Nevada all business as it it prepares for San Diego State

There won't be any extracurricular activities this time.

No trips to the beach, nor any other sightseeing.

The Nevada men's basketball will be focused on the task at hand, beating San Diego State.

More:Wolf Pack up one spot in AP Top 25, landing at No. 6

The Wolf Pack (24-1), ranked sixth in the Associated Press and USA Today Coaches basketball polls released Monday, plays at San Diego State (16-9, 8-4 MW) at 8 p.m. Wednesday. The game will air on CBS Sports Network. 

The Wolf Pack is in first place in the Mountain West with a 11-1 conference record and has won its last 10 games by an average of 22 points per game. 

But the last two times the teams played, it did not go well for Nevada. The Pack lost at San Diego State last season (79-74) and then lost to the Aztecs in the Mountain West tournament (93-70).

San Diego State has won six of its past seven games and seems to be rounding into shape.

Nevada coach Eric Musselman noted that the Aztecs beat Gonzaga last season when the Bulldogs were ranked No. 12/15.

"They're perfectly capable of beating anyone on any given night, because they're really talented," Musselman said of the Aztecs. "They're as talented as any team we've played all year."

Musselman has lived all over the country, but played college basketball at the University of San Diego and grew up there. His mother lives there and she will be at the game, although his wife (Danyelle) and daughter (Mariah) will not be there.

With that in mind, the team is treating it as a business trip.

"My mom's not cooking. We're not going to anyone's house to eat. We'll go have a nice meal in Old Town, a good Mexican meal in Old Town and straight to the hotel. No Pacific Beach," Musselman said. "Nobody is going to check out La Jolla Rec, where I played. None of that stuff. Just because I'm not doing what I've done in the past. ...  We're treating it as if we're in Laramie (Wyoming)."

Musselman said the Nevada basketball team is not well liked in San Diego, but he did not say why.

"We know it. For whatever reason. I don't know," he said. "It's a place the Wolf Pack are not welcome. I know what the crowd is going to be like. When you're playing well, the crowds get fired up for you and the opposition team gets fired up."

He said the team is solely focused on the next game in front of it. He does not believe in momentum or streaks or carryover. He broke it down even further and said that making one shot has no effect on the next shot.

San Diego State has not lost a conference game at home this season.

"When the ball gets thrown up, their winning streak at home doesn't mean anything and how we're playing doesn't mean anything. It's just two teams going after each other for 40 minutes," Musselman said.

He added that San Diego is the most underrated basketball town in America and that basketball courts all over the area are always crowded with kids and adults playing and shooting. That widespread basketball knowledge leads to the sometimes frenetic crowds at games there.

The Wolf Pack has been ranked in the top 10 all 16 weeks of the 2018-19 season.  Overall, the Pack has been ranked the last 21 weeks in both polls dating back to last season. 

Nevada is coming off an 82-49 win over Wyoming on Saturday. Musselman said the team played good defense in that game and had a solid, consistent effort.

The Pack’s highest ranking of the season was fifth on Nov. 26 in the AP poll and fifth on Dec. 31 in the USA Today Coaches poll.  Both are the highest rankings in school history.

Nevada's 24-1 start is the best in school history and tied for the best in MW history after 25 games.