Murray's Mailbag: How good are Nevada basketball's sit-out transfers?

Happy Martin Luther King Jr. Day, which we here at the Reno Gazette Journal technically have as a paid holiday, but in honor for Dr. King, I figured I might as well work given how much work he put into civil rights. My work is obviously far less important. I just write about the Wolf Pack with an occasional Dodgers quip. But, you seem to enjoy it, so let's dive into your questions for the weekly Murray Monday Twitter Mailbag. Thanks, as always, for the inquiries.

(Editor's note: If you are viewing this via Twitter on your phone, the questions will not show up. Blame Google. For real, it's actually Google's fault. Just search the headline via mobile and the tweets will appear. If this is not a problem for you, congratulations on cracking the code. You can now enjoy the Mailbag).

I've seen Nevada's four sit-out guys – Tre'Shawn Thurman, Nise Zouzoua, Corey Henson and Jazz Johnson – practice a decent amount this season and have spoken with some of the staff in regard to their feelings to that exact question. Here's a quick breakdown of each player who is sitting out this year but will be eligible next year.

* Thurman: A 6-foot-7 forward, Thurman averaged 12.5 points and 6.7 rebounds on 50.3 percent shooting during his three seasons at Omaha. He'll have one year to play at Nevada and is a Jordan Caroline clone, per coach Eric Musselman, in his effort and game. Thurman transferred to Nevada to be more free to play on the perimeter, as did Caroline. Out of these four, he's the surest bet to get big minutes and be productive.

* Zouzoua: A 6-2 combo guard, Zouzoua averaged 20.3 points as a sophomore at Bryant. He made 92 3-pointers in his last college season and is a 36.8 percent shooting from three in his career. Zouzoua comes from a much lower level of basketball and there are questions over whether he's a point guard or shooting guard, but he's an excellent scorer who could be the first guard off the bench given Nevada's deep starting five.

* Henson: A late addition to Nevada's 2017 recruiting class, Henson is a 6-3 guard who averaged 14.6 points per game for Wagner last season. He's a similar player to Zouzoua, although Henson only has one season of eligibility at Nevada to Zouzoua's two years. Henson, who played at DeMatha Catholic, one of the nation's top high schools, has been the best coached of these four and is the most refined product.

* Johnson: Musselman has typically not used small guards, but Johnson is 5-10 and built like a pitbull. He averaged 15.8 points at Portland last season and has two years of eligibility at Nevada. He's a 40.2 percent career 3-point shooter and never misses 3-pointers in practice. I see him as the best shooter of this group. He also played at the highest level of competition among these four in his previous stop. Johnson doesn't have ideal size, but he's tough, an excellent shooter and has been productive in the WCC.

Of these four, I like Thurman and Zouzoua the most. I know the staff really likes Henson, too. You could argue for any of those three being the top guy next season. And Johnson's shooting in practice is unreal. I don't see any of these guys being a Marcus Marshall, Jordan Caroline or Martin twins level of transfer – they were all first- or second-team all-conference players in their first season at Nevada – but each has an excellent chance to be productive players.

My question is whether these guys will get minutes. Musselman's first three teams only had eight or nine available scholarship players and he's only used seven per game in his rotation. Next year's team is scheduled to have 11 available scholarship players at minimum. I don't think Musselman's will play more than eight guys, so somebody won't get minutes. Here's a look at the projected depth chart of scholarship players.

Point guard: Lindsey Drew, Nisre Zouzoua, Jazz Johnson

Shooting guard: Cody Martin, Corey Henson

Small forward: Caleb Martin, Josh Hall

Power forward: Jordan Caroline, Tre'Shawn Thurman, Vincent Lee

Center: K.J. Hymes

I'd expect Nevada to start Drew, Martin, Martin, Caroline and Hall/Thurman. Outside of those six, two more are probably in the rotation. That leaves three on the outside looking in. (Nevada could redshirt one of its freshmen). Musselman could change his formula and play more guys, but I don't see that happening. And Nevada has two more scholarships left. I'm guessing those two go to Division I transfers unless a high-level high school recruit wants to commit to Nevada (see the next question).

So, while I don't think this class of transfers will have as big of an impact as the previous two, there are some good players in there and next year's team will be by far the deepest of Musselman's tenure.

I addressed this last week, but I see Nevada as a long shot for five-star 2018 recruit Jordan Brown, a 6-foot-11 center playing out of Napa. I'd put it at 10 percent or so. There is no official deadline for players to sign. The second signing period runs from April 11-May 16, but you can still sign agreements after that. I've tried to get a hold of Brown's dad, Dion, the unofficial spokesperson during Jordan's recruitment, but have not received a return call. If I do get one, I'll do a fuller story on Brown's interest in Nevada.

I asked Musselman about that after the game and he said he would evaluate it with his coaches and talk to the players before making a decision. I think the decision was more about getting additional defensive intensity on the court from the tip rather than trying to spark Hall offensively or get Stephens' scoring off the bench. I imagine we'll see a few more starting lineup changes before the season ends.

Nevada has used six starting lineups this season, used seven starting lineups last season and used 12 starting lineups in Musselman's first season. He likes to tinker with his starting lineups. Ultimately, starting lineups don't mean a ton. The Martins, Drew and Caroline are each going to play 30-35 minutes; Stephens will get 25-30; Hall will get 15-20; Hallice Cooke will get 10-15; Elijah Foster 0-5; and Charlie Tooley 21 seconds at the end of the first half. That's Nevada's formula.

I get asked this question every other Mailbag. Musselman also got this question at his monthly booster luncheon last week. He's sensitive to questions about bench usage. Musselman comes from the NBA, where you play 82 games and often play on back-to-back nights. So, with Nevada playing 35 games, and just two games per week during conference play, he has made the decision to basically play seven players and lean heavily on his starters.

"They're young, they're in good shape, we're not playing very many games," is typically his answer. I don't see how you can fault this strategy too much. Musselman is leveraging the usage of his best players and Foster currently doesn't fit in his top seven. This team is offensively more dangerous with its current rotation and Foster wouldn't add much more defensive value than the current setup. So, barring an injury, the rotation won't change. I remain interested in seeing how Nevada defends UNLV's 7-foot-1 center, Brandon McCoy. Does it stick with its lineup of 6-7 players and attack that way or insert Foster to give it a little more beef up front? We'll see in a couple of weeks.

Nevada's Caleb Martin has the most win shares of any Mountain West player this season, so I'd probably go with him in a close nod over Boise State's Chandler Hutchison. The MW player of the year race will be interesting. The coaches vote purely based on play in conference games and Hutchison has been elite in MW play, so he has the lead there. He's turned himself into a legit NBA prospect with a strong senior season.

I could be missing one or two, but I would rank them: (1) Deonte Burton alley-oop at UNLV; (2) Cam Oliver one-handed tip dunk; (3) Deonte Burton dunks on Ryan Watson; (4) Deonte Burton all-oop at UNLV, part II; (5) Olek Czyz's back-to-back jacks versus Washington. Honorable mentions go to this dunk by Oliver, this one by Czyz, this one by Lindsey Drew and Drew's 270-degree dunk earlier this season.

I'll go Nevada favored by 5 points and the Wolf Pack draws 11,012 fans. The crowds at Lawlor, while solid, have been a little lower than I've expected this season, but this is a weekend game between the MW's top two teams. The Wolf Pack should be pushing a sellout in a game like this.

It's a three-team race between Nevada (5-0 in MW), Boise State (5-1 in MW) and San Diego State (3-2). The Wolf Pack has a nice lead, but it has played by far the easiest schedule of those three teams, so it should have the lead. A win over Boise State on Saturday would give Nevada a two-game lead on the field nearly 40 percent of the way through MW action. That would be a nice edge for Nevada, which still has road games at Boise State, San Diego State, Wyoming and UNLV looming after the Boise State home game this Saturday.

I only know of four games on Nevada's 2018-19 schedule: at Rhode Island (Nov. 17), at Davidson, at a to-be-determined Missouri Valley Conference opponent as part of the MW-MVC Challenge; and home versus Pacific. That leaves a minimum of eight more games. I doubt Nevada gets a Power 5 at Lawlor Events Center. Those are typically two-for-one-deals and the home contest is usually not the first game in a series like that.

Nevada will be in a better non-conference neutral-site tournament that should include Power 5 opponents. Nevada has played five Power 5 opponents in non-conference during Musselman's tenure, but only one was at home (Oregon State last season). Power 5s aren't going to be signing up to play at Lawlor given Nevada's current level of play, but I'll predict two Power 5s on next year's schedule.

It depends, to some degree, who those losses are against, but Nevada should still be in if it goes 14-4 or better in the MW. ESPN's latest Bracketology has the Wolf Pack as a No. 8 seed. That's comfortably in. Nevada would need a fairly large collapse at this point to not make the Big Dance.

My Dodgers Mt. Rushmore would be: Jackie Robinson, Vin Scully, Sandy Koufax and Duke Snider, although I expect Clayton Kershaw to get chiseled into the picture before he retires.

My guy Ryan Radtke is my favorite to listen to. He'll be doing some of Westwood One's calls during the Winter Olympics in PyeongChang, including bobsled. I will tune in to that just to hear Radtke's call. I also like Dan Shulman and Kevin Harlan.

I don't know, but the theme tends to be the bigger the game, the more dressed up the staff gets. For example, I expect Nevada's staff to wear PJs for the game at San Jose State on Wednesday since nobody will be there and five-piece suits for the Boise State game Saturday given its magnitude.

The games were actually similar, with an upstart quarterback taking down college football's Goliath in the finals seconds. I'll take the Texas-USC game over Alabama-Clemson. There was more star power in Texas-USC.

Nevada added 16 players in the early signing period and expects to add about five more in February's signing period. Two of those should go to defensive linemen as the defense is the focus to finish out the class. The one big name to keep an eye on is Toa Taua, the younger brother of former Wolf Pack running back Vai Taua. Toa is a four-star running back who is expected to announce his decision between Iowa State, Utah State and Nevada during Saturday's Polynesian Bowl. The Wolf Pack is the favorite.

It was his New Year's resolution. He gave up the Diet Pepsi earlier in the season and lost 6 pounds in a week but returned to the Diet Pepsi later in the year before giving it up for New Year's. For a 53-year-old, Musselman is in excellent shape, so he could afford to drink a Diet Pepsi or two a game. We'll see if he can keep his no-Pepsi New Year's resolution going through the end of the season.

I know I've answered this question in a Mailbag before, but I don't remember what I said. I'll go with Los Compadres followed by Murrieta's followed by Bertha Miranda's. I also like Speedy Burrito if you're looking for a faster food experience.

They have to take down the CBI First Round banners. I understand hanging a CBI championship banner. You won a postseason tournament, which is rare. But, teams should not celebrate losing in the first round of the CBI. They also need to make room for a Nick Fazekas No. 22 banner, which should be hanging in the rafters. I'm surprised Nevada has issued No. 22 the last two seasons – first to walk-on David Kyle last year and most recently to Jazz Johnson – after not issuing it in the first decade after Fazekas left campus.

My brother is in Hawaii and texted me as soon as he got the message this weekend. What are you supposed to do in that situation? If I was there with my kids, I would try and hide them in a storm drain or something, but if I was there by myself I would just keep living life. You can't really combat a nuclear bomb. At least it would be quick and painless. But, it's sad that on an Earth that offers humans everything we need to live in peace and harmony, this is what we've turned it into.