Santoro: Alford continues roster wizardry as Pack roars to 4-0 start

Sports Fodder:

Steve Alford has done it again. The Nevada Wolf Pack men's basketball coach has repeatedly demonstrated an uncanny ability to navigate the always choppy transfer portal waters to reshape his fluid roster in just one offseason.

The list of basketball talent Alford has replaced every year thanks to the transfer portal and graduation since he came to Nevada for the 2019-20 season would fill an entire NBA G League. When he first got here, he took over a roster that had lost arguably the greatest one-season exit of talent in the program's history: Jordan Caroline, Caleb and Cody Martin, Tre'Shawn Thurman, Trey Porter and Jordan Brown.

The following four seasons saw Desmond Cambridge, Warren Washington, Will Baker, Darrion Williams, Grant Sherfield, Kenan Blackshear, Jarod Lucas, Zane Meeks, Kane Milling, Hunter McIntosh and others come and go. All Alford has done is roll up his sleeves every offseason, get back to work and use those people skills Bobby Knight taught him in his Indiana college days to lure quality talent back to Lawlor Events Center.

Eric Musselman, the coach who preceded Alford at Nevada, was as good as any recruiter the Wolf Pack has ever had. When he left after the 2018-19 season, he even left the gifts of Jalen Harris, Lindsey Drew, Jazz Johnson, Nisre Zouzoua and K.J. Hymes  for Alford to use for a while. Hymes is still on Alford's roster. Alford, though, is just as good a recruiter and a judge of talent as Musselman.

Just the past offseason Lucas, Blackshear, McIntosh, Tylan Pope and Jazz Gardner all left the roster after last season's 26-8 NCAA tournament team. That would signal a trying rebuilding year on the horizon for most programs. But all Alford did this past spring and summer was make the roster deeper, more talented and much more versatile.

Newcomers Kobe Sanders (16.8 points, 3.3 rebounds, 4.9 assists), Xavier DuSell (8.8 points, 2.3 rebounds) and Brandon Love (8.0 points, 5.0 rebounds, 2.0 blocks) have stepped into the starting lineup and Justin McBride (5.0 points, 4.3 rebounds) and Chuck Bailey (3.3 points, 20 rebounds) have fortified the bench and the Pack is now 4-0.

Yes, the transfer portal (as well as seniors departing and freshmen emerging) will always giveth and taketh away from a mid-major program like Nevada. As long as that transfer portal doesn't take Alford away the Wolf Pack will be just fine.

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Is the Wolf Pack's 4-0 start real or just a mirage? It certainly looks real. We likely won't see any of the four opponents (Sam Houston, Washington, Weber State or Santa Clara) in this spring's Final Four but the Pack doesn't have to apologize to anyone for breezing through the opening homestand of this season.

All four victories were by 10 points or more. Three of them were by an average of 24 points. There was never any real doubt that the Pack would win all four games. Most of them were over by halftime. Everything Alford likely wanted to see the first four games happened as planned.

Veterans Nick Davidson (18 points, 8 rebounds, 2.9 assists) and Tre Coleman (12.5 points, 4.5 assists, 1.1 steals) took over ownership of the team. And we told you above how the new guys have not only just blended into the roster nicely, a few of them (namely Sanders) have already shown the ability to take it over at times.

We'll get a better idea how all of the pieces will fit, and how much the first four games meant, later this week when the Pack plays three games at a tournament in Charleston, S.C. They'll get to play the likes of Vanderbilt, Seton Hall, Virginia Commonwealth and maybe even Miami, Florida Atlantic or Drake. The next three games might catapult the Pack to a start like it had last year (7-0 and 15-1) or be a much-needed wakeup call a month before the critical and grueling 20-game Mountain West season starts when Colorado State comes to Lawlor on Dec. 21.

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The Wolf Pack football team, now 3-8 overall and 0-5 in the Mountain West, will definitely see its season end Nov. 30 in Las Vegas against UNLV. But that doesn't mean the Pack has nothing to play for in its last two games against Air Force at home this Saturday and the Rebels a week later on the road.

These last two games, in fact, might be crucial for what rookie head coach Jeff Choate wants to continue to build this offseason. Choate's Wolf Pack have been all over the map this season, beating Oregon State and Eastern Washington at home and Troy on the road. They have also played well in losses to SMU, Boise State, Fresno State, San Jose State and Georgia Southern and not so well in losses to Hawaii, Colorado State and Minnesota.

What does it all mean? Well, we might find out in these last two games.

The last thing Choate and the Pack wants to do is go winless (0-7) in the Mountain West this year. That would be very Ken Wilson-like (0-8 in 2022) and might make us all question whether or not the Pack has made any great strides this year. The best chance the Pack has this year of avoiding getting shut out in the Mountain West for the second time in three years is Saturday at home against Air Force.

The Pack, as of Wednesday morning, was a 3.5-point favorite to beat Air Force. They will likely be around a three-touchdown underdog at UNLV. So, Saturday night might be this team's last best chance at a win. Air Force has won its last two games (36-28 over Fresno State and 28-0 over Oregon State) but is still just 3-7, 1-4 this year. The Falcons still run their antiquated triple option offense but before the last two weekends that offense turned in games this year when it scored 3 (twice), 7 (twice), 13, 19 and 21 points. If you are tough, can tackle, aren't afraid to give maximum effort for 60 minutes and are disciplined, well, you should be able to beat the Falcons. We don't have any doubts about this Pack team's toughness and effort (and confidence) for 60 minutes. And we also have no doubt that Choate, a no-nonsense defensive coach, has a handbook on how to stop the triple option. But tackling and discipline have, at times, been a concern.

Air Force has always had a knack of bringing out its opponents’ weaknesses. We've seen it happen with the Pack far too often since the two schools have been playing each other regularly since 2012. Saturday could be the type of victory that signifies more than anything else we've seen this year that a new era at Nevada has truly begun.

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All of the above is not to suggest that the Pack has absolutely no chance of beating UNLV on Nov. 30. The Rebels are an impressive 8-2 and 4-1 this year and will truly deserve to be about a three-touchdown favorite in 10 days or so when a red Fremont Cannon emerges at Allegiant Stadium to taunt the Pack.

The Rebels are fun to watch, explosive, confident, cocky and unpredictable in a good way. This is not the Rebel program Chris Ault used to flatten (see eight straight Pack wins from 2005-12). UNLV, in case you haven't noticed, has won four of the last six (and six of the last 11) Fremont Cannon games. They expect to beat the Pack each and every year now.

But don't be shocked if the Pack does pull off the upset on Nov. 30. This Pack team nearly beat Boise State (a 28-21 loss two weekends ago). It almost beat SMU back in late August. It should have beaten Georgia Southern, Fresno State, San Jose State and SMU and could be sitting at 7-4 right now and headed to a bowl game next month.

UNLV might be extremely disappointed and distracted when the Pack game begins. The Mountain West title game matchup of Boise State (now 9-1, 6-0) and Colorado State (now 7-3, 5-0) might already be set with UNLV left out in the cold. The Rebels, who have only lost to Boise State in the Mountain West portion of their schedule, might be bitter and angry at the world, especially considering Colorado State would have sneaked in the backdoor of the conference title game without having to play either UNLV or Boise State. All seven of Colorado State's Mountain West foes this year already have at least three league losses.

They might go out and simply destroy the Pack and take all their anger out on Choate's unsuspecting team. Or they might lose their cool and phone it in and act like a group of teenagers from Southern California in Las Vegas for the weekend with daddy's credit cards.

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The sport of boxing, in case you stopped paying attention sometime in the 1980s like most of us who were alive back then, is now professional wrestling without the non-stop action. The Jake Paul-Mike Tyson national embarrassment last week has, believe it or not, taken the sport to yet another new low.

The Texas Department of Licensing and Regulation, which sanctioned the fight, should fire everyone who agreed to give the thumbs up on a fight that pitted a 27-year-old YouTuber against a 58-year-old former champ who obviously is in constant fear of spontaneously falling over onto his face.

We get it. Tyson will supposedly earn about $20 million, and Paul will get $40 million for staging one of the biggest hoaxes in professional sports history. Nobody blames either of them. They were both in on the hoax, staged it perfectly and proved it was all a scam when Paul started hugging Tyson before the fight even ended. Not having Tyson lean in and fake biting Paul's ear was an opportunity lost.

All Tyson did after the first round was make sure he didn't just suddenly fall on his face. And all Paul did was stand nearby to catch him like a good grandson visiting his grandfather in a nursing home.

Blame the 72,300 fans that showed up at Jerry Jones' playground. It was a look-at-me group that included publicity-starved celebrities like Shaquille O'Neal, Charlize Theron, Joe Jonas, Rob Gronkowski and probably four dozen more that anyone over the age of 60 has never heard of.

Blame the 65 million or so households that tuned in to watch on Netflix. If they don't tune in, then nobody is paying Paul or Tyson a cent. Yes, it was the same audience that would also watch two dogs skateboarding, a family of six living in a tent in the wilds of Alaska for a winter, four parrots singing opera and six cats opening a pantry to get a treat. But, hey, we're all in that group now. Have you seen the slop that passes for prime-time programming on ABC, NBC or CBS? Yes, I'm old — I still think ABC, CBS and NBC matter.

I also watched but, full disclosure, I waited until the next day so I could skip over all the fights between real fighters that nobody has ever heard of. I wasn't going to let a real boxing match get in the way of my fake fight guilty pleasure where I was hoping to witness a 58-year-old Tyson punch a YouTuber clearly out of the ring like Hulk Hogan and The Rock.

I shouldn't disparage pro wrestling. Pro wrestling wouldn't have given us that disgusting Paul-Tyson snooze-fest. Pro wrestling would have given us an evening we never would forget. If you are going to fake a sporting event, then put on a show and give the audience its money's worth.

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Major League Baseball announced its Hall of Fame ballot this week. Newcomers such as Felix Hernandez, Ichiro Suzuki, and C.C. Sabathia are joining ballot returners Billy Wagner, Andruw Jones, Carlos Beltran, Alex Rodriguez, Manny Ramirez and nine others.

Ichiro, of course, is a no-brainer. Billy Wagner, who fell just short of the Hall last year, also should be a certain Hall of Famer. You can be sure Sabathia, just because he was a New York Yankee, will also get in eventually.

There remain dozens of players who should be in the Hall of Fame but aren't. Bill Freehan, Thurman Munson, Don Mattingly, Dale Murphy, Lou Whitaker, Dick Allen, Tommy John, Mickey Lolich, Sparky Lyle, and Tug McGraw all come to mind. There are many others. It's also time we start putting in all of the superstars who got caught up in the steroid era. Steroids didn't make them great. They've already paid their price. The Hall of Fame voters made their point. Now let's move on.