Behold the invisible man: Patrick Nyeko.
The backup guard for Nevada played 10 minutes for the Western Athletic Conference-leading Wolf Pack on Saturday in a victory over Fresno State, but even if watching the game one might never know it because Nyeko did nothing that could be recorded when he was on the court.
In 10 minutes -- a half of a half or a quarter of a whole game. Nada. Zilch. Zero.
Nyeko did not attempt a shot or a free throw, did not grab a rebound and did not have an assist, a steal or a blocked shot. He did not commit a turnover, did not record a steal and obviously did not score.
His line in the box score started with a 10 and was followed by 14 zeros.
Nyeko obviously impacted the game in some way -- he presumably defended someone at some point, be it Kevin Olekaibe, Tyler Johnson, Steven Shepp or Jonathan Wills; someone in the Bulldogs' back court.
But, we're figuring that is pretty hard to do.
There were 28 fouls called in the game, but Nyeko didn't accidentally run into anyone.
There were 70 rebounds and he didn't get one of them.
There were 106 shots attempted, and he didn't have any of them.
Turns out it is hard to do. But, incredibly, that is not the longest a player in the WAC has gone this season without putting a mark in the boxscore to the right of minutes played.
San Jose State forward Matt Ballard went one minute better -- or worse -- than Nyeko in a loss to Montana State in November. Ballard played 11 minutes, with no shots, no free throws, no anything.
Here is a look at the longest and leanest outings in the conference this season:
- Matt Ballard, San Jose State, 11 minutes played vs. Montana State
- Patrick Nyeko, Nevada, 10 minutes played vs. Fresno State
- Terrel de Rouen, New Mexico State, 6 minutes played vs. San Francisco
- Chris Jones, San Jose State, 6 minutes played vs. Nevada
- Mike McChristian, Idaho, 5 minutes played vs. Fresno State
- Remi Barry, New Mexico State, 4 minutes played vs. New Mexico
- Renaldo Dixon, New Mexico State, 4 minutes played vs. Texas-El Paso
- Keith Fuetsch, Nevada, 4 minutes played vs. UC Riverside
- Alex Carr, Louisiana Tech, 4 minutes played vs. Arkansas
THE RESULTS
Tuesday
NEVADA 81, Nebraska-Omaha 69
Wednesday
FRESNO STATE 66, Cal State San Marcos 55
Thursday
Louisiana Tech 74, HAWAII 70
New Mexico State 79, SAN JOSE STATE 63
SEATTLE 73, Utah State 66
Saturday
NEVADA 74, Fresno State 61
HAWAII 91, New Mexico State 87
Louisiana Tech 71, SAN JOSE STATE 67
IDAHO 57, Utah State 54
HOW DID THIS HAPPEN?
Utah State lost to Seattle on Thursday, which is ... yeah, that's just not good. The Redhawks are reclassifying this season into Division I basketball and went into that game 4-12, albeit against a decent schedule. But what makes it worse for the Aggies is that the game was played in Seattle, which makes very little sense coming as it did in the midst of the conference season.
Every team plays those games against lower-division programs to fill gaps in the schedules -- Fresno State played Cal State San Marcos last week and Nevada played Nebraska-Omaha.
But the Bulldogs and Wolf Pack played those games on their home floors.
Utah State was going to be on the road on Friday anyway, traveling to its game at Idaho. But coming off tough games and the tough trek to Ruston, La., and Las Cruces, N.M., the previous week, playing at Seattle is not something the Aggies needed to do.
''This is not an ideal scheduling situation going back-to-back weeks on the road and a nonconference game stuck right where you don't want it,'' Utah State coach Stew Morrill said. ''I've never really liked playing nonconference games in the middle of conference, but Seattle is joining our league and we agreed to play them home-and-home, and of course they are trying to get some games in January and February and this is how it worked out.''
It worked out badly, is the bottom line.
Utah State, playing its fourth road game in 10 days, blew a late lead and lost 57-54 at Idaho to fall to 10-10 and 2-3 in WAC play. Once kingpins of the conference, the Aggies already have lost as many league games than they did the past two seasons combined when 15-1 and 14-2.
After hitting 53.8% (14 of 26) of their shots in the first half, the Aggies made only 41.2% (7 of 17) in the second half and were 2 of 13 (15.4%) at the 3-point line.
They were up 53-47 with 3:55 to play but, tiring perhaps, turned over the ball four times and made only one free throw the rest of the way in losing to the Vandals.
THE STREAK IS OVER
Louisiana Tech made the longest trip in the WAC a winning one, going to Hawaii and beating the Warriors 74-70 on Thursday to snap a 10-game conference losing streak.
The Bulldogs lost their last seven WAC games last year and their first three this season, that last victory coming on Jan. 29 against Boise State. They still were a long way from the conference record for consecutive losses. That is 24 games, set by San Diego State in the 1991 and '92 seasons.
Now that the Bulldogs are in the win column, the longest active conference losing streak belongs to San Jose State, which has dropped seven regular-season games in a row dating to last season.
WHY IS THE STREAK OVER?
Hawaii played without two key pieces in that loss to LaTech -- point guard Jeremiah Ostrowski (staph infection)and guard Zane Johnson (stomach flu), both senior captains.
''We were optimistic. We thought guys would step up given that chance,'' Coach Gib Arnold told the Star-Advertiser. ''And you know, it just didn't happen. You don't get many chances like that, but you're hoping guys step up and take that role.
''We had no leadership whatsoever. None. Absolutely none. I'll take that one, because it's my team and I need to lead this team even when it's down and out.''
BOUNCING BACK
The Warriors rebounded from that loss on Saturday by beating New Mexico State, which had come in tied with Nevada for first place in the conference.
Johnson was back in the lineup and knocked down seven 3-pointers in the 91-87 victory, which is as many as Hawaii had combined in its two previous games and more than it had in 13 of its first 18 games.
TURNING AROUND THE TURNOVER
Hawaii also beat New Mexico State despite committing 21 turnovers, continuing an interesting trend in the WAC this season.
Now, turnovers are supposed to be a bad thing, but maybe they just get a bad rap. Nah, they're a bad thing. But explain this: WAC teams are 12-2 (.857) when either giving up 20 or more turnovers or setting a season-high for turnovers in a game.
Strange, yes. But true. Take a look:
- 25 TOs, Nevada in a 78-54 victory over Pacific
- 23 TOs, Hawaii in a 73-54 LOSS to Gonzaga
- 22 TOs, Hawaii in a 65-57 victory over North Carolina A&T
- 22 TOs, Louisiana Tech in a 68-61 LOSS to Texas-Arlington
- 22 TOs, New Mexico State in a 91-66 victory over Southern
- 21 TOs, Hawaii in a 91-87 victory over New Mexico State
- 21 TOs, New Mexico State in a 89-75 victory over Northern Colorado
- 20 TOs, Fresno State in a 55-47 victory over Illinois State
- 20 TOs, Hawaii in a 74-68 OT victory over Fresno State
- 20 TOs, Louisiana Tech in a 94-93 2OT victory over Northwestern State
- 20 TOs, New Mexico State in a 83-73 victory over Louisiana Tech
- 19 TOs, Idaho in a 73-62 victory at Seattle
- 18 TOs, Utah State in a 69-62 victory over Brigham Young
- 18 TOs, San Jose State in a 84-74 victory at Seattle
Even with all of the squandered possessions, the 12 victories in those games have come by an average of 10.7 points per game. Figure that one out ...
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