RENO - The University of Nevada men's basketball team will head into next Saturday's season-opener against the University of San Francisco on a positive note after its 100-56 win over Slovakia Select on Saturday at the Lawlor Events Center.
"Any win feels good," said freshman point guard Andre Hazel. "If we beat Duke or Michigan, it would feel good so we should feel good to be beat Slovakia."
Hazel split time at point guard with senior Adrian McCullough, who finished with 10 points and three assists. Hazel added five points and dished out five assists and turned the ball over twice. As a team, Nevada committed 19 turnovers against a slower, less athletic Slovakia Select squad.
"Nothing against the team we just played, but we shouldn't be giving up the ball at all against competition like this," Johnson said. "We were really trying to move the ball and push the tempo and anytime you do that, you're going to give the ball up.
"But the assist-to-turnover ratio has to be better against the good teams if we're going to be successful."
Nevada dropped its first exhibition game to the Global All-Stars 93-79 but against Slovakia Select, 13 different Wolf Pack players scored, which pleased the second-year coach.
"We got a pretty good nucleus of eight or nine guys," Johnson said. "The one thing I like a lot about these kids is that there is a lot of competition between them day in and day out.
"They really get after each other but they are a team. And if we can maintain that attitude, we're going to be O.K."
In the first half, Nevada used two key spurts, a 10-2 run and a 10-0 run to jump out a 33-15 lead before taking a 55-25 half-time lead. Defensively, the more athletic Wolf Pack forced Slovakia into 26 turnovers that resulted in numerous fast break points for Nevada.
Sophomore Terrance Green, an all Big-West honorable mention pick as a freshman, led the Wolf Pack with 14 points on 4-of-11 shooting. Freshman Sean Paul, an Elko native, scored 10 points and led all players with seven rebounds. Slovakia's Alexander Polovjanov led all scorers with 15 points, all of them coming in the second half.
"The biggest negative is that the game didn't count," Johnson said with smile. "We have a long way to go but but we've already made a lot of improvements."
Although Johnson is still a little unsure about his starting lineup, he said he's leaning toward starting Hazel at the point guard and Green at the off-guard. He plans on starting Matt Ochs at the power forward and Richard Stirgus at small forward. But he said that it doesn't really matter who starts because he has confidence in all of his players.
"It all depends on the game," Johnson said. "I don't have any reservations about taking Terrance out and putting Garry Hill-Thomas in. Or putting Donny Guerinoni in at a crucial point in the game. But kids make those decisions. It's all about who produces."
Last season against San Francisco, Nevada (9-20, overall, 6-10, Big West) lost to the Dons 78-73 two days after beat Washington State 80-55. Johnson said his team will be looking for some payback on Saturday at War Memorial Gymnasium in San Francisco.
"We'll get a really good test come Saturday," Johnson said. "USF is probably favored to win their league, so we're looking forward to it."
In its two other exhibition games, Slovakia lost to Oregon State 92-52 and Wyoming 95-66.
