The Bulldogs played out of their heads for their fallen teammate and you can't count out the emotional factor as one reason for this surprising victory.

Granted the players made the plays, made the shots and the defensive plays in as good a team effort as you'll see from these guys.

The big guys: Greg Smith scored 15 with 11 boards. Sylvester Seay had 12 points and Ned Glubovic (with two injured wrists) chipped in nine points and Jerry Brown had seven. The guards: Mike Ladd hit four 3s and scored 14 points, Steven Shepp had 10 and eight assists, and Brandon Sperling scored 10.

But what most people didn't see was the pregame work that went into this victory. Steve Cleveland (right, photo) and his coaching staff had Nevada scouted to a T. The day before the game in practice, they emphasized taking advantage of the team's post quickness against Nevada's slower front-line players.

Cleveland set up plays for Smith and Seay to go one-one-one, use their strength and quickness to get to the basket. The coaches made it a point that these Bulldogs could take it to the Wolf Pack. And they had specific plays for Sperling and Ladd to get free for their shots.

So, it wasn't a fluke that the Bulldogs beat Nevada, only that the team played as well as it did using the framework and reports given by the coaching staff.

Cleveland likes to credit his players after wins. Which is a good thing. And in this case they deserved every word of praise. But, credit also should go to Cleveland his staff for devising a smart game plan that leaned on his players' strengths and put them in the best position to make it all happen.