Friday's report on last night's games

Looking at ESPN, a couple of strange first 20 minutes took place between WAC teams last night ...

It was Nevada 19, Utah State 18 at the half and also visiting Fresno State 36, Idaho 20 come halftime and please do send along any stick tips if you forecast those scores.

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Chris Murray and Tony Jones were a-tweetin' the Wolf Pack - USU matchup of which PTW will add that maybe it was good this one wasn't on ESPN -- at least the first portion.

That one-point lead for David Carter's club proved fateful and Nevada won 53-52. Malik Story had the best game for the Pack finishing with 18 points (Deonte Burton shot 3-12). It was Preston Medlin out front for the Aggies as he totaled 15. Brockeith Pane had fairly solid numbers but seven turnovers offer a degree of negation. Utah State owned the boards 37-23.

Chris game reports and also offers a 'notes' column plus Shawn Harrison was also present (once again, a tip o' the hat to HJ management).

Joe Santoro and Mark Rauh have the print and photos respectively.

Matt Sonnenberg and Tony take a look at the game

Liz Margerum has posted 15 game photos.

Dan Hinxman serves up a column on the Wolf Pack.

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Idaho came back, to a degree, but the Bulldogs triumphed 65-55. Kevin Olekaibe was held to seven points on a poor shooting night but Tyler Johnson led with 17 while Jerry Brown put up a 14/10 double-double and Kevin Foster was on the edge with 9/8. The Vandals' Kyle Barone post 14 points plus eight boards. FSU shot 50% to 38% for Don Verlin's guys.

Robert Kuwada checks in as does Theo Lawson and Josh Wright.

A Hawaii recruiting note

Brad Winton/JUCO Recruiting tweeted:

"St. John's watched Brandon Parga (6'4/SG/2012) of Citrus College (CA) last night. Hawaii and Boston College also interested"

He's out of southern California and plays for one of the very consistently best programs in Citrus College. Parga's numbers to date: 19.6 points per game, 51% from the floor, 86% from the foul line, 47% on 82 trey attempts. Here is his page at the Citrus site. He also has a 3.0+ grade point average.

Backcourter Garrett Jefferson, now at UH, came from Citrus.

Thursday's WAC basketball digest

New Mexico State had no trouble with Cal State Bakersfield, leading by seven at the half and then exploding to a 62-46 lead with six minutes remaining before finishing out at 78-57. It was Big Wen Night.

Jason Groves game reports and also serves up a blog entry. Anthony Esparza was also on press row.

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Fresno State hosts Idaho tonight and Vandal Nation offers a video preview featuring Landon Tatum.

Robert Kuwada writes about attendance, or lack thereof, at the Save Mart Center.

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Chris Murray has his keys and prediction to the pairing up tonight of host Nevada - Utah State, plus he provides a second feature. Tony Jones, Shawn Harrison and Kraig Williams also all preview a match that again should be on ESPN.

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Dayton Morinaga is sure to get on the bad side of the Moscow Chamber of Commerce with his latest post.

Wednesday's world of WAC hoops

New Mexico State, the only WAC team in action, hosts Cal State Bakersfield tonight. Jason Groves goes pre-game. Jason also looks overall at the Aggies in a blog entry.

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Chris Murray has the details on how Nevada is promo-ing the Thursday matchup with Utah State. Chris also supplies a 'notes' column and, completing the trifecta, Chris' team rankings are up.

Quite deserving of a stand alone note because it's terrific, Chris profiles Patrick Nyeko. 

Joe Santoro has a head-and-shoulders-above piece up on Point Guard U and the one consistent factor, and PTW isn't talking Wildcats. Ya think UCLA could use DB?

Wolf Pack fans should be cherishing the coverage of the team as the last two links are just superb journalism.

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Dayton Morinaga has a bit of recruiting news for UH fans. Dayton also has a new videographer at work.

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Robert Kuwada writes that Coach Rodney Terry is metaphorically singing "Time Is On My Side"

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Vandal Nation has posted a just short of 10-minute video interview with Coach Don Verlin.

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Tony Jones joins the Pack bandstand.

A Kyisean Reed feature

BIAH maestro Rob Dauster has posted an interesting piece on Utah State's Kyisean Reed, he of the sometimes they bite you, sometimes they nuzzle you variety.

Andy Katz summarizing the two WAC BB matchups

Andy Katz checks in on the Nevada - Iona and Drake - New Mexico State pairings:

"Nevada at Iona, Feb. 18 (4 p.m., ESPN/ESPN2): The Wolf Pack are undefeated in the WAC. Iona is tied with Loyola (Md.) and Manhattan in the MAAC. But both teams aren’t locks for the NCAAs if they don’t win their respective conference tournaments. That’s why this game will be critical to the cause. A win by Nevada thousands of miles from Reno will get the Pack credit with the selection committee. Neither team has a standout nonconference win but there is star power on the court. Deonte Burton is a legit scorer for the Wolf Pack. Scott Machado is one of the top four point guards in the country. This will likely be an up-tempo game and a good watch. Iona coach Tim Cluess didn’t want a West Coast team for return travel. But he can’t dismiss the good fortune of at least getting a conference leader"

and

"Drake at New Mexico State, 3 p.m., ESPNU: Drake has come on a bit lately with the weekend win over Wichita State. NMSU is the second-best team in the WAC. This game has potential between teams that could be pests in their respective conference tournaments"

A Daquan Brown update

Per Adam Zagoria, former Fresno State big Daquan Brown has transferred to Hofstra and will be looking to play in the fall semester.

Tuesday's WAC-aroo

Chris Murray writes about Nevada and door knocking on the Top 25. Chris also catches readers up on all four of the November signees for the Wolf Pack. With the BracketBuster announcement completed, Chris analyzes Iona.

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Robert Kuwada offers a WAC notes column, leading off with some illuminating numbers associating free throw attempts and home court status.

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Provocatively titled "The Road to Vegas," which conjures up the ghost of Hunter S. Thompson, Jason Groves has a post up with all sorts of WAC basketball items. Jason also offers up pertinent information on The Drake, New Mexico State's BB foe. You either love or hate The Drake and do not fret for this engagement will not be broken off.

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Dayton Morinaga includes information on Montana (the UH BB opponent and host), plus other WAC tidbits in his latest. 

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Shawn Harrison serves up a piece on UC Santa Barbara, the Aggie BB foe.

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Medlin-mania is spreading in Logan and certainly other WAC outposts -- Tony Jones has the details.

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Tony tweeted this on the 28th:

"San Jose State spokesman Lawrence Fan tells the Tribune that Keith Shamburger missed tonight's game with a bad back...not suspended"

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Jay Drew tweeted this recruiting update:

"Former Springville High basketball star Raul Delgado, now at Western Nebraska CC, has committed to sign with BYU"

Delgado had also been offered by Utah State among others.

The BB games

From Jason Erickson, WAC Director of Media Relations:

Pairings for the tenth annual BracketBusters – a three-day men’s college basketball event pitting NCAA Championship hopefuls Friday, Feb. 17 - Sunday, Feb. 19 – were announced ...

... The WAC received two of the 13 television games. Nevada will travel to play Iona, while New Mexico State will host Drake. Both games will take place on Saturday, Feb. 18. The Nevada game will be broadcast on ESPN or ESPN2, while the New Mexico State game will be broadcast on ESPNU ...

... Saturday, Feb. 18 (All times Eastern)

Drake at New Mexico State, 3 p.m. (ESPNU)
Nevada at Iona, 4 p.m. (ESPN/ESPN2/ESPN3) ...

... The other six WAC teams that were not selected to compete in a BracketBusters television game will play non-conference opponents on Saturday, Feb. 18. Those matchups are as follows:

WAC Non-TV Matchups (Saturday, Feb. 18)

Fresno State at Cal State Northridge, 7 p.m. PT
Hawai‘i at Montana, TBA
Portland State at Idaho, TBA
Central Arkansas at Louisiana Tech, 3 p.m. CT
San Jose State at Sacramento State, TBA
UC Santa Barbara at Utah State, 7 p.m. MT

A quick PTW take: maybe the exposure in New York will be beneficial but Nevada has to cross the country to play Iona. Plus, Hawaii has to fly all the way into Montana in mid-February, then hit Las Cruces five days later. On the other hand, Fresno State and San Jose State get relatively short bus trips.

Preston Medlin named WAC POW

From Jason Erickson, WAC Director of Media Relations:

Utah State's Preston Medlin has been named the Verizon Western Athletic Conference Men's Basketball Player of the Week for the week of Jan. 23-29. The honor marks the first career WAC Player of the Week for Medlin.

Medlin, a sophomore guard from Carrollton, Texas (Hebron HS), led Utah State to a 2-0 home record last week with wins over Hawai'i (77-72) and San Jose State (82-65). Against the Rainbow Warriors, Medlin scored 25 points as he was 5-of-11 from the field, 2-of-5 from three-point range and 13-of-14 at the free throw line. He also had two rebounds, two assists and one steal in the game. Against the Spartans, Medlin scored 15 points as he was 5-of-10 from the field, 3-of-6 from behind the arc and 2-for-2 at the free throw line. He also pulled down five rebounds and dished out four assists in the game.

On the week, Medlin averaged 20.0 points, 3.5 rebounds, 3.0 assists and 1.0 steals per game. He shot 47.6 percent (10-of-21) from the field, 45.5 percent (5-of-11) from three-point range and 93.8 percent (15-of-16) from the free throw line.

Other nominees: 

* Fresno State sophomore guard Kevin Olekaibe 
* Hawai'i junior forward Vander Joaquim 
* Idaho senior forward Djim Bandoumel 
* Nevada senior forward Olek Czyz 
* New Mexico State senior forward Wendell McKines

Mike Adras -- bully and liar as coach

The December firing of Northern Arizona Coach Mike Adras has finally been explained, courtesy of Jacob May/Arizona Daily Sun.

Yes, college coaches are in a business that values winning -- despite official platitudes from higher ups and fans -- above all else but some behaviors are illegal and others should simply be intolerable. What Adras did surely pales in comparison to the behavior and actions of many others in his former shoes but that fails to offer any justification.

Here's a little something we authored on January 1 of this year.

Change the dates of the season

Dan Wolken has a proposal for college basketball and no, it's not raise the basket height to 12 feet or bring back the shorty pants from yesteryear. This one actually makes some sense.

Curses

Earlier this week in the WAC update at Rush The Court, PTW wrote this about New Mexico State's Hamidu Rahman:

"At the risk of sounding like a legal representative of the Department of Homeland Security, an apology is due. A pre-season prediction by moi that senior Hamidu Rahman would relegated to coming off the bench by 6-foot-10 sophomore Tshilidzi Nephawe in 2011-12 has proven to be invalid. Rahman has started all 20 New Mexico State games and is averaging 10.4 points (14.0 in conference action) and 6.6 boards while shooting 63% on the season. Meanwhile, Nephawe is a 43% marksman and averaging 5.2 and 3.1 respectively. Of late, Rahman has enjoyed 20 points and eight boards (in 22 minutes) matching up with San Jose State, followed by 16 points and six rebounds versus Hawaii (in 20 minutes). It was 12 and six in 17 minutes versus Idaho prior to SJSU.

The senior out of New Jersey was nagged by injuries last season, averaging 7.2 points per game while making 49% of his shot attempts. This go-around, he is healthy and showing his full potential."

Then what happens?

Against Nevada, Rahman plays 15 minutes, scoring four points and grabbing the same number of rebounds. Then, it's 16 minutes, eight points and five boards against smallish Fresno State. (was there some sort of injury involved causing the diminished PT or foul trouble or simply situational?)

Has the hex of being on the Sports Illustrated cover enbedded itself onto hindering anyone receiving praise from PTW?

Earlier this season (maybe it was the pre-season), PTW was singing the praises of LT's Brandon Gibson and he's 'enjoyed' what apparently is a jinxed shooting stroke in 2011-12.

PTW and the Typhoid Mary Touch -- a match made in ...

Monday morning's WAC hoop digest

No games until Wednesday when New Mexico State welcomes in Cal State Bakersfield.

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Jason Groves looks at the Aggies and the upcoming BracketBuster contests.

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The UI Argonaut has an eight-plus minute post game video up featuring Don Verlin, Stephen Madison and Djim Bandoumel discussing the loss to Hawaii.

A Marqueze Coleman update

Eric Sondheimer serves up the latest on Nevada signee Marqueze Coleman. Coach David Carter sure looks like he's getting a talent.