The Nevada Wolf Pack (13-8) and the SIU Salukis (11-11) will throw down in the Bracket Buster game on Feb 23rd at SIU Arena. Neither team is in a position for an at-large bid and they would each need to win their conference tournament to get into the NCAA Tournament. A win in this game would help either team get a respectable seed in the dance if they could secure an automatic bid.
Nevada and SIU match up in the RPI, with SIU currently at #80 and Nevada coming in at #82.
Nevada mixes a lot of young talent with 6th year Senior guard Marcelus Kemp, who has a chance to play in the NBA next season.
Nevada has some serious scoring punch, with 4 players averaging double figures. Kemp leads the way with nearly 20 per game followed by 2 sophomores and a freshman who all put up 12 points a night.
All in all this isn't too bad of a match-up. The Salukis will have a good chance to win this game at home and add a top 100 win to their resume even if it ends up being for the NIT or CBI (which we will talk more about later this month). Also, since Nevada has lots of young talent (and a great recruiting class on the way) the Salukis will get a great return game when they make the 1,943 mile trip to Reno next season.
