More Basketball

The season has started now. Nevada has played three games, 1 at home, 2 on the road. We're curently3-0, but without any truly dominating wins. I have to remind myself that our greatness last year was not in winning by 25 or 30 points, but by controlling the clock, playing tight defense, and playing smart. UNLV was a tough fight - I don't think either team ever had a double-digit lead. And they managed to knock off Hawaii, who has gotten a few votes in the Top 25 polls since beating Michigan State.

Tomorrow we go to Kansas. How weird is it that when Kansas first came to Reno (a 14-point upset win by Nevada), they were ranked and we, of course were not. Who would have thought that just two years later, Nevada would be ranked #20 by the AP (an unofficial #28 by ESPN - just 1 point shy of a tie for 26 and 8 shy of #25... so close!), and Kansas would be unranked in both polls?

Who'd have thought that Nevada, a school whose name is STILL mispronounced by the ESPN anchors as the highlights from the football team's upset of Fresno State (WOOOOO!!!!!!) demonstrate, a school who nobody had heard of in the major sports world (at the 2003/4 NCAA Tournament, a cabbie picked up some Nevada fans and mistakenly said "Go Rebels," thinking back to UNLV of the 90's) would be the more highly-regarded team when playing in Kansas?

Who'd have thought that CBS Sports 4 weeks into the season would rank Nevada #13, that they would approximate a #6 RPI, or that Scout.com would rank Nevada #14? Or that sports writers would have anything to say about Nevada, not as a NCAA Cinderella story, but as a team worth following?

Hype is, however, a double-edged sword. There is no surprising a big-name team. There is only a target on your back, and all the more reason to strive to excel.

---Football News---
Evidently Chris Berman chose Nevada's Ron Hubbard taking a knee at the 1-yard line instead of running the ball in for a touchdown against Fresno State with less than a minute to play as his top play of the week. I missed the story (no cable), but think that sportsmanship like that ought to be heralded. He had broken clear from the 15-25 yard line, had no one around to even touch him, but went to the ground instead of running up the score or pushing for another touchdown.

That's class.