in march 2004, the wolf pack men's basketball team qualified for the ncaa tournament and advanced to the sweet sixteen for the first time in school history. the team earned a repeat trip in 2005 and beat texas in the first round before falling to eventual national runner-up illinois. the team returned for 2006 as a no. 5 seed but was upset in the first round by former big sky conference rival montana. they began the 2006–07 season ranked #24. the pack's major star during this recent period of success was nick fazekas. in 2007, nevada was ranked no. 9 in men's basketball, which is the highest ranking that nevada has ever held. coach mark fox took over after trent johnson left in 2004 to coach at stanford university. on april 3, 2009 it was announced that david carter would replace fox who decided to leave nevada for the same position at the university of georgia.