Chris Murray

cmurray@rgj.com

Nevada’s 2015-16 basketball season might have just ended but its 2016-17 schedule is nearly finished.

The Wolf Pack has already locked in 10 of its potential 13 non-conference games for next season.

The 2016-17 non-conference schedule, as it stands today, includes two home games, three road games and five neutral-site games spread over tournaments in Anchorage, Alaska, and Las Vegas.

“It’s always hard to schedule,” coach Eric Musselman said, “but this year has been even harder.”

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That’s because the Wolf Pack is coming off a 24-win campaign and is projected to be even stronger next season when four transfers who sat out this season join four returning starters and a nationally ranked recruiting class. Given that strong roster, getting teams to play at Lawlor Events Center won’t be easy.

The Wolf Pack has two non-conference home games scheduled against Oregon State, an NCAA Tournament team last season, and Pacific, which will welcome first-year coach Damon Stoudamire. Both are return games after Nevada played at Oregon State and Pacific last season.

Road games are scheduled against Santa Clara, which will be under the direction of first-year coach Herb Sendek, who Musselman was an assistant under at Arizona State from 2012-14, UC Davis and Bradley, which is part of the Mountain West-Missouri Valley Conference Challenge.

“Playing road games like we did last year against Pacific and this year against Santa Clara and Davis aren’t bad because road games are rewarded,” Musselman said of how the NCAA Tournament selection committee looks at road games.

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The difficult part has been securing home games. The Wolf Pack can play up to three more non-conference games to push its total to 13, but it can be costly to get home games, especially quality ones.

“The hard thing is a Division II game costs $4,000 and a Division I game is going to cost you $60,000 plus,” said Musselman, whose team had just three D-I non-conference home games this season (and two D-II games).

In the past, D-II games haven’t been a detriment to teams’ NCAA Tournament at-large bid aspirations, but this year it played a factor for some teams falling on the wrong side of the bubble, including San Diego State of the MW. Musselman said last month he’d reconsider his stance on playing D-II teams after Nevada played two in 2015-16, routs of Fresno Pacific and Holy Names (those games don’t impact your RPI positively or negatively but aren't counted as wins by the committee).

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The Wolf Pack will play in the Great Alaska Shootout, a tournament set up by Nevada’s previous staff. Last year, the tournament had eight teams (Toledo, San Jose State, Loyola Chicago, San Diego, UNC Asheville, Middle Tennessee, Alaska Anchorage, Drexel). The tournament hired a firm this year to try and boost the level of teams in the tournament. Teams scheduled to play in the 2016-17 event include Iona, Portland and Weber State.

Nevada will play in the South Point Holiday Hoops Classic in Las Vegas, which debuted in 2014. The tournament, which runs Dec. 20-23, is expected to also include Santa Barbara, Towson and Northern Colorado. The Wolf Pack will play two games in the Holiday Hoops Classic and three games in Alaska.

Musselman said he’s tried to take a different approach to scheduling this season with the Wolf Pack’s roster upgraded. Reaching the NCAA Tournament is a more attainable goal. Nevada’s strength of schedule last season ranked 144th out of 351 D-I teams, which is solid but not great for at-large berths. That number must improve.

Only three teams with strength of schedule marks at 100 or higher made the NCAA Tournament as at-large teams in 2016: the Big 10’s Indiana (100), the Pac-12’s Arizona (101) and the MVC’s Wichita State (119), with each off those being national programs. The Wolf Pack would likely need a strength of schedule well below the 100 mark to earn an at-large berth (SDSU’s SOS of 70 this year wasn’t good enough despite the Aztecs dominating the MW).

While the Wolf Pack looks to upgrade the 2016-17 schedule with its final couple of open dates, one thing Musselman believes the Wolf Pack learned this season is an NCAA Tournament or NIT berth could be on the line every time the team this the floor.

“I think that we’ve learned that you have to play every single night,” Musselman said. “It’s hard to get into the NCAA or NIT. Our guys were highly invested in following that the whole year. They found out, ‘Hey, that game at Hawaii was against an NCAA Tournament team. A win on the road there would have carried a lot of weight.’ We played our poorest game of the year at Fullerton. You can’t have a road game like that where you don’t come to play like you have all the other nights. Every game is important.”

WOLF PACK BASKETBALL

The Wolf Pack can play up to 13 non-conference games per season. The team has 10 scheduled for the 2016-17 season. Below are those games, which include two neutral-court tournament appearances.

Home games: Oregon State (19-13 last season); Pacific (8-20 last season)

Road games: Santa Clara (11-20 last season); UC Davis (11-19 last season); Bradley (5-27 last season)

Neutral court games: Great Alaska Shootout (three games; TBD foes); South Point Holiday Hoops Classic (two games; TBD foes)