Pack preview: Washington will be first Big Ten visitor in Reno
A look ahead to the Nevada Wolf Pack men's basketball game on Saturday in Reno:
TIP-OFF: 7 p.m., Lawlor Events Center.
: Nevada (1-0); Washington (1-0).
HOW TO WATCH, LISTEN: The game can be seen on Nevada Sports Net and heard on 95.5 FM.
: The Wolf Pack has won its last 18 non-conference games at Lawlor Events Center. Its last non-Mountain West loss at Lawlor was 75-68 to San Diego on Nov. 12, 2021. Pack coach Steve Alford is 25-4 in non-conference games at Lawlor since taking over the program for the start of the 2019-20 season.
: The Pack beat Sam Houston, 91-75, on Monday night at Lawlor Events Center to open the season. Newcomer Kobe Sanders scored 27 points and had six rebounds, four assists, a block and a steal. Sophomore Nick Davidson had 26 points on 8-of-10 shooting with 10 rebounds, three assists, two blocks and two steals. The Wolf Pack shot 82 percent (18-of-22) in the second half.
: The Huskies beat UC Davis at home on Tuesday, 79-73. Great Osobor scored 15 points with six steals, 17 rebounds and two blocks. Freshman Zoom Diallo scored 12 points off the bench. Washington, though, was just 2-of-14 on 3-pointers and 21-of-38 on free throws and allowed Davis' Ty Johnson, a 6-foot-3 guard, to score 35 points.
WASHINGTON LEADERS: The Huskies started 6-8 forward Great Osobor (15 points, 17 rebounds, six steals), 6-5 guard Mekhi Mason (13 points), 6-1 guard D.J. Davis (two points), 6-4 guard Tyree Ihenacho (four points) and center Franck Kepnang (10 points, four rebounds) against UC Davis. Zoom Diallo, a 6-4 freshman, had 12 points and four assists off the bench. Tyler Harris, a 6-8 forward, had nine points and six rebounds off the bench. Wilhelm Breidenbach, a 6-10 center, had 10 points off the bench.
NEVADA LEADERS: Kobe Sanders, a 6-9 forward (27 points, four assists, six rebounds); Nick Davidson, a 6-10 center (26 points, 10 rebounds); Tre Coleman, a 6-7 forward (13 points, eight assists); Xavier DuSell, a 6-5 guard (seven points); and Brandon Love, a 6-10 forward (six points, five rebounds) started in the season opener. Tyler Rolison, a 6-foot sophomore, had the most minutes off the bench (16) and scored six points.
THE HEAD COACHES: Steve Alford, who will turn 60 on Nov. 23, is 97-58 and in his sixth season at Nevada. Alford is 684-357 and in his 34th season overall as a head coach. Washington's Danny Sprinkle is in his first season with the Huskies. He has coached at three schools (Montana State, Utah State and Washington) in the last three seasons. The 48-year-old has a career record of 110-50 and is in his sixth season (four at Montana State, one at Utah State and one game at Washington). Sprinkle and Alford have faced off as head coaches just once, with Alford's Wolf Pack beating Sprinkle's Utah State Aggies, 77-63, last season at Utah State.
: Wherever Sprinkle goes, so goes Great Osobor. The 6-8 Osobor, who was born in Spain and went to high school in England, started his college basketball career at Montana State under head coach Danny Sprinkle. Osobor averaged 6.0 points and 4.2 rebounds his freshman year and 10.1 points and 4.6 rebounds in his two seasons at Montana State, coming off the bench 66 times over 69 games. Sprinkle and Osobor then both went to Utah State last season, where Osobor averaged 17.7 points, 9.0 rebounds and 1.4 blocks a game while starting 35-of-35 games and being named the Mountain West Player of the Year. The two are now together in Washington.
THE RIVALRY: The Wolf Pack leads the series, 6-5, winning the last five games. The rivalry began in the 1983 NCAA Tournament when Washington, led by future NBA star Detlef Schrempf (23 points, 13 rebounds), beat the Wolf Pack, 64-54, in Pullman, Wash. The Huskies won four of the first five games in the rivalry. The two teams have only met once before in Reno, a 76-73 Nevada win in overtime on Dec. 2, 2011, when Deonte Burton scored 31 points. Burton scored the Pack's first eight points in overtime and assisted on a Kevin Panzer jumper with 19 seconds left for a 76-73 Pack lead.
: This will be the first time a Big Ten team has ever played in Reno. Washington, one of four Pac-12 teams to move to the Big Ten this season, has only been a Big Ten team for one game and hasn't even played its first Big Ten league game yet.
The Wolf Pack, though, has rarely played a Big Ten team anywhere since it began playing the sport in 1913.
Nevada lost at Indiana (80-52) on Dec. 16, 1960; at Wisconsin (89-56) on Dec. 20, 1960, and (62-53) on Dec. 23, 1997; and to the Badgers (86-61) at a neutral site on Dec. 28, 1979. They lost at Iowa (88-46) on Dec. 21, 1961, (87-85) on Dec. 13, 1971, and (112-71) on Dec. 9, 1980; and lost at Purdue (91-59) on Dec. 19, 1961.
The Pack beat Michigan State (72-66) in the 2004 NCAA Tournament and lost to Illinois (71-59) in the 2005 NCAA Tournament. The Pack also won at Nebraska (69-66) on Nov. 26, 2020.
The Pack has never played Ohio State, Minnesota, Northwestern, Penn State, Rutgers or Maryland.
