Forward Nick Fazekas will return to the University of Nevada for his senior year, the Arvada, Colo., native announced in a press conference Friday afternoon at Legacy Hall. In April, he had declared himself eligible for the 2006 NBA Draft but did not hire an agent and now has decided to return to school for his final season of eligibility.

In 2005-06, the 6-11, 235-pound Fazekas was named the Western Athletic Conference Player of the Year for the second consecutive season after leading the league and ranking 16th in the nation with 21.8 points per game. He also finished second in the WAC and 15th in the country with an average of 10.4 rebounds per contest.

A 2006 third-team Associated Press All-American, Fazekas should end his Wolf Pack career as the leading scorer in school history. After turning in a school-record 721 points last season, he has moved into second on the Nevada career scoring list with 1,812 career points and heads into his senior season just 65 points behind the Wolf Pack’s career-leading scorer Edgar Jones (1,877 points from 1975-79). In addition, Fazekas has already set the Nevada career record for blocked shots with 144 and ranks in the Wolf Pack top five for career rebounding, field goals made and free throws made.

FAZEKAS PRESS CONFERENCE TRANSCRIPT – JUNE 9, 2006

Forward Nick Fazekas:
“My ultimate decision is I’ve decided to come back to school for my senior season. I’m not going to stay with the draft this year. I just felt like I could get better, become an even better player, find ways to improve my stock and move up higher in the draft, and playing a senior season would only help me. I love everything about the university and going to school has no effect on me, so I really feel we can come back and have another great team and another great season and look forward to winning another championship. ”

Nevada head coach Mark Fox:
“I just want to congratulate Nick on a very mature decision. I had asked Nick really just two things. When our season ended, I told him to determine a number in which it would be his cut line, and I said if you’re not drafted at this point, that means that you come back. He came up with a number, and even though he had some teams tell him he’s a first round pick he didn’t get a guarantee at his number. I tried to get him to change his number, he refused to do that and he made the decision to return. His decision is a little earlier than I’d anticipate he’d make it. I thought Nick would go up until the deadline of the 18th of June, and Nick called me yesterday and said he needed to see me and he just really wanted to make a decision now so when our new players come into school this weekend and summer school starts on Monday that he would be able to start working and the group wouldn’t have to worry about whether Nick is back or not. I thought that was a very mature approach for him, that he has a very mature approach to the whole process. His family has been very grounded about it. Although I wish his dreams would have come true this spring, I think he put a lot of thought into the fact that he could get better, and hopefully it will come true next year. ”

Fazekas – On how difficult his decision was:
“Like Coach said, it was a pretty difficult decision. At the beginning of the whole deal, it wasn’t something I wanted to do, it was something that I felt like was a dream that I could have fulfilled this year and something that I felt I was destined to do because there was talk about leaving after my sophomore year. We kind of figured that wasn’t the right thing, and then everyone said a bunch of things about how I was going to be a first round-pick this year. I just felt like I was good enough to be higher in the draft like coach said with my whole number thing and thought my dream was going to be fulfilled, so it was a difficult decision to kind of have to put that aside for another year. I definitely look forward to playing another season with all my teammates and coaches. I couldn’t have gone wrong either way. ”

Fox:
“I want to add one thing to that. Though this process, we’ve run the gauntlet of emotions. There were days when I was sure Nick was gone. There were days when he thought maybe I’ll just come back and then a week later he was sure he was gone. It’s been quite the ordeal, but Nick has probably been more level-headed in the process than I have. ”

Fazekas – On when he decided he was coming back:
“About three or four days ago. Like Coach said, we went and worked out quite a while back, came home and figured I’ll probably come back to school. This was probably about two or three weeks when I kind of figured I’ll probably come back to school after I had worked out and then time kept going on, and I kept working out, trying to stay in shape, maybe waiting for a call, then went and worked out again. I kind of thought that might have been my calling, but that didn’t go through, so then me and Coach Fox sat down about two or three days ago and really just weighed the odds of what the plusses and minuses were of maybe staying and possibly maybe slipping into the second round. That wasn’t something I wanted to do. I just felt that I am better than that and I can always get better. I’ve got so many places I can improve and I think this is a decision that will let me come back and get better. ”

Fazekas – On the strength of next year’s team:
“Definitely, Coach and I have talked we feel this can be the best team we’ve ever seen here and we have all the intangibles to do it. We are going to be young, but to me sometimes it can be good to be young. We were young when it was my sophomore year and we had Ramon (Sessions) and guys like that, and we went undefeated on the road cause when you’re young you don’t really realize what you are doing. When you’re doing things like that, winning on the road doing a bunch of things that you are not used to doing. When you get older, that kind of weighs on you more you are playing on the road, and you’re not supposed to win on the road and stuff like that, so it might help to be young, but you’re going to have a little rough edges here and there. I know that, but we will get through it. ”

Fox – On team expectations:
“The expectations that we’ll have this year won’t be much different than we had a year ago. It’s expectations that these guys place on themselves that they will have to worry about. ”

Fazekas:
“Ever since I’ve been here, we’ve always been expected to win, you know, win every night. That is the expectation. Losing is not accepted around here anymore and that is fine by me. I’ve never been on a losing team, I know a lot of the guys around me have never been on a losing team, so none of us accept losing. I’m not going to come up here and say that we are going to win the championship outright and make a run to the Final Four or anything like that, but definitely go have another good year and just be expected to win as many games as possible. ”

Fazekas – On what he learned from his NBA workouts:
“I took away a lot. To be honest, I probably haven’t put forth the greatest as far as trying to be the best player I can be. And throughout the years through my freshman, sophomore, even last year, I’ve just kind of been going through, maybe not totally working out as hard as I could or anything like that. When me and coach got together this spring, we got together and we went through. We did an hour hard, and Coach said it was the hardest he’d ever seen me work. We just really seen it as now I really know what it takes to get to the next level. By working out for a few different teams, I’ve seen what they like and what they don’t like, and it’s not so much about that though it’s just about me working hard the way I want to be. ”

Fox:
“When you’re a great college player and you are having success with the skills that you have, your work ethic is at one stage. I think that Nick finally felt like O.K., now I have to get better as a player. He was probably a 90 percent practice player before, and this spring he became a 100 percent effort guy in all of the little things that we do. Nick’s a better player today because of this process, that much I know. And although I haven’t seen him work out since finals were over, I know the last week of final exams, he was a better player then than he’s ever been, so this process has been good for him in that way. ”

Fazekas – On his goals for this summer:
“Definitely get stronger, probably improve my shooting and stuff like that, improve my defense. I mean improve everything, try and make everything the best it can be. By me not going overseas to places like China or Argentina, I won’t be able to take any steps back. I won’t have any excuses for taking steps back. When I went over there, I didn’t play much in Argentina, I didn’t play much in China, I went over to China and lost quite a bit of weight. This year I’ll be here all summer for two months, hitting it hard with me and my teammates and Coach (Matt) Eck in the weight room and really getting my mind set and not really having to worry about having to go and play for another team and learning a bunch of different stuff and basically taking like two of three weeks of because you don’t get nearly the workout that you get working here. ”

Fox – On Nevada’s depth in the frontcourt for the upcoming season:
“I don’t compare the two. We recruited like Nick was going to be gone, so we have plenty of depth on the front line. I think what Nick returning to school really does for our team is our incoming front line players JaVale McGee, Matt LaGrone and Richie Phillips, they will have a terrific example to look at every day and that is something that is a huge advantage for them. David Ellis is really starting to see the light and change physically and really mature, so we have a lot of candidates to play alongside Nick. Nick is going to have to earn his starting job back, but I do feel like we do have good depth up front, and Nick, he’s going to have to share some minutes, but that will keep him fresh late in the season. ”

Fazekas – On having the chance to break many Nevada records:
“Definitely, it’s exciting. It may distinguish me as maybe being one of the best players to ever play here, but my goal when I came here wasn’t to break every record in the record book, my goal was to win and hopefully fulfill my dream of playing in the NBA. To break a record is only a positive thing, just a plus to my whole career here, and it would definitely be nice to break all the records and have my name in the record book. I’ve been talking about hopefully having my jersey retired here and I would love for that to happen. “