Santoro: Alford, Pack giving fans reasons to believe

Sports Fodder:

Do Nevada Wolf Pack fans believe in this year’s men’s basketball team? Well, yes. Sort of. The Wolf Pack is 16-5 overall this season and 6-2 in the Mountain West and appear to be a legitimate contender to return to the NCAA Tournament for the first time since 2018-19. Judging by the attendance at Lawlor Events Center this year it is safe to assume Pack fans definitely believe in this team. It’s hard, after all, not to believe in a 16-5 record. But that belief needs to go to the next level over the final five home games. Your team needs you, Pack fans. Well, to be exact, it needs more of you. The Wolf Pack has yet to attract as many as 8,300 fans to a game this year despite a 10-0 record at Lawlor. The 8,292 that showed up to watch the memorable 97-94 double-overtime win over New Mexico on Monday is the season high. Pack fans, we know you can do better than that. We’ve seen it. Heard it. Felt it rattle our bones. They used to hear it out in Winnemucca when Lawlor was filled. The 2018-19 team, just four short years ago, averaged a school-record 10,878 fans a game. There were 14 crowds that year of 10,000 or more. Since then, since coach Steve Alford took over the program, a crowd of 10,000-plus has happened just twice, for an 86-72 win over UNLV on Jan. 22, 2020 (10,325) and an 83-76 loss to San Diego State on Feb. 29, 2020 (10,855). But then COVID-19 hit and, well, there has been a pandemic hangover ever since all throughout college sports. No fans were allowed in 2020-21 and last year’s team finished 13-18 overall. The home schedule this year also did its best to keep fans away, with Utah Tech, Grand Canyon, William Jessup, Sam Houston, San Diego and Norfolk State starting things off. But the four Mountain West games have averaged a respectable 7,404 fans. Pack fans can do better and will do better. The last five games at Lawlor are almost guaranteed to cause traffic jams and parking problems up on N. Virginia Street. But the Pack better come back home from Las Vegas on Saturday with another victory. You know, just to make sure. Pack fans love a winner.

•••

The Eric Musselman years, of course, nearly busted Lawlor Events Center at the seams. Musselman, with his amazing collection of talent led by Caleb and Cody Martin, Lindsey Drew, Jordan Caroline, Cam Oliver, Jazz Johnson and others, made the Pack wish it could expand Lawlor‘s capacity. The excitement all started when 11,341 came to watch the Pack beat UNLV, 65-63, on Jan. 23, 2016. The last three years of the Musselman era then filled Lawlor with 10,000-plus fans 24 times. Those teams, after all, almost never lost at home, they had star power and future NBA talent, and you never knew when the coach would take off his shirt. You’d go to a Pack game at Lawlor and almost expect to find a red carpet leading you inside the arena. This year’s Pack team doesn’t have that star power on the court or even on the bench. They play just as hard as Musselman’s teams and maybe even more cohesively as a unit. But the excitement and the buzz around the team is nowhere near where the Muss Bus used to be. Steve Alford has the resume to match Musselman but he’s not taking off his shirt anytime soon. Musselman’s Pack took off and ignited the community after winning the CBI at Lawlor in 2015-16. The win over New Mexico on Monday might be that same sort of community-igniting moment. It is certainly a start. This team now needs to solidify its fan base excitement by getting to the NCAA Tournament.

•••

Is this Pack team winning with mirrors, magic tricks and officials who are afraid to call a foul on anyone dressed in silver and blue at Lawlor Events Center? Not at all. It is winning with defense, hustle, teamwork and, yes, talent. Go figure. Kenan Blackshear and Tre Coleman give this Pack team grit and nastiness and aren’t afraid of anyone or anything. Will Baker is a 7-footer with offensive skills that nobody in the Mountain West can deal with. Jarod Lucas came from the Pac-12. Darrion Williams doesn’t even know how good he is yet. And Nick Davidson would be starting for more than half the teams in the conference. When one guy has an off night, two other guys pick him up. Bobby Knight must be proud of Alford this season. Alford, after all, is winning without egos or superstars. They are winning under the radar and not complaining about it. Musselman never seemed happy with the attention he received in Northern Nevada. He always wanted more, always felt his team and he deserved more. And he was probably right. And that is why he’s now in Arkansas. Alford and his team don’t seem to care all that much about attention, credit or pats on the back. They, in fact, seem to thrive on sneaking up on people. Now we’ll see if they can continue to win when everybody knows they are coming.

•••

There will be three key moments the rest of this regular season when we’ll find out what this Pack team is truly made of. San Diego State at Lawlor on Jan. 31; at New Mexico on Feb. 7; and at Utah State on Feb. 18. The Pack should win its other seven games against teams that will all likely disappear by the semifinals of the Mountain West tournament in March. But the three showdowns mentioned above will define this regular season. Yes, this past Monday against New Mexico was one of those games, too, and the Pack passed the test. But it was at Lawlor against a team that is also trying to prove it, too, is legitimate. It was a nice way to warm up for the stretch run. Do it again at home against San Diego State on Tuesday and on the road at Utah State and New Mexico next month and, well, the community will light its hair on fire.

•••

The San Francisco 49ers will have their red and gold hands full against the Philadelphia Eagles this weekend. The 49ers should have buried an underachieving Dallas Cowboys team last week. But the 49ers never really could shake them. The Cowboys, after all, had a mistake-prone quarterback (Dak Prescott) who lost his best running back (Tony Pollard) in the first half. The Cowboys’ offense was simply CeeDee Lamb or punt. They also didn’t even know if their kicker could be trusted. The 49ers should have won that game by two touchdowns at home. But rookie quarterback Brock Purdy was simply OK, not great. The Cowboys controlled Christian McCaffrey rather easily. That performance against Dallas at home won’t be good enough in Philadelphia.

•••

The same goes for the Kansas City Chiefs against the Cincinnati Bengals. If the Bengals can go into snowy Buffalo and beat the Bills, they can certainly go to Kansas City and beat the Chiefs with a Patrick Mahomes that is one misstep away from playing on one leg. The Bengals did it just last year. Mahomes will need two good legs to beat Joe Burrow. Burrow, after all, is Brock Purdy with talent, height and experience. He deserved to win the Super Bowl last year. We will be watching the two best quarterbacks of this generation on Sunday in Kansas City. It’s Tom Brady against Peyton Manning. Dan Marino against John Elway. Terry Bradshaw against Roger Staubach.

•••

It is tempting to pick both road teams (San Francisco, Cincinnati) to win this weekend. Both teams, after all, seem like the teams of destiny this year. The 49ers started 3-4 and are winning with a rookie quarterback. The Bengals started the year 4-4. The 49ers have won 12 games in a row and the Bengals have won 10 in a row. But since the AFC and NFC started playing championship games in 1970 (after the AFL and NFL merged) the two road teams have only won the same year four times. Both home teams have won 22 times, leaving 26 times when one home team won. That means that at least one home team has won 48 of the 52 years. Take both home teams (Eagles, Chiefs) this weekend just to be on the safe side.

•••

All four of the quarterbacks this weekend (Patrick Mahomes, Jalen Hurts, Brock Purdy and Joe Burrow) are under the age of 30. Just 12 of the previous 56 Super Bowls had two starting quarterbacks under the age of 30. We’ll have No. 13 this year. One of all-Under 30 Super Bowl Quarterback Showdowns was when former Wolf Pack quarterback Colin Kaepernick (25 years old) met Joe Flacco (then 28) in Super Bowl 47 between the Baltimore Ravens and 49ers. All four of the quarterbacks that lost last weekend (Dak Prescott, Daniel Jones, Trevor Lawrence, Josh Allen) are also all under 30. That sigh you just heard came from 45-year-old Tom Brady and 39-year-old Aaron Rodgers, the two guys that will thoroughly dominate podcasts and talk shows after this year's Super Bowl ends.