Rebirth of Nevada Basketball
As the lights flickered off for a final time at Lawlor, so did first season of coach Musselman’s new tenure. His first season has been more than many people expected and more than the players hoped of. The community jumped on the bandwagon and started to support the Nevada Wolf Pack again. As the countdown of the next season starts, Musselman has already capitalized on his transition from an assistant, back to the head coaching position.
The city of Reno has been waiting for the resurgence of their beloved college basketball team for a while. The town missed the glory days when Nick Fazekas ran the team to the sweet sixteen of the NCAA tournament and all the stars that came out of the school and had great careers in the NBA.
The city finally had something to be happy about when the University of Nevada, Reno hired coach Eric Musselman.
“The University of Nevada has made an incredible hire,” said Tom Thibodeau.
As soon as he was brought in, the team and the community bought in to what he was all about.
“He immediately started bringing in transfers, they weren’t eligible to play, but it just brought in a different atmosphere in for sure,”said Nick Beaton, long time fan of the Nevada Wolf Pack.
The city was excited to see how the coach would do with all of the recruits and transfers that he was bringing in. Coach Musselman landed two very big recruits as soon as he began as the coach. Lindsey Drew and Cam Oliver were some of the first recruits that Musselman went after. The two had good offers from power five conferences including Arizona State and Oregon State. The two immediately brought intensity to the rest of the team by earning starting spots as freshmen.
The team responded to everything that the coach wanted from them and what he told them.
“He puts the pressure on himself,” said Chris Murray, sports editor for the Reno Gazette Journal, when asked about Musselman. “He’s kind of obsessed with winning. I think he would even admit that if he doesn’t win every game that he’s a part of in a given season, he’s going to be upset.” added Murray.
Many of the long time watchers of the Pack had different views on the coach but they all believed he could get the team to what they needed to be.
The Wolf Pack and Musselman started the season 7–3 in the first ten games of the season and were riding high going into the harder part of their season. They struggled to get past the bigger division one teams by then going 12–8 heading into conference play.
When Nevada played the power house of the conference, San Diego State, they played the Aztecs as well as ever. When the game got closer to the end and as the Aztecs gained a bigger lead, the Pack seemed to look like they lost the NCAA championship.
“Musselman is a tenacious, high energy, control freak at times, but that’s what makes him a great leader. Those traits rub off on your team when you’re a coach. I remember Nevada players being visibly upset when they lost to SDSU this season, a really talented MW team for the past 10 years, which wouldn’t have been the case two years ago,” said Jack Rieger, one of the sports writers for the Nevada Sagebrush.
Musselman continued to impress his new school and by getting his team into the Mountain West Conference tournament semifinals, a place they had never been before. He was able to bring the team together and compete at conference at the level that they have been trying for five years.
“During UNLV and the CBI games, not only were the players on the court waving their hands together getting the crowd pumped up, Musselman was turning around to the crowd, waving his arms and hands around trying to get everyone pumped up for the end of the game,” said Nick Beaton.
Musselman also challenged his team to always do their best when they needed each other to step up for big games. During the last game of the CBI, Musselman made a poster saying “I pledge to rebound the ball and be first to the floor every second I’m on the floor tonight!”
As the season was coming to a close, coach Musselman was nothing but happy about his team.
“This is my favorite team I’ve ever coached in all of basketball,” Musselman said.
This is the type of excitement that Musselman has brought to the city of Reno. He gave them even more to celebrate when he gave them basketball in the month of April. That is something that Reno has never seen and it brought record crowds that Lawlor Event Center hasn’t seen in a while.
As time continues to tick off the clock for UNR and Musselman for their next season, the city of Reno waits in anticipation for what much more the team can bring to the city.
