The Nevada Wolf Pack men’s basketball team and Saint Mary’s Gaels played a thriller in the Lake Tahoe Classic Sunday in Neveda.
The Wolf Pack, of course, is playing in longtime head coach Steve Alford’s swan song season, and the Gaels have entered the post-Randy-Bennett Era, now led by Mickey McConnell, were locked in an early season classic that bled into overtime.
The game featured 11 ties and seven lead changes, ending with the Wolf Pack on top 96-95 behind 33 from Vaughn Weems and 25 from Styles
Phipps.
It was a signature win for the Wolf Pack, one that came in a special place practically at home for the Reno school.
But unless you were one of the 3,000+ attendees at the Tahoe Events Center, the game was nowhere else to be seen — literally. Despite other games at the Lake Tahoe Classic MTE, such as Wichita State’s exciting loss to USC, being aired on the likes of the CW, Nevada-SMC was nowhere.
Fans could tune into Nevada Learfield Radio link, but aside from being in Tahoe, you couldn’t watch. With the game being held in the state of Nevada, the Mountain West’s paywalled conference-specific streaming service MW+ likely held the broadcast rights, but, per an SMC Athletics spokesperson, there was a decision made to not stream the contest.
We reached out to the Mountain West Conference about the decision, but didn’t get a reply.
As you’d expect, college basketball fans on Twitter/X were not fans of such a decision. You can see the replies to our post below to see for yourself.
Look, I am not trying to say that Twitter equals real life, but not streaming a marquee West Coast Conference vs. Mountain West Conference game between league favorites is an unforced error.
Fans deserve better!
