Something has to give: Pack (0-4) plays Bulldogs (0-5)

A look ahead to the Nevada Wolf Pack men's basketball game against the Fresno State Bulldogs on Saturday in Fresno:

TIP-OFF: 4 p.m., Save Mart Center in Fresno.

RECORDS: Nevada (8-7, 0-4); Fresno State (4-12, 0-5).

HOW TO WATCH, LISTEN: Streaming: Mountain West Network. Radio: 95.5 FM.

AT STAKE: Both teams are still seeking their first Mountain West victory of the season. Air Force (3-11, 0-3) and San Jose State (7-10, 0-5) are the only other winless teams in league play in the 11-team Mountain West. Both teams are also looking to end long losing streaks. Fresno State has lost five games in a row and 10 of its last 11 while Nevada has lost four in a row and six of its last eight.

THE RIVALRY: The Wolf Pack leads, 66-45, in the rivalry which began in 1925. The Wolf Pack won 26 of the first 40 games before 1955 and has won 13 of the last 14 games since March 2017.

LAST MEETINGS: The Pack beat Fresno State twice last season, 74-66 in Reno on March 1, 2024, and 72-57 in Fresno on Jan. 6. Jarod Lucas led the Pack with 21 points and Nick Davidson had 19 in the victory in Reno in March while Kenan Blackshear had 18 and Lucas had 17 in the victory in January.

FRESNO STATE LAST TIME OUT: The Bulldogs were dominated by Colorado State, 91-64, on Tuesday night in Fort Collins, Colo. Alex Crawford led Fresno State with 21 points in 32 minutes off the bench.

NEVADA LAST TIME OUT: Nelly Joseph picked up a loose ball off the floor and hit a jumper from about the free-throw line as time expired as New Mexico beat the Wolf Pack, 82-81, in Albuquerque last Friday. Kobe Sanders led Nevada with 20 points.

REST HASN'T HELPED WOLF PACK: The Wolf Pack on Saturday night will have gone eight days between games (Jan. 3-11), its longest stretch without stepping on the court for a game since it also went eight days from Nov. 24 (a 90-78 win over Oklahoma State) to Dec. 2 (a 68-57 loss to Washington State). That loss on Dec. 2 started the Pack on its current slide of six losses in eight games. The Pack has also gone seven days twice over the last eight games between games, losing both times when it returned to the court. It beat Texas Southern, 105-73, on Dec. 14, but lost a week later on Dec. 21, 66-64, against Colorado State and then lost seven days later on Dec. 28, 66-63, at Wyoming.

THE HEAD COACHES: Nevada's Steve Alford is 104-66 since coming to Nevada in 2019-20. The 60-year-old Alford is 691-364 over 34 seasons as a head coach. Fresno State's Vance Walberg is 4-12 and in his first season with the Bulldogs. The 68-year-old Walberg, a long-time high school coach in Fresno, was also 14-35 in two seasons (2006-08) as Pepperdine's head coach. Walberg also was a NBA assistant for four years (2012-16) with the Denver Nuggets, Philadelphia 76ers and Sacramento Kings.

SIX DEGREES OF VANCE WALBERG: Walberg has connections in a round-about way to numerous former Northern Nevada high school coaches. All of Walberg's six degrees of separation connections to Northern Nevada coaches took place when he was head coach at Clovis West High in Fresno from 1989-2002 and again from 2016 through last season. When he returned to Clovis West in 2016, he replaced former South Tahoe High coach Tom Orlich. Orlich went to Stanford in 2016 as an assistant under head coach Jerod Haase, one of his former South Tahoe players. Orlich is now back in Fresno as the head coach at Buchanan High and one of his assistants is former Damonte Ranch coach Torrey Sheets. Another former Buchanan High coach is Carson High graduate Eric Swain, also a former Reno High head coach. Walberg also coached at Clovis West in the early 2000s with former Reno High girls basketball coach Craig Campbell, who was Clovis West's girls basketball coach.

FAMILIAR FACE ON BULLDOGS: Former Wolf Pack player Jalen Weaver is now a starter at Fresno State. Weaver, a 6-4 guard, spent just one season on the bench for the Wolf Pack in 2021-22, getting into just 11 games and playing just 56 minutes and scoring 11 total points. He left Nevada and spent one season at Salt Lake Community College in 2022-23, before joining Fresno State last year, averaging 7.4 points a game over 33 games, mainly off the bench. He scored 10 points over two games against the Wolf Pack last year, hitting 3-of-6 3-pointers. Weaver this season has started 13-of-14 games while averaging 10.9 points, 3.7 rebounds and 1.4 assists and one steal a game.

FAMILIAR FACE ON WOLF PACK: Wolf Pack 6-4 guard Xavier DuSell played at Fresno State last year, averaging 11.5 points a game. DuSell is averaging 7.5 points and two threes a game for the Pack this year. He started 33 games last season for Fresno State, playing 32 minutes a game. He started the Pack's first 12 games this year but has come off the bench the last three games and is averaging 19 minutes a game.

KEY BULLDOGS: Zaon Collins (6-foot-1), a Bishop Gorman graduate, leads the Bulldogs at 12.9 points a game. He's shooting 50 percent (.504) from the floor and 42 percent (16-of-38) on threes. Alex Crawford (6-8) is averaging 11.0 points a game and has made 61 percent (61-of-99) of his shots. Mykell Robinson (6-7) is averaging 10.8 points and 6.3 rebounds a game. Elijah Price (6-9) is averaging 9.3 points and 8.0 rebounds while Jalen Weaver (6-4) adds 10.9 points and 3.7 rebounds a game. The Bulldogs also use their bench extensively, with Jasir Temple, David Douglas, Mor Seck and Brian Amumeke all averaging between 13 and 16 minutes a game.

KEY WOLF PACK: Nick Davidson (6-8) is averaging 15.3 points and 6.7 rebounds. Tre Coleman (6-7) adds 8.9 points, 2.9 rebounds and 4.1 assists while Kobe Sanders (6-6) is averaging 15.1 points, 3.3 rebounds and 4.3 assists in his first year at Nevada. Xavier DuSell (6-4) is averaging 7.5 points a game, Justin McBride (6-8) is averaging 7.1 points while Brandon Love (6-9) is adding 6.4 points a game. All three (DuSell, Love, McBride) have bounced back and forth between the starting lineup and the bench recently. Daniel Foster (6-6) was inserted into the starting lineup the last three games and is averaging 3.1 points and 3.2 rebounds over nine total games.

BULLDOGS MISFIRING: Fresno State is one of the worst shooting teams in Division I. The Bulldogs are shooting .4056 from the floor (335th in the nation); are 315th in free throw percentage (.6595); and 276th in 3-point shooting (.3184). Among the worst Bulldog shooters in their regular rotation are Mykell Robinson, who is 54-of-172 (.314) from the floor and Elijah Price, who is 2-of-21 on threes and 52-of-95 (.547) from the line. The Wolf Pack, by comparison is .483 from the floor (47th nationally), .409 on threes (sixth) and .696 from the line (238th).

PACK-BULLDOG THRILLERS: There was a time when the Wolf Pack and Bulldogs had trouble figuring out a winner in the rivalry. The Pack and Bulldogs had four overtime games over a stretch of 10 games from February 2012 to February 2016. The Pack won three of the overtime games (79-76 in triple overtime in Fresno on Feb. 25, 2012; 96-86 in double overtime in Fresno on Jan. 22, 2014; and 77-72 in one overtime on Feb. 13, 2016 in Reno). Fresno beat the Pack 69-64 in one overtime in Reno on Feb. 19, 2013. Some of the memorable Pack performances in those overtime games were Olek Czyz (25 points, 11 rebounds) and Dario Hunt (20 points, 15 rebounds) in the February 2012 win in triple overtime, D.J. Fenner (24 points) and Cam Oliver (20 points, 24 rebounds, three blocks) in the February 2016 victory and Deonte Burton (32 points) and Cole Huff (31 points) in the January 2014 victory.