After the Nevada men’s basketball team’s trip to the Bahamas wrapped up the Wolf Pack’s summer workouts, the players were dismissed to go home for a couple of weeks.

But when they returned to campus before the academic year started last week, Nevada head coach Steve Alford delivered a strong message.

“Coach has made it clear when we get back we’re straight to it,” Wolf Pack forward Elijah Price said. “He said it’s not the summer no more, so we’re gonna have a different focus, a different mentality going into these next few weeks.”

Nevada is looking to rebound from its second disappointing season in the last four years, and it will do so with a new-look roster. After a 6-1 start last season, Nevada stumbled early in Mountain West play and never regained its footing, going 17-16 overall and 8-12 in league, a seventh-place finish out of 11 schools. It was a season reminiscent of 2021-22 when Nevada finished eighth in the MW at 13-18 overall.

Sandwiched in between those seasons were back-to-back NCAA Tournament berths, which is the goal this season.

“Mountain West championship,” Nevada guard Corey Camper Jr. said of the team’s goals. “That’s all I’ve got to say. And the NCAA Tournament.”

If Nevada is to accomplish those things it will be done by a new-look cast with the Wolf Pack returning just four players from last season — and no starters — while adding nine new players, including six transfers and three high school freshmen. Nevada took an overseas trip to the Bahamas in August, which included getting 10 full practices, giving the team an early start on trying to build the camaraderie and habits required to play at a championship level.

“It was a lot of team building, just getting to know each other,” Camper said. “We have a lot new guys on the team, so team building in the gym or outside of the gym, like going to the Bahamas. We played together, we finally got to play against somebody other than ourselves every day. It was a great experience getting to know each other on the court and being able to read each other and getting to know each other’s play style and what’s our best spots on the court. It was a great offseason.”

With no starters back from last season — only point guard Tyler Rolison held a large role among the four returners — Nevada will bank on its six transfers to be immediate-impact players. Price, from Fresno State, and Camper, from UTEP, are joined by Evansville’s Tayshawn Comer and UC Riverside’s Joel Armotrading among Division I additions. Junior-college star Vaughn Weems and NAIA All-American Kaleb Lowery fill out the transfers.

Alford believes Nevada is more athletic and will be able to play faster and defend more vigorously.

“I think the strength of this roster is it’s not just one man,” Camper said. “I feel like everybody has a key role, a key piece on this team. Everybody can — from the first person to the last person — come in and make an impact.”

While the talent level was not an issue for Nevada last season, the cohesion was with a leak of NIL payments after the 6-1 start also tearing at the team’s fabric. A roster cleanse might not end up being a bad thing, although it’s unknown at this stage who will step into starring roles in Alford’s seventh season as head coach as he looks for his first conference championship with the Wolf Pack.

Price said Nevada’s depth and the uncertainty of who will start is driving the team.

“We talk about it all the time that we have crazy depth,” Price said. “One through 15, or however many we’ve got, we can put it on the court and feel comfortable with it. And we have a really unselfish team. It’s rare to see. Teams with a lot of talent are usually selfish and play a lot of iso-ball. I don’t think we have any of that. We all look for each other, and we all want each other win. We’ve just got good guys, guys with good backgrounds, good families that understand that and want to win.”

Nevada’s returning players have stressed to the newcomers that achieving the preseason goals won’t be easy. But the Wolf Pack seems to have a hunger coming off a rare down season.

“They’ve been stressing how hard it can be and how much work it’s going to take,” Price said. “We’re just trying to put our best foot forward. We just need to stay together. We have a lot of talent on the team. I think just staying together, building more chemistry. If we do that, we’ll be a good team.”

You can watch our interviews with Elijah Price and Corey Camper Jr. below.