On weekday mornings, Nevada Sports Net will recap three big headlines of the day in its Morning Download. Read below for today’s topics.
1. Mountain West men’s basketball has another brutal night
The early returns for the Mountain West men’s basketball season haven’t been great. And they got worse last night. The league took a pair of upset losses with San Diego State losing to Troy in double overtime as a 13-point favorite and Nevada losing to UC Davis as a 12-point favorite. Also Tuesday, Boise State held hold off Wichita State and Fresno State edged Stephen F. Austin. But the MW has now lost games to Hawaii Pacific (Division II), Troy (KenPom 120), UC Davis (201), New Mexico State (130), SC Upstate (312), UC San Diego (129), Youngstown State (140), UT Martin (224), UC Santa Barbara (127) and Tennessee Chattanooga (197). Throw in Air Force’s four losses to teams ranked above 100 in KenPom and the MW has lost 14 non-conference games to KenPom 100-plus opponents in addition to Boise State’s defeat to D-II Hawaii Pacific. The MW has placed at least four teams in the NCAA Tournament in each of the last four seasons, but that seems unlikely to be the case this year given the early struggles.
2. Kobe Sanders shines in first career NBA start
Nevada basketball alum Kobe Sanders made his first NBA start Monday and tallied a career-best 17 points with a rebound, assist and steal in the Los Angeles Clippers’ 110-108 loss to the 76ers. Sanders made 5-of-11 shots, including 3-of-7 from three. A rookie, Sanders missed some time earlier this year with a minor knee injury but returned to action last week and has scored 40 points over the Clippers’ last four games, hitting 13-of-30 shots (43.3 percent), including 8-of-20 threes (40 percent). The Clippers lost wing Bradley Beal for the season and are currently without Kawhi Leonard, paving the way for more playing time for Sanders.
3. Wolf Pack Hall of Famer lands on America’s Funniest Home Videos
Wolf Pack Hall of Famer and current Nevada football radio color commentator Mike Edwards landed on this week’s edition of America’s Funniest Home Videos. Edwards’ video was part of a compilation of kids using string to remove a loose tooth. You can see that snippet below. Edwards, who also has served as Reno High’s athletic director, was inducted into the Wolf Pack’s Hall of Fame in 2018 after being an all-conference offensive lineman for Nevada from 1993-97.