Busting Brackets
Fansided

Mountain West Basketball: 3 Biggest Threats to the Nevada Wolf Pack for the 2018-19 season

By Tristan Freeman

LAS VEGAS, NV - MARCH 10: Head coach Brian Dutcher of the San Diego State Aztecs celebrates after cutting down the net the team victory over the New Mexico Lobos after the championship game of the Mountain West Conference basketball tournament at the Thomas
LAS VEGAS, NV - MARCH 10: Head coach Brian Dutcher of the San Diego State Aztecs celebrates after cutting down the net the team victory over the New Mexico Lobos after the championship game of the Mountain West Conference basketball tournament at the Thomas /
facebooktwitterreddit
Prev
1 of 4
Next
ATLANTA, GA – MARCH 22: Head coach Eric Musselman of the Nevada Wolf Pack reacts against the Loyola Ramblers in the first half during the 2018 NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament South Regional at Philips Arena on March 22, 2018 in Atlanta, Georgia. (Photo by Kevin C. Cox/Getty Images)
ATLANTA, GA – MARCH 22: Head coach Eric Musselman of the Nevada Wolf Pack reacts against the Loyola Ramblers in the first half during the 2018 NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament South Regional at Philips Arena on March 22, 2018 in Atlanta, Georgia. (Photo by Kevin C. Cox/Getty Images) /

With the recent moves made by the Nevada Wolf Pack, Mountain West Basketball looks to have a clear favorite. Who are the teams that could dethrone them?

No program in college basketball has had a better set of news than Nevada, who after going to the Sweet Sixteen, already has started refilling up the roster with great talent.

The Wolf Pack got grad transfers Ehab Amin (16.9 ppg two years ago at Texas A&M Corpus Christie) and former Old Dominion big man Trey Porter. Them alone would’ve been good enough of an off-season for the team, but the good news continued, with the commitment of top-20 recruit for the 2018 class Jordan Brown.

He along with Porter gives Nevada the kind of size the program didn’t have a year ago. Those two players figure to be part of next season’s starting lineup, although questions remain about who’ll join them.

Jordan Carolina along with both Cody and Caleb Martin have all declared for the 2018 NBA Draft, with none of them signing with an agent left. So all three of them could conceivably come back, but it’s starting to be unlikely. Even if they all go, coach Eric Musselman and staff have brought in enough talent through the transfer market to be a preseason ranked team.

That’s bad news for the rest of the Mountain West, with each program losing some good talent from the previous season. It’s looking unlikely that any of them will prevent the Wolf Pack from claiming their third regular season title in a row.

Still, it’s not impossible. There are three teams in particular in the conference who can give Nevada a run for their money. Who is the biggest threat? Find out now.