The Aggies travel to the Biggest Little City in the World to take on what is their toughest game to date, but just a precursor of a very difficult schedule over the next month. The future MWC opponent also once was a past FWC opponent. (I fondly remember the time we beat the Wolfpack 122-71 back in 1968.) Recently the series has been dominated by Nevada who has beaten the Aggies 15 straight times now, most recently in 2023, 68-80.

Aggie fans will not so fondly remember the Wolfpack’s Center, 6’10” Joel Armotrading, who transferred from UC Riverside. He’s not much of an offensive presence but he can rebound. Ironically, he does not lead UNR in rebounds. That honor presently belongs to Elijah Price, yet another transfer who is averaging over 10 rpg. He also has a decent 3-point shot. At 6’9” he and Armotrading provide an imposing front court. The scoring comes from two of their three starting guards, Tayshawn Comer (17.7 ppg) and Corey Camper (15.5 ppg), as well as Price. The point guard, Tyle Rolison, is not a big scorer, but he can dish out assists. A fourth guard, Chuck Bailey III, provide instant offense with his 46.7% trey shooting ability. As a team, these guys also can sweep the glass, averaging 48.7 rpg, 14th in the nation.

Nevada opened the season with three straight wins at home over decent Div. I opponents, but they ran into a tough Santa Clara team down in Silicon Valley and lost 98-83. The Wolfpack defense could be a little suspect as they have allowed an average of 72.8 ppg, while scoring 79.8 ppg. As with so many teams with mostly new players, defense is often spotty as we saw with Sac State. With UCD averaging 79.0 ppg on offense and holding other teams to 69.3 ppg, this game might come down to how well the Aggie’s offense scores on the road, something they did not do well in Portland.