

But that’s the deal with ghosts. They never show up when you want them to show up. They show up when they want to show up. And, you can be sure, they are back.

“Only champions erase champions, erase those ghosts,” Carter said. “That’s our challenge. I tell my team, ‘If you want people to forget about all those championship teams of the past, then you have to go out and win a championship yourself.”

This year’s team has it much tougher than the ghosts had it. The ghosts, after all, didn’t have any ghosts to haunt them. When the 2003-04 team went to the NCAA Tournament, it had been 19 years (1985) since the Pack had been in the national spotlight. And, with apologies to the likes of Dwyane Randall, Tony Sommers, Rob Harden, Curtis High, Ed Porter, Mike Parillo and Tony Ronzone, you would have been hard pressed to find anyone in 2004 who could rattle off a few names from that 1985 team.

This year’s team, like all Pack teams since 2007, have had their own personal ghosts.

Fazekas has haunted every Pack forward and center to come after him. Okeson and Sessions have haunted all the point guards. Pinkney has been the standard of toughness that no Pack player after him can compete with. Snyder and Kemp have haunted all the shooting guards. Charlo, Shiloh, Washington and Hill-Thomas have haunted all of the scrappy guards and forwards whose job is to do all of the little things.

Carter, whose ghosts Trent Johnson and Mark Fox are ghosts he helped create as a Pack assistant for 10 years, knows how daunting the personal ghosts can be.

“I always tell my players not to worry about being those players,” Carter said. “I told Luke Babbitt, ‘Don’t try to be Nick Fazekas. You are not Nick Fazekas.’ I told Armon (Johnson) and Deonte (Burton), ‘Don’t try to be Ramon Sessions. You are not Ramon Sessions.’

“But what I tell them is this. ‘Your motivation is not to be the next Nick Fazekas or Marcelus Kemp or Ramon Sessions or Kevinn Pinkney. Your motivation is to get people to say after you’re gone, ‘I remember Olek Czyz. He was a great player. I remember Malik Story. I remember Deonte Burton. I remember Dario Hunt. Those guys could play.’

“I want these guys to become the ghosts for the next generation of players.”

“My shot selection has been much better and I’m making sure I’m getting in a good rhythm this year,” Story said.

Story is currently fourth in the nation in 3-point shooting percentage at .491 ((54-of-110). The junior shooting guard is also second on the Wolf Pack in scoring at 14.5 points a game, behind Deonte Burton (15.6).

“This year I’m keeping my mechanics the same on every shot,” Story said. “I’m not rushing it like I would sometimes last year. “I’m making sure I’m always ready to shoot.”

Burton’s emergence as a scorer who can carry the team this year has helped relieve some of the pressure off Story. Story led the Pack in scoring last season at 14.5 points a game but has improved his 3-point percentage immensely, up from .386 a year ago.

“That helps a whole lot,” said Story of Burton taking over a bulk of the scoring responsibility in crucial moments of the game at times this year. “We feed off each other. When he‘s taking over I can go and do other things to help us win, like rebound and play defense and pass the ball. It makes it a lot easier when you know you don‘t have to always do it by yourself.”

“Since Deonte has taken over some games that frees Malik up,” coach David Carter said. “Teams now have to focus on Deonte and they are leaving Malik open at times. Last year teams would guard Malik a lot closer because Deonte hadn’t proven he could take over games.”

Story also dropped 20 pounds this past off-season, keeping his legs fresher this year.

“I feel w lot better this year,” Story said. “there were a few games when I did get tired but I’m past that now. I have my second wind and I should be fresh for the rest of the season.”

NYEKO STEPPING UP: Carter appreciates the effort of role player Patrick Nyeko this year.
“Patrick has been very consistent all season,” Carter said. “When I put him in there I know what I’m going to get, offensively and defensively. That is big for us.”

The 6-foot-6 Nyeko is now in his third Wolf Pack season after playing in just 26-of-66 games the past two years for a total of 332 minutes (8.1 an appearance). This year Nyeko has appeared in all 19 games and is averaging 14.6 minutes a game as well as 1.8 points and 1.5 rebounds. He also has contributed 13 assists, two blocks and eight steals this year.

Nyeko has still struggled on offense this year, making just 10-of-30 shots (.333), 13-of-22 free throws (.591) and just 2-of-13 3-pointers (.154). The past two years combined he was 10-of-35 from the floor
(.286), 3-of-15 on threes (.200) and 18-of-24 on free throws (.750).

Carter, though, isn’t worried about Nyeko’s offense.

“Patrick has done a real nice job for us,” Carter said. “I can depend on him coming off the bench. He won’t take shots outside his comfort zone and he always goes out there and hustles on the defensive end and gives us a spark.”

TOUGH TEST AT LAS CRUCES: Carter calls the New Mexico State Aggies — the Wolf Pack’s opponent Thursday night in Las Cruces, N.M. — the most physical team in the Western Athletic Conference.

“They are going to want to go inside on us,” Carter said. “They are going to want to get our big men in foul trouble because they have more depth than we do. We need Dario (Hunt) to stay on the floor. We need Olek (Czyz) to stay on the floor.”

The 16-3 Wolf Pack will take a 13-game winning streak to Las Cruces.

“They are a real big physical team,” Hunt said. “They will try to be physical with us. And we can‘t back down from them.”

The Aggies are led by 6-6 forward Wendell McKines, who leads the WAC in scoring (18.4) and rebounding (10.5). Hamidu Rahman, a 6-11 center, also averages 6.6 rebounds and point guard Hernst LaRoche is averaging 12.1 points a game as well as 1.8 steals.

The Aggies also lead the nation in free throws attempts (670) and free throws made (450).

“We can’t control the whistles,” hunt said. “We just have to go down there and play our game.”

FREE THROW STRUGGLES: The Wolf Pack continues to have problems at the free throw line. The Pack is shooting just .636 from the line and is ranked 300th in the nation out of 338 teams.

“At this time of year your team kind of is what it is,” Carter said. “We’re not a good free throw shooting team. But we continue to work on it everyday in practice. We’re going to continue to try and get better.”

The Wolf Pack has six players (among those with 10 or more attempts) under. 600 at the line: Czyz (.562), Hunt (.459), Devonte Elliott (.500), Kevin Panzer (.500), Jordan Finn (.538) and Nyeko (.591).

Burton, at .795 (89-of-112), Story at .786 (44-of-56) and Jerry Evans Jr. at .714 (209-of-28) are the Pack’s top free throw shooters.

CARTER REACHES MILESTONE: Carter became the 10th Wolf Pack coach in history to win 50 games with a 74-61 victory over Fresno State last Saturday.

The last seven Pack coaches (Jim Carey, Sonny Allen, Len Stevens, Pat Foster, Trent Johnson, Mark Fox and Carter) have all passed the milestone. Just three (Doc Martie, Jake Lawlor and Jack Spencer) of the first 10 did it.

Carter has a career record of 50-35. It took him 51 games to earn his first 25 victories and just 34 to get his second 25.

“I’m this team’s biggest fan,” said Crook of his Nevada Wolf Pack men’s basketball teammates. “I grew up watching all those great teams go to the NCAA tournament (2004-07).”

As far as Crook is concerned right now he’s the American Idol, Dancing With the Stars, The Apprentice and America’s Got Talent champion all rolled into one.

“I loved those (Wolf Pack) teams,” Crook said. “I never thought I’d ever play for this school. I just love being a part of it and helping this team.”

Brice Crook’s improbable journey to Lawlor Events Center this winter is not typical television reality programming. That’s because reality would have told him he had a better shot at becoming America’s Next Top Model.

“I didn’t know if I could do it,” said Crook of his plans on joining the Wolf Pack this season.

He wasn’t the only one.

Reality would have told Crook that a hockey player just doesn’t decide one day to play Division I basketball. Nobody, after all, goes from left wing to shooting guard in one magical summer. Reality Also would have also told him that a guy who hadn’t played competitive basketball in four years had no right to even dream about one day slipping on a Division I basketball uniform.

“When I first started to think about doing it, I didn’t tell anyone,” he said. “I didn’t even tell my family or my friends at first. I just wanted to see if I could do it for myself.”

Attempting to play Division I basketball, though, was merely Crook’s latest improbable dream. Rewind to a decade ago when Crook was in elementary school and playing roller hockey.

That’s right. Roller hockey. No ice. No blades on his skates. No puck. It’s hockey on wheels with a ball.

“I had never ice skated in my life,” Crook said.

That didn’t stop him from dreaming about becoming an ice hockey player.

“I played against some national competition in roller hockey and there were a lot of guys there that played ice hockey,” Crook said. “I was killing them all out there.”
That’s when Crook decided to go across the country to play ice hockey for Triton High in Massachusetts as a high school freshman.

“I always knew I had the potential in hockey because of my size,” said Crook, who now stands 6-foot-4 and weighs 205 pounds. “I was big for a hockey player and they (hockey scouts) like that. I really wanted to give it a try.”

He did more than that, leading Triton in goals and points and helping his team reach the state tournament.

“I had to live with a family I didn’t know,” Crook said. “That’s what you do in junior hockey. I just got a little homesick. It was a tough year for me, being away from home. I was just a freshman and away from home for the first time. I decided to come back.”

Crook was back playing basketball for the Carson High Senators as a sophomore in 2004-05.

“No hockey at all,” he said. “I kind of gave up the sport for the rest of my high school years and just wanted to focus on basketball.”

Crook played his sophomore year at Carson High and his junior and senior years at Galena High.

“My dad got a new job in Reno and moved the family,” said Crook, explaining his transfer to Galena. “It worked out well for me because I got a chance to play for a state championship at Galena.”

Crook was an instrumental player on the Galena Grizzlies 2007 state championship team. The Grizzlies, led by future Wolf Pack star Luke Babbitt as well as starters Crook, Tristan Hill, J.D. Peters and Eric Maupin, won the Class 4A state title in Las Vegas, still the only northern Nevada school to win state down south in over four decades.

“Luke was such a great player so the four of us (Crook, Peters, Maupin and Hill) all agreed to take a secondary role to help us win a championship,” said Crook, who averaged 10.5 points for the Grizzlies as a senior. “It worked out great for us. We won state. And Luke was great to play with. He appreciated everything we did to help him. Luke (a junior in 2006-07) really did respect our senior class that year and we had respect for him.”

Crook’s basketball career, though, seemed to come to an end the second the Grizzlies put the finishing touches on their 54-51 victory over Mojave at the Orleans Arena in Las Vegas.

“I didn’t get any Division I offers,” he said. “A few Division II teams were interested in me but that was it.”

It was back to hockey for Crook after three years away from the game.

From 2007-08 through 2010-11, Crook played ice hockey for four teams: the Waterloo Siskins in Ontario, Canada and the Capital Thunder in Roseville, Calif., in junior hockey and in college for the Elmira (New York) Soaring Eagles and the Worcester (Mass.) State Lancers.

A year ago this month, Crook was playing college hockey for Worcester State, scoring a goal, picking up four assists and being called for eight minutes in penalties in seven games. The year before at Elmira College, he had an assist and six minutes of penalties in six games.

“My last year in ice hockey, I was finally feeling comfortable on my edges,” Crook said. “I could always skate fast straight ahead. That was never a problem. But it took me a while to be able to do all of the little things on my skates.

“It was tough because I was still leaning things that those guys started learning when they were 3-years-old, playing hockey growing up. I was always behind those guys. That was a big disadvantage for me. But I was getting more and more comfortable. But then I blew out my shoulder and that was it.”

He came back home last spring with another improbable dream. He wanted to see if he could join the Wolf Pack as a non-scholarship player.

“He called me last spring,” Pack coach David Carter said. “I remembered him from Galena a little bit (the Pack recruited Babbitt that year). And I wasn’t looking to add any walk-ons at that time. But I told him it would be OK for him to come play with the guys in our open gyms in the summer.”

That was all Crook needed to hear. He started working out with a personal trainer in the summer.

“Both of us were realistic about his chances of making the team as a long shot. But that drives guys like us,”

said former Galena High star Mike Atkinson, a personal trainer who works for Sierra Strength and Speed and Elite Pro Performance in northern Nevada.

“He whipped me into shape,” said Crook of Atkinson. “I never worked so hard in my life. But I knew if I wanted to do this the right way I had to get into basketball shape.”

Still, at first, he didn’t tell anyone about his goal to play for the Wolf Pack.

“We agreed to keep his aspirations and training private,” Atkinson said. “It was because we wanted to see how far he would progress during the summer. It was more of a personal challenge for Brice and not an ego-driven Division I chase. And I respected that.”

Atkinson was immediately impressed with Crook’s commitment.

“He’s the type of athlete that never takes a day off,” Atkinson said. “It’s just not in his DNA to not compete when given an opportunity.”

Carter gave Crook that opportunity at the end of the Pack’s open gyms late in the summer, telling Crook he could report for the first day of practice on Oct. 14.

“I remember asking the guys, ‘What do you think about that kid Crook?’” Carter said. “They told me right away, ‘Oh, coach, he can play. He can really shoot the ball. He competes with us.’

“So I was impressed right away. To me, that was the most important thing, how he fit in with everybody. And, believe me, if they didn’t like him, they would have told me. But I didn’t hear any negative things about him.”

Crook knew that, as a walk-on player sitting at the end of the Pack bench, his most important responsibility was to be a great teammate.

“I think I’m here now because everyone on the team kind of liked me and they liked having me around,” Crook said. “I fit in with them. I think that’s what Coach Carter based his decision on.”

Crook, in addition to being a very underrated athlete, has always been a great teammate, whether it was hockey in Canada and the northeast or basketball in northern Nevada.

“I’ve always been like that on all the teams I’ve played on,” he said. “My teammates have liked me and I’ve liked being around them. I think I’ve fit in real well on all my teams.”

His role with the Pack, though, is more than just being everyone’s buddy. He still had to prove that he could play. The left wing, after all, still had to transform back into a shooting guard in one magical summer.

“When we started his strongest skill was his conditioning, his toughness and his shooting ability,” Atkinson said.

Atkinson remembered Crook’s toughness and competitiveness from 2007.

“He had a full-court sprint and a dive for the basketball to save a loose ball in the (regional title game) against Douglas,” Atkinson said. “Ever since that play, when I ran into him around town, even before we started training together, I reminded him that he was a state champion because of his willingness to give himself up for the team. I knew he would bring that willingness to compete and that desire to Nevada.”

Crook comes by his toughness and competitiveness, as well as his athletic ability and never-say-die desire to pursue his dreams, honestly. His father Ray and grandfather Rusty are legendary northern Nevada prep athletes.

Rusty Crook was an outstanding skier and track athlete for Reno High, the University of Denver and Nevada and was a long-time coach in northern Nevada. Ray Crook was one of the greatest high school track athletes in Nevada prep history at Wooster High in the 1970s. He was the first Nevada high school athlete to ever clear 16 feet in the pole vault, doing it in March 1977 at the Washoe Relays.

“He’s not just a young kid doing it without work,” Wooster High track coach Phil Person told the Reno Gazette-Journal in 1977. “He’s the last to leave practice every night, night after night.”

Person was talking about Ray Crook. He could just as easily have been talking about Ray Crook’s son Brice 35 years later.

Carter sees that legendary Crook toughness and competitiveness almost everyday in practice.

“We tease him a lot about his hockey days,” Carter said. “We’ll run a play and Brice is out there banging into guys like he’s still playing hockey. We tell him, ’Hey, this isn’t hockey. You can’t just run and knock guys down.’ But he’s out there practicing hard everyday and he helps make everyone better.”

In an earlier interview with the Gazette-Journal in 1975, Person said one other revealing thing about Ray Crook.

“You don’t tell Ray he can’t do anything,” Person said.

Again, he could have said the same about Brice. He is, don’t forget, playing for the Wolf Pack basketball team after four years of playing hockey.

Crook has played in five of the Pack’s 19 games this year for a total of nine minutes. He has made one 3-pointer (out of two attempts) and has two rebounds and three total points.

Now, nine minutes over 19 games might not sound like much. But those nine minutes are why Crook worked so hard this summer trying to do the impossible.

“My job is to just be a role player and I thoroughly enjoy my role,” Crook said. “My job is to encourage my teammates and give them support.”

“And he can play,” Carter said. “I know when I do put him out there he’s not going to hurt the team.”

Crook’s improbable and unlikely journey the past eight years has him right where he wanted to be all along.

“This is the only team I would try to walk-on with,” he said. “I wouldn’t walk-on anywhere else. It means a lot for me to be able to play with this team. It’s special to me.”

EDITOR’S NOTE:  We apologize for the delay between the Elite 8 and Final 4 match-ups; the past few weeks have marked the beginning of a new business venture for one of our writers (Scott), and Madness fell to the bottom of the priority list.  No worries, my friends.  We’ve given the inaugural Midwinter Madness a fitting conclusion, and both Andrew and Scott will be up and running with fresh new interviews and Cannon Fodder in the coming days.

The Final Four

Stalking a Title: Jordan Jefferson and the Tigers Rocket Past TCU in the Second Half to Advance to the Rose Bowl

Andrew Maurins/NEW ORLEANS, La. (S&B) –  With his senior season’s rocky start firmly in the past, it was sweet validation for Jordan Jefferson to bask in the cheers of tens of thousands of purple and gold-clad Tiger fans after another well-deserved victory.

The Tigers celebrate after earning a trip to the first Rose Bowl FPS National Championship Game. (Photo credit: USA Today)

The fact that it came immediately following one of the best performances of his career — passing for three touchdowns and 244 yards on 21 of 29 attempts — and with the right to play for a national title at stake made it even sweeter to experience. Now Jefferson and his teammates have an impressive 38-20 win over upstart TCU in the Allstate Sugar National Semifinal to go along with all the other convincing wins they’ve racked up thus far. They’ll travel to Pasadena next week for a rematch against Oregon and with the inaugural FPS National Championship on the line.

“I haven’t always made good decisions while I’ve been here,” said the visibly emotional Jefferson, acknowledging his involvement in a bar fight last August that nearly cost him his place on the LSU roster. “My parents taught me to give people the benefit of the doubt, that people can and do change. And I wouldn’t be here today if Coach [Les Miles] didn’t believe that same thing.”

Crisp, efficient and electrifying, the senior quarterback seemed to always have an answer whenever the Tigers needed a third down converted or a big play to keep the Horned Frogs at arm’s length.

But it was sophomore running back Michael Ford who helped start off the evening on the right foot — literally — for LSU, taking a counter play hand-off from midfield, breaking one tackle, juking past another defender with his right foot and galloping the rest of the way to the end zone. Ford finished with 141 yards and two touchdowns on 14 carries, part of a blistering rushing attack the TCU defense never quite found a way to contain.

The Horned Frogs, so accustomed to being labeled underdogs and relishing the chance to add another improbable win to their playoff resume, pulled within one point of LSU twice in the first half. The first came on a field goal to make the score 7-6, and the second came on a Matthew Tucker touchdown run that made it 14-13. The Tigers responded with a field goal of their own as the quarter expired to go up 17-13 at the half.

“They more than lived up to their hype, and that’s keeping in mind our players didn’t need to be told how good they were,” said Miles afterwards. “There wasn’t worry in that locker room as much as there was this quiet confidence, that feeling that ‘When we come to play, we’re pretty darn good, too.’”

And in turn the Tigers made good on that confidence in the second half. With the TCU offense spinning its wheels, LSU broke the third quarter stalemate when Jefferson left the pocket on a long third-and-goal, saw that Russell Shepard had shed his defender and the two connected for an easy touchdown pass.

“He had been covering me all night long,” said Shepard with a smile, “but I knew he couldn’t do it forever.”

Senior TCU dance leader Stacy Nicolette (22) of Round Rock, Tex. hides her disappointment under a tough poker face. (Photo credit: Blogspot)

Though the Frogs offense had some success in the second half, they were never able to match the Tigers’ intensity on either side of the ball the rest of the way. The game followed what’s become a predictable sequence of events in many of LSU’s wins: a close, tight first half, followed by an all-Tiger second half.

“They do halftime adjustments better than anyone I’ve ever seen,” said coach Gary Patterson. “You have to be able to do that to win a championship at any level.”

The fourth quarter was merely a glorified coronation for the Tigers. Rueben Randle caught the last of Jefferson’s touchdown throws on a 16-yard fade route to the corner, and Ford took in a draw play from 21 yards out to make the score 38-13. Even when TCU’s Josh Boyce ran in an 85-yard touchdown pass with :09 seconds remaining, the partisan crowd’s enthusiasm wasn’t dampened in the slightest, as chants of “S-E-C!” and “Pa-sa-de-na!” continued to echo inside the Mercedes-Benz Superdome.

“I told them to enjoy this win tonight and share it with their families, but be ready for practice on Sunday afternoon just like always,” said Miles. “Next week is the one that really matters, and everything they’ve done up to tonight will be in the past.”

By a Feather: Rose Bowl Awaits the Ducks After a Missed Field Goal Ends Wisconsin’s Frantic Comeback Bid

Andrew Maurins/MIAMI GARDENS, Fla. (S&B) - At Sun Life Stadium on Saturday night, the difference between overtime and crushing defeat was as slim as the length of a football.  Or maybe a few feathers, if you’re a Duck fan.

But for Wisconsin kicker Kyle French, the length of those imaginary feathers meant the difference between being forever celebrated in Badger football lore and being forever tormented by thoughts of what might’ve been. And when the redshirt freshman’s 44-yard attempt at a game-tying field goal curled wide left by the smallest of increments as time expired, it was Oregon’s players — not Wisconsin’s — who rushed the field in delirious triumph with a 38-35 victory preserved.

Oregon wideout Lavasier Tuinei (80) runs away from Wisconin defenders during the Discover Orange National Semifinal in Miami. (Photo credit: CBS News, Inc.)

It might’ve been easier to accept had the Badgers not clawed and fought all the way back from a 24-point deficit with a furious fourth quarter rally that brought them within three points of doing what had been unthinkable an hour before. It might’ve been easier to swallow if an appearance in the FPS National Championship game and trip to Pasadena weren’t both on the line. But as it stands now, the Big Ten Champions are left to wonder — painfully — what they could’ve done differently.

“Absolutely, emphatically not,” said coach Bret Bielema when asked if French’s kick was what cost Wisconsin the game. “Talk about our defense not getting more stops, talk about our offense not playing with more consistency, talk about any other little thing we could’ve done differently tonight, but don’t single out that kick and don’t single out Kyle.”

After Montee Ball scored the game’s first touchdown, the Ducks proceeded to put on a clinic, outscoring the Badgers 38-7 over the next two quarters to take a commanding 38-14 lead into the fourth. LaMichael James and Kenjon Barner led the way for Oregon, combining for 251 rushing yards and four touchdowns as the Ducks dominated on both sides of the ball.

“That’s what our coaches talk about when they tell us to win every practice,” said De’Anthony Thomas, whose leaping one-yard score in the third quarter ended up being the decisive blow in a slug-fest which pitted Oregon’s speed against Wisconsin’s strength. “‘Win every practice and you’ll win on the field,’ that’s the mantra.”

But then, as if a switch had suddenly been flipped, the Badgers seized the fourth quarter, and very nearly the game itself. It began with a run-heavy drive punctuated by James White’s 21-yard option pitch touchdown run. That made the score 38-20, and when Wisconsin’s defense stopped the Ducks on three straight plays, suddenly there was a new spring in their step.

Quarterback Russell Wilson took control of the next drive, connecting with Jared Abbrederis and Manasseh Garner to bring Wisconsin inside the 20. Then, on a second down crossing pattern, Wilson threaded a high pass to Nick Toon, who collected the ball in his outstretched fingertips before getting sandwiched between two defenders at the goal line. The half of the stadium clad in red erupted in a deafening call of “TOOOOOON!” With 8:50 left in the game, the lead had been cut to 38-27. The Badgers had seized all the momentum, and suddenly it was Oregon who was scrambling for answers.

“For a second, it definitely crossed my mind. I thought ‘We’ve lost control of this game,’” said coach Chip Kelly.

Oregon linebacker Dewitt Stuckey celebrates Oregon's return to the Rose Bowl -- this time, as the culmination of a championship playoff. (Photo credit: Pac-12)

The following two drives only ratcheted up the tension further, as each team traded three-and-outs. When the Ducks moved the ball enough to pin the Badgers inside the five on their next drive, Wilson, Ball and company knew that time wasn’t on their side.

Twice Wisconsin faced third-and-long and twice they converted with high-pressure catches from Jacob Pedersen. Then Ball bookended his prior rushing touchdown with another on third and goal from the four. 38-33. The following play action pass to Jeff Duckworth tacked on another two points, and the comeback was almost complete.

The whole stadium fell quiet for the onside kick that next took place. When the Badgers executed it to near perfection, the Wisconsin fans in attendance once again exploded in cheers. It seemed as though fate would remain on their side, and it was merely a matter of setting up the ball in the middle of the field and using their final time out with :03 seconds left.

“I was already thinking about what to run in overtime,” said Bielema. “That’s how much confidence I had in Kyle, and how much I still have in him. Now we’ll just have to wait until next year to make good on it.”

The Rose Bowl that never was…

by Scott Daniel

Yesterday in Pasadena, Oregon and LSU squared off for the second time this season in the most meaningful national championship game, and the most meaningful Rose Bowl, in the history of college football.

But that’s in another Pasadena, in another lifetime, in a game watched by other versions of us.  My trans-dimensional HDTV cut out just before the coin flip, and I missed the entire game.  My trans-dimensional TiVo failed to record it.  Fortunately, a few hours later my trans-dimensional 3G kicked in, and I was able to get the final score off my trans-dimensional iPhone app.  No stats.  No photos.  Just a final tally with the two most important numbers.

I’ll tell you at the end who won.  But first, a few words on all this Madness, and why I decided to devote nearly two months of writing to it…

…last August, I picked up, for the umpteenth year in a row, a copy of Phil Steele’s College Football Annual.  The thing is hardly readable.  Our friend Phillip isn’t a writer, and he admits as much.  He’s a stats junkie, and he fills his book every year with enough quantitative information to send the Swiss hadron collider into a tailspin.  It’s magic.

And, to my surprise, I made use of it.  The Steele annual provides space to track the score of every single Division I FBS game.  And I did.  In the intervening months between taking the bar exam and deciding to hang out my own shingle, I had some extra time.  So, every Sunday morning, I would huddle at a table at the Squeeze In in Northwest Reno and, using my iPhone, recorded the final score of every single game from the previous week.  I read up on match-up history and tried, as best as I could, to predict the winner and loser every game, including Sun Belt and MAC games, just to see if I could.

I had a fair hand.  I was accurately probably 70% of the time.

But as the end of the season neared, I had to ask myself what in God’s name I would do with all of this information.  It seemed to me to be the beginning of a long descent into a benign-yet-isolating bout with obsessive compulsive disorder.  I had to channel it into something productive.  It had to actually benefit my product – our product – at Silver & Blue.

My first idea was to run my own top-to-bottom rankings at the end of the regular season, something I wanted to call the “S&B 120″.  While the process of comparing team after team itself seemed like an interesting intellectual exercise, I didn’t think a laundry list was something that you all wanted to read.  I also had little to no interest in writing it.  Any writer can do a list.  Just go onto Blogger or WordPress, and you’ll find countless talentless hacks who happen to be “professional bloggers” whose posts consist of nothing but random lists of things they like or dislike.  No thank you.

If I had spent that much time and energy with the left side of my brain, I needed to tap into the creative vault that occasionally lies rusty in the other hemisphere.  One day, I found myself pondering the mascot bracket we did last spring, and the idea of using a homemade ranking to pair off teams gave me an admittedly not-so novel idea: we would do a mock playoff.

But I didn’t just want to do a mock college football playoff.  Scores of web sites do that already.  They run simulations with all of their stats and spit out winners and losers.  Which is perfectly fine, if you’re into that sort of thing.  But that’s just bare bones.  I wanted to wrap flesh around that bone, and breathe life into it.  I wanted to actually create the storylines that would emerge so that Silver & Blue readers could actually taste what a playoff might be like if they read about it every morning in their papers.

That’s when I decided to reach out to fellow writer Andrew Maurins, who has performed superbly in helping me with this project.  I explained the concept to Andrew, and he literally (okay, maybe just figuratively) jumped at the opportunity.  We hashed out the concept over e-mail.  32 teams.  11 automatic bids from 11 conferences.  21 at-large teams.  Selection criteria not wedded to any poll or ranking – AP, BCS, USA Today, Harris, or otherwise – but rather the old-fashioned way, the way the NCAA Tournament committee does it for basketball.  We then agreed that each of us would do our own independent ranking of the Top 32 teams in college football, including the 3 automatic outliers of Louisiana Tech, Arkansas State, and Northern Illinois.

On the first Friday in December, Andrew and I met with our rankings at my office downtown.  For three hours, we carefully scrutinized who we had in, who we had out, and why.  We then placed our teams into our four brackets, seeded 1-8, utilizing the infamous “S curve” to create a default 1-4, then pairing those teams with 5-8 seeds on the basis of geography, rivalry and best possible match-ups.  Then it was off to JJ’s to toast our little creation, and then to Lawlor to watch the Pack beat the Washington Huskies.

Before we split the articles up, each week I ran several simulations to ensure a reasonably realistic result.  First, I utilized the AccuScore mock playoff bracket on ESPN.com.  Each match-up we created carried with it a probability of one team winning over another.  For example, for our Midwest Regional match-up between LSU and Michigan State, LSU had a 72% chance of winning compared to Michigan State’s 28% chance.

For each match-up, then, I ran it either 25, 50, or 100 times (fewer for the earlier rounds with more games, more for the later rounds with fewer games).  I assigned the underdog a 3-point margin of error on the upset.  If their win total fell below that margin of error, they lost.  If their win total was within that range, I had the option of picking them for the upset.  If their win total exceeded the margin of error, I automatically gave them the win.  So for our LSU-Michigan State tilt above, Michigan State entered with a 28% chance of emerging victorious, +/- 3%.  The Spartans had to win at least 25% of the time to be considered for victory.  Anything above 31% was a guaranteed Spartan win.  Under the AccuScore simulation, Michigan State won only 18% of the time.  I had no choice but to allow LSU to kick the hell out of them.

After winners were determined, I ran the simulation again through the game scenario generator at Whatifsports.com; not to determine a winner, but to get a workable set of stats and a realistic score. The box score that came with each was incredible: literally, a play-by-play breakdown as if produced by the stat geeks in the press box, and unbelievably accurate.

Andrew and I then split the box scores and individually brainstormed what each game would look like in the flesh.  What it would feel like.  What it would smell like.  Because while these stat sites provide us with abstract concepts, I wanted this to be concrete.  I wanted to hear Brent Musburger calling an Oklahoma State-Wisconsin regional final or to picture Erin Andrews’ post-game interview with Gary Patterson after TCU upset South Carolina.  And I wanted to experience the schadenfreude of seeing Boise State’s championship aspirations end on a field goal for the third time in two years.

We have done our best to provide that to you but, alas, it’s a cheap imitation…

Why Can’t We Have This Rose Bowl?

It’s quite simple, actually.  Institutional inertia and resistance.  The bowl system we have in place now is little more than an accident of history.  When college football emerged in the first half of the twentieth century, it did so in the context of a sports culture that decided its “champions” largely the way the gladiators did.  If you beat the champion, you are the champion…as in boxing, perhaps the most popular sport not called “baseball” in the first half of the twentieth century.  The concept of a “single-elimination bracket” or playoff was still in its nascent stages.

Given the travel constraints of a train-bound country constantly engaged in foreign conflicts (i.e., World War II and the Korean War), the time-and-toughness constraints of the game of football itself, and the now obsolete seriousness with which college administrators took academics, it’s no surprise that developing a comprehensive system for determining a national champion didn’t factor into their priorities.  Instead, teams played regular seasons largely for…ahem…”sport”, and journalists insisted upon crowning their own “champions” in order to have something to write about.  That’s why the AP and UPI polls were created: to sell newspapers.

The bowls themselves were not originally intended to serve as fora for determining the national champion.  The Rose Bowl, originally the “Tournament of Roses Game”, was founded in order to promote tourism in Southern California.  Ditto for winter vacation destinations like New Orleans (Sugar), Miami (Orange), Dallas (Cotton), Houston (Bluebonnet), San Diego (too many to count), Phoenix (Fiesta), and Orlando (Tangerine & Citrus).  These were exhibition games, no more meaningful than any other non-conference match-up.  Several teams were crowned national champions by the newspapers after undefeated regular seasons, only to fall gloriously in their bowl games.

But, hey, they did get a week on the beach for their troubles.

Our insistence today upon determining a “true national champion” is somewhat of a modern notion. All other sports have contracted to determine one ultimate champion, like the league is a spin-off of Highlander.  The BCS, bless its heart, actually has that noble aspiration.  The major complaint in the 1980s and 1990s wasn’t that “mid-majors” couldn’t make it to the Rose Bowl (that would have sounded absurd), but that the conference tie-ins to bowls made it impossible to stage a true national championship game.  The Big 8 Champion played in the Orange Bowl; the Big Ten & Pac-10 Champions played in the Rose; the SEC played in the Sugar; the Southwest played in the Cotton; the rest was just a mad dash to fill in the blanks with also-rans and highly-ranked independents.

The BCS has at least partially addressed this, and has produced national championship games that couldn’t have been in the old era.  In 2002, Ohio State would have been stuck playing Washington State in the Rose Bowl, with no chance to knock off Miami in overtime.  In 2003, LSU would have been bound to the Sugar and Oklahoma to the Orange, further complicating the fact that USC had an equal record and had to play Michigan in the Rose.  In 2004, USC, Auburn and Oklahoma would have been split.  In 2005, Texas would be Cotton-bound, USC Rose, and we would have been denied Vince Young’s amazing performance in the upset.

I could go on.  But this is not a defense of the BCS itself.  The BCS has only “solved” one part of the problem: freeing up #1 and #2 to play on the same field after New Year’s.  But it hasn’t adequately addressed the aformentioned access problem.  If there are truly 120 teams in “Division I” football, then all 120 teams, including the likes of New Mexico, should theoretically have the opportunity to play their way into a national championship game, and simply by winning the games on their schedule.

That’s the way it works in every other NCAA-sponsored sport, and at every other level of NCAA football.  In basketball, if Nevada wins every game on its schedule, including non-conference opponents, wins the WAC, then wins the WAC tournament, then wins another six games…guess what?  The Nevada Wolf Pack are your national champions.  Same goes for the likes of Cal State-Fullerton, Middle Tennessee, Butler, George Mason, VCU or Monmouth.  Unlikely?  Hell yes.  But because each of these schools is technically classified at the same level with Duke, Syracuse, North Carolina, Kansas and UCLA, they are respectfully afforded the opportunity, however remote, to compete for the same national championship.

If Nevada wins every game on its schedule next year, it is likely headed for the Las Vegas Bowl. Which is nice, no doubt.  But if we can’t play our way into the championship discussion by winning alone, without resorting to traditional biases, schedule strength, or style points, then did our move from I-AA to I-A in 1992 mean anything at all?

In this respect, the major bowls comprising the BCS concerned themselves only with addressing the concerns of the power conferences in ensuring that their best teams have an equal shot at the title game, (somewhat) free of the encumbrance of automatic tie-ins.  Admission of the top non-AQ, beginning in 2006, was a stopgap measure designed to fend off legal challenges and Congressional prodding.  Without that collateral activity, there is no chance in hell that Boise State is now a household name.

Which is a shame, because the stodgy bowl representatives who subsist on dollars are missing out on a gold mine.  The 32-team scenario we presented is probably unrealistic: 16 at most is the most likely. But nonetheless, it serves as a “real life” example of the universe we are missing out on, the universe next door.  The universe where Baylor is celebrated for knocking off Alabama in overtime on the road, rather than playing arcade football with Washington.  The universe where TCU beat South Carolina, Stanford and Virginia Tech in short order to fall just shy of returning to Roses.  The universe where Oklahoma State’s loss to Iowa State wasn’t critical, where they had a shot to get back to glory.

But we don’t get that universe.  We got the rematch of Alabama and LSU, and some other fun games, too.

We will run Midwinter Madness every season until our demands are met.  We want an equal opportunity to playoff for all of Division I football.

Oh yeah…the score.  Hey! The headline and a photo downloaded.  Wow.  Great game!

DUCKS SOAR OVER TIGERS’ ROAR

Oregon Avenges Opening Loss with 38-34 Double-Overtime Victory to Secure the First FPS National Championship; LaMichael James Named Tournament’s Most Outstanding Player

Photo credit: Yahoo! Sports

Well, Malik Story started doing jumping jacks in the middle of the court Saturday night with just under five minutes to play.

“I just wanted to get the crowd into it a little,” smiled the junior Wolf Pack guard.

The season’s largest crowd of 7,016 fans saw the Wolf Pack race past the Fresno State Bulldogs 74-61 on Saturday night at Lawlor Events Center for their 13th victory in a row.

“The crowd was great tonight,” senior Dario Hunt said. “We fed off that.”

The northern Nevada community is also feeding off the hottest team in college basketball west of the Mississippi right now. The Wolf Pack, winners of 16 of their last 17 games to improve to 16-3 overall and 5-0 in the Western Athletic Conference, owns the second longest winning streak in the nation behind Murray State (20 games in a row).

“The feeling in our locker room this year is a lot different than last year,” said Hunt, who had 13 points and 11 rebounds against the Bulldogs. “Winning is always a good feeling.”

Fresno State (9-12, 1-4) was feeling pretty good about itself early in the first half, taking a 15-4 lead seven minutes into the game.

“They spread us out a little in the first half and we let them get some easy baskets,” Hunt said.

Fresno point guard Steven Shepp had a pair of lay-ups and Tyler Johnson hit a 3-pointer and a short jumper to key the Bulldogs’ 11-point lead. Kevin Olekaibe, the second-leading scorer in the WAC at 18.4 points a game, also had a 3-pointer for an 18-8 Fresno State lead.

“They were running their sets real well and we were chasing them around a little bit,” said Pack point guard Deonte Burton, who had 18 points and six assists.

Fresno held its first-half lead until the Pack’s Olek Czyz hit a jumper to tie the game at 18-18 with 7:47 left. The game was tied seven times in the first half until a jumper by Story gave the Pack a 32-30 advantage at the break.

“The game was played at (Fresno State’s) tempo for the first 25 minutes or so,” Pack coach David Carter said. “I was a little frustrated in the first half. Fresno is a small team and we knew they were going to pressure us and we made some lazy passes early in the game.”

The Bulldogs, who had just nine players, took a 39-38 lead on a jumper by Jerry Brown with 13:38 to play in the second half. The Pack took a 36-33 lead and then went the next four-plus minutes and scored just two points.

“When we started to lock down on them defensively, that’s when we pulled away,” said Hunt, who blocked three shots.

The Wolf Pack outscored the out-manned Bulldogs 25-9 over a stretch of 8:39 to take a commanding 63-48 lead with 4:29 to go. Story kick-started the Pack outburst with a 3-pointer for a 42-39 lead. Backup point guard Jordan Finn also had a 3-pointer for a 47-40 lead, Hunt and Czyz had dunks and Hunt, Story and Czyz had lay-ups as the Pack wore down the Bulldogs in the second half.

“I think we did a little,” Carter said. “They seemed to get a little tired in the second half. Some of their shots were short. We wore them down a little.”

The Bulldogs made just seven of their final 24 shots.

“I didn’t notice them getting tired,” Burton said. “They were still running their stuff and playing hard.”

They just weren’t getting the same results.

The Bulldogs played just seven players against the Pack despite two of their starters — Tyler and Jonathan Wills — fouling out. Olekaibe and Shepp each played 39 minutes and the two Fresno State guards were just a combined 7-of-25 from the floor (3-of-12 from 3-point range).

“We just wanted to make sure that someone was always there when he caught the ball,” said Carter of Olekaibe.

Olekaibe, from Cimarron-Memorial High School in Las Vegas, scored just 13 points on 4-of-17 shooting.

“We wanted to force him into bad shots,” Carter said. “But every time he made one I always got a little nervous because he’s the kind of guy who can get hot in a hurry.”

It was the Wolf Pack who seemed to get hot in a hurry in the second half, turning a close game into an opportunity to do jumping jacks with 4:41 to play with a 13-point (61-48) lead. The Pack hit 11-of-15 shots during its game-changing 25-9 run while Fresno was just 3-of-12.

“They are a small team so they took a lot of jump shots,” Burton said. “We were able to get those rebounds and push it up the floor for easy shots.”

The Wolf Pack, now 11-1 at home this season, will head to New Mexico State on Thursday and Louisiana Tech on Saturday. The Pack, which has just five home games left this season, doesn’t return to Lawlor until Feb. 2 against Utah State.

FINAL STATS

Image Gallery

Silver and Blue Sports photgrapher Mark Rauh was on hand to capture the action

“They are still a very dangerous team,” senior forward Olek Czyz said of the Bulldogs. “It’s a WAC game and we want to win the WAC.”

The Bulldogs, who will come to Lawlor Events Center Saturday night (7:05 p.m.) to take on the Wolf Pack, are struggling this year at 9-11 overall and 1-3 in the WAC. The 15-3 Wolf Pack is riding a 12-game winning streak and leads the WAC at 4-0.

“They can be a scary team,” junior forward Malik Story said. “They are small and scrappy. They are going to pressure us and try to make us turn the ball over and get a lot of steaks. We just need to take care of the ball.”

The Bulldogs are led by 6-foot-1 guard Kevin Olekaibe, who averages 18.4 points a game. Steven Shepp (6.2 points) and Tyler Johnson (8.6 points) are both 6-2. Jonathan Wills is averages 11.3 points and 4.8 rebounds and stands 6-6. The 6-7 Jerry Brown chips in with 8.4 points and 6-8 Kevin Foster scores at a 7.2 clip.

“They basically play five guards,” Pack coach David Carter said. “They are very small and don’t have a lot of size inside. We just have to guard the perimeter and take care of their pressure.”

The Bulldogs lost to Hawaii, Utah State and Idaho in WAC play and beat San Jose State when Olekaibe scored 32 points.

“Games like this are huge for us,” Carter said. “Whenever you play well and beat a conference team is sends a message to when you play them the next time. And we have to protect our home court.. We know they are goi9ng to want to come in here and steal a victory and we can’t let that happen.”

PACK LEARNED FROM MISTAKES IN 2010-11: Last season’s struggles have played a big role in this year’s success.

The Wolf Pack finished 13-19 a year ago and missed the postseason for the first time since the 2001 season. At 15-3 the Pack seems destined for some sort of postseason tournament this year and has its eyes on a WAC regular season and tournament title and a NCAA tournament berth.

“Last year definitely brought us all closer,” sophomore point guard Deonte Burton said. “We all came back this year and said to each other that we can’t have a season like we had last year.”
“We’re on a mission,” senior center Dario Hunt said.

HUNT ALMOST 100%: Hunt has been playing with a sore left shoulder in recent weeks.

“I think he’s close to 100 per cent now,” Carter said. “He’s back to taking part in all our contact drills and his range of motion has improved a great deal. If he’s not 100 percent it’s close.”

Hunt had 14 points and 11 rebounds in Tuesday’s 81-69 victory over Nebraska Omaha after scoring just seven points combined in two victories over San Jose state and Hawaii last week.

“It’s feeling much better now,” Hunt said.

STORY COMES ALIVE: Carter had a simple message for Story at halftime of the Omaha game.

“Coach got on me a little and told me I wasn’t playing hard enough,” said Story, who had seven points at halftime. “I was playing kind of laid back in the first half and I felt I was letting my teammates down.”

Story more than made up for it in the second half draining all three of his 3-pointers and finishing with a game-high 20 points.

CARTER APPROACHING MILESTONE: Carter will be shooting for his 50th victory as Pack head coach Saturday night against Fresno State.

Now in his third year as head coach, Carter is 49-35 overall. He was just 25-26 after 51 games but has gone 24-9 since.

Carter is about to be just the 10th head coach in school history to get to 50 victories after Doc Martie, Jake Lawlor, Jack Spencer, Jim Carey, Sonny Allen, Len Stevens, Pat Foster, Trent Johnson and Mark Fox.

Fox and Lawlor are the fastest in school history to get to 50 victories. Both coaches did it in 62 games.
Carey did it in just 76 games, followed by Allen (90), Martie (94), Stevens (96), Foster (98), Johnson (109) and Spencer (111).

QUICK TURNAROUND: The Wolf Pack, with its 14th victory against Hawaii on Jan. 14, surpassed its entire win total (13) from the previous season in just its 17th game.

That is the quickest the Pack has surpassed its win total from the previous season since 2001-02 when it won its 11th victory (the 2000-01 team was 10-18), also in Game No. 17.

The quickest turnaround from one year to the next in school history took just two games. The 1941-42 team went 1-11 and the following year the Pack had victory No 2 in its second game. The 1935-36 team needed just three games to beat the 1934-35 team (2-12) in the win column.