Nevada
Colorado State vs. Nevada odds, prediction: MWC squads with March Madness potential clash in Reno | Sporting News
It’s not quite February, so panic mode hasn’t arrived just yet, but Nevada is badly in need of a home win Wednesday against Colorado State.
Last time they took the court at Lawlor Events Center, the Wolf Pack were 15-1, enjoying one of the most impressive seasons in the country. They lost to Boise State in a game where their offense fizzled out, and have since lost road games at San Diego State and Wyoming, the latter of which came as a nasty letdown.
Nevada (15-4 SU, 11-8 ATS) now finds itself in seventh place of an 11-team league that many undervalue. Already in free fall, a loss here would do significant damage. Fortunately, wins against Colorado State (15-3, 11-7) and this weekend at New Mexico would rescue the season and put it back on track.
That’s easier said than done, since the Rams are ranked 27th in the latest NCAA NET Rankings, behind only San Diego State (20th) and New Mexico (24th) within the Mountain West. Right now, it would be comfortably in the bracket.
Handicapping Colorado State vs. Nevada betting odds and props hinges on whether the Wolf Pack being at home can help remedy their recent slide, or whether they’re running into Stevens’ Rams at the worst possible time. They have a handful of quality wins, with CSU having taken down Creighton, Colorado, Washington and New Mexico.
Nevada won the Diamond Head Classic, highlighted by an upset of TCU, and has true road wins at Washington and Hawai’i, so both of these teams should have worthy resumes on Selection Sunday if the next month-plus goes well.
The Wolf Pack won last season’s meeting 80-69 in Reno en route to an NCAA Tournament appearance after being swept by Colorado State the previous season. They’ll meet again in Fort Collins on Feb. 27. Both matchups will be televised on FS1 and will go a long way in dictating whether these teams will be dancing come March.
Colorado State vs. Nevada odds: Point spread, moneyline, total
Here are the latest college basketball betting odds for the Rams vs. Wolf Pack:
Colorado State betting news: Stewart leads, but supporting cast has little room for error
Colorado State trailed “Jekyll and Hyde” UNLV over the weekend as the teams headed down the stretch, but point guard Isaiah Stevens scored or assisted on 16 of the final 20 points to help grab a late lead.
Stevens is one of the nation’s top point guards, ranking third nationally in assists (7.2 per game). He manages to keep his group poised on the road due to his steady excellence. At this level, it’s hard to find a more trustworthy point guard who can also light you up on a hot-shooting night.
He’s been reliably great, and has led the Rams to the Mountain West’s top offensive rating (16th nationally) and 81.3 points per game (42nd of 362).
After tight road losses to MWC co-leaders Boise State and Utah State, the Rams stared adversity in the face last week, playing down to Air Force’s level, requiring OT to pull away and win as a 15.5-point favorite.
Then they were down double-digits to the Runnin’ Rebels at home before Stevens and Colorado transfer Nique Clifford led them back. Both have shot the ball extremely well all season, so that was no surprise, but the team’s other top two players must continue to step up to garner success.
The Rams have a great coach in Niko Medved, who routinely churns out surprise teams and preaches ball movement, but they’re not terribly deep. The bench has been hit or miss. CSU needs Division II transfer Joel Scott to continue being a top rebounder and force down low, and he must stay out of foul trouble. 6-foot-8 Pat Cartier, another D-II import, will have to hit shots to help keep the floor spread.
Colorado State is 2-2 in true road games, with the wins coming at Northern Colorado and Loyola Marymount, so this would become its top conquest. Ranking in the top-30 nationally in 3-point shooting percentage (.376), CSU will need to knock down shots in Reno to pull off what oddsmakers would consider a slight upset.
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Nevada betting news: Blackshear, Lucas need to lead charge to avoid another loss
It’s no secret that the Wolf Pack are led by fifth-year senior guards Kenan Blackshear and Jarod Lucas, but those two were specifically left out of players whose defense head coach Steve Alford praised in an interview with Nevada SportsNet, as he referenced what he’s seen during his team’s slide, stating “we got lit up in the backcourt.”
Blackshear, who started his career at Florida Atlantic, is a 6-foot-6 point guard who can get wherever he wants and will have to find a way to disrupt Stevens. He and Lucas, a 6-3 shooter who originally played at Oregon State, combined to shoot 11-for-21, scoring 31 points and seven assists in last season’s 11-point win. They’re being called on to respond at both ends of the floor to make sure Nevada ends this skid.
The Aztecs and Cowboys both exploited holes in the Wolf Pack’s defense, and a huge Wyoming run led to their demise in this weekend’s upset. Rebounding has been a part of the bleeding, so early breakdowns on fundamentals will be a sign of trouble given what Alford has prioritized in preparation for this one.
His team is still surrendering just 65.5 points per game (43rd nationally) and has a solid defensive rating, so this could just be a blip and a wake-up call.
Then again, this three-game losing streak is Nevada’s longest since taking a 22-7 record into its final regular-season contest last February. It wound up losing that, its Mountain West Conference Tournament opener and then an NCAA Tournament First Four game to Arizona State.
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Colorado State vs. Nevada ATS pick
This is a game the Rams can win and they come in with momentum, but the Wolf Pack have to be feeling a sense of desperation given how close they are to letting everything they’ve accomplished to date go to waste.
They’ve denied Stevens in Reno before, and after allowing Wyoming to drain one perimeter look after another, ensuring that doesn’t happen at Lawlor is going to be a driving force. Blackshear has pro aspirations, so outplaying the conference’s top guard is a personal challenge, so we’re about to find out just what this Nevada team and its leader is all about.
There’s concern over free throw woes of late since they’ll have to make them down the stretch to cover, but the team is 23-2 over their last 25 home games and hasn’t fallen there in consecutive games since the end of a disastrous 2022 run. Alford’s team should be good enough to survive here.
Pick: Nevada
More than 10,000 people have enrolled in Nevada’s new public option health plans, which debuted last fall with the expectation that they would bring lower prices to the health insurance market.
Those preliminary numbers from the open enrollment period that ended in January are less than a third of what state officials had projected. Nevada is the third state so far to launch a public option plan, along with Colorado and Washington state. The idea is to offer lower-cost plans to consumers to expand health care access.
But researchers said plans like these are unlikely to fill the gaps left by sweeping federal changes, including the expiration of enhanced subsidies for plans bought on Affordable Care Act marketplaces.
The public option gained attention in the late 2000s when Congress considered but ultimately rejected creating a health plan funded and run by the government that would compete with private carriers in the market. The programs in Washington state, Colorado, and Nevada don’t go that far — they aren’t government-run but are private-public partnerships that compete with private insurance.
In recent years, states have considered creating public option plans to make health coverage more affordable and to reduce the number of uninsured people. Washington was the first state to launch a program, in 2021, and Colorado followed in 2023.
Washington and Colorado’s programs have run into challenges, including a lack of participation from clinicians, hospitals, and other care providers, as well as insurers’ inability to meet rate reduction benchmarks or lower premiums compared with other plans offered on the market.
Nevada law requires that the carriers of the public option plans — Battle Born State Plans, named after a state motto — lower premium costs compared with a benchmark “silver” plan in the marketplace by 15% over the next four years.
But that amount might not make much difference to consumers with rising premium payments from the loss of the ACA’s enhanced tax credits, said Keith Mueller, director of the Rural Policy Research Institute.
“That’s not a lot of money,” Mueller said.
Three of the eight insurers on the state’s exchange, Nevada Health Link, offered the state plans during the open enrollment period.
Insurance companies plan to meet the lower premium cost requirement in Nevada by cutting broker fees and commissions, which prompted opposition from insurance brokers in the state. In response, Nevada marketplace officials told state lawmakers in January that they will give a flat-fee reimbursement to brokers.
The public option has faced opposition among state leaders. In 2024, a state judge dismissed a lawsuit, brought by a Nevada state senator and a group that advocates for lower taxes, that challenged the public option law as unconstitutional. They have appealed to the state Supreme Court.
Federal Policy Impacts
Recent federal changes create more obstacles.
Nevada is consistently among the states with the largest populations of people who do not have health insurance coverage. Last year, nearly 95,000 people in the state received the enhanced ACA tax credits, averaging $465 in savings per month, according to KFF, a health information nonprofit that includes KFF Health News.
But the enhanced tax credits expired at the end of the year, and it appears unlikely that lawmakers will bring them back. Nationwide ACA enrollment has decreased by more than 1 million people so far this year, down from record-high enrollment of 24 million last year.
About 4 million people are expected to lose health coverage from the expiration of the tax credits, according to the Congressional Budget Office. An additional 3 million are projected to lose coverage because of other policy changes affecting the marketplace.
Justin Giovannelli, an associate research professor at the Center on Health Insurance Reforms at Georgetown University, said the changes to the ACA in the Republicans’ One Big Beautiful Bill Act, which President Donald Trump signed into law last summer, will make it more difficult for people to keep their coverage. These changes include more frequent enrollment paperwork to verify income and other personal information, a shortened enrollment window, and an end to automatic reenrollment.
In Nevada, the changes would amount to an estimated 100,000 people losing coverage, according to KFF.
“All of that makes getting coverage on Nevada Health Link harder and more expensive than it would be otherwise,” Giovannelli said.
State officials projected ahead of open enrollment that about 35,000 people would purchase the public option plans. Of the 104,000 people who had purchased a plan on the state marketplace as of mid-January, 10,762 had enrolled in one of the public option plans, according to Nevada Health Link.
Katie Charleson, communications officer for the state health exchange, said the original enrollment estimate was based on market conditions before the recent increases in customers’ premium costs. She said that the public option plans gave people facing higher costs more choices.
“We expect enrollment in Battle Born State Plans to grow over time as awareness increases and as Nevadans continue seeking quality coverage options that help reduce costs,” Charleson said.
According to KFF, nationally the enhanced subsidies saved enrollees an average of $705 annually in 2024, and enrollees would save an estimated $1,016 in premium payments on average in 2026 if the subsidies were still in place. Without the subsidies, people enrolled in the ACA marketplace could be seeing their premium costs more than double.
Insights From Washington and Colorado
Washington and Colorado are not planning to alter their programs due to the expiration of the tax credits, according to government officials in those states.
Other states that had recently considered creating public options have backtracked. Minnesota officials put off approving a public option in 2024, citing funding concerns. Proposals to create public options in Maine and New Mexico also sputtered.
Washington initially saw meager enrollment in its Cascade Select public option plans; only 1% of state marketplace enrollees chose a public option plan in 2021. But that changed after lawmakers required hospitals to contract with at least one public option plan by 2023. Last year the state reported that 94,000 customers enrolled, accounting for 30% of all customers on the state marketplace. The public option plans were the lowest-premium silver plans in 31 of Washington’s 39 counties in 2024.
A 2025 study found that since Colorado implemented its public option, called the Colorado Option, coverage through the ACA marketplace has become more affordable for enrollees who received subsidies but more expensive for enrollees who did not.
Colorado requires all insurers offering coverage through its marketplace to include a public option that follows state guidelines. The state set premium reduction targets of 5% a year for three years beginning in 2023. Starting this year, premium costs are not allowed to outpace medical inflation.
Though the insurers offering the public option did not meet the premium reduction targets, enrollment in the Colorado Option has increased every year it has been available. Last year, the state saw record enrollment in its marketplace, with 47% of customers purchasing a public option plan.
Giovannelli said states are continuing to try to make health insurance more affordable and accessible, even if federal changes reduce the impact of those efforts.
“States are reacting and trying to continue to do right by their residents,” Giovannelli said, “but you can’t plug all those gaps.”
Are you struggling to afford your health insurance? Have you decided to forgo coverage? Click here to contact KFF Health News and share your story.
KFF Health News is a national newsroom that produces in-depth journalism about health issues and is one of the core operating programs at KFF — an independent source of health policy research, polling, and journalism. Learn more about KFF.
Southern Nevada has a proud history of competing — and winning — through boldness and reinvention. We have developed a world-class tourism economy, built globally recognized brands and demonstrated our ability to rebound from significant disruptions. In today’s fiercely competitive global economy, however, we must intentionally design the next chapter of our economic story. Communities worldwide are continuously enhancing their sophistication, and we must keep pace.
Since joining the Las Vegas Global Economic Alliance in late August of last year, I have consistently heard from community partners that we must diversify and enhance Southern Nevada’s economy. Our goal is to build upon and complement the strengths we already possess.
To achieve this, the alliance, as Southern Nevada’s regional economic development organization and designated Regional Development Agency, is embarking on a comprehensive strategic planning process. This initiative will guide our economic development priorities both in the near and long term, ensuring that we focus on areas that will yield the most positive impact.
The alliance has a history of reinvention, having been established in 1958 as the Southern Nevada Industrial Foundation, later becoming the Nevada Development Authority, and since 2011, operating under its current name in partnership with the Governor’s Office of Economic Development.
Economic development extends beyond merely attracting companies. It encompasses the ability of local families to access high-wage careers, the opportunity for young people to build their futures at home and the resilience of our economy to withstand disruptions.
Over the past decade, Southern Nevada has made significant strides toward economic diversification, with investment outcomes in 2025 surpassing those of 2024. However, our work is far from complete. While tourism will always be a foundational strength and source of pride for our region, over-reliance on any single sector poses risks. A diversified economy enhances stability, and stability creates opportunities. We are united in our desire for more accessible housing, expanded health care and education, and greater upward mobility for our residents.
This strategic planning effort aims to ensure that the alliance and its partners concentrate on the right initiatives in the right manner. It will validate the region’s target industries and subsectors, narrowing our focus on areas where Southern Nevada has genuine competitive advantages and long-term potential. The planning process will include community interviews, focus groups and surveys to ensure our final strategy reflects the real opportunities and challenges facing Southern Nevada. We will establish flagship goals and a prioritized strategy matrix to direct our attention and resources toward meaningful outcomes.
A crucial aspect of this process involves clarifying roles within the broader economic ecosystem. Economic development is a team sport — when organizations replicate efforts, operate in silos or compete for recognition, the region loses valuable time and credibility, allowing opportunities to slip away. I have witnessed this behavior in various markets, serving as a red flag for prospective companies.
We have already made strides in building partnerships, exemplified by a Memorandum of Understanding signed in November 2025 with the Economic Development Authority of Western Nevada to jointly support economic development education and advocacy for community leaders statewide.
Our strategic work will also include a organizational assessment of the alliance, evaluating our mission, resource deployment and engagement model. Economic impact requires operational excellence and measurable execution. Most importantly, this plan — which we anticipate completing by late April — will feature a three-year road map with clear timelines, recommended actions and meaningful metrics to transparently track our progress. A longtime mentor of mine often said, “What gets watched gets measured, and what gets measured gets done.”
Las Vegas has always taken the initiative to shape its own future. This strategic plan presents an opportunity for us to do what we do best: come together, think bigger, act smarter and create something lasting. Together, we can build a purposeful and resilient economic future for Southern Nevada.
Danielle Casey is president and CEO of the Las Vegas Global Economic Alliance.
EUREKA COUNTY, Nev. (KOLO) – On Friday, Feb. 27, the Nevada State Police assisted with a cattle crossing on State Route 306 at Interstate 80 in Eureka County.
“While not an everyday part of our job, we like to do our part to assist our local ranchers while keeping traffic from turning into udder chaos,” according to an agency Facebook post. “It was a perfect opportunity to be outside (even if our animal friends were a little moo-dy).”
Copyright 2026 KOLO. All rights reserved.
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