Thanks to the Nevada men's basketball team's series at San Jose State being postponed due to COVID-19 issues, the Wolf Pack didn't play a football or basketball game over the weekend for the first time since Oct. 17-18, almost four full months of action (we did get some Nevada volleyball and softball games, however). The Nevada men will try and get back on the court Saturday for its scheduled home game with Colorado State. In this week's Monday Mailbag, we have a few questions on the Wolf Pack's pause in operations, but we first start with a former Nevada player: Jordan Brown, now at Arizona. Let's get to the questions. Thanks, as always, for the inquiries.
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Jordan Brown, the second McDonald's All-American to sign with Nevada basketball, transferred to Arizona after one season of limited playing time with the Wolf Pack in 2018-19. He had to redshirt last season before becoming eligible this year, although Arizona is not eligible for the NCAA Tournament due to a self-inflicted postseason ban thanks to rules violations that pre-date Brown's addition. The 6-foot-11 power forward originally from Roseville, Calif., started 11 of Arizona's first 12 games but has come off the bench for the last nine contests. He's averaging 20.8 minutes per game as a starter and 18.6 minutes per game as a reserve, so not a huge difference.
In 21 games, Brown is averaging 9.7 points, 5.1 rebounds and 1.0 blocks per game. He's shooting 57 percent from the field. He's had some big games (25 points against Oregon State; 19 points and 15 rebounds against Grambling), but has been held to single digits in 14 of his 21 games, largely because he's only had five games in which he played more than 20 minutes (he's averaging 17 points per game in those). So, playing time remains an issue, as it was at Nevada. Brown ranks third on Arizona in offensive rating and second in defensive rating. Those numbers would indicate he should be getting more minutes. But 6-11 freshman Azuolas Tubelis (11.7 ppg, 6.3 rpg) has taken on the role of lead big man for Arizona.
Brown's 23.4 Player Efficiency Rating (PER) and his 2.0 win shares ranks first and fourth, respectively, at Arizona, so he's one of the team's best players on a per-minute basis. In Arizona wins, Brown is averaging 10.9 points per game on 64 percent shooting; in Wildcats losses, it's 7.3 points per game on 43.5 percent shooting. So he's a key to the success of lack thereof of Arizona, although he hasn't blossomed as some might have expected with at Arizona. It seems like he should be getting more minutes based on his productivity. He hasn't been as productive against the top teams on Arizona's schedule, but there's a lot to like about his rate stats, which are elite almost across the board (he could improve his assist rate, steal rate and free throw accuracy). He's just stuck in that 20-minute range rather than getting the 30 minutes most star players, even centers, get.
Brown's college journey has been a weird one. He committed to Nevada when the team was loaded and coached by a man (Eric Musselman) who openly said depth is the most overrated thing in college basketball. He pretty obviously didn't use his bench, and the Wolf Pack had the Martin twins and Jordan Caroline returning plus the additions of transfer big men Tre'Shawn Thurman and Trey Porter. To be fair, the Martin twins were still testing the draft waters when Brown committed to Nevada, but they were guards anyway and weren't going to cut into Brown's minutes. The frontcourt was going to be loaded, and Coach Musselman clearly preferred a shorter rotation of veteran players.
It was odd that Brown's top options at the end were Nevada (a mid-major, albeit a good one), Cal (a dumpster fire) and Arizona (a place he never visited, and a program that was in deep water with the NCAA). He also took official visits to Louisiana, St. John’s and UCLA, although the Bruins had bowed out after signing Shareef O'Neal, and Louisiana (his dad's alma mater) and St. John's (an entire continent away from home) weren't great options. You'd figure a McDonald All-American would have had a more robust offering of potential landing spots at the end. After playing only 10 minutes per game as a freshman at Nevada, Brown entered the portal, and you could see why. But as poor a landing spot as Nevada seemed to be when he signed with the team, remaining at Nevada for at least one more season in 2019-20 seemed like an ideal location. The Wolf Pack's entire starting five leaving, and new coach Steve Alford told Brown "this is his team."
Alford also had a strong history of developing bigs at UCLA and New Mexico and wants to run his offense through post players. Brown would have been surrounded by good guards who would have taken some pressure off him offensively in Jalen Harris, Jazz Johnson and Lindsey Drew. And Brown would have scooped up 25-plus minutes per game and a high usage rate. Heck, Johncarlos Reyes even got 20 minutes a game for Nevada last year, so Brown would have been close to 30 if he didn't get into foul trouble. And if it was completely up to Brown, I'm positive he would have stayed at Nevada. He liked the community and the program. But the family decision was made for Brown to go to the NBA factory that is Arizona, and while he's a solid rotation player for the Wildcats, he's not being showcased as he would have been at Nevada, which is unfortunate for a player of his talent level.
The Wolf Pack rebounded nicely enough by adding 7-footer Warren Washington, who is providing a reasonable statistical facsimile as Brown with 9.4 points, 5.8 rebounds and 59.3 percent shooting this season. Those are basically identical stats to Brown. Nevada also has 7-foot Texas transfer Will Baker eligible next season. The Wolf Pack has taken care of the center spot post-Brown. The interesting thing is Washington initially turned down Nevada, his first scholarship offer, in part because he didn't trust Coach Musselman would play him as a freshman. He went to Oregon State before taking the reverse path as Brown, transferring from the Pac-12 to the MW, and is blossoming at Nevada. Brown would have been better served staying at Nevada last season rather than transferring and sitting out a season. I wouldn't completely rule out Brown making it to the NBA given his McDonald's All-American pedigree, but that's far from a sure thing.
No. I don't see him entering the draft or being selected in 2021. Like you, I'm pulling for him. Despite not getting many minutes during his freshman season at Nevada, he was always a good teammate who didn't cause issues. That's a rare quality for a McDonald's All-American. It's a shame Wolf Pack fans didn't get to see him fulfill his potential at Nevada. He could be putting up Orlando Robinson-type numbers for the Wolf Pack (15 points, 10 rebounds, 2 blocks per game). He's a good kid and a good player. I hope he makes it to the league, which is every college player's dream.
Honestly, we don't know how good the Mountain West is this season because of the lack of non-conference games that were played. Boise State looked great early in MW action, but how much of that is because they were playing San Jose State, Wyoming, Air Force, New Mexico, et al.? They've been exposed to a degree. The bottom of the MW is really bad, which could be making the top look better than it actually is. Again, we don't know because of the lack of non-conference games. The league's top-five teams went 4-6 in Quad 1 and 2 non-conference games, which isn't great. The entire league went 5-11 in Quad 1 and Quad 2 non-league contests. We don't have enough data to tell if the MW is genuinely improved or if it's a result of the league's bad teams being really bad, allowing the top teams in the league to pile up impressive records.
That being said, I would agree the MW's future looks good after some quality coaching hires the last three seasons, including at Utah State (Craig Smith), Colorado State (Nike Medved), Nevada (Steve Alford) and SDSU (Brian Dutcher). If those coaches stay put, Leon Rice remains at Boise State and New Mexico hits on its next hire, the MW could be back to a three- or four-bid league with regularity (T.J. Otzelberger being a success at UNLV would help, but that's an open question). It all comes down to investment and keeping the league's top coaches in place because there are some good coaches in the league and some talented underclassmen (see my story on the league's top draft prospects). Things are in place for a nice five-year run for the MW as long as there isn't coaching attrition.
Three of the Mountain West's big four (SDSU, Boise State, Colorado State, Utah State) should make it, although I could see anywhere from two to potentially five teams in, which would require Nevada winning the MW Tournament and everything else falling into place for the other schools. SDSU, Colorado State and Utah State all losing series due to COVID-19 in the last 10 days has not been helpful, but the two MW Tournament finalists should get in, assuming they are both in the big four, and I believe the conference will squeeze in one more team. SDSU should be in for sure with Boise State, Colorado State and Utah State are all on the bubble. If three teams do get in, I'll project a 2-3 NCAA Tournament record with SDSU and Colorado State advancing to the round of 32. A lot depends on the draws, of course.
Mathematically, yes. If Nevada won its final six games (if they're played), it would finish the regular season 15-5 in MW action. But even if that happens, Nevada would need Utah State to lose at least one more game, Boise State to lose at least two more games and SDSU to lose at least three more games. So while it's mathematically possible, it's not happening. In terms of your second question, TeamRankings.com has SDSU as the favorite to win the conference tournament and get the league's automatic berth into the NCAA Tournament, giving the Aztecs a 37.59 percent chance followed by Utah State (26.06), Boise State (18.13) and Colorado State (13.05). I kind of like Colorado State. But if SDSU wins it, they're probably looking at a seven seed. The Aztecs have the MW's best non-conference résumé and the best shot at a good seed.
Nevada was picked to finish sixth in the MW preseason poll. It is currently fifth. UNLV was picked to finish fourth in the MW preseason poll. It is currently seventh. Thus, UNLV has underachieved at a higher rate (three spots worse than preseason expectations) than Nevada has overachieved (one spot better than preseason expectations). And you can tie that to the difference between UNLV's David Jenkins Jr. (MW preseason newcomer of the year) and Nevada's Grant Sherfield (will be the MW postseason newcomer of the year). Sherfield has given Nevada the impact most thought Jenkins would give UNLV.
If the season ended today, I would vote Nevada's Grant Sherfield for MW player of the year and Colorado State's Niko Medved for MW coach of the year. But both races are razor thin and 30 percent of the MW season still must be played, so those votes could definitely change.
No. I haven't seen that. Lawlor Events Center's lower bowl has always tended to be upper middle class and above economically. Those are expensive season tickets. That hasn't changed. But Nevada has typically had affordable "get in the door" season-ticket prices with football around $100 per person and basketball at $199 until the 2019 price hike up to $299, which backfired with a loss of 1,106 season-ticket holders last season contributing to a $2 million fiscal year deficit. Northern Nevada has definitely seen an influx of California transplants who would qualify in your second category, and some of those families have become strong Wolf Pack fans and donors. But the bread is still buttered with native Nevadans who would fit your blue-collar description. Those people make up the lion's share of the Wolf Pack faithful.
Nevada's 2021 home opener is scheduled for Sept. 11 against FCS school Idaho State. Nevada's last home opener, against Purdue in 2019, only drew 20,144 fans. The last time Nevada opened the home schedule with an FCS team, Portland State in 2018, it drew just 17,525 fans. While there's going to be more buzz about the 2021 team, I'm not sure the Wolf Pack would draw more than 75 percent capacity even without COVID-19 restrictions (that'd be 20,250 fans).
My guess, and hope, is there are no COVID-19 capacity restrictions come September 2021. If we all get vaccinated when our number is called that should be the case. We should have 75 percent of our population vaccinated by the start of the college football season, and that 75 percent is the assumed number required for herd immunity and a return to normalcy. If we do get to that level, I'm interested to see if attendance goes up or down for a school like Nevada. On one hand, this pandemic has taught us that gathering is important, and I think more people will want to go to games. On the other hand, COVID-19 has had an economic impact, so fewer people might have the means to go to games, plus a percent of the population still won't want to gather in large groups. I'd still advise wearing a mask in large groups like a sporting event post-vaccination.
As for your second question, Nevada has had nine official football sellouts, including four each against Boise State (1991, 2010, 2012, 2014) and UNLV (1995, 1997, 2003, 2013) and one against Oregon (1997). The 2015 game with UNLV drew 29,551 fans but was not deemed a sellout. Nevada's capacity then was 30,000. Now, it's estimated at 27,000, so sellouts should be easier to achieve, although Nevada has yet to have one post renovation (since 2016), which shrunk the capacity.
Associate head coach is a more lofty title. It goes Head Coach, Associate Head Coach, Assistant Head Coach and Assistant (To The) Head Coach. For example, when Coach Norvell went home to attend his father's funeral the week leading up to the 2020 season opener against Wyoming, Matt Mumme, the associate head coach, ran the team with help from Jordon Simmons, the assistant head coach. The advanced title is a nice way to hire and/or keep coaches who have multiple options. Nevada football hired Angus McClure away from UCLA with that associate head coach title (he took a pay cut coming to Reno). Nevada basketball hired Craig Neal with that associate head coach title as well. In terms of strength and conditioning coaches having one of those lofty titles, it's not unprecedented but it is rare. It shows you how much Nevada values Simmons. Also, it's worth noting Nevada's entire football coaching staff is coming back from 2020 to 2021. That's a huge bonus for a Group of 5 program, and another reason why big things are expected next season.
Honestly, whatever he wanted them to be. Take the best season in every stat of Wilt Chamberlain's career and you might have a close proximity. That'd be 50.4 points, 27.2 rebounds, 8.6 assists and 72.7 percent shooting from the field. But LeBron in the WNBA would be even better than that. He'd average something like 50-30-15-10 (blocks) on 90 percent shooting.
Yes. Wolf Pack coaches, trainers, equipment room personnel and other support staff and administration who have "multiple, daily campus and face-to-face interactions with students, the community and the public that must be done in person" were included within the eligibility group formerly designated as tier 2. Wolf Pack athletes did not fit the criteria offered on UNR's vaccine page, but their coaches were eligible for the vaccine.
1) Nope. And even if I did know specific names, I wouldn't report them based on that being private medical information. Legally, I could report them as HIPAA doesn't apply to journalists. But it's in bad form unless the person with the condition is OK sharing that information. I've declined to name a few Wolf Pack players who I know have tested positive this year because of a personal moral responsibility.
2) Feels like it's 50-50 at this point. It's probably worse that Nevada was on a bus to San Jose rather than a plane given air circulation on a plane is much better. But most of the MW teams that have had to pause operations were back in action the next week, which is a positive precedent. That's not true of all of them. See UNLV. But Nevada has six days to get into good standing because you'd want at least one full practice Friday before playing Saturday. My guess is the Wolf Pack plays the Colorado State series, but it's conjecture. There's some flexibility with that series, so it could even be pushed back a couple of days, if necessary.
It's to-be-determined if those series will even be played as Utah State and Colorado State both had their series last week postponed, too (the Rams didn't have anybody test positive, so they should be good to play Saturday if Nevada is cleared). Most likely, Nevada would split with Colorado State and be swept by Utah State, but the Aggies lost at UNLV and can run into some offensive issues (Utah State's defense is excellent), so winning in Logan isn't unthinkable. I like Colorado State a little more between those teams, but Nevada gets the Rams at home and Utah State on the road. Splitting both would be a good result. Just playing the games would be a good result given the current situation. Nevada doesn't want to close the regular season with four games to make up in the period between the regular-season finale (Feb. 28) and start of the MW Tournament (March 10).
No. You'd rather have the rest. Nevada's regular season ends Feb. 28 and the Mountain West Tournament begins March 10. Even if Nevada plays Colorado State this weekend and gets back on track, it's probably playing games at San Jose State on March 3 and March 5 and then playing again in Las Vegas on March 11. That's not a crazy schedule, but I'd take the rest rather than having to potentially play seven games in 16 days (all on the road with trips to Logan, Utah, San Jose and Las Vegas mixed in), which would be how it'd break down if Nevada reached the MW Tournament championship game. I don't believe in momentum, and my past research has shown how you're playing in the final stretch heading into the conference tournament doesn't give you a boost during conference tournament week. Nevada was playing its best basketball of the season before this COVID situation, so, if anything, this two-week break (in the best-case scenario) could mess up the rhythm the team was building. It's not a good development, but at least it didn't happen MW Tournament week.
Nope. I never met Pedro Gomez or Terez Paylor, a well-known national football writer who died unexpectedly at age 37 a week after Gomez passed at 58. But both were apparently great human beings. When somebody dies, the initially reaction is to sing their praises even if they weren't great people. Nobody wants to speak ill of the dead, after all. But Gomez and Perez were seemed to have been amazing people whose legacies didn't need to be boosted by post-death fawning. It's sad to see two great journalists die at such a young age, and it's a shame Gomez is so tied to the coverage of Barry Bonds' alleged PED use in the early 2000s because his career was so much more than that.
I don't see a scenario in which I'd be forced to cover the Dodgers. That's be something that would happen on my own volition. And I purposefully opted against covering major-league sports because I wanted to be able to root for my favorite teams. If I did start covering baseball as a beat writer (that will never happen), I would stop rooting for the Dodgers, which would not be a problem. It'd be a little trickier if I started writing for FanGraphs or something like that. In that role, you're just doing analysis of players and teams and not really covering them in a specific beat role. In that scenario, I'd probably still be OK rooting for the Dodgers but not doing so as obnoxiously in public. And I'm aware my Dodgers fandom is obnoxious. But not as obnoxious as NBC Bay Area writing stories like this. God, they're horrible.
Deshaun Watson = It depends on how big of a mess he wants to make of things in Houston, but my guess is he starts the season with the Texans. If he does force a trade, I'll go with Miami, which could deal Tua Tagovailoa, the No. 3 overall pick in 2021 (which previously belonged to Houston) and some other top picks. But I don't see Houston trading a top-10 quarterback (maybe top five) just because he's upset, and justifiably so. The Texans are horribly run.
Carson Wentz = Indianapolis Colts. The Colts need a quarterback, and their head coach, Frank Reich, worked well with Wentz when he was the Eagles' offensive coordinator from 2016-17. While Wentz has a bad contract, he did post 4,039 yards, 27 touchdowns, seven interceptions and a 93.1 quarterback rating in 2019 with a poor receiving corps. He's worth taking a shot on.
JJ Watt = Green Bay Packers. He's from Wisconsin and said in 2019 that playing at Lambeau Field is "literally a dream I've had since I was a little kid." The Packers' cap situation isn't great, but they could make it happen. The problem is Watt has just 26.5 sacks over the last five seasons (48 games), including five sacks in 16 games last season. He's not a star-caliber player anymore.
Not that I know of. He isn't on one of the 18 G League rosters playing in the Orlando bubble right now. I haven't seen anything on him signing a deal overseas. I honestly don't know whether he had post-college aspirations for basketball. I'm not saying he didn't, but it wouldn't shock me if he didn't. We'll see if he resurfaces next season when the G League has a normal year, not this 18-team, three-week thing they're doing this month.
Kendall Stephens is currently playing in his native Australia (he was born there when his dad was playing overseas ball) and is averaging 1.9 points on 5.7 minutes per game for South East Melbourne Phoenix, so I don't think the NBA is in the cards, but he could have a nice career overseas. Stephens was pretty banged up post-college and required surgery on his thumb (right after the season) and his ankle (which lingered post-Nevada and required surgery last summer). So he didn't have an ideal draft preparation after staring for one season at Nevada where he set the Mountain West's single-season 3-point makes record, breaking the mark held by Jimmer Fredette. At 6-foot-7 and a deadeye shooter, you'd figure Stephens would have had a shot at the NBA, but he got limited playing time in the 2018 NBA summer league — 11 mpg, 3.5 ppg, 1.5 rpg, 20 FG% (3-of-15) — with the Orlando Magic and headed overseas.
Fun Fact: Do you know the last Nevada player with at least five blocks in a game? That'd be Kendall Stephens, who had five against UNLV in the 2018 MW Tournament.
“It didn't surprise us, it shocked us,” his coach, Eric Musselman, said after Stephens' five-block game. “For him to have five blocks, maybe he got some other guys’ blocks." Stephens actually blocked a lot of shots at Nevada. He had 24 in 36 games in 2017-18, good for a wing player known for his shooting. Nevada really missed him the following season.
It was nice to see the Reno Aces ink that 10-year agreement with the Arizona Diamondbacks. That's great stability. But in terms of attendance, Reno will probably rank in the bottom two or three of the old Pacific Coast League (or whatever they're going to call it when the naming rights are sold; it's currently the 10-team "Triple-A West"). Reno is one of the smallest Triple-A markets in the country. Reno ranked 15th out of 16 PCL teams in attendance in 2019 at 4,803 fans per game. It was 12th in 2018 and 15th in 2017. The last time it didn't rank in the bottom five in the PCL in attendance was 2015 when it was the sixth lowest. The size of the market and fact Northern Nevada has a lot of entertainment options in the summer hurts attendance. Maybe shuttering Reno 1868 FC will increase the attendance a little moving forward, but there are certainly challenges for the Aces in drawing in the top half of the Triple-A West.
I don't think anybody in Reno is going to watch the Golden Knights' game against the Avalanche this weekend in Tahoe and all of a sudden become a fan of the team. But the NHL franchise has done a solid job of marketing its team in Northern Nevada with some events in Reno (pre-pandemic) and donations to Reno Ice and creation of the popular Knights youth hockey program in that facility. AT&T SportsNet is not the most ubiquitous channel, so getting the games on a more popular service in Reno would improve the marketing and stickiness of the team to a larger degree. It'd be interesting to poll Northern Nevada to see if there are more Sharks or Knights fans in Reno. My guess is it's the Knights by a little.
Questions like this are always funny because it was one of our reporters (Brett Forrest) who asked Gov. Steve Sisolak about the status of high school sports and football specifically, which led to our update on the situation. Without us asking that question, there would have been no update on prep football, which was scheduled to start practice last Saturday but remains on the "no-play" list. So you're criticizing us for not asking Gov. Sisolak about prep football when we literally just asked him about prep football.
We don't have much access to Gov. Sisolak since he holds press conferences every other week if we're lucky and takes 10 or so questions selected by his staff. It's not like we have ample access to him on the daily basis, but we did get our question in last week. So, he has "been asked and answered" about high school athletics, which for the most part are running at full capacity with only three of the NIAA's 17 sanctioned sports being limited (those being the contact sports of basketball, football and wrestling). I'm also not sure he "lied" about kids not being in the classroom. Clark County is not holding in-person learning. Even in Washoe County, it's on an every-other-day basis for middle school and high school. Perhaps he meant his goal was to get kids into class on a full-time basis. Or that he doesn't want to revert back to full distance learning, which Washoe County was in less than a month ago before returning to the hybrid system.
I do believe Gov. Sisolak could do a much better job in explaining why football isn't being allowed. He could be more clear with what must happen for football to be approved at the high school level. I do wish we had more one-on-one time to get answers to those questions. But we have tried to get information on that topic, both via the governor and NIAA, and are the reason that information came out last week. The NIAA is supposed to have more information from the governor's office on this topic Tuesday, and we'll pass that along if we get it. But playing high school sports during a pandemic should be low on the governor's to-do list. I do have compassion for kids who lose their senior seasons — I tore my hamstring and missed much of my senior season in high school as a result — but I'd much rather have the governor focusing on getting the vaccine out and keeping down COVID-19 deaths. We've had 630 people in our community die of COVID already. That's far too much.
That's impossible to do without having the lines attached, and lines aren't attached until about 24 hours prior to tipoff. But given his deal with the devil, just always bet on Tom Brady. Tom Brady always wins. Looks like the Bucs are 10/1 odds to win next year's Super Bowl, according to the future odds. Put some money on that. I'm sure he'll win four more Super Bowls.
I have a Mailbag leftover question asking me for the five best and five worst covers that I'll get to this week. I won't spoil that here. But I do find it funny you hate Pearl Jam but love its cover of Last Kiss because I've met several people who don't like the band but love this version of that song. Not sure why, but that seems to be a theme. Here it is.
While I like this version of the song, it's not making my top-five covers list.
I can only name four presidents of Mountain West schools, those being at Nevada (Brian Sandoval), UNLV (Keith Whitfield), Boise State (Marlene Tromp) and Utah State (Noelle co*ckett), so I'm as qualified to answer that question as I would be to start Game 1 of the 2021 World Series for the Dodgers (Walker Buehler will be handling those duties). But a fun fact about those four presidents. Three of them have a middle name that starts with the letter "E." The one who doesn't is Tromp, who it appears might not have a middle name. I also thought Colorado State's president was Tony Frank, but he stepped down in 2019. Magnificent goatee on that guy.
The best is the dark chocolate with a maraschino cherry inside. I also enjoy dark chocolate with coconut and/or almond. Basically an Almond Joy. The worst is anything with cream inside. Also, I don't like white chocolate, truffles or toffee, which gets stuck in my teeth. But as Forrest Gump said, life is like a box of chocolates. Speaking of life ...
The meaning of life is to live, to gain experiences you'll never forget, to squeeze as much joy and happiness out of your limited time on Earth. To make others around you feel better. To help people in need of assistance. To care more about humanity than money. To be the kind of person others want to be around. To be curious and explorative. To focus more on family than work. To leave this place better than you found it. To have no regrets when your time has come. And to root, root, root for the Dodgers. See y'all next week!
Sports columnist Chris Murray provides insight on Northern Nevada sports. He writes a weekly Monday Mailbag despite it giving him a headache and it taking several hours to write. But people seem to like it, so he does it anyway. Contact him at crmurray@sbgtv.com or follow him on Twitter @ByChrisMurray.
