Thursday, March 12th, 9:00 p.m. (et).

FACTS & STATS: Site: Lawlor Events Center (11,536) -- Reno, Nevada. Television: WAC.TV, ESPNU. Home Record: SJSU 7-7, Nevada 11-6. Away Record: SJSU 5-9, Nevada 8-5. Neutral Record: SJSU 1-0, Nevada 0-0. Conference Record: SJSU 6-10, Nevada 11-5. Series Record: Series is tied, 30-30.

GAME NOTES: With the hometown crowd behind them, the Nevada Wolf Pack kick off their portion of the 2009 Western Athletic Conference Tournament tonight at the Lawlor Events Center versus the San Jose State Spartans. A two-time tournament champion, second-seeded Nevada began the 2008-09 campaign a bit sluggish before finding a groove against the rest of the league and ending up with an impressive 11-5 mark versus WAC competition. The Pack closed out the regular season with three straight wins and six in the last seven, the lone loss during the stretch coming in the form of a narrow 68-66 setback at Fresno State in late February. As for the seventh-seeded Spartans, a program that is a mere 2-11 in this tourney over the years, they were forced to close out the regular season against the top two schools in the league in Nevada and Utah State, the results of course being double-digit defeats in both cases, subsequently dropping SJSU to 6-10 in league action. The series between these teams is tied at 30-30 after Nevada swept the regular season series in 2008-09 to give the Pack three straight victories over SJSU. The last time the Spartans defeated Nevada in Reno was seven years ago by a 76-72 score. The winner of this meeting will square off against the survivor of the Louisiana Tech/Idaho battle in the semifinals on Friday night.

Although he missed several games this season for the Spartans, the clear cut scoring leader for the squad is Adrian Oliver with his 17.4 ppg. However, Oliver has a habit of chasing bad shots far too much and, despite shooting a respectable 43.7 percent from the floor over the course of his 17 appearances, he made good on a mere 26.7 percent behind the three-point line, a level of accuracy that dropped to only 24.4 percent versus the rest of the Western Athletic. Because of this lackluster performance out on the perimeter the team as a whole converted only 29.6 percent beyond the arc. With a team heavy on experience, C.J. Webster made himself available for 12.0 ppg and Tim Pierce another 11.9 ppg as the aforementioned pair combined to clear better than 12 rebounds per game.

For the third time in the last five years, the Wolf Pack was home to the WAC Freshman of the Year, this time the award going out to Luke Babbitt who also joined teammate Armon Johnson on the All-WAC First Team as well. Not only did Babbitt set the record for the most points scored by a Nevada freshman, he is also fourth in the nation among freshman scorers with an average of 16.4 ppg. Add to his impressive stats his 7.5 rpg and Babbitt is on pace to become the first freshman to lead the program in both scoring and rebounding. Johnson, although just a 22.1 percent shooter behind the three-point line, is second in the scoring department with 15.0 ppg and has made a huge effort to get his teammates involved with the offense with his 129 assists, a number that is more than twice as many as any one else on the roster. Like SJSU, the Pack has problems shooting the long ball, converting just 29.4 percent this season.

With this being the home court of the Wolf Pack, the advantage clearly lies with Babbitt, Johnson and Nevada tonight.

Predicted Outcome

Nevada 76, San Jose State 63