Chris Murray

cmurray@rgj.com

At one point in the second half of Nevada’s game Saturday at New Mexico, after the Wolf Pack had fallen behind by 25 points, coach Eric Musselman gathered his team and wrote one word on a clipboard.

“BLOWOUT,” it read.

Musselman typically writes a word or two on the clipboard during timeouts to inspire his team or emphasize something it needs to improve on. But, this time it was different. Musselman simply scribbled "BLOWOUT," dropped his clipboard and left the huddle. His team was getting absolutely routed.

“We were all sitting there looking at it and it hit people, ‘This is on national television. We’re supposed to be a top team in this conference. We want to reach the NCAA Tournament,’” Nevada guard Marcus Marshall said. “It was unacceptable. Guys took that to heart. Jordan (Caroline) and D.J. (Fenner) had a moment in the huddle when they were yelling. They were fired up. Guys took note of that message.”

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The rest, as they say, is history. Nevada stormed back from down 25 points – the eighth-largest comeback in college basketball history – to score a 105-104 overtime victory over New Mexico. It overcame the largest deficit ever in an NCAA game in the final five minutes (Nevada was down 19) and had the second-largest comeback in the final minute of an NCAA game (Nevada was down 11; the record is 12).

With no game until Saturday, the Wolf Pack was allowed on Monday to bask in the glory of the national spotlight – it also got points in the AP Top 25 for the first time since the 2011-12 season – after its miraculous comeback.

Musselman went on the Jim Rome radio show and ESPN’s Courtside podcast with Andy Katz and Seth Greenberg. Jordan Caroline, who starred in the win, went on the Chris Mannix radio show. SportsCenter had a full-minute segment on the game. Newsweek is featuring Nevada in a story centered on the rise in importance of the 3-point shot. USA Today, NBC Sports, Fox Sports, CBS Sports and Yahoo! Sports have all done features on the comeback, which has become a national story.

“I knew it was a big deal," Marshall said, "but after the game you realize, ‘This isn’t a big deal. This is a huge deal.' They’re talking about the record books and things like that, and to be part of something like that is great.”

One of the reasons Nevada could basket in the spotlight is it doesn’t return to the court until Saturday when it travels to Wyoming. The Wolf Pack can soak up some of the accolades – Caroline was named the national player of the week by two publications – without worrying about an immediate hangover.

“I don’t think there’s any doubt," Musselman said when asked if not having a mid-week game will be beneficial. "Because of all this national attention and the energy our guys had to play with with seven guys in an overtime game, it’s good for our guys. Hopefully all of the attention will subside here and we can get back to worrying about the most important thing, and that’s figuring out a way to beat Wyoming.”

Wolf Pack basketball hasn’t had this much national attention in years, since at least the 2010 NBA draft when it had two players selected. It didn’t take long for other teams to use the Nevada comeback to their advantage.

Stony Brook’s coach, Jeff Boals, talked to his players about the Wolf Pack's win prior to his team's game on Sunday against Albany. Stony Brook then channeled the Wolf Pack by closing the game on a 21-0 run to overcome a 19-point deficit and score a 72-70 victory in a win nearly as impressive as Nevada’s.

“My sons are texting me about Stony Brook and they’re in the middle of their huddle and saying, ‘Let’s have a Nevada moment,’” Musselman said. “In their shootaround, they talked about Nevada. We’ve had an impact on college basketball, and that’s something neat to be a part of.”

The Wolf Pack is hopeful the comeback helps the team in the future, at least in showing there’s no deficit that’s insurmountable. Nevada, of course, hopes it’s never in that position of being down 25 in a game again this year, but if it does fall into a deep hole, it has history to fall back on.

While Caroline was the star of the win – his 45 points, including a game-winning three with 2.9 seconds remaining in overtime, were the third most in college this season – plenty of players had their hands in the miracle.

Marshall hit three of Nevada’s six 3-pointers in the final 63 seconds of regulation, including the final two (both bank shots). Walk-on Charlie Tooley’s 3-pointer with 1:03 remaining cut the deficit to 11 points and showed Nevada there was potentially a light at the end of the tunnel. Another walk-on, John Carlson, played what Musselman called “two of the best defensive possessions” of the season to limit New Mexico star Tim Williams on the interior.

“On the team, we don’t consider them walk-ons,” Caroline said. “They’re players just like us. We see them every day in practice and we know what they can do. We feel like they’re legitimate Division I players as well. I feel like everybody else saw that too with the minutes they played.”

By the time the Wolf Pack hit the court for practice Monday at 1:30 p.m., the national attention had started to subside and Nevada was ready to move on to its next game. But the win over New Mexico is one the players, the coaches and Wolf Pack fans will never forget.

“It was just crazy,” Marshall said. “I don’t know how we did it. We don’t know how we did it. But we pulled it off.”