Nevada has 10 newcomers on the basketball team, but they looked like a cohesive, seasoned group in the season opener.
The Wolf Pack got a strong defensive effort and dominated Louisiana Tech in taking a 77-50 win on Tuesday in front of 7,144 fans at Lawlor Events Center.
Chuck Bailey III led the way with 24 points, but the Pack had a fairly balanced attack as 13 Pack players got in the game.
Tayshawn Comer added 10 points and Elijah Price added nine points and eight rebounds as Nevada started the season 1-0.
Bailey said he tried to get “one percent better” every day over the summer and fall.
He attributed the win Tuesday to team toughness, saying anyone on the roster can play and contribute without a drop-off.
“We’re going to play hard on the defensive end,” Bailey said. “We communicate well. That was the most I’ve seen us communicate since I’ve been here. … We have a deep team and we can all play. You can go as hard as you can on the court and you can get a breather.”
Nevada coach Steve Alford pressed throughout the game, something he said he has never done in his previous 34 years of coaching.
“We’re not going to be able to play 12 or 14 guys every game, but we do have the ability to play a lot of guys, throw a lot of people at you,” Alford said. “I’m most impressed with how hard we played. We played very hard and we ‘re starting to establish a physicality to how we play.”
He said the press slowed the Bulldogs’ attack, often forcing them to take up to nine seconds to cross midcourt, meaning the Pack only had to guard for 21 seconds.
It was the first meeting between the schools since 2012, when both were members of the WAC.
Alford said Bailey put in more work than anyone over the offseason.
“He’s ready for this. From when he was at Evansville, very good freshman, then he came here and put in some good minutes, playing behind a lot of old guys, and now it’s his turn and he’s making the most of it,” Alford said. “One game doesn’t all of a sudden make a season, but he’s had this kind of consistency throughout the entire summer and fall, so it’s not surprising he had a game like his.”
He added that Bailey will be likely become a focal point for opposing defenses.
Nevada’s defense forced 13 turnovers.
The Pack outrebounded the Bulldogs, 45-26. The Pack had 17 offensive rebounds and got 21 points off those.
The Bulldogs had one offensive rebound.
Pack point guard Tyler Rolison did not score, but he had seven assists and two turnovers.
He also made sure other Pack players got in the game late in the blowout, namely Christopher Baudreau.
“His job as a point guard is to win. His job as a point guard is to establish who we are, identity-wise offense and defense,” Alford said of Rolison. “No points and he is yelling at me about Chris with two minutes to go. Sometimes I can’t see the whole bench. He is yelling at me to put Chris in. I don’t know if TR two years ago would have been thinking about Chris. That’s growth. That’s serving a teammate.”
The Pack shot 25-of-56 from the floor, and 6-of-20 from the arc. The Pack was 21-of-29 from the free throw line.
The Bulldogs shot 18-of-50 from the field and 3-22 from the arc. Louisiana Tech hit 11-of-17 free throws.
No Bulldogs players were in double figures in scoring.
“As the word gets out, this is a fun team to watch,” Alford said. “It’s an exciting team. There’s tempo to it. There’s excitement to it. Our guys have some good personalities, especially on the defensive end.”
Nevada led, 34-18, at the break, shooting 13-33 from the field and 3-11 from the arc.
The Pack had a 26-16 rebounding advantage at the break.
Bulldogs had six blocks in first half and finished with eight; Pack had two blocks in the first half and ended with three.
Alford said Vaughn Weems was not feeling well, but wanted to play anyway and he got 11 minutes on the court.
Pack freshman forward Ethan Coley missed the game with a sprained ankle.
Nevada hosts Pacific (0-0) at 7 p.m. Saturday.
Pacific opens its season Wednesday against Life Pacific.
The Tigers are led by coach Dave Smart, who is in his second season. Elias Ralph, a fifth-year forward, was named to the 2025-26 West Coast Conference Preseason All-Conference Team.
The Pacific men’s basketball program was predicted to finish 10th in the WCC preseason coaches’ poll.
A recent Review-Journal letter to the editor mischaracterized Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto’s Southern Nevada Economic Development and Conservation Act, also known as the Clark County Lands bill. As the former executive director of the Nevada Conservation League, I wholeheartedly support this legislation, so I wanted to set the record straight.
Sen. Cortez Masto has been working on this bill for years in partnership with state and local governments, conservation groups like the NCL and local area tribes. It’s true that the Clark County lands bill would open 25,000 acres to help Las Vegas grow responsibly, while setting aside 2 million acres for conservation. It would also help create more affordable housing throughout the valley while ensuring our treasured public spaces can be preserved for generations to come.
What is not correct is that the money from these land sales would go to the federal government’s coffers. In fact, the opposite is true.
The 1998 Southern Nevada Public Lands Management Act is a landmark bill that identified specific public land for future sale and created a special account ensuring all land sale revenues would come back to Nevada. In accordance with that law 5 percent of revenue from land transfers goes to the state of Nevada for general education purposes, 10 percent goes to the Southern Nevada Water Authority for needed water infrastructure and 85 percent supports conservation and environmental mitigation projects in Southern Nevada. This legislation has provided billions to Clark County and will continue to benefit generations of Southern Nevadans. Sen. Cortez Masto’s lands bill builds upon the act’s success.
So here’s the good news: All of the money generated from land made available for sale under Sen. Cortez Masto’s bill would be sent to the special account created by the 1998 law. Rather than going to an unaccountable federal government, the proceeds would continue to help kids in Vegas get a better education, bolster outdoor recreation and modernize Southern Nevada’s infrastructure.
I know how important it is that money generated from the sale of public land in Nevada stay in the hands of Nevadans, and so does the senator. That’s why she opposed a Republican effort last year to sell off 200,000 acres of land in Clark County and other areas of the country that would have sent those dollars directly to Washington.
Public land management in Nevada should benefit Nevadans. We should protect sacred cultural sites and beloved recreation spaces, responsibly transfer land for affordable housing when needed and ensure our state has the resources it needs to grow sustainably. I will continue working with Sen. Cortez Masto to advocate for legislation, such as the Clark County lands bill, that puts the needs of Nevadans first.
Paul Selberg writes from Las Vegas.
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Las Vegas High’s baseball team claimed a 3-2 home win over Coronado on Friday.
Las Vegas (9-13-1) next hosts Rancho at 10 a.m. Saturday. Coronado (13-14) hosts Chaparral at 3:30 p.m. Monday.
Contact Alex Wright at awright@reviewjournal.com. Follow @AlexWright1028 on X.
LAS VEGAS (FOX5) — Nevada’s jobless rate is holding steady, but the state is still adding jobs.
A new report from DETR shows February’s unemployment rate unchanged at 5.3 percent, with the labor force growing by nearly 3,800 people.
MORE ON FOX5: Nevada unemployment rate rises to 5.3% in January
Nevada now has about 1.6 million nonfarm jobs, up 2.2 percent over the past year and 1,500 more jobs than in January.
“This month’s report shows a strengthening labor market,” said David Schmidt, Chief Economist. ”Compared to the report for January, the pace of job gains in the past year increased from 1.9% to 2.2%, building on what was already the fastest pace of job growth in the country. While the unemployment rate remained stable, the labor force participation rate rose to 63.7%, 1.7 percentage points higher than the national level.”
In Las Vegas, employment ticked up by 1,100 jobs in February, about 0.1 percent, and is up more than 25,000 jobs compared to last year.
Reno added 1,000 jobs on the month, while Carson City shed about 200 but is still slightly above where it was a year ago.
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