The Nevada Wolf Pack took on Dayton in the NCAA March Madness tournament today. It turned out to be a wild game. Nevada was the ten seed. Dayton was the seven seed. There was a lot of excitement and hype going into the game. Nevada was coming off of a loss in the Mountain West conference tournament. Dayton was coming off of a loss in the Atlantic 10 Conference tournament. The winner was going to advance to play Arizona in the Second Round of March Madness.
Nevada got off to a slow start. Nevada had a nine point lead at halftime. They went on a sixteen point run in the last five minutes of the half. The score was 34-25 Nevada going into the second half. Nevada got their lead up to 17. Then Nevada stopped playing. There were careless with the ball. They stopped rebounding. They stopped taking high percentage shots. Nevada still had a nine point lead with around five minutes left in the game. Around three minutes to go in the game and Nevada only had a three point lead. Around two minutes in the game Dayton tied the game. Dayton took a three point lead with fifteen seconds to go and that was it. The final score was 60-63 Dayton.
Once Dayton got within ten points Nevada should have started to push for high percentage shots. They should have been driving the lane looking for fouls and high percentage shots. The last ten minutes of the game should have been about slowing the game down and trying to get Daytons players fouled out. When up by fifteen or more points the goal should be to slow the game down and keep the ball out of the hands of Dayton. Instead Nevada was making poor choices down the stretch. This is one day that will live in Wolf Pack fans heads forever. Dayton will now get destroyed by Arizona. There was nothing in Daytons performance that makes me think they can be competitive with a team like Arizona. The Mountain west are now 1-3 in March Madness.
I was angry right after the game. We had it. We let it slip. It has been a few minutes and I have calmed down a little bit but I am still upset about it. I have gone from wanting to put holes in the wall to just being sad about it. This partially comes down to injury as Nevada was without their top reserve player Hunter McIntosh. I think having less choices on how to mix things up and change up momentum late in the game hurt Nevada. Despite not winning a game in either the Mountain West Tournament or March Madness I think that Nevada overall had a good season. It’s better than not being there. Looking at you UNLV. I don’t think Nevada needs to fire anyone or overhaul anything. I am optimistic about what Steve Alford has in store for the future of this program. That is tough to say right after a loss like this but it is the truth.
Zac Electrifly 
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