Reno needs to catch its breath, maybe let the resting heart beat come back down. It endured a marathon this weekend.
I’m not convinced you can make argument it wasn’t one of the busiest in Northern Nevada sports history.
For the second straight year, the Big Sky played its men’s and women’s conference tournaments at the Reno Events Center.
Regular-season champion North Dakota erased an 11-point deficit with seven minutes left in Saturday’s title game against Weber State, eventually win, 93-89, in overtime. The Hawks punched their ticket to the big dance for the first time since joining the Div. I level in 2009.
They were handed a No. 15 seed by the selection committee and will open with Pac-12 Tournament champion, Arizona, on Thursday in Salt Lake City.
The draw is tough, but regardless of the outcome, North Dakota is going to win. Any opportunity to get out of Grand Forks, North Dakota in mid-March is a victory.
Montana State topped Idaho State for the women’s Big Sky Tournament title.
About 2,000 feet away on Saturday afternoon, Reno 1868 FC played its second match in franchise history against its adopted rival, Sacramento Republic, in front of more than 4,500 at Greater Nevada Field.
Reno 1868 FC started slow, allowing three goals in the first 25 minutes, before rallying all the way back to tie the friendly with three minutes left.
In the franchises’ two matches, it’s played the San Jose Earthquakes of the MLS to a 1-0 loss and mounted a ridiculous comeback to salvage a draw with the antagonists from over the mountain.
Expansion franchises can be scary. Few now how competitive they are going to be. But from what we’ve seen early, there’s no reason to think Reno 1868 FC can’t win some matches this summer.
Reno’s newest professional franchise remains at Greater Nevada Field on Saturday, March 25, for its first regular-season match against Orange County FC.
Significantly further away, Nevada played the biggest basketball game in the last decade.
The Wolf Pack caught fire early, then hung on late, to survive Colorado State in the Mountain West Tournament title game played in Las Vegas. It was Nevada’s first ever MW Tournament title after clinching its first regular-season title one week earlier.
The title game victory capped a run of three wins in three days. Nevada had just one MW tournament victory in its first four years combined as a MW member
On Sunday afternoon, the region tuned into CBS to watch/hear Nevada’s name get called in The Selection Show for the first time since 2007.
Nevada drew a 12 seed and will play fifth-seeded Iowa State, the Big 12 Tournament champ, on Thursday night in Milwaukee. Analyst Seth Davis immediately said he didn’t only like Nevada to pull off the annual 12-5 upset, but he liked the Pack to best the Purdue-Vermont winner to go to the Sweet 16 for the second time in program history.
The likes of Scott Van Pelt and Jay Bilas later sang Nevada’s praises on SportsCenter.
It’s hard to believe this program won nine games to years ago.
Now, Reno-Tahoe International Airport is sending out press releases alerting fans of the easiest ways to get to Milwaukee in preparation for a mass exodus of Pack fans.
All three contests (Big Sky title game, Reno 1868 FC match and Mountain West title game) on Saturday started within 150 minutes of each other. The Nevada-Colorado State game was even shown on the upgraded video board at Greater Nevada Field, during the match. You couldn’t hide.
Another reason to come to the match today…watch Nevada take on Colorado State in the Mountain West Championship on our NEW video board! pic.twitter.com/0Ip7hsM1Yb
— Reno 1868 FC (@reno1868fc) March 11, 2017
Why would you want to?
Rest up, Northern Nevada. The marathon starts all over again on Thursday as we celebrate a national holiday: The first full day of the NCAA Tournament.
The day will wane with Nevada-Iowa State, and the Pack has a legitimate shot to pop its share of sharpie caps.
Ozoude verbally commits to Colorado State
Spanish Springs senior sprinter Jessica Ozoude announced that she has verbally committed to Colorado State on Thursday night.
Super blessed to say that I have verbally committed to run at Colorado State University! Go Rams! ??? pic.twitter.com/W9EXVdScEv
— Jessie! (@JessOzoude) March 10, 2017
Ozoude was the fastest girl in all of Nevada last year. And it wasn’t really close. She swept the 100 meter, 200m and 400m state titles. She won the 100m title nearly a half-second in front of the field. She shattered stadium record in Las Vegas in the 200m (24.29 seconds). She also set the stadium record in the 400m (55.35 seconds).
This year, she enters as the favorite to defend in her triple crown and has a realistic chance of breaking the state record in 200m (23.99 seconds) that has stood since 1984.
Nathan can be reached via email at nshoup@sparkstrib.com. His weekly column, ‘Shoup Shots,’ was named the best column in the state of Nevada (community division) by the Nevada Press Association. It runs in the hard copy of the Sparks Tribune every Tuesday morning.
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