RENO, Nev. – The University of Nevada men’s basketball team will be begin practice in preparation for the 2013-14 season on Friday. First action for the Wolf Pack is a home exhibition game with Montana Tech on Nov. 4. The first regular season game is at home with Pacific on Nov. 8.
Nevada head coach David Carter returns six letterwinners that includes three starters and welcomes eight newcomers to the squad. Carter enters his fifth season as the head coach of the Pack and 15th year in the program. The Pack went 12-19 last season and 3-13 in the Mountain West.
Senior point guard Deonte Burton returns for his final season in the Silver and Blue. Burton earned third-team All-MW honors last season after averaging 16.3 points per game. He has started all 98 games during his career and ranks 10th in school history with 1,459 points.
Senior guard Jerry Evans, Jr. is also back for the Pack after averaging 7.5 points and a team-high 5.4 rebounds per game a year ago. The 6-8 Evans is a four-year starter.
Sophomores Cole Huff and Marqueze Coleman return after earning starts as freshman in 2012-13. Huff, a 6-8 forward, started 14 games and averaged 4.3 points and 3.3 rebounds per game. A 6-3 point guard, Coleman started the final two games last season and scored in double figures in both games and also led the Pack in rebounding in his two starts. On the season he averaged 4.5 points.
The two returning big men are both 6-9 players in Ali Fall and Richard Bell. Fall saw action in 22 games and averaged 1.8 points per contest. Bell appeared in three games and did not score.
The newcomers include Michael Perez, AJ West, Chris Brown, Stelios Papafloratos, Patrick Conroy, D.J. Fenner, Ronnie Stevens and Lucas Stivrins.
Perez is a 6-3 shooting guard that redshirted last season after transferring from UTEP. West, Brown, Stevens and Stivrins are all frontcourt players that played junior college basketball last season. Fenner was the Washington Player of the Year as a high school senior last season. The freshman Papafloratos was the last player to sign with the Pack and comes to Nevada from Greece. Conroy is a freshman walk-on guard from Novato, Calif.
Several season ticket packages are available starting at $185. To order tickets or for more information call 775-348-PACK.
