Nevada at 10: What we've learned about the Wolf Pack so far

The 2017-18 Nevada basketball team had a fairly simple script to beat teams. Out-score them. Or, more accurately, out-shoot them. It was an awesome offensive team that struggled defensively and that formula was good enough to carry Nevada to the Sweet 16 for just the second time in school history.

But with only three players from that team still on this year's active squad — Caleb Martin, Cody Martin and Jordan Caroline — the identity of the Wolf Pack was sure to change. And through the team's first 10 games, all of which were victories, there's no question this is a different kind of squad.

“Last year’s team, our identity was just 3-point shooting," Cody Martin said. "I think it was really hard for us if we weren’t hitting shots from the outside with guys like Caleb and Kendall (Stephens). With this team this year, we kind of have the same feel with 3-point shooting because we have a lot more guys who can shoot the three-ball, but at the same time it gives us a mixture of being able to go inside and out, too. We’re able to go downhill a lot of times. We have more guys with the ability to bring the ball up the court and make plays. We’re more of a threat from a variety of ways this year than we were last year. If we weren’t making shots last year, it was tough for us because we weren’t the greatest defending team and this year we have the capability of defending really, really well when we want to, and when we do it shows. We rebound the ball a lot better, we alter shots at the rim. It's just a different feel.”

Fourth-year coach Eric Musselman agreed, saying Nevada can win in a variety of different ways this season, which is the ultimate goal of every head coach. That broader base of strengths gives Nevada more margin for error when it hits the court.

“Good teams can play multiple ways," Musselman said. "Year one here, we had one way to play, and if we didn’t defend we weren’t going to win. Last year, we had one way to win. We had to out-score people and out-shoot them because we weren’t going out-defend them. This team kind of has split personalities. We can win in several different ways, both offensively and defensively.”

Here is a look at 10 things we've learned about Nevada in its first 10 games (in no particular order)

1. Nevada can play defense

The biggest difference between last year's team and this year's team is defense. Nevada is 31st in Ken Pomeroy's defensive metrics. It was 108th last season. That's a marked and important difference, especially considering the history showing it requires a top-50 defense to have any shot of reaching the Final Four. Nevada's defense looked sketchy in the exhibition season and it had so-so outings against Tulsa and UMass around Thanksgiving, but it has come on strong in recent wins over Arizona State and Grand Canyon and has gone from liability to asset in the first third of this season.

2. Jazz Johnson is good at shooting

Musselman was on the fence about offering Johnson a scholarship given his size (he's listed at 5-foot-10), but he was eventually talked into doing so by his youngest son, Matthew, who also is fairly small. The gamble has paid off. A big question this season was who would emerge from the trio of Johnson, Corey Henson and Nisré Zouzoua in gaining Musselman's trust and valuable minutes off the bench. It has been Johnson, who is shooting 57.8 percent from the field, 54.3 percent from three and 93.1 percent from the free throw line. Those numbers might be unsustainable, but Johnson has become one of the team's most valuable players.

3. Jordan Caroline might be unstoppable

The Wolf Pack senior has never been the main star at Nevada. Two years ago, he was overshadowed by Marcus Marshall and Cameron Oliver. Last year, he was overshadowed by Caleb and Cody Martin. But Caroline has been one of the nation's most productive players this season and is the favorite for Mountain West player of the year. He's averaging 18.6 points and 10.2 rebounds per game and has seven double-doubles in 10 contests. Caroline is scoring more efficiently than he ever has and his 85 free throw attempts rank eighth nationally. "If they don't feel him, he's going to make them feel him," Cody Martin said of Caroline instilling his will on the opponent.

4. They don't turn the ball over

The most astonishing thing about Nevada's win over Arizona State was not that it came back from 15 points down. It was that the Wolf Pack turned the ball over eight times in the first eight minutes. This team simply does not turn the ball over, which has allowed it to remain an elite offensive team despite taking a step back in its shooting ability. Nevada's 9.6 turnovers per game rank seventh in the nation. Its 1.64 assists per turnover also rank seventh. Typically, low-turnover teams: (a) play at a slow pace or (b) are iso heavy and don't pass the ball enough to turn it over. Nevada is neither. It plays at a solid tempo and aims for 200 passes per game. Cody Martin (59 assists to 18 turnovers) has been especially superb in playing without giveaways.

5. We should mention the shooting

Nevada is not as good of a shooting team as last season when it hit nearly 40 percent of its treys. That was expected with the losses of Kendall Stephens and Hallice Cooke. The Wolf Pack has not been a bad shooting team, thanks largely to Johnson, but Caleb Martin's shooting has gone AWOL ("I’ve just been garbage," Martin said of his shooting stroke) and no Wolf Pack player outside of Johnson and Martin has made more than one 3-pointer per game. Nevada is still shooting 35.8 percent from three, which isn't horrible by any means, but it's not as dangerous from three as it was last year. If Martin gets his stroke going, that will change, with Musselman saying his team is basically "unbeatable" at that point. Until then, Nevada will see plenty of zone.

6. Jordan Brown fighting for minutes

You know your team is going good when fans and media have to find things to complain about. One item that falls under that topic for Nevada is the playing time of Jordan Brown, the McDonald's All-American who has been in a fight to get on the court. He's averaging 5.0 points and 2.8 rebounds per game in 11.7 minutes per contest while shooting 54.1 percent from the field, but he hasn't been able to get double-digit minutes since Thanksgiving day. He's averaged 5.6 minutes per game over Nevada's last five contests, but he's coming off back-to-back strong efforts and should see an increased role.

"He's getting better and better and better," Nevada assistant coach Gus Argenal told NSN Daily this week. "Even if his minutes aren't what he wants, it's his work in practice. He's getting in the weight room extra, he's shooting after practice. If he continues to do that, the sky's the limit. We all know that, and his practice habits are improving and he's doing a great job."

7. Tre'Shawn Thurman is really important

It would have been fair to assume the Wolf Pack would have a fluid starting rotation throughout the season. That was the case in Musselman's first three seasons and with the number of talented players on this year's roster, you could see the same thing happening. Instead, Nevada has used the same first five for all 10 games, and that's largely because of the emergence of Tre'Shawn Thurman, a senior transfer who is averaging nearly 30 minutes per game and has become the Wolf Pack's jack-of-all-trades. He's averaging 8.2 points, 6.2 rebounds and 1.6 steals per game while shooting 47.6 percent from the field and defending the opposition's best frontcourt player. That's a valuable piece.

8. Nevada is still comeback kings

After rallying from 12 points down against Texas and 22 points down against Cincinnati in last year's NCAA Tournament, Nevada earned the title of college's comeback kings. That trait seems to have carried over to this year as the Wolf Pack dug out of a 15-point hole to beat No. 20 Arizona State and a 12-point hole to beat Grand Canyon in its last two games. Of course, Nevada would prefer not to be in such situations, but it doesn't seem to have any issues playing from behind, which is a good trait to have even if you don't want to use it. Nevada's maturity certainly helps. "The biggest thing is just sticking to the game plan and having confidence and not getting down on ourselves," Cody Martin said of the comebacks. Nevada hasn't been horrible in the first half. It is plus-82 in the first half and plus-87 in the second half.

9. The Mountain West is trash

Trash is a little strong, but the Mountain West has done Nevada no favors during non-conference play, which means the Wolf Pack has little margin for error if it wants to secure a one or two seed in the NCAA Tournament. Nevada has played only one Quad 1 game so far (and won't play another one in non-conference action). In fact, the Wolf Pack is on track to play only four Quad 1 games all season and nine games that are Quad 1 or 2. Duke, for example, is scheduled to play 12 Quad 1s and 20 Quad 1/2s. Gonzaga is on pace for nine and 14, respectively. That's the Wolf Pack's competition for a top-two seed, so it really can't afford more than a couple of losses to stay in the discussion for a great seed in March.

10. Nevada could run the table

The Wolf Pack is one of nine unbeaten teams in the nation and it has the fewest road blocks remaining to complete a perfect regular season, which has a 12.5 percent chance of happening, per KenPom. So, it's still a long shot, but Nevada will be favored in every game for the rest of the season. The Wolf Pack surely isn't focusing on this with the day-to-day grind to embrace, but this is special territory. "There are only nine schools in the country with this record," Musselman said. "All of this stuff is big-time exposure for the university and it should make the crowd even more in a frenzy walking into the building, and I think it's awesome because of the hype. When you're watching SportsCenter and your school has a number next to it, it doesn't happen often." Even Musselman's family is pushing for that unbeaten year. The coach joked when he picked up his son, Matthew, after his high school game Tuesday in the Bay Area, he was putting pressure on him. "When he jumped in the car, he said, 'Hey, dad, until I see you next week, keep the zero next to the latter part of the record.'"

That's what everybody in Northern Nevada is hoping for.