{"id":181615,"date":"2026-02-17T16:31:07","date_gmt":"2026-02-17T16:31:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/181615\/"},"modified":"2026-02-17T16:31:07","modified_gmt":"2026-02-17T16:31:07","slug":"three-keys-to-victory-and-a-prediction-10","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/181615\/","title":{"rendered":"Three keys to victory and a prediction"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Nevada men\u2019s basketball team plays at San Jose State on Tuesday night. Nevada Sports Net\u2019s Chris Murray breaks down the game with his three keys to victory and prediction. This feature is presented in partnership with Bradley, Drendel & Jeanney<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Nevada (17-8, 9-5 MW) at San Jose State (6-19, 1-13)<\/p>\n

When: Tuesday, 7 p.m.<\/p>\n

Where: Provident Credit Union Event Center (5,000 capacity)<\/p>\n

TV\/Radio: Nevada Sports Net\/95.5 FM<\/p>\n

Online: NevadaSportsNet.com<\/a><\/p>\n

Betting line: Nevada by 11; total of 140.5<\/p>\n

Three keys for Nevada to win<\/p>\n

1. Don\u2019t look forward or back: Nevada\u2019s game against SJSU was sandwiched between huge contests against MW leaders San Diego State and Utah State. So, if ever there was a trap game, this would be it as the Spartans have won just one of 14 MW games, and that came against Air Force, which is winless in league. On paper, Nevada should blow past SJSU, which has lost by an average of -14.3 points per conference game. The Spartans have lost eight consecutive games and are coming off a 15-point home loss to Grand Canyon. If the Wolf Pack is focused on this game, it should be a rout, especially with two of SJSU\u2019s top-three scorers \u2013 Yaphet Moundi and Ben Roseborough \u2013 out with injuries.<\/p>\n

2. Spread the scoring wealth: Nevada\u2019s bench has been up and down in MW play with some great games and some no-shows. The great games have tended to happen against Nevada\u2019s lesser competition while the no-shows coming versus the league\u2019s better teams. SJSU is one of those lesser opponents, so the Wolf Pack should be able to share the wealth on offense. In the first matchup between these teams, Nevada\u2019s bench tallied 34 points on 10-of-22 shooting, adding 10 free throw makes in 12 attempts. Given SJSU\u2019s injury issues \u2013 the Spartans\u2019 No. 4 scorer, Jermaine Washington, is also questionable \u2013 the team doesn\u2019t have much of a bench. The Wolf Pack should have a big advantage in points from reserves, with this being a good chance to get those Nevada players some confidence against an SJSU defense ranks a MW-worst 307th in KenPom.<\/p>\n

3. Defend the 3-point line: SJSU has zero inside scoring with the Spartans shooting just 42.6 percent inside the arc in MW games, which is last in the league. SJSU has some shooters, although its best shooter (Roseborough) is out. Still, the Spartans\u2019 path to success in this game is to simply outshoot the Wolf Pack, which has been an inconsistent 3-point shooting team despite its strong percentages (a league-best 38.7 percent from three in MW games). SJSU is capable distance shooting team, attempting 23 3-pointers per game and making 35.3 percent of those. The Spartans have made double-digit 3-pointers seven times this season and will need a performance like that to hang with Nevada given the state of SJSU\u2019s defense. The Wolf Pack must make the Spartans put the ball on the floor to score.<\/p>\n

Prediction<\/p>\n

Nevada 82, San Jose State 70: Nevada has won 30 of its last 33 games against SJSU dating to 2008, so a leap year happens more often than a Spartans win over the Wolf Pack in men\u2019s basketball. And this isn\u2019t a particularly dangerous SJSU team. In league play, the Spartans rank bottom two in the league in scoring offense, scoring defense, offensive shooting percentage, defensive shooting percentage, rebounding margin, free throw attempts per game, assists per game, blocks per game, fouls created per game and we could continue but that feels like piling on. Nevada should not be challenged in this one. Season record: 18-7<\/p>\n

Columnist Chris Murray provides insight on Northern Nevada sports. Contact him at crmurray@sbgtv.com or follow him on Twitter at @ByChrisMurray.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Nevada men\u2019s basketball team plays at San Jose State on Tuesday night. Nevada Sports Net\u2019s Chris Murray…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":181604,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[64675,4213,33633,2687,13389,43056,88,90,89,996,80443],"class_list":{"0":"post-181615","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-san-jose","8":"tag-bench-scoring","9":"tag-college-basketball","10":"tag-game-prediction","11":"tag-injuries","12":"tag-mountain-west","13":"tag-nevada-basketball","14":"tag-san-jose","15":"tag-san-jose-headlines","16":"tag-san-jose-news","17":"tag-san-jose-state","18":"tag-three-point-defense"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/181615","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=181615"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/181615\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/181604"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=181615"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=181615"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=181615"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}