The Nevada men’s basketball team’s 2024-25 roster may be unprecedented, but it will have one interesting twist.
For the fifth time in the last 50 years of the Wolf Pack, the roster will not include a scholarship freshman. That became clear when Sky Harris told Nevada Sports Net Monday was not enrolling at Nevada this season despite signing with the team in November.
Nevada’s six-player 2024 recruiting class will instead include all Division I transfers, including Kobe Sanders (Cal Poly), Xavier DuSell (Fresno State), Brandon Love (Texas State), Chuck Bailey III ( Evansville), Justin McBride (Oklahoma State). and Yuto Yamanouchi-Williams (Portland). Nevada has announced all but Yamanouchi-Williams.
That’s a big change from the model Steve Alford used during his first few seasons in Nevada. Now in his sixth year with the Wolf Pack, Alford had signed 14 high school players, 11 Division I transfers and two non-DI transfers in his first five recruiting classes at Nevada. That was a nearly even split of 14 prep players and 13 transfers. This offseason, it’s been all about transfers as Nevada looks to replace its two leading scorers, Jarod Lucas and Kenan Blackshear, both of whom transferred.
Nevada joined Division I in 1969 with its first three rosters after that move and four of its first six without a scholarship freshman. But since 1974-75, only five Wolf Pack squads before this season have lacked a scholarship freshman. Those teams are described below.
2017-18: Nevada went 29-8, won a share of the MW regular season title at 15-3, and reached the Sweet 16 of the NCAA Tournament; It included two walk-on freshmen, John Jones and Elijah Cooks, the latter added from the football team.
2011-12: Nevada went 28-7, won the WAC regular season title at 13-1 and reached the NIT quarterfinals; The Wolf Pack had accepted six scholarship freshmen in the previous class.
2002-03: Nevada went 18-14 and played in the NIT for the third time in program history.
1994-95: Nevada went 18-11 and reached the championship game of the Big West Tournament, where it lost to Long Beach State in overtime.
1986-87: Nevada went 15-15 in the final season of Sonny Allen’s seven years with the Wolf Pack
Generally speaking, Wolf Pack teams without a scholarship freshman have been excellent, compiling an overall record of 108-55 with a Sweet 16 berth in the NCAA Tournament and two NIT appearances. Maybe we shouldn’t draw too many parallels to those seasons when projecting next year, but those rosters tended to be more veteran groups that didn’t have much playing time for rookies, so they didn’t add high school recruits that season. That appears to be the case again this year, but we’re also in a very different era of college basketball.
Recruiting high school players has its advantages, and I doubt Nevada will completely abandon that avenue of talent acquisition. Even if you don’t get a recruit out of high school, you still build a relationship should that player enter the portal. You can get them as rebound players. But recruiting prep prospects also comes with many pitfalls.
Even if you have a big hit with an under-the-radar recruit like Nevada did with 2022-23 Mountain West Freshman of the Year Darrion Williams, there’s a good chance you’ll lose that player after one season. Each of MW’s last two freshmen of the year, including Williams and New Mexico’s JT Toppin, transferred to Texas Tech after one year at MW, presumably for big-money NIL deals. Even if they don’t shine early, they could leave for supposedly greener pastures in search of more immediate playing time.
Nevada’s 2024-25 roster will continue to be heavily impacted by prep recruits, with Nick Davidson and Tré Coleman key pieces and Tyler Rolison, a freshman last year, a potential starter. KJ Hymes, who signed with Nevada out of high school under Eric Musselman, also returns as a starter. And Daniel Foster should have an important role. They’re five of Nevada’s top 10 that come to Nevada as prep recruits, so he’s been a big part of the program. It will be interesting to see if that will continue to be the case.
Of the 14 Nevada prep recruits signed by Alford, only three have started more than 10 games in a season (Davidson, Coleman, Williams). Of the 11 Division I transfers signed by Alford before this offseason, seven have become full-time starters, the only exceptions being AJ Bramah (a starter until he was kicked off the team); Hunter McIntosh (was going to start until injured); Tylan Pope (had a good chance of starting until injured); and Tyler Powell (reserve from start).
Nevada has had more success with transfers than prep players with Alford, as it also did with Musselman. This is just where college basketball is at, and while I don’t expect future Nevada rosters to be devoid of a scholarship freshman like the 2024-25 group of players, that’s a rare distinction for next year’s team.
Columnist Chris Murray provides insight into Northern Nevada sports. Contact him at crmurray@sbgtv.com or follow him on Twitter @ByChrisMurray.