Eight days between games proved to be too many for the Nevada men’s basketball team.

That long break, along with a bad week of practices, led to a lethargic Wolf Pack.

The Wolf Pack turned in a dismal performance as Washington State took a 68-57 win on Monday night at Lawlor Events Center in front of 7,748 fans.

Washington State was without its leading scorer, Cedric Coward, but Nevada had no answer for the players the Cougars did have.

Kobe Sanders led Nevada with 14 points and Justin McBride had 11 as the Wolf Pack dropped to 6-2.

The Wolf Pack entered the game third in the nation in shooting and second in 3-point accuracy, but shot 39 percent (22-of-57) from the field, and 4-of-20 from 3-point range.

Washington State had four players score in double figures, led by Isaiah Watts with 17 points. LeJuan Watts added 13, and Ethan Price and Nate Calmese each had 10. The Cougars shot 41.7 percent (25-of-60) as they improved to 7-2.

Nevada coach Steve Alford said having seven seniors, the sixth-oldest roster in the nation, should help alleviate the long time between games.

“We had a really bad week of practice,” Alford said. “Bad practices usually mean bad performances, so we’ve got to do a better job of coaching them. It’s an old group, so it’s shocking this was maybe one of the worst offensive performances this team has had since we’ve been here.”

Nevada plays at Loyola Marymount on Saturday (6 p.m., TV: ESPN+). The Lions (3-3) play at Colorado State on Wednesday.

The Lions are coming off a 73-70 win over Wyoming in the Cancun Challenge Riviera Division.

Alford said the seniors need to take leadership to get the Pack back on the right path.

“If there’s value in what happened today, that I want out of this team, learn to play how you practice,” he said. “That’s the lesson that needs to be sent to this team.”

More stats

Nevada was 9-of-13 from the free throw line while Washington State was 6-of-9. Each team had 36 rebounds.

The Wolf Pack got 30 points from its bench, to 16 for the Cougars. The Pack had 12 points off fast breaks, to one for the Cougars.

Daniel Foster returned to the Wolf Pack’s lineup after dealing with a foot injury and played 17 minutes, scoring two points.

Halftime

Washington State led 31-21 at the half as Nevada struggled from the field, hitting 9-of-35, and just 1-of-15 from 3-point range.

The Wolf Pack was 2-for-3 from the free throw line in in the first half.

The Pack stayed within two to four points of the Cougars for most of the first half, but they pulled away in the final two minutes and scored with two seconds left in the half.

Out for the Cougars

Washington State’s Cedric Coward (shoulder) and Marcus Wilson (undisclosed) were both out for game against Nevada. Coward, who averages 17.7 points and 7.0 rebounds, has not played since Nov. 21.

Series history

Before Monday’s game, the Cougars and Wolf Pack last played in 2000 in Pullman, an overtime win for WSU. The Cougars hold a 4-1 all-time advantage.

NET rankings

Before Monday’s game, Nevada was ranked No 32 in the first NCAA NET Rankings released early Monday. Also from the Mountain West, Utah State was ranked No. 14, Boise State was No. 38, and San Diego State was No. 60.

The NET rankings take into account game results, strength of schedule, game location, net offensive and defensive efficiency, and the quality of wins and losses.

In the AP Poll released Monday, San Diego State is ranked No. 24 and Utah State was ninth among others receiving votes.

Up next

• Dec. 7, Nevada at Loyola Marymount, 6 p.m. (TV: ESPN+)
• Dec. 11, South Dakota State at Nevada, 7 p.m.
• Dec. 14, Texas Southern at Nevada, 7 p.m.
• Dec. 21, Colorado State at Nevada, 2 p.m.
• Dec. 28, Nevada at Wyoming, 1 p.m.
• Dec. 31, Utah State at Nevada, 7 p.m.

Welcome to the online version of From the Politics Desk, an evening newsletter that brings you the NBC News Politics team’s latest reporting and analysis from the White House, Capitol Hill and the campaign trail.

In today’s edition, our reporters go through President Joe Biden’s pardon of his son — and the part that’s particularly rankling fellow Democrats. Plus, senior politics editor Mark Murray looks at three big polling trends that defined 2024.

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Some Democrats bristle at Biden’s pardon justification

By Carol E. Lee, Sarah Fitzpatrick, Gary Grumbach and Dareh Gregorian

It’s not just that President Joe Biden pardoned his son Hunter. It’s how he did it that’s upsetting some fellow Democrats.

The president issued a “full and unconditional pardon” for any offenses Hunter Biden has “committed or may have committed or taken part in during the period from January 1, 2014 through December 1, 2024,” according to a White House statement issued Sunday night.

The pardon comes after Biden repeatedly said he would not use his executive authority to pardon his son or commute his son’s sentence. And in his statement, Biden said he was granting the pardon because his son had been “selectively, and unfairly, prosecuted.”

That, as Democratic Rep. Greg Stanton of Arizona told NBC News’ “Meet the Press Now” on Monday, plays against years of core Democratic Party policy positioning — and into the way President-elect Donald Trump and his allies have described his investigations and prosecutions.

“I’m pretty angry because it’s going to be incredibly important that political leaders of both parties stand up for the independence of the Department of Justice, stand up to these attacks suggesting that the Department of Justice has become politicized and needs to be dismantled or the FBI needs to be dismantled,” Stanton said. (See more from Stanton below.)

Trump, in response to Biden’s action, raised the issue of the defendants and people convicted of violence at the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, when he was pushing to overturn the 2020 election results. 

“Does the Pardon given by Joe to Hunter include the J-6 Hostages, who have now been imprisoned for years? Such an abuse and miscarriage of Justice!” Trump wrote on Truth Social.

Special counsel David Weiss’s office on Monday appeared to push back on Biden’s claim that its prosecutions of Hunter Biden were politically motivated, calling such allegations “baseless.” In a court filing challenging Hunter Biden’s request to have his California tax and fraud indictment dismissed in light of his father’s pardon, Weiss noted that a number of judges had already rejected the younger Biden’s claims of vindictive prosecution.

While a handful of members of Congress have spoken out about the pardon so far, one notable group has been silent — those Democrats seen as early possibilities to run for president in 2028. Watch this space going forward.

Three big takeaways from the 2024 polls

By Mark Murray

Beyond signaling that the 2024 presidential election was competitive and uncertain, the polls nailed the political atmospherics that shaped the contest — and could continue to shape politics going forward. Here are some of the biggest lessons we learned.

Most broadly, the polls accurately described an electorate that mostly saw the nation headed in the wrong direction, with an incumbent president, Joe Biden, whose approval rating was stuck in the low 40s — a historical danger zone for the party controlling the White House.

As it turns out, the NBC News Exit Poll found 73% of voters saying they were angry or dissatisfied with the country’s direction, and only 40% approved of Biden’s job performance.

Additionally, the polls foretold many of the key demographic trends that ended up defining the 2024 election, including Trump’s gains with Latino voters.

The NBC News/Telemundo/CNBC Latino poll was among the surveys showing those Trump gains well before the election. Many polls also caught on early to Biden’s and Democrats’ relative struggles with young voters, particularly some men, compared with other recent elections.

But the polls, including the NBC News survey, erred in overstating the size of the gender gap when it came to Harris’ support among female voters and Trump’s backing among men.

According to the exit poll, Harris won female voters by 8 points, and Trump won men by 13 points — a 21-point gender gap that was consistent with recent presidential elections. That was smaller than the 30-point-plus gender gap that the NBC News poll had been showing.

The big thing to keep in mind with the gender gap: For a look at how and where it’s widening, combine it with education and race instead. Harris won white women with college degrees by 16 points, and Trump won white men without college degrees by 40 points — a whopping 56-point gap in the margin between those two different groups.

Read more here →

That’s all from the Politics Desk for now. If you have feedback — likes or dislikes — email us at politicsnewsletter@nbcuni.com

And if you’re a fan, please share with everyone and anyone. They can sign up here.

From 9 to 13 December, more than 25,000 Earth and space scientists will flock to Washington, D.C., for AGU’s Annual Meeting 2024. After jam-packed days attending talks, presenting posters, exploring the exhibit hall, loading up on swag, networking over endless coffee, and playing with puppies (for, er, science?), attendees might be wondering how to extend their science binge outside the conference center.

Luckily for them, the D.C. metro area has events to keep the science times rolling. Here are just a few places to visit in and around D.C. during AGU24.

Around the City

On 10 December, author Anna Farro Henderson will speak at Busboys and Poets on K Street about Core Samples: A Climate Scientist’s Experiments in Politics and Motherhood. On 12 December, Astronomy on Tap DC is presenting “Geology on the Rocks,” with accessible planetary geophysics talks, drinks, and prizes at the DC9 Nightclub.

The National Mall is a museum hot spot, and the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History (NMNH) is the destination for Earth sciences. A collaboration with NASA led to the new Earth Information Center at NMNH, which connects sky-high views from satellite observations with on-the-ground research. The museum’s Lights Out: Recovering Our Night Sky exhibit one floor down demonstrates the impact of light pollution on our fading night skies.

For the more space-minded person, the National Air and Space Museum showcases innovations and pioneers in flight and space exploration. The D.C.-based museum regularly hosts stargazing, planetarium shows (for adults and kids), and solar observing. A long train ride or car trip can bring you to the museum’s Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center in Chantilly, Va., to roam among historic planes and space vehicles and be immersed in stories about sustainable cities, butterflies, and space exploration in its IMAX theater.

The visitor’s center at the NASA Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md., gives tours of the facility and hosts permanent exhibits on the Sun, solar system, and beyond, as well as a rocket garden and astrobiology walk.

And, of course, you can stop by AGU’s headquarters at 2000 Florida Avenue to tour the net zero building and explore its Earth and space science museum.

The Great Outdoors

Take some time to escape the conference center and see some of the outdoor geologic sights the city has to offer. A curated archaeology tour of D.C. buildings reveals the capital’s secret geologic history, with fossils and minerals embedded in the stones used to build some of the city’s iconic buildings. Theodore Roosevelt Island, nestled between D.C. and Arlington, Va., boasts 18 miles (29 kilometers) of accessible forest trails, interesting geologic and cultural histories, and excellent birding views. The Anacostia Riverwalk Trail winds through forest, fields, and marsh and river ecosystems, as well as historic neighborhoods and hot spots in the District and Maryland.

For those who want to travel a little farther afield, the D.C. region is nestled in the foothills of the Appalachian Mountains, the fall zone of the Potomac River, and the Atlantic Coastal Plain. The unique confluence of geologies has something for everyone. And those looking for a souvenir to take home can travel out to Maryland to hunt for fossils in Calvert Cliffs State Park or search for shark teeth in Purse State Park. Adventurers can even paddle through a tidal freshwater marsh in Jug Bay Wetlands Sanctuary.

Start planning your science-filled trip now!

—Kimberly M. S. Cartier (@AstroKimCartier), Staff Writer

Citation: Cartier, K. M. S. (2024), Explore Washington, D.C.’s science scene, Eos, 105, https://doi.org/10.1029/2024EO240540. Published on 2 December 2024.

Text © 2024. AGU. CC BY-NC-ND 3.0
Except where otherwise noted, images are subject to copyright. Any reuse without express permission from the copyright owner is prohibited.

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