Wolf Pack basketball's 2003-04 Sweet 16 team reunites at Governor's Dinner

Nevada had good basketball teams before 2003-04, but that year the Wolf Pack team catapulted the program with its exhilarating run to the NCAA Sweet 16, and set the standard for the teams that followed.

The 2003-04 team was the guest of honor at the 55th annual Governor's Dinner on Wednesday, on the grounds of the Governor's Mansion in Carson City.

The dinner is the Nevada athletic program's biggest fundraiser each year. Initially, Trent Johnson, who coached that 2003-04 team, was the going to be the guest of honor, but he insisted that the whole team be invited.

The players and coaches met with the media before the dinner. It was an emotional reunion.

Johnson said that team was one of the toughest he ever coached. The Wolf Pack played and lost at UConn early that season, then beat Kansas at home.

That win gave the players confidence that they had a special team. There were some tough, close losses in conference play, but when the Pack got to the WAC tournament, they won the title and bid to the NCAA Tournament. The Wolf Pack then beat Michigan State 72-66 and Gonzaga 91-72 in the tournament before losing to eventual runner-up Georgia Tech 72-67 in the Sweet 16.

It was the Wolf Pack's first 20-win season since 1997 and its first NCAA appearance since 1985. It kick-started a run of five consecutive WAC titles and four-straight NCAA Tournament appearances.

Nick Fazekas was a freshman on that team. He became the all-time leading scorer in program history and then played basketball in Japan the past 15 years. He is retired now and living in Scottsdale, Arizona.

He said the Pack players realized how good the team was after they beat Kansas.

"It was a big turning point for us. At that point we had barely scratched the surface," He said. "After we won that game that night, it was like, we can do something special here."

The biggest compliment

The roster of the 2004 Nevada men’s basketball team included: Chad Bell (redshirt), Nick Fazekas, Garry Hill-Thomas, Marcelus Kemp, Curry Lynch, Todd Okeson, Sean Paul, Kevinn Pinkney, Kyle Shiloh, Kirk Snyder, Seth Taylor and Jermaine Washington

Fazekas said the Wolf Pack was physically imposing and ran great sets.

"We were really hard to guard," Fazekas said.

Fazekas said he still hears from players on opposing teams who were impressed with the Pack's toughness that season.

"They are like, 'We didn't want to see you guys. We knew how tough you guys were,'" Fazekas said. "That's the biggest compliment. We didn't get a chance to play everyone, but this team, standing in this room, was one of the best teams in the country that year."

He said the 2017-18 Wolf Pack team, which also advanced to the Sweet 16, would be a good matchup for the 2003-04 team.

But he thinks the 2003-04 Pack team would prevail.

"The game had changed a lot. With the Martin twins (Caleb and Cody) they were a lot faster. They were a lot smaller. It's just hard to imagine a team like that could have given us any problems," Fazekas said, comparing his 2003-04 team to that 2017-18 team. "The way we slowed it down. The way we defended. We were a well-oiled machine offensively. I don't feel like they would have been able to guard us."

Fazekas said Nevada has become a basketball school.

"There's a belief every year year that we're going to get to the tournament," he said of the Wolf Pack. "That never started until we did it. We feel like we built this foundation."

Fazekas said he might get into coaching down the road, especially as his son (age 6) and daughter (age 4) grow up and show interest in basketball.

Changed landscape

Garry Hill-Thomas said many of the players remain in touch and he still does business projects with Pinkney.

He is proud to have helped elevate the Wolf Pack at a time when UNLV was the dominat basketball program in the state.

"It was our goal to show there are two universities in this state," Hill-Thomas said. "That gap has closed if not been overtaken."

He said the landscape of college basketball has changed greatly since his playing days, due to the transfer portal and NIL (name, image, likeness) deals. He said building continuity in a program is a good way to achieve success and that aspect is hard to maintain now.

"I don't know if you'll ever have the continuity of something like that where you can put a program together over time and watch it grow and develop into something big and special, unless they change the rules," he said.

Okeson agreed that the Kansas win was a turning point for the Wolf Pack. Nevada lost at Kansas the next year, then won at Kansas in the 2005-06 season.

"Getting a team of that caliber here in Lawlor is almost unheard of. Back then there only a few times you'd get a team of that caliber," Okeson said. "We may not have beaten everybody, but we could at least compete with anybody."

Marcelus Kemp is now in the candle business and he made a candle commemorating the Pack's Sweet 16 run.

He is impressed with how the Pack players evolved after leaving Nevada.

"It feels good to be around a bunch of champions, but it feels even better to know that after basketball, we all matured and found our lives in this world and this society," Kemp said looking around at his former teammates. "All the memories are starting to click back. All the funny stories are starting to resonate again."

Johnson was the head coach in 2003-04 then he moved to Stanford the following year. His assistant Mark Fox took over the Pack, then David Carter took over when Fox went to Georgia.

Johnson also coached at LSU and TCU and still lives in Forth Worth, Texas. Josh Newman was also an assistant and Matt Ochs was a student assistant coach.

This article originally appeared on Reno Gazette Journal: Wolf Pack basketball's 2003-04 Sweet 16 team reunites at Governor's Dinner