The Nevada football team apparently stole the Wolf Pack men’s basketball team’s powers over the weekend as football rebounded from a 37-point loss to Utah State with a 45-point win over San Jose State while men’s hoops fell to Santa Clara by 15 in its first loss of the season. The questions in this week’s Monday Mailbag are relatively evenly split between football and men’s basketball. With the latter now four games into the season with some data to analyze, we’ll start there. Thanks, as always, for the inquiries.

Important question. Depends if it’s an African or European swallow.

How about 10 first impressions about Nevada men’s basketball?

1. Nevada looked great against Louisiana Tech and so-so in its next three games (Pacific, Southern Illinois, Santa Clara)

2. I’d be more concerned about the near losses to Pacific and Southern Illinois than the blowout loss to Santa Clara, which is an NCAA Tournament-caliber team

3. Joel Armotrading and Elijah Price are going to be a problem for Mountain West frontcourts

4. Corey Camper Jr. has more offensive game than he was allowed to show at UTEP

5. Nevada needs to sink 20-plus free throws per game to make up from its shooting inefficiencies, which were baked into the cake of this roster

6. The Wolf Pack needs to finish better around the rim (42.9 percent on close twos) because the refs start to swallow the whistle in league play and allow fewer free throws

7. Nevada’s defense has been problematic and is impacting the team’s goal of playing with a faster pace

8. Tayshawn Comer’s ability to score efficiently is a huge key for Nevada; he’s the Wolf Pack’s most talented scorer and shooting a career-best 46 percent from the field

9. It’s fair to question this team’s bench, but the starting five is one of the MW’s best

10. The MW is down this season (likely a three-bid league), which should help Nevada come league play

As for an NCAA Tournament berth, I pegged the Wolf Pack at 19-12 overall and 11-9 in the MW with a College Basketball Crown title in my preseason predictions. I remain comfortable with that projection. TeamRankings.com gives Nevada a 7 percent chance of an NCAA Tournament bid with 3 percent of that being a MW Tournament title and 4 percent an at-large berth.

Games Nevada should win easily: UC Davis

Games Nevada should win: UC San Diego

Coin flips: UC Santa Barbara, Duquesne, Washington State, Colorado/San Francisco (TBD who Nevada will play)

Games Nevada will be an underdog in: Washington

I’ll stick with my preseason projection of 8-3 coming out of non-league play. Given how the season has gone thus far, I think Nevada would take that. The Wolf Pack could very well but 1-3 right now, so going 5-2 over its final seven non-league games with only one gimmie (UC Davis) would be a solid result. BartTorvik.com gives Nevada a 1.8 percent chance of an NCAA Tournament berth (all from winning the MW Tournament).

There are not definitive NIL numbers for schools, which is complicated by the fact schools are also sharing revenue with athletes. GSR owner Alex Meruelo has publicly said he donates $1 million per year to Nevada basketball (men’s and women’s) in NIL. Wolf Pack athletic director Stephanie Rempe said before this athletic season began her goal was to share $5 million with Nevada players this year. So, one could assume the Wolf Pack men’s basketball has multiple millions to work with for paying players. How does that rank in the Mountain West? Again, it’s a guessing game. I would guess Nevada is in the middle of the MW below San Diego State, Grand Canyon and Utah State at minimum and likely Boise State, New Mexico and UNLV as well. Wolf Pack men’s basketball is in a better NIL situation than football compared to the MW average but I doubt it’s top third in the league.

Nevada has allowed too many open 3-pointers this season. Certainly the opposition has to knock those shots down, but there were a lot of wide-open looks for Pacific (15-of-33) and Santa Clara (12-of-25), whose ball movement is exceptionally good. I thought Nevada’s defense against Louisiana Tech (3-of-22 from three) was phenomenal, but the Bulldogs also can’t shoot (27.1 percent from three this year). Same with Southern Illinois, which was 4-of-17 from three against Nevada and is shooting 28.5 percent from beyond the arc this season. The Wolf Pack’s defense, especially guarding the three, has been the biggest issue thus far for Nevada, and teams that can shoot will take advantage of it unless the Wolf Pack cleans that up.

Nevada has an adjusted offensive efficiency of 107.7 points per 100 possessions, ranking 135th in the nation.

Nevada has an adjusted defensive efficiency of 105.8 points per 100 possessions, ranking 145th in the nation.

So, it’s been pretty equal so far this season. Nevada’s defense goal is allowing 94 points per 100 possessions, so it is almost 12 points higher there than it’d like to be. Nevada needs to get stops to play at its desired pace. Thus far, Nevada ranks 340th in the nation in tempo after having a stated goal of wanting to play faster. When Nevada surged ahead of Southern Illinois in the middle of the second half last week, it was because it was getting stops, pushing the pace and drawing fouls. That’s the formula for this team. But it’s hard to do if you don’t get stops. It’s understandable to be concerned about Nevada’s overall shooting (41.2/30.5/72.7), which has been reliant on getting to the free throw line/getting offensive rebounds. But defense has to be the focus in practice this week. Like you said, it’s early. In the transfer-portal era, it’s going to take teams a while to gel. We’ve already seen head-scratching losses by Boise State, UNLV, Grand Canyon and Fresno State. Nevada had avoided those thus far, although barely. The Pacific game is a projected Quad 3 and Southern Illinois is a projected Quad 4. Nevada nearly lost both. You don’t want those games to be as close as they were, so improvement is needed.

Odds are that doesn’t happen during this contract. Nevada has won NCAA Tournament games in only four years in its entire history — 2004, 2005, 2007 and 2018. And two of those required overtime. It’s hard to win NCAA Tournament games, and it’s going to be harder to get into the NCAA Tournament out of the Mountain West starting next season with the loss of San Diego State, Utah State, Boise State and Colorado State, which provided a lot of Quad 1 and 2 opportunities in league play that will be impossible to fully replace in non-conference moving forward.

Yes, GSR Arena is expected to be a state-of-the-art, top-of-the-college-ranks kind of arena. Some of the nicer new builds on the West Coast include USC’s Galen Center; Gonzaga’s McCarthey Athletic Center; Grand Canyon’s Global Credit Union Arena; and Fresno State’s Save Mart Center. GSR Arena will put Nevada’s facilities, when combined with the Lannes Basketball Building and Ramon Sessions Performance Center, near the top on the West Coast.

As mentioned above, the difficulty moving forward is what caliber of conference the new Mountain West is going to be. The current MW has been a bankable four-bid league for the last half-decade. The new MW will not be that initially. It might be a two-bid league, but that will require three of Nevada, Grand Canyon, New Mexico, UNLV and Hawaii to be top-50 KenPom good because the rest of the league has been historically rough (UC Davis, Air Force, San Jose State, UTEP, Wyoming).

The current top-four MW KenPom teams are all leaving the league after this season. So, being a consistent NCAA Tournament team in the new MW won’t be easy because it could annually come down to the conference tournament to get that bid. And it’s getting harder and harder to schedule Quad 1 and Quad 2 games in non-league, so Nevada needs the new MW to be strong enough to deliver double-digit Quad 1 or 2 games per year.

1) Sure. Saturday’s thrashing of San Jose State shows Nevada’s ceiling is a lot higher than we had seen before that game. Nevada is still going to be a double-digit underdog in that game. But UNLV’s defense remains poor, and Nevada’s defense has the capability of at least limiting the Rebels to the mid-20s as long as the offense isn’t turning the ball over and giving UNLV short fields. There’s a pathway to victory. ESPN’s analytics give Nevada a 18.2 percent chance of beating UNLV. But Saturday’s Wolf Pack win should give the team (a) some confidence; (b) some motivation; and (c) a template for success for these final two games starting with Wyoming this week.

2) I really like that Santa Clara team. I would not be surprised if the Broncos make their first NCAA Tournament berth since 1996. It’s been a long three decades for that program. That probably ends up being a Quad 1 loss for Nevada. That’s no big deal. It’s a missed opportunity, but a Quad 1 non-league loss doesn’t hurt the résumé.

That 82-point swing is the program record from one game to the next in Nevada football’s FBS era (since 1992).

Last year, Nevada went from a 27-point loss to Minnesota to a 33-point win over Eastern Washington, which was a 60-point swing.

In 2017, Nevada went from a 27-point loss to Boise State to a 45-point win over San Jose State, which was a 72-point swing.

In 2008, Nevada went from a 52-point loss to Missouri to a 22-point win over UNLV, which was a 74-point swing.

In 2013, Nevada went from a 55-point loss to Florida State to a 22-point win over Hawaii, which was a 77-point swing.

But this was the first 80-plus-point swing from one game to the next in the FBS era.

Momentum is a hell of a drug. Nevada had not gotten much early-game momentum this season. It had only scored 12 points in eight first quarters before Saturday’s rout. The early pick-six from Nakian Jackson gave the Wolf Pack life and was followed by a forced fumble on the next play to put Nevada up 14-0. Jeff Choate’s familiarity defending the Air Raid from his time on Mike Leach’s Washington State staff also was helpful in shutting down San Jose State’s potent passing attack. So much had gone wrong for Nevada, the Wolf Pack was overdue for everything to line up like it did Saturday. But nobody was expecting a Wolf Pack blowout. Even Nevada’s wins against Sac State (20-17), Oregon State (42-37) and Troy (28-26) the last two years under Choate were nail-biters. The San Jose State blowout came out of nowhere.

He was used as a gadget play quarterback and traditional wide receiver who ran regular routes. It was the most creative way Nevada has used Chubba Purdy this season, and he responded with eight rushes for 51 yards and a touchdown plus three catches for 18 yards and a score (that touchdown came on a “pop pass.”) It was a little risky using Purdy that much with backup quarterback A.J. Bianco out with a thumb injury. If Purdy got hurt, Nevada would have been down to one usable quarterback in starter Carter Jones. But the Wolf Pack did a great job of incorporating Purdy’s athleticism. The broadcasters were even talking about his chances at the next level, ala Taysom Hill. I don’t know if Purdy is interested in trying to play pro football, but the combination of his bloodlines, versatility and the 40-yard time he is capable of running in the pre-draft process could get him a rookie-camp look. He is an outstanding athlete.

1) Hiding in 2010.

2) The key to Nevada’s offense was its ability to the run the ball between the tackles and stay on schedule, which opened things for the passing game. Nevada rushed for 218 yards on 42 carries, or 5.2 yards per attempt against San Jose State. It averaged 93 rushing yards and 3.1 yards per carry in the five previous games. The Wolf Pack’s offensive success is predicated on its rushing attack. Nevada’s next foe, Wyoming, has allowed 168 rushing yards per game and 4.6 yards per carry. That unit has been feast or famine with the Cowboys holding four opponents below 95 rushing yards while giving up 190-plus rushing yards to five foes. It’s been really good or really bad. Nevada must get the ground game going to get into its bag of tricks. Credit Nevada offensive coordinator David Gilbertson, who has taken a lot of flak this season, for the creative play calling against San Jose State.

Jeff Choate didn’t say that. He was complimentary of San Jose State’s talent, saying the Spartans had the most talented front seven of of any Mountain West team Nevada has faced. He also said it had the best wide receiver corps in the conference and “you can make an argument the best quarterback in the conference.” But he never said San Jose State was the league’s most talented team. That’d be Boise State, although the Broncos clearly skimped on the backup quarterback position, which is being exposed right now. I do think the Spartans have some talented players and a top-four roster in the MW. They also have a terrible secondary, and I’m not as sold on Walker Eget at quarterback. That scheme leads to a lot of passing yards. Either way, San Jose State does have good talent and has been the MW’s most disappointing team this season (I had the Spartans second on my preseason poll). Nevada completely outclassed, outplayed and outcoached San Jose State. No team, not even Texas, has made the Spartans’ passing attack look that bad.

1) If Nevada is plus-five in turnover margin and scores defensive and special teams touchdowns against Wyoming and UNLV like it did versus San Jose State, the Wolf Pack has a pretty good of winning those games. I doubt a team has ever lost a game when all of those things occur.

2) As for the Lakers, Los Angeles doesn’t have enough depth or post talent to make a run at the NBA title. We’ll see what LeBron James looks like when he gets back from injury. I guess you can’t count out LeBron and Luka Doncic, but I don’t see the Lakers as a true title contender. Look what Oklahoma City did to them last week — a 121-92 Thunder win. I’ll give the Lakers a 5 percent title chance.

Balance is key. I don’t mind teams that establish the run. You can win Mountain West titles doing so. Look at San Diego State’s success under Rocky Long, and, to a lesser degree, Boise State’s entire history. The Broncos have always had good balance but start with the run game. Nevada didn’t win the WAC title in 2010 until it added some balance to its punishing rushing attack from 2007-09. I would try and run the ball 55 to 60 percent of the time at a school like Nevada where getting high-level skill players is more challenging than anything. The championship formula in the MW has been running the ball. Since the MW title game was created in 2013, only three conference champions have had more passing attempts than rushing attempts. That was 2022 Fresno State (by 19 pass attempts); 2020 San Jose State (COVID year); and 2013 Fresno State (which had Derek Carr and Davante Adams). That’s three of the last 12 MW champs that passed more than rushed.

You can never predict how the coaching carousel will spin, but I don’t think Nevada defensive coordinator Kane Ioane will be poached given the Wolf Pack’s overall record the last two years, which obscures the nice job he’s done. As for offensive coordinator David Gilbertson, I think these next two weeks are big in whether the Wolf Pack makes a change at that position this offseason.

San Diego State needs to win out and get some help. The American Conference winner and the Sun Belt’s James Madison are both ahead of San Diego State, but you can’t rule the Aztecs out from a potential playoff berth. San Diego State still plays San Jose State and New Mexico plus the Mountain West title game if it advances that far, so there could be two more quality wins ahead. Blowout losses to Washington State and Hawaii hurt, but San Diego State has a big win over Cal (34-0). The Aztecs need James Madison to lose one more game and the American Conference winner to have three losses, so that’s a big ask.

Yes, but the Group of 6 hasn’t earned it this season.

Open Division: Bishop Gorman over Arbor View (duh)

5A: Spanish Springs over Faith Lutheran (Faith Lutheran is 6-7)

4A: Pinecrest Academy Sloan Canyon over McQueen (I didn’t know Pinecrest Academy Sloan Canyon was a thing until today)

3A: Churchill County over Moapa Valley (this should be a great game)

2A: Needles over Pershing County (Needles is a California school, so it doesn’t count)

1A: Pahranagat Valley over Tonopah (rematch of last year’s title game, won by Pahranagat Valley)

No. The NSN poll question did not lead to the Nevada men’s basketball team’s defensive issues against Santa Clara. If poll questions could impact game results, I would post a lot more about the Buffalo Bills once the playoffs arrived.

You could have given Boise State 100 timeouts last week and the Broncos weren’t scoring a touchdown in the second half of that game.

The Dodgers’ bullpen and outfield were mostly trash last season, so they can definitely improve by adding an outfielder and leverage bullpen arm or two. My dream offseason would be to trade for Steven Kwan (my offer would be outfield prospect Mike Sirota plus pitchers Justin Wrobleski, Gavin Stone and Bobby Miller) and sign relievers Devin Williams and Pete Fairbanks to a one-year deals. I’m sure they’ll bring back Miguel Rojas and Enrique Hernandez on one-year deals, too, which I’m fine with. That’s a pretty low-key offseason, but it would strengthen the team’s two big weaknesses. The Dodgers’ challenge in the next couple of years is getting the lineup younger with some of the prospects coming up through the system. This is an old set of position players, and that showed in the playoffs. Kwan adds some youth to an outfield that has a lot of top prospects who could be ready in 2027/2028. Signing Kyle Tucker and/or Cody Bellinger would clog those spots, so I don’t see that happening. Getting Alex Freeland, Dalton Rushing and Hyeseong Kim more playing time (or using them as trade chips) in 2026 is key before those outfielders arrive in a couple of years.

Silly, Julian. You know the Dodgers own the Padres and always will regardless of who is listed as the managing partner.

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.