Only 32 Division I men’s basketball teams are still playing, and the Nevada Wolf Pack is one of those after reaching the NIT quarterfinal following wins over Murray State and Liberty. We’ll start this week’s Monday Mailbag with some roundball. Thanks, as always, for the questions. (By the way, there are 16 teams alive in the NCAA Tournament, eight alive in the NIT and eight to play in the College Basketball Crown, hence 32 active D-I schools.)

Yep. Nevada plays Auburn in the NIT quarterfinal Wednesday night at 6 p.m. on ESPN2 with a semifinal spot in Indianapolis on the line. Auburn was the second-to-last team out of the NCAA Tournament field, missing because of its 7-11 record in SEC games. The Tigers are 40th in KenPom with the No. 11 offense and No. 120 defense after playing the nation’s seventh-toughest schedule. Auburn played nine of the 16 teams in the Sweet 16, which is crazy. It was 3-9 against Sweet 16 foes, beating Texas, St. John’s and Arkansas. The Tigers also lost close to Houston (73-72), Alabama (96-92) and Tennessee (77-69). Auburn’s best player is Keyshawn Hall, who began his career at UNLV before stops at George Mason, UCF and now Auburn. The Tigers’ third-best player KeShawn Murphy, a 6-foot-10 big, opted out of the NIT, which was a big departure considering fellow big man, Emeka Opurum, was lost for the season with injury early in the year.

Auburn is a 9.5-point favorite, per the sportsbooks, with BartTorvik listed the Tigers as an 8.2-point favorite. ESPN’s analytics give Nevada a 15.8 percent chance of winning. The Wolf Pack is the clear underdog. Auburn is a super physical team that ranks eighth in the nation in free throw rate, 15th in offensive rebound rate and 15th in adjusted offensive efficiency, although it doesn’t defend particularly well (bottom 15 in the nation in 3-point defense and 292nd in effective field-goal defense). Auburn will not overwhelm Nevada with size, but it will have a sizable edge in athleticism and is generally the toughest team on the court, especially on offense in the paint. Nevada’s paint defense must be stout.

In its NIT opener, Auburn attempted 44 3-pointers and 17 two-point shot, which shows me it didn’t want to be there. The team was just launching threes and not being aggressive against South Alabama and had to rally from a halftime hole. That changed in the second round against Seattle with Auburn getting to the free throw line 32 times and shooting 32 two-pointers against 26 threes. That was more in line with how the Tigers should play. Auburn allowed Seattle to make 16 threes, which is a clear weakness. The Tigers have allowed 10.1 made threes per game since the start of the SEC play. If Nevada is going to spring the upset, it probably needs to make at least 10 treys, and the Wolf Pack is shooting just 29.4 percent from three in the last 13 games. That’s going to be key.

Auburn is essentially a San Diego State-caliber team with reverse offense-defense splits. Nevada’s first two NIT opponents were essentially UNLV/Fresno State-caliber foes. The Wolf Pack will need to play a strong game to win. But this is a winnable contest considering Auburn went 3-9 in its last 12 games entering the NIT.

UNLV lost to Tulsa on Sunday and is out of the NIT. New Mexico crushed Sam Houston by 24 in the first round and George Washington by 25 in the second round and will host Saint Joseph’s in the quarterfinal. Nevada and New Mexico are on opposite sides of the bracket and could meet in the NIT title game. If Nevada beats Auburn on Wednesday, it would play the winner of Dayton-Illinois State. A game against Dayton could be redemption for Nevada after the 2024 NCAA Tournament collapse against the Flyers.

Winning the Mountain West Tournament and losing in the first round of the NCAA Tournament is more of a moneymaker. Each NCAA Tournament unit is worth more than $2 million (split evenly among MW schools), plus the earned-media aspect of appearing in the Big Dance. Per Sportico, each NIT school gets $4,000 for every game it plays and gets to keep a portion of gate revenue for home games. Its travel, hotel and food is covered (for up to 25 people), although I don’t know if that includes charter flights (Nevada is chartering to Auburn). The NIT is not a big moneymaker given you also have to staff home games, which costs money. The NCAA Tournament is where the money’s at, both in terms of pure dollars and publicity value.

My desk is three feet from our sports director, Mike Stefansson, so I asked him and he said the Grand Canyon game. That was my first thought as well. It’s hard to beat the late-game drama of that one, although it was pretty rough for the first 39 minutes considering both teams shot under 40 percent from the field. In terms of quality of play from both teams, I’d say the Utah State home contest was the high-water mark. But the Grand Canyon comeback is a top-20 game in Lawlor history. I previously ranked the top-19 games in Lawlor history here.

Here are the seven triple-doubles in Nevada men’s basketball history in the school’s Division I era. The most recent one before Corey Camper Jr.’s triple-double Saturday against Liberty was by Kenan Blackshear against Williams Jessup in 2022. Johnny High’s triple-double in 1979 was against Southern Oregon, with High posting 15 points, 11 rebounds and 11 assists.

Here are Nevada’s triple-doubles in the Division I era:

Corey Camper Jr. (10 points/13 rebounds/10 assists) — 2026

Kenan Blackshear (12 points/10 rebounds/10 assists) — 2022

Johnny High (15 points/11 rebounds/11 assists) — 1979

Edgar Jones (22/26 rebounds/10 blocks) — 1977

Pete Padgett (15 points/17 rebounds/11 assists) — 1976

Pete Padgett (17 points/30 rebounds/10 assists) — 1973

Doug Hixon (11 points/11 rebounds/10 assists) — 1971

Nevada’s leading scorer in the win over Liberty was Elijah Price with 15 points, although the Wolf Pack’s win over Air Force in the MW Tournament first round on March 11 saw Nevada’s top scorer, Corey Camper Jr., score only 11. So, we saw this spread-out scoring in a Wolf Pack win just two weeks ago.

So, that’d be one more year each for Ramon Sessions, Armon Johnson and Kirk Snyder and two each for Luke Babbitt and JaVale McGee. Johnson was three assists shy of a triple-double in a 2009 win against Houston. He was the closest of the quintet. If I had to put my money on one of these players hitting the triple-double mark, it would have been Snyder as a senior. I’d put the odds at 40 percent. Second the list would have been Sessions, who never got very close. His closest line to a triple-double was 11 points, eight assists and seven rebounds in a 2006 win against Pacific. I’m still shocked Lindsey Drew never had a triple-double. He was close twice, missing by one assist in one game and two assists in another game.

Unless the Pac-12 loses members, I don’t see the conference having any interest in Nevada or New Mexico. The Pac-12 wants UNLV, but the Rebels signed the Mountain West’s grant of media rights, which ties UNLV’s home broadcast rights to the conference through 2032. That makes it nearly impossible to leave the MW for the Pac-12 unless the MW breaches what it contractually owes UNLV, which I don’t see happening. So, the odds of UNLV joining the MW in three years is low (5 percent). Post-2032, I could see that happening if UNLV has not received a Big 12 invitation by then. Maybe 50 percent. But who knows what will happen in college athletics in the next few years. It’s impossible to predict. Nobody would have forecasted Cal and Stanford being in the Atlantic Coast Conference before that happened.

It’s going well. I see no reason why it won’t be completed this summer. Former Nevada punter Quinton Conaway, who is now the Wolf Pack’s associate athletic director for development, posted some photos of the facility location last month, which you can see below. There’s been more progress since then.

UCLA transfer Luke Duncan has looked good for Nevada in spring camp, although at this point, I’d guess incumbent Carter Jones starts the season opener against Western Kentucky on Sept. 5. As for the wideouts, I’d circle Northern Illinois transfer Gary Givens III and Idaho State’s Damien Morgan as the top imports, although I expect Jaceon Doss (Towson) and Donnie Cheers (Southeast Missouri) to get their share of snaps as well. My guess is Nevada’s relies on the run early in the season before opening things up as the year develops. It wants to eventually run a modified Air Raid, but this team’s strength is on the ground for now.

The first year of legalized NIL saw San Diego State in the national title game and Florida Atlantic in the Final Four, so I don’t think NIL has killed Cinderella. While there are no mid-majors in this year’s Sweet 16 (which sucks), four mid-majors made it to the second round, including No. 3 Gonzaga, No. 9 Utah State, No. 9 Saint Louis and No. 12 High Point. I’d like to see more that that, but I think opportunity is a bigger issue than teams being capable of winning NCAA Tournament games. The Quad system favors Power 5 conferences and removes at-large chances for mid-majors. Expanding the NCAA Tournament won’t help, either. It would create another round mid-majors must win before even getting into the 64-team field. Mid-majors just need a shot, and those opportunities are becoming more rare. I don’t think NIL is killing Cinderellas as much as the at-large selection process and scheduling challenges.

It was only Southern Nevada 5A/4A schools in the Clark County School District that went independent. Those are the public schools. Spanish Springs beat Faith Lutheran in the 5A state title game and McQueen beat Pinecrest Academy Sloan Canyon in the 4A state title game. Faith Lutheran is a private school and Sloan Canyon is a charter school, so neither of those are part of the push for independence to avoid playing Bishop Gorman. The state could still piece together a 5A and 4A state title game, but the pathway to do that seems narrow. It could mean Northern Nevada teams don’t play for state with the regional championship game being an endpoint. We reached out last week to local coaches to discuss this, but none wanted to talk on the record as they deal with what this means. The NIAA said it has “engaged in discussions with all postseason-eligible programs within the state to discuss the postseason formats and next steps moving forward.” So, there’s still a lot to be determined.

That will be sorted out in the coming months, but we will work to get as many live Nevada Wolf Pack games on air as possible, in a variety of sports. As a reminder, you can watch all three of the Nevada softball team’s games against San Jose State from Friday-Sunday on NSN and NevadaSportsNet.com. The MW’s new pay app could change some things, but we are in the market to air as many Nevada non-national television games as we can.

No.

There was a lot more machinery on site early last week, so things are moving. The summer 2027 timeline for an opening remains on track. Here was our interview with GSR president Shannon Keel, if anybody missed it.

Chuck Norris didn’t die. He granted Mo Seider his powers for the NHL playoff push and will return to Earth after the Red Wings lift this year’s Stanley Cup.

My son pulled a Manny Machado relic card out of a Topps Heritage pack yesterday, so that was nice. We also got an Alex Bregman relic card out of that box. Those are two of my five least-favorite MLB players. Here’s that top-five list:

5. John Rocker

4. Manny Machado

3. Alex Bregman

2. Josh Reddick

1. Carlos Correa

As you can see, I was not a fan of the 2017 Astros, who cheated the Dodgers out of a World Series.

1. Los Angeles Dodgers — 97-65 (the Dodgers only give 80 percent effort in the regular season)

2. San Diego Padres — 84-78 (the starting pitching in problematic)

3. San Francisco Giants — 82-80 (I’ve seen better bullpens in Little League)

4. Arizona Diamondbacks — 81-81 (not enough pitching and the lineup falls off after an elite top three)

5. Colorado Rockies — 62-100 (but the ballpark is nice)

Only the Dodgers make the playoffs.

American League

East: Yankees

Central: Tigers

West: Mariners

Wild card: Red Sox, Blue Jays, Orioles

National League

East: Phillies

Central: Cubs

West: Dodgers

Wild card: Mets, Brewers, Braves

AL Championship Series: Mariners over Red Sox

NL Championship Series: Dodgers over Phillies

World Series: Dodgers over Mariners in six games

MLB is locked out until the 2030 season as everybody pouts about the Dodgers’ being great!

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.