Weber State men’s basketball faces Mountain West road tests this week
Robert Casey, Weber State Athletics
Weber State players, from left, Blaise Threatt, Steven Verplancken Jr., Dillon Jones, Arnaud Revaz and Viljami Vartiainen take the court against Cal Poly on Dec. 9, 2023, at the Dee Events Center in Ogden.Weber State men’s basketball makes a Mountain West road swing this week by visiting Nevada and Wyoming in two more barometer games for the Wildcats (5-3). Both games will stream on themw.com/watch or the Mountain West Network streaming app.
Nevada (8 p.m. MST Wednesday) started the season 7-0 before taking a 19-point loss to Drake away from home last week in the Las Vegas suburb of Henderson.
The Pack are led by 6-foot-6 guard Kenan Blackshear. In his second season at Nevada after transferring from Florida Atlantic, Blackshear averages 16.4 points, 5.9 rebounds and 4.6 assists per game, and he’s impactful on the drive.
Oregon State transfer guard Jarod Lucas scores 16.5 points per game and is the team’s main 3-point shooter on a squad that averages only five deep makes per contest.
Nevada’s defense is premier. Its opponents most similar to Weber State so far are Loyola Marymount (a 73-59 home win) and Montana (a 77-66 home win). Nevada also opened the season with a 77-63 win over Sacramento State.
Ken Pomeroy’s numbers predict a Nevada win 71-62 at 78% probability.
Wyoming (6-3) is 4-3 against Division I teams in an expected rebuilding year for former Weber State assistant coach Jeff Linder. The Cowboys have several wins over teams similar to WSU (67-60 over Charleston, 78-71 over Furman, 78-70 over Stephen F. Austin) and losses to teams rated considerably worse than WSU (79-69 to Saint Louis, 81-70 to Portland).
The Cowboys are 2-0 at home against Division I opponents, including an 80-66 victory in the opener against a Cal Poly team Weber State just defeated 78-50.
Sam Griffin leads Wyoming offensively. After two seasons at UT-Arlington and two at Tulsa, the 6-foot-3 guard averages 19 points per game and is shooting 52% from the 3-point line on five attempts per game. Another grad transfer guard in Akuel Kot, from Fort Lewis College, scores 15 points per game.
Those two have taken 55% of all Wyoming field goal attempts through nine games.
Wyoming games tend to feature lots of turnovers, as the Cowboys are good at forcing them and giving them up. Wyoming will have been off for a week when WSU arrives in Laramie.
Pomeroy’s numbers predict WSU by one point at 51% probability in a game scheduled for 7 p.m. Saturday.