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. Houston-Cal game added to quadruple-header at Tahoe Blue Event Center
The inaugural Caesar’s Lake Tahoe Tipoff Classic at Tahoe Blue Event Center has added a fourth game, according to college basketball insider Jeff Goodman, who reported Houston will take on Cal as part of a series of games Nov. 8. Nevada will play Saint Mary’s with USC facing Wichita State. And there’s a women’s basketball game between Cal and San Francisco, which the Dons announced Wednesday. Goodman reported the Houston-Cal and USC-Wichita games with air on The CW. There is no national broadcast planned for the Nevada game at this point. The Tahoe Blue Event Center hosted a Nevada-Colorado women’s basketball game in 2024, which was its first and still only college basketball game hosted in the arena.
2. Wolf Pack cross country picked middle of pack in preseason MW poll
The Mountain West preseason men’s and women’s cross country polls were released Wednesday with the Wolf Pack men picked to finish fifth out of eight schools and Nevada’s women projected in a three-way tie for fourth place in the 10-team conference. National power New Mexico is the heavy favorite to win both the men’s and women’s titles. Nevada’s men finished eighth out of 10 MW schools last year while the women were eighth out of 12 teams. The MW lost some top cross country schools to the Pac-12 this offseason, including Boise State, Utah State and Colorado State, which should help the Wolf Pack move up the conference standings.
3. Nevada alum TJ Friedl placed on waivers by MLB’s Reds
Nevada baseball alum TJ Friedl, who has struggled this season, was placed on waivers by MLB’s Cincinnati Reds, per Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic. Also placed on waivers by the Reds was Eugenio Suárez. Neither player was designated for assignment, meaning they will stay with the Reds if unclaimed by another MLB team during the 48-hour waiver period. Any team could claim Friedl (or Suárez) with the only responsibility being payment for the remainder of their 2026 salary. Friedl has around $633,000 left on his $3.8 million deal. After a strong run from 2023-25 when Friedl racked up 6.5 WAR, the 31-year-old is hitting .158/.242/.234 in 76 games this season and has spent time in Triple-A. An outfielder, Friedl is in his sixth MLB season after making his debut in 2021. Friedl played for Nevada from 2014-16.