Nevada Basketball: Wolf Pack must channel their inner UMBC
By Shaun Gordon
Nevada is set to take on Cincinnati’s elite defense. UMBC took on an elite defense too, and they shocked the world.
It finally happened.
A No. 16 seed finally took down a No. 1 seed. One of the last barriers in sports has broken.
And UMBC did it in dominant fashion. They took down Virginia, the top overall team in the NCAA Tournament, by 20 points.
Virginia entered the Big Dance as the No. 1 defensive team in the nation. It fact, they boasted a historically good defense.
Yet UMBC put up 74 points on that vaunted defense, shooting 54.2% from the field and 50% from deep. It’s the most points the Cavaliers gave up all season.
From one dog to another
So why does Nevada care?
The Wolf Pack take on No. 2 seed Cincinnati in the Round of 32. The Bearcats earned that high seed with their defense.
Sound familiar?
The only team in the country better than Cincinnati in scoring defense this year was Virginia.
The Bearcats play with a slow tempo, grinding teams on defense and eating up the shot clock on offense.
They’re not particularly efficient on offense. They’re not likely to outscore you in a shootout, but they don’t let it become that kind of game very often.
Just like Virginia.
The Cavaliers let their game turn into a shootout, but they forgot to bring their firepower.
Nevada likes a shootout. They’re 16th in the nation in scoring offense. They shoot well, play efficiently, and find good opportunities to push the ball. Led by the Martin brothers, the Wolf Pack can reach 80 points in a hurry.
They’ll have to do all those things to take down the Bearcats and punch their ticket to the Sweet 16. They’ve already shown they can score on a stout defense like the overtime win against Texas, and Coach Musselman and the team hopes it’ll happen again versus Cincinnati.