Lawlor Events Center - Reno, NV
Monday, November 13, 2017
11:30PM
Media
TV: ESPNU
Radio: 101.5 AM
Previews:
Projo: URI Rams on right track as they head West
gorhody: Rams Travel to Nevada for Monday Night Tilt on ESPNU
Reno Gazette: Three keys and a prediction for Nevada basketball's game vs. Rhode Island
Vegas: URI +2
Opponent
Record:
1-0, 0-0 in Mountain West
Home: 1-0
Streak: W1
Last season: 28-7, 14-4 in Mountain West
Rankings:
RPI: 35 (final 2017)
BPI: 49 (final 2017)
KenPom: 73 (preseason)
Leaders (returning from 2016-17):
Points - Jordan Caroline, 15.0
Rebounds - Jordan Caroline, 9.0
Assists - Lindsey Drew, 4.7
Preview
Former NBA head coach Eric Musselman is in his third season at Nevada, and he has the Wolfback on an upward trajectory. After going 24-14 and winning the CBI in his first season, last year Nevada won the MWC regular season and tournament titles en route to returning to the NCAA tournament for the first time since making four straight from 2004-2007. Like UNC Asheville, Nevada is picked to repeat as champions in their conference by the media.
Musselman's dramatic rebuild (Nevada was 9-22, 5-13 in 2014-15) has relied primarily on transfers. This year's team is led by three transfers: Jordan Caroline (Southern Illinois) and twins Cody and Caleb Martin (NC State). Caroline's first year at Nevada was the '16-17 season, in which he led the Wolfpack to the NCAA tournament along with the departed Cameron Oliver and Marcus Marshall. (Marshall, who graduated, was a transfer from Missouri State; Oliver, who declared for the draft but went undrafted, did not technically transfer but committed first to Oregon State, never played there and had to sit out a year upon coming to Nevada.) The Martin twins played their first game for Nevada against Idaho on Friday, combining for 41 points, 10 rebounds and 9 assists.
Cody Martin and Jordan Caroline were joined in Nevada's starting lineup on Friday by fellow transfer Kendall Stephens (Purdue), Lindsey Drew and Elijah Carter. Caleb Martin played 29 minutes off the bench, less than only his brother Cody and Caroline. Other guys receiving minutes off the bench were Josh Hall, familiar name Halice Cooke (Iowa State/Oregon State transfer) and Darien Williams (St. John's transfer). The Nevada bench is not terribly deep because they have four transfers sitting out this year using scholarships (interesting to note that Nevada had a zero player recruiting class in 2017, instead bringing in the four transfers to fill all their open scholarships). Tooley, Jones and Amadi are walk-ons. Jones is the son of new Nevada AHC and former LSU head coach Johnny Jones. Musselman was an assistant on Jones' LSU staff before taking the Nevada job.
Truthfully, I don't know what to expect from Nevada on Monday. I know they are good, but I haven't seen a ton of Musselman's Nevada teams because they are on TV late when they're on at all, and they have so many new players. Because of Musselman's background, I expect this to be a well-coached team and the roster clearly has talent. I'll be interested to see where Nevada ends up as far as quality OOC opponents compared to Providence, Alabama, Seton Hall and Virginia/Vanderbilt. I think they are clearly in that group. I don't know if they are the best of that group, but this being the first road game of the season and playing it at 11:30 at night could make it the toughest test for URI in the first half of the season. I know that URI's typical approach of trying to shut down the opponent's first and maybe even second options (which it pulled off in holding down Thomas and Teague from UNCA) may be difficult against a Nevada team with several players that could really hurt you.
Most posters who participated in Obadiah's prediction contest had URI losing at least 3 or 4 OOC games, and this one has to be one of the game many of those posters were thinking about. I expect Nevada to be favored. Still, URI can win this game, and doing so would send a strong message out to the rest of the college basketball world. I think we will learn a lot about this team Monday night, not just from the result but how they compete in a true road game against a good team. Asheville is a very good and dangerous team for a tune-up game, but Nevada is the first real test for the Rams. Passing it would bode well for a team that is still riding high off last year's strong finish and has put together a schedule with a lot of challenges. The thing about challenges in college basketball is that they are also opportunities.