Friday and the WAC basketball galaxy

More accolades (PTW thinks) for the game night atmosphere in Logan:

"Majerus went on to say (the Spectrum) is like the Oakland Coliseum without the guns and knives."

It's from Rhett Wilkinson's article on USU in the Standard-Examiner.

Seattle Pacific topped Arizona last night so it's time for a Modou Niang update: in 13 minutes of play, the Utah State transfer went scoreless but did grab four rebounds.

Ex-Aggie big Gary Wilkinson receives more press in New Zealand.

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Dario Hunt responds to his Five Questions.

Chris Murray looks at the NBA draft rankings of Dario Hunt and Olek Czyz, plus much more.

Chris writes about the effect of the NCAA legislation passed today on Wolf Pack athletics.

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Dayton Morinaga covers another Rainbow Warrior scrimmage, this one worked by regular officials.

Chris Murray's player ratings

Chris Murray continues with his Wolf Pack player analysis: Devonte Elliott and Olek Czyz.

A couple more links plus the top numbers players

Jason Groves salutes Gordo Castillo in a blog entry that also starts off with a question about the WAC tourney.

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Chris Murray writes about the Nevada - Fresno State matchup Wednesday afternoon.

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Regarding personal achievements during the regular season:

* Adrian Oliver was the top scorer at 23.4 ppg.

* Dario Hunt and Olu Ashaolu tied in rebounding at 9.4 caroms a contest.

* Kyle Barone was the top shooter at .645%

* Olek Czyz was the best three-point marksmen at .468%.

* Jeff Ledbetter took free throw honors at .875%.

* Hernst Laroche won the assists title with 5.1 a game.

* La'Shard Anderson was the top thief at 2.6 steals each time out.

* Bill Amis was the most prolific shotblocker with 2.2 rejections per matchup.

Tuesday's WAC items

It's never this simple but Steed and Fresno were too much -- 80 to 74 -- for visiting Czyz and Nevada Monday night.

Check out Daniel Lyght's game report while AW Prince and Chris Murray also offer looks at the game.

Alluding to our pre-game buildup, Dario Hunt earned a 13/12 double/double and Greg Smith put up 15/9. The Bulldogs were better in assists (18-11), steals (11-2) and turnovers 8/15.

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Dayton Morinaga reports that Bill Amis is ill -- what more can hit the senior?

Is Dominick Brumfield ready and able to fill the hole left by Amis' absence? Brian McInnis takes a look.

Jeff Portnoy has posted new entries, (1) and (2). The second looks at the Mississippi State circus.

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Head to the last few paragraphs of Sam Wasson's Daily Aggies for a look at Wendell McKines' coming back this season or redshirting and returning in 2011-2012.

Friday night WAC

Jason Groves reports that New Mexico State has received a verbal commit.

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Dayton Morinaga tells us it's 'no ocean for you' for the UH basketballers who are now ensconced on Maui for a matchup. PTW speculates the Chicago Staters will probably hold a fullout practice on the golden sands of Ka’anapali Beach or at the very least the coaches will be holding an all hands meeting amidst the bikinis. We're undecided but such would qualify as either a mortal or a venial sin NOT to do so.

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Boise State came mighty close on the road but fell by two, 86-84, against the Runnin' Utes. Daequon Montreal totaled 28 points in 34 minutes of play and Reggie Arnold added 16 but didn't shoot particularly (5-15) well. Freshman frontcourter Ryan Watkins came close to a double-double with 10/8 in 23 minutes.

The Broncos had a 48-40 lead at the half.

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In the second half, host Nevada doubled its point total achieved in the initial 20 minutes but fell just short against Arizona State 78-75. A quartet of Wolf Packers scored in double figures: Malik Story with 19, Deonte Burton turning in 18 plus Olek Czyz and Dario Hunt providing 10 apiece. Czyz shot 3-4 overall, 1-1 from long distance and 3-7 from the foul line in his first game.

Two Thursday p.m. items

The Panhandle State squad came to Las Cruces tonight and got the spare change beat out of it 78-46. Shooting 25% overall and 7-21 from the foul line won't win many games. Gordo Castillo was back for 16 minutes and, best of all, neither Troy Gillenwater nor Hamidu Rahman were needed to secure the win.

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Arizona State comes to Reno Friday evening and maybe Olek Czyz will play one half for the Wolf Pack and the other 20 minutes for the Sun Devils. What? Read Chris Murray's article. Chris also offers his keys to the game and a prediction.

The WAC in mid-week

This was inevitable. Upon taking over, Gib Arnold had so many scholarships to fill that the numbers indicated some of the newcomers would be unhappy with playing time, experiencing homesickness or you name it during the season.

Two signees have decided to ply their trade elsewhere.

Brian McInnis @ Court Sense has the details, plus a hint about someone new. He also wrote this in the Star Advertiser.

Bill Amis performs as a travel guide on behalf of the Warrior Insider site.

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 Utah State had no trouble with visiting Long Beach State last night. Kraig Williams is here, Shawn Harrison here and Tony Jones here .

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Jason Pugh/Shreveport Times reports on LT's fall on the road to Northwestern State, with a great opening line: "The sum of the Northwestern State Demons was more than a sublime effort from Louisiana Tech’s DeAndre Brown..."

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The Fresno Bee provides the game report of the Bulldogs grabbing a road victory in San Diego with SignOnSanDiego proffering this.

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Nick Jezierny tells us Boise State will be getting a taste of life facing the upper crust of Mountain West Conference basketball tonight, and on the road.

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Chris Murray has a piece up on the thoughts and feelings of the Wolf Packers after seven consecutive losses. Not based on anything heard or read but Nevada is another team with a large number of newcomers and therefore 'eligible' to have a player or two unhappy with playing time. But 10 guys are currently on the court for double figure playing time which keeps kids happy. However, the soon-to-happen eligibility of Olek Czyz will eat into the PT of some of the frontcourters.

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Vandal Nation offers a photo gallery of Idaho matching up in the Travelers Basketball Classic from last weekend.

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Sam Wasson/Bleed Crimson has posted video of the New Mexico State - New Mexico game.

Tuesday evening WAC notes

Thanks to Al in Hawaii, the misidentification of J-o-s-t-o-n Thomas has ended. Dayton Moriinaga spells it out for us here.

Brian McInnis serves up a Q-and-A with senior Hiram Thompson.

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Jason Groves offers some quotes from Coach Marvin Menzies here.

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Chris Murray has been busy, having posted a Q-and-A with transfer Olek Cyyz and a backgrounder on newcomer Deonte Burton.

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Freshman James Walker is featured by Tony Jones @ Aggieville.

Chris Murray on Olek Czyz

Chris Murray points out an option Nevada's Olek Czyz has available to him for the 2010-2011 season -- go here.

Thursday night WAC links

Jonathan Givony (of Draft Express) has a feature on five draft sleepers at Sports Illustrated and Paul George is included. We're not so sure anyone is snoozing on Mr. George any longer. Go here and scroll down.

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Casey Oliverson is apparently the one to back when the Oliverson family (think Shawn of Lousiana Tech) goes against each other on the backyard court. Tony Jones/Aggieville provides a feature.

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It seems a bit odd but we'll never know the full equations that landed former USF guard Kwame Vaughn, former Cal backcourter D.J. Seeley and former Cal frontcourter Omondi Amoke at Cal State Fullerton. The Orange County school is known as Transfer U, with but one high school recruit on the Titan roster. Amoke had a legal problem that spurred his departure. Seeley had been mentioned as a possibility on various WAC basketball message boards but that didn't happen.

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Chris Murray has a bunch of new articles so start clicking here (subtitled See You In September), here (Olek Czyz To Polka Across Europe) and here (a hoops tour of China that, who knows, may yield a prospect or two).

Chris Murray is back with a roar

Chris is pumping 'em out, covering what the RGJ missed in his absence:

Go here for the Ahyaro Phillips update.

Go here for a lengthy Q-and-A with Olek Czyz.

Go here for the very latest on Armon Johnson.

The Tuesday a.m. WAC pickins' are a bit slim

AW Prince has some workout tape and a whole lotta facts of and about Olek Czyz. The facts are free, the tape requires a sub.

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Chris Murray is back with a Luke-apalooza column here. In athletics, freak is a compliment and Mr. Babbitt is letting his freak flag fly.

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Douglas Benton at NorCalPreps offers some player evaluations from the Rumble In The Bay tournament. Go here and a sub is required.

5-foot-10 Oakland (CA) High backcourter T.J. Taylor is mentioned with an offer from Boise State and interest from Fresno State and New Mexico State, among many others.

Castro (CA) Valley 6-foot-6 wing Juan Anderson has an offer from Utah State and several others, with a list of multiple suitors. We say he is PAC-10 bound if he so chooses.

Chris Murray is back with a vengeance

No, Chris isn't trying to one-up "A Nightmare On Elm Street" but he is back from an apparent vacation with a fistful of fury:

His news and notes catchup column is here.

Olek Czyz gets posterized (in a different manner) here.

Deonte Burton receives some major love courtesy of the Long Beach Press-Telegram. A Press-Telegram prep basketball article not written by the venerable Frank Burlison? Can some things please stop changing?

More Tuesday WAC links

Jason Groves has a blog entry on the status of Troy Gillenwater here. Set your watches for 5 p.m. tomorrow Las Cruces time.

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The Wolf Pack is going 'OC' -- actually make that the other way around. Chris Murray has the details here.

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Nevada and Utah State rumble Wednesday night in Reno. Chris Murray has the breakdown here and the matchups here and, most delightful of all, it's on ESPN2. Tony Jones provides a blog entry on the subject. Jared Eborn contributes an article here.

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Andy Boogaard is back here with an item about Fresno State's interest in a point. No, another one.

Disposable chairs but that's not all

With a major tip o' the hat to Stuck In Seattle at the Silver and Blue message board Sports Forum, the question is did he or didn't he? He being former Jazz great Karl Malone, now the major domo behind the LA TECH basketball program.

Chairgate! Chair-troversy! A chair-raising experience!
Ethan Conley
The News Star
1/5/2010

RUSTON -- If you follow Louisiana Tech basketball, you've probably heard about "Chairgate" by now. Here's the general story, as told by people on both the Nevada and Tech sides with little variation:

Go here to find out how the mystery ends, or doesn't.

Will there be a bevy of kindergarten chairs for the Bulldogs to use when they come to Reno on March 6? Plus, just asking: what would Mark Fox's reaction have been after noticing the missing chairs?

By the way, Karl Malone also has a disposable son. Go here for those details.

*** UPDATE: Oh my, Bob Young of the Arizona Republic has the best line of all regarding KM, his floor and the disappearing chairs: "We're just surprised Malone was able to do it without assistance from John Stockton."

Touché.

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Per Chris Murray, Olek Czyz is down to Nevada and Arizona State. There is a far less chance of being 'recruited over' at Nevada than a PAC-10 program but who knows what are the factors that will be in play with this decision.

Here is a Q-and-A Chris Murray did with Coach David Carter.

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Tony Jones has a pair of updates on Jaycee Carroll here and here.

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Chris Murray with some Nevada recruiting notes

Chris Murray has a couple of posts up worth noting.

Nevada is getting a visitor from North Carolina -- go here.

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As expected, a junior college point from the Midwest loved UCLA and now can be officially crossed off the Wolf Pack wish list -- go here.

Is Olek Czyz coming home?

Chris Murray/Reno Gazette Journal is reporting that Olek Czyz is departing Duke for another basketball destination.

His sister either is or was a student at Nevada and it seems the Wolf Pack is in the running, if not the favorite as Czyz played his prep ball at Reno High.

Last season, Czyz played in 13 games, averaging 0.6 points and 0.9 rebounds per game. This go around, he played in six games for the Dookies, starting two and played 61 minutes. He shot 7-12 overall, 1-4 from three-point range.