Hunt feels like the Silver State is his home

Dario Hunt wasn't Nevada battle born but he feels like a native of the Silver State just the same.

"It's the longest I've lived in any one place in my life," the Nevada Wolf Pack center said recently.

Hunt, the son of two Air Force veterans, has only been in Nevada since the summer of 2008. But for the likable 6-foot-8, 230-pounder, that makes him silver and blue through and through.

"It's kind of weird to be in one place that long," Hunt smiled.

Hunt's nomadic life ended the moment he settled into the paint at Lawlor Events Center as a Wolf Pack freshman in 2008-09. But getting to that stable point in his life wasn't easy.

"We moved a lot," Hunt said. "It was almost every two years."

The Hunts didn't always just move from one neighborhood to another. At times they even moved from one culture to another. "We lived in Japan, in Turkey, six or seven different states," Hunt said. "I don't know if I even remember them all."

Hunt's lengthy resume, he said, also includes "four or five different elementary schools, two middle schools and two high schools."

For most youngsters, moving from bunk beds to a twin sized mattress is a big deal. Hunt, though, just took all of his new addresses in stride and treated them all as simply one gigantic interesting adventure.

"It's not a big deal, really," he said. "Not when you're used to it. It was just kind of normal for me. It was all I knew. I would be like, 'Oh, we're moving again? OK. Where?' And then we'd go to a new place."

If he didn't have family photos, he might not even remember all the places he's lived.

"I was only two and 3-years-old when we were in Japan," said Hunt, who was born in Tampa, Fla. "I really don't remember much about it."

Turkey, though, played a huge part in his athletic life.

"I lived there between the ages of 7 and 10," he said. "That's where I really started to play basketball. We had a rec center there and I played basketball almost everyday against a lot of American kids, who also lived there. I had a lot of fun. All we did was play basketball all the time."

His valuable ability to adapt to change and relate to people has served Hunt well in his four seasons at Nevada. He has been able to blend in with a wide variety of players who brought a vast collection of personalities and playing styles to the court. Hunt has also been part of two rebuilding projects with the Wolf Pack and each time played a crucial role.

The first time was as a freshman in 2008-09. The Pack had lost center JaVale McGee to the NBA draft in the spring of 2008 and also lost seniors Marcelus Kemp, David Ellis and Demarshay Johnson off a 2007-08 team that won the Western Athletic Conference regular season title.

Hunt, who came to Nevada in the fall of 2008 along with fellow recruits Luke Babbitt, Joey Shaw, Ahyaro Phillips and London Giles, was thrown into the fire right away.

"We had to put Dario in a tough spot for a freshman," Pack coach David Carter said.

"Instead of having a veteran player to learn his position from, he kind of had to learn it on his own."

Hunt, came from Charis Prep in North Carolina after three years at Pine Creek High in Colorado Springs, Colo., just treated his freshman year just like it was yet another move from the United States to Japan or Turkey and back again.

Hunt started 27 of 34 games as a freshman, playing an average of just under 19 minutes a game. He never took more than six shots in a game and never scored more than nine points in averaging 3.6 points and 4.4 rebounds.

But on a team that had Armon Johnson, Babbitt, Cooke, Brandon Fields and Shaw, Hunt's job wasn't to score or even to think about shooting. Most of his field goal attempts, after all, came on offensive rebounds. But he served notice right away that he had something special to offer, blocking a Wolf Pack freshman-record 67 shots.

The second Wolf Pack rebuilding project that Hunt was a part of took place in his junior year of 2010-11. Johnson and Babbitt jumped to the NBA, Fields and Shaw as well as sixth man Ray Kraemer also were gone from a 2009-10 team that went to the second round of the NIT.

Hunt, it seemed was the last man standing in 2010-11 on a team of wide-eyed freshman and transfers. He was suddenly the veteran leader in 2010-11 after two seasons as a complementary part to Babbitt, Johnson, Fields and Shaw.

"That was a little difficult," said Hunt of being thrust into the leadership role by himself last year. "My first two years we had so many great players I didn't really have to be a leader. But my junior year we had so many new guys. I knew I had to take my game to a new level."

Hunt took many parts of his game to a new level, on and off the court.

He turned into a reliable scoring threat as a junior, averaging more points per game (12.4) than he did as a freshman (3.6) and sophomore (6.5) combined. He had 10 double-doubles in 2010-11 after getting just one over his first two years.

Hunt's maturity and leadership, as well as his defense and rebounding, has clearly helped the Pack to a 22-5 record this year with a WAC championship seemingly there for the taking. The Pack, 10-1 in the WAC, will play at Fresno State today before finishing its WAC schedule the following week at home against New Mexico State and Louisiana Tech on March 1 and 3.

Hunt became the 22nd Wolf Pack player in history to reach 1,000 career points (he's now at 1,011) when he scored 15 in Saturday's 90-84 loss at Iona. He also needs just 44 rebounds to become just the fourth player in school history with both 1,000 career points and 1,000 rebounds. And by the time his senior year ends next month, he will go down in history as one of the best defensive players in school history.

His 956 rebounds are the fourth most in school history behind Pete Padgett (1,464), Nick Fazekas (1,254) and Edgar Jones (1,016). His 249 blocks are already a school record, shattering Fazekas' previous record of 192.

Hunt also set the senior record for blocks in a year on Saturday when his two blocks gave him 57, breaking Greg Palm's record of 55 in 1981-82.

Defense, Hunt said, is what he lives for on the court.

"Defense has always been kind of ingrained in me," Hunt said. "I think it came from when I played football growing up (until he got to high school) as a defensive end. Letting people score has always been a big problem for me. I don't like it. I never have."

Hunt said there are a lot more memories to create before he leaves Nevada.

"Getting this program back to the NCAA tournament would be huge," Hunt said. "There were a couple years (his freshman and sophomore years) when I thought we'd get there but it just didn't happen. But this year we got a great chance. I love the players on this team.

"We want to put a banner up there (in the rafters of Lawlor). We want to get this program back to where it was. That's why I play this game."