Nevada
The biggest NCAA Tournament snubs in Nevada Wolf Pack basketball history
Despite its quarterfinal loss to Colorado State in the Mountain West Tournament, literally no one is expecting the Nevada men’s basketball team to miss out on this year’s NCAA Tournament.
The Wolf Pack broke into the rankings in the AP Top 25 and USA TODAY Sports Coaches’ Poll earlier this week, landing at Nos. 23 and 22, respectively. And despite the Thursday night loss, Nevada was in every single one of the 106 predictions tracked by bracketmatrix.com; the consensus was that Nevada would land as a 7-seed when tournament selections are announced on Sunday.
Still, only conference tournament champions get automatic invitations to March Madness, so the 26-win Wolf Pack will have to await their fate. And strange things can happen when Selection Sunday rolls around, especially for teams outside the traditional basketball powerhouse conferences:
- 2004: Utah State was ranked No. 22 in the nation in the final poll with a 25-4 overall record, but was denied a spot in the 65-team field that year.
- 2012: Drexel wrapped up the season winning 19 out of 20 to finish with a record of 29-7, but didn’t get one of the 68 invitations that year.
- 2015: Colorado State had a 27-6 record going into Selection Sunday, but was shut out of the 68-team bracket.
- 2018: Saint Mary’s was 28-5, with one of their wins on the road against 13th-ranked Gonzaga, and ranked 20th in the nation, but didn’t get the call to join the 68-team tournament.
While we wait to find out where the Pack will play its postseason games, let’s take a look at some of the biggest snubs in Nevada basketball history.
2011-12: Under third-year head coach David Carter and starring Deonte Burton, Malik Story and Olek Czyz, Nevada had compiled a 26-6 record and a regular-season title in the Western Athletic Conference. But after losing in the WAC conference tournament, they had to settle for a No. 5 seed in the National Invitational Tournament instead of going to the Big Dance. They wrapped up their season with a quarterfinal loss to eventual NIT champion Stanford.
1996-97: If the Wolf Pack ever had an argument to get an at-large bid prior to the 2000s, it was this team under head coach Pat Foster, with Nevada Hall-of-Famer Faron Hand leading the squad to a 20-9 record and a first-place regular-season finish in the Big West’s eastern division. But a 20-win season against a lightly regarded Big West schedule didn’t impress the selection committee. The team ended its season with a second-round loss to Nebraska in the NIT.
1978-79: The Pack had a high-powered offense — 24th in the nation in points per game with 82.9 — and a home win against 14th-ranked Georgetown, but its 20-6 record in the West Coast Athletic Conference wasn’t enough to catch the attention of the selection committee.
1945-46: True, there was little chance that Nevada would head to the eight-team NCAA tournament in 1946. Under head coach Jake Lawlor, they had compiled a 26-4 regular season record — but their competition included several non-collegiate opponents, including the amateur Olympic Club of San Francisco, and military teams including the Fallon Navy and the Treasure Island Armed Guard. The team did get an invitation to the NAIA basketball tournament that year in Kansas City, where they had four starters foul out in a quarterfinal loss to Southern Illinois. Their .848 win percentage (28-5 overall) is still the third-best in school history.
Numerous Nevada women’s basketball seasons: A total of 296 women’s basketball teams have competed in the NCAA Women’s Basketball Tournament, but the Wolf Pack is still on the outside looking in. Despite impressive squads like the 22-11 team in 2010-11 (which picked up regular-season wins against tournament participants Louisiana Tech and NC State) and the 1985-86 team that finished with a school-best .680 win percentage, no Wolf Pack women’s team has gone on to the NCAA Tournament.
Nevada
Vandalism damages HVAC at high school in North Las Vegas
LAS VEGAS (FOX5) — Vandalism at Cheyenne High School forced crews to work early Monday to restore the campus HVAC system before classes began, according to the Clark County School District (CCSD).
CCSD officials said the damage occurred over the weekend, but facilities teams completed repairs before 8 a.m. Monday, allowing instruction to continue as scheduled. School staff monitored temperatures during the work to ensure conditions remained safe for students and employees.
MORE ON FOX5 | 30 CCSD football programs go ‘independent’ within NIAA
The district said the vandalism also prompted a temporary shutdown of the building’s water fountains while required testing of the school’s water system is underway. CCSD said bottled water is being provided to students and staff while officials await test results, and that all other water systems on campus remain operational.
District officials said there has been no disruption to the school day, citing the quick response from school staff, CCSD Facilities and Martin-Harris Construction.
Copyright 2026 KVVU. All rights reserved.
Nevada
Jeff Choate evaluates spring camp following Nevada’s first padded scrimmage
The Nevada football team held its first closed scrimmage of spring camp last Thursday with the team nearing the halfway point of its 15 allowable spring practices.
After the scrimmage, third-year head coach Jeff Choate met with the media to share his takeaways. One of the first things he noted was positives coming from the wide receiver and running back rooms, saying all four wideouts who transferred to Nevada this spring made impact plays. Those newcomers include Donnie Cheers (Southeast Missouri), Jaceon Doss (Towson), WR Gary Givens III (Northern Illinois) and Damien Morgan (Idaho State), who were imported to shore up Nevada’s biggest weak point last season.
“I thought we did some really good things creating explosives,” Choate said. “The negatives from an offense standpoint was just some basic operational things. We had a lot of snaps that were on the ground, perimeter blocking the first time you get the officials out there. We got some holding calls that negated some explosive plays. So, those are things that obviously we need to continue to work on and clean up.
“From a defensive standpoint, like I told them after the scrimmage, ‘There’s the two things that are always going to show up in these. We can’t really simulate live tempo the way it’s going to be when you’re playing football with officials. So, I think the tempo got them a little bit. And then tackling always shows up in a first scrimmage where we’ve been working tag tempo or thud tempo in practice and now we’re out there playing real football.
“A lot of things to clean up on both sides. I felt like there was good competition. I think that guys competed hard. There was some good physical play. “
Entering spring camp, Choate said the Wolf Pack had the same depth chart at quarterback as it ended the 2025 season, with Carter Jones atop the list, veteran backup A.J. Bianco second and UCLA transfer Luke Duncan blending in with the two. Choate said all three quarterbacks did some good things in the scrimmage, which will be used as an evaluation tool as a pecking order begins to take shape after spring break so the quarterbacks could continue to build consistency with playmakers on the depth chart.
Despite some sloppiness, it was an interception-free scrimmage, with turnovers an issue for Nevada last season. The Wolf Pack ranked sixth worst in the nation in passing efficiency, throwing 10 touchdowns and 17 interceptions.
“I think that competition raises everybody’s performance,” Choate said. “I felt like the three top guys all did some really, really good things. All three of them were able to lead touchdown drives at one point in time or another during the scrimmage. There was some sloppiness with some issues with the snap, but some of that was on the quarterbacks, right? They gotta be able to catch the freaking ball first and then worry about what the read is. And some of that stuff I’d like to see be a little cleaner in terms of the basic operation stuff.
“I thought those guys missed a couple of reads there, and that’s gonna happen. But by and large, we didn’t throw any interceptions today. I thought that was good they took care of the football, they got out of the pocket when it was appropriate for them to do that and they were able to put the ball in the end zone, which is the goal.”
Choate hired offensive coordinator Brett Bartolone this offseason to help revitalize a stagnant offense that averaged just 17.5 points per game last year, one of the worst marks in program history. Bartolone isn’t new to Nevada after serving as an offensive analyst for the Wolf Pack from 2020-21. Nevada’s offense hasn’t been as potent since then. During that two-year stretch, it averaged 33.7 points per game led by two-time Mountain West offensive player of the year, Carson Strong and playmakers Romeo Doubs, Cole Turner and Toa Taua.
Choate admitted this offseason change was needed to be more effective on offense, which includes throwing the ball more than his offense featured the last two seasons. Bartolone previously ran a spread-passing attack that Nevada is installing this spring.
“I think he’s got a plan and he knows what he wants it to look like,” Choate said of Bartolone. “He’s run this system for a while and he’s been a part of the system for even longer, so he’s gotten bank reps on, ‘Hey, defenses are gonna play us certain ways, and when they do this to us, this is how we can counterpunch that.’ And I think it’s done a good job there. I think there were some things in protection today that we’ve got to get cleaned up. We missed some protections with the backs, but those guys will get better at that as we get more repetitions.”
Nevada is on spring break this week and will continue spring camp next week with its final scrimmage at Churchill County High on April 10.
Nevada
30 Southern Nevada high school football programs go independent, leaving the NIAA playoff structure
LAS VEGAS (KTNV) — 30 southern Nevada high school football programs are going independent and choosing to step away from competing in the NIAA-sanctioned playoff structure.
“Definitely a good number of schools, their decision was based off of Bishop Gorman, we have to do all of these weird playoff configurations with these complicated formulas because a lot of teams don’t want to play them, but it’s not the only factor,” Liberty Football head coach Rich Muraco said.
WATCH| Alex Eschelman reports the latest on 30 high school football programs leaving NIAA playoff structure
30 Southern Nevada high school football programs go independent, leaving the NIAA playoff structure
Other factors include differences in zoning rules, transfer rules and finances.
“When you’re playing for a state championship, the NIAA’s job is to group teams you know as fairly as possible and play with similar types of circumstances and rules and there’s a perception out there that that’s not being done,” Muraco said.
Now, these schools are taking action into their own hands as the first step toward an even playing field.
“The goal long term is to get everybody back in a room and come up with a plan that’s fair for everyone,” Muraco said.
This story was reported on-air by a journalist and has been converted to this platform with the assistance of AI. Our editorial team verifies all reporting on all platforms for fairness and accuracy.
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