The Nevada men’s basketball team had little trouble with its two opponents during an international trip to the Bahamas.
The Wolf Pack played a pair of games, beating the University of Calgary, 94-60, on Saturday before a 103-28 victory over the Bahamas national team Monday. Box scores were not available for either game.
Nevada is one of two Division I teams currently on a foreign trip to the Bahamas, the other being Murray State, which beat the University of Calgary, 103-77, on Monday and has a pair of games left against the Bahamas national team.
This tour marked the first overseas tour for the program since it went to Costa Rica before the 2017-18 season. Per NCAA rules, teams are allowed an international trip once every four years. This was Nevada’s first under coach Steve Alford.
Before leaving for the Bahamas, Alford said the trip was critical for the Wolf Pack’s development, not so much for the games given the level of competition but for the opportunity to get 10 full untimed practices. Nevada also got additional bonding time for its 13-man roster that includes nine new players, including six transfers and three prep players.
“We’re connecting nine new guys with four returnees,” Alford said. “You get 10 extra practices with a lot of time. The travel’s not too bad. I don’t really worry about who we’re playing in the Bahamas as much as getting the trip to bond, and there’s other D-I teams down there. … But being able to get the extra practice here and the extra time with them is huge because you’ve got nine different guys from different parts of the country. We are excited about what they’re bringing. They seem to be high-character guys, which is always something we talk about. In the portal, it’s like speed dating, so you don’t always get a really good comfortable confident feel a lot of times when you’re recruiting so quickly. But it seems like this is a really good character team that wants to be good, and now it’s just about putting the work in this summer and fall.”
After returning from the Bahamas on Wednesday, Nevada is expected to allow its players to go back home before they return to campus Aug. 22 to prepare for the start of the season.