Chris Murray

cmurray@rgj.com

Reno Gazette-Journal columnist Chris Murray has been known to be a bit wordy, so we're giving him 1,000 words (no more than that) to share his thoughts from the week that was in the world of sports.

* ERIC MUSSELMAN WAS A VETERAN of the NBA long before he considered coaching in college, and in the NBA there are two ways to accumulate talent: (1) drafting players; (2) signing them via free agency. Talent accumulation in college isn’t much different. You can get players out of high school, which is akin to drafting them in the NBA, or sign transfers, which is akin to free agency. Musselman clearly favors the second of those options, perhaps in historic fashion. Of Nevada’s 13 scholarship players next season, 10 are Division I transfers. (I don’t feel like looking up the rosters for all 351 D-I teams, but I’m guessing that’s the most in the nation). Of the 19 players Musselman has signed since becoming Nevada’s head coach 25 months ago, 14 have been transfers. And the last nine players the Wolf Pack has signed, including all four in this year's recruiting class, have been transfers. Nevada has become Transfer U.

* THERE ARE PROS AND CONS to this strategy. The biggest plus is the fact you’re minimizing risk over whether a guy can translate to the college level. Even highly recruited prep players can sometimes flame out when making the jump to college. With a D-I transfer, you have a track record of a guy being able to produce in college. Nevada’s four transfers in this year’s class – Nisre Zouzoua (20.3 ppg), Jazz Johnson (15.8 ppg), Tre’Shawn Thurman (13.8 ppg) and Marquez Letcher-Ellis (7.7 ppg) – averaged 14.4 points per player per game last season. It’s highly unlikely any of them aren't productive for the Wolf Pack when eligible. Going back to that NBA analogy, if you draft a player, it’s probably a 50-50 shot he doesn’t become a league average player. When you sign a free agent, you pretty much know what you’re going to get.

* ANOTHER PLUS CAN ALSO BE viewed as a con: Under Musselman’s system, Nevada has had, on average, just active nine scholarship players per season (you’re allowed 13 per program). The Wolf Pack has typically soaked up four of those 13 on transfers sitting out. That leaves you thin if some players get hurt or suspended, which has happened to Nevada in each of the last two seasons, but Musselman has already shown he prefers a smaller rotation anyway. And with only nine available scholarship guys, in-fighting over minutes is muted. It’s hard to keep 13 scholarship players happy with their role over a five-month season. It’s a lot easier to keep nine guys happy. The risk is you’re a couple of extended injuries away from major depth trouble, but Nevada has avoided such calamity so far.

Nevada lands uber athlete Marquez Letcher-Ellis from Rice

Jazz Johnson, smooth shooter from Portland, commits to Pack

Pack gets commit from high-scoring guard Nisré Zouzoua

Pack lands burly big man transfer Tre'Shawn Thurman

* LET’S BE HONEST, there’s another big plus to recruiting transfers. It takes far less time to successfully recruit transfers than prep players. If you’re trying to lure a top-150 high school recruit, you have to put in a good two years of relationship building to secure a commitment. With D-I transfers, you put in about a month of wooing and you’re good. It’s a clear shortcut to higher-end talent and since Nevada has had a carousel of assistant coaches (eight assistants in those 25 months), it’s hard to build those long-lasting relationships to strike big in the prep market. And Nevada has been able to get top-100 talent – Caleb Martin, Cody Martin and Kendall Stephens were all top-100 prep prospects – via transfers. It's unlikely those players would have given Nevada a second look coming out of high school given their many options, but it's a lot easier as a bounce-back following a transfer.

* WE SHOULD CREDIT NEVADA for landing some integral high school recruits under Musselman. Of the five players they’ve signed out of high school – Cameron Oliver, Lindsey Drew, Josh Hall, Devearl Ramsey, Kenny Wooten – one is already headed to the NBA (Oliver), one will be a four-year starter (Drew), one played significant minutes as a freshman (Hall), one transferred (Ramsey) and one reneged on his commitment but should be a big-time player (Wooten, who will play for Oregon next season). When Nevada has gotten in on the high school circuit, it has done well with the players it has signed. It hasn't tied up a lot of dead scholarships in misses, which has allowed it to allocate more resources to sit-out transfers.

* WITH SO MANY MORE PLAYERS transferring today than 10 years ago, it’d be negligent to ignore the transfer market, but nobody – not even Musselman – thought he would lean so heavily on transfers. A 50-50 split is about the most drastic you’ll see for a college program. Under Musselman, Nevada has been a 75-25 split in favor of transfers. For Nevada to win big – meaning advance in the NCAA Tournament – it likely has to get more involved in the prep market, but talent is talent no matter where it comes from. And why would anybody question Musselman’s formula given what it’s delivered thus far?

* CAVALIERS COACH TYRONN LUE believes his gig is “the hardest job, by far” among NBA coaches. I'm sure half of the coaches in the NBA would disagree with that. Billy Donovan, Frank Vogel, Brett Brown, Dave Joerger, Kenny Atkinson, Earl Watson, Fred Hoiberg, Alvin Gentry, Luke Walton and scores more would surely sign up to coach arguably the best player in basketball history, LeBron James, and two future Hall of Famers, Kyrie Irving and Kevin Love, rather than their dead-end franchises. Most pressure-packed job? I’ll give Lue that. It’s NBA title or bust. And I’m sure LeBron isn’t easy to deal with. But simply having him on your roster essentially means you’re going to be in the NBA Finals every year.

* LAVAR BALL’S BIG BALLER BRAND debuted its ZO2 shoe line and will sell them for $495, although if you’re looking for a discount you can get the sandals for $220 a pair. Conversely, if you have big feet, you have to pay $695 for shoes size 14 and up. I’m haven’t spent $495 on shoes over the last five years combined, so I’ll take a hard pass on the ZO2 shoes but am considering the sandals. Anytime you can spend $220 on a piece of plastic on which to place your feet while at the beach, you have to consider it.

Columnist Chris Murray provides insight on Northern Nevada sports. Contact him at cmurray@rgj.com or follow him on Twitter @MurrayRGJ.