The 4^th Annual Blue Tie Ball is on Saturday, March 30^th at the Peppermill Resort Casino.  Wolf Pack Athletics has partnered with the Whispering Vine to create the ultimate Auction item for this year's Blue Tie Ball.

 

From now until Friday, March 1st, you can go to either Whispering Vine Wine location (Mayberry or Foothill) and purchase a bottle of wine to be donated to the Wolf Pack wine barrel silent auction item and you will receive 2 FREE tickets to the UNLV vs. Nevada Wolf Pack Men's Basketball game on Saturday, March 2nd, the state rivalry game! 50 pairs of tickets will be given away at each location.

 

Go to Whispering Vine today to get your tickets and donate your bottle of wine!  For tickets and more information on the Blue Tie Ball, go to nevadawolfpack.com/bluetieball or "Like" us at Facebook.com/bluetieball.

Air Force Captain Katie Jannazo guided the Nevada women's basketball team on a tour of the academy Thursday before an afternoon practice. The team got a chance to walk inside the Air Force chapel and also got an inside look of the dorms that the cadets live in.Jannazo filled the team in on some of the daily routines the cadets go through and provided a lot of history of the academy. Nevada will face Air Force Saturday afternoon at Clune Arena. Tip-off is scheduled for 1 p.m.

The team visited the U.S.A Olympic training center in Colorado Springs after practice on Friday. The squad ate lunch on site and toured the facilities used by our U.S Olympic athletes.

Today is National Signing Day for football, soccer and track and field, which means that over 25 new student-athletes are joining the Wolf Pack family (click here and here for some great coverage of our new football and soccer student-athletes). But it is also National Girls and Women in Sports Day, which celebrates the participation and excellence of girls and women in athletics.

We couldn't help think that Signing Day is a perfect day to take a minute to reflect on the thousands of Wolf Pack men and women who have had the opportunity to continue playing the sports they love at the collegiate level and earn their degrees as we welcome this new crop of Wolf Pack student-athletes.

In celebration of Girls and Women in Sports Day, Nevada Athletics will holding an All-Sports Clinic with the Pack on Saturday, Feb. 23 at Lawlor Events Center prior to the women's basketball game vs. San Diego State.

Student-athletes from all of Nevada's sports will be staffing sports stations and women's basketball will be holding a pregame clinic for boys and girls - all for free. Check-in is from 2-2:30 p.m. at Section 22 on the upper concourse at Lawlor Events Center and the pregame clinic runs from 2:30-3 p.m. The sports stations will be running from 3-3:45 p.m. and participants are welcome to stay for the women's basketball game, which tips off at 4 p.m.

It's a great day for children to learn about all of our Wolf Pack sports, and we hope that all of our young fans will be able to join us on Feb. 23.

Here's a photo from one of our great clinics in the past:

Wolf Pack women's basketball guard Danika Sharp currently holds the Nevada high school girls basketball state record for points scored at 2,803. Sharp broke the record as a member of the West Wendover High School team and was honored during halftime of a boys varsity game. The junior's jersey number was retired and the banner pictured above was hung in the rafters to commemorate her achievement. Sharp is currently second in scoring for Nevada this season at 13.4 ppg. The West Wendover native has scored in double figures in 15 out of Nevada's 20 games and recorded a career high 28 points in a win over Cal State Los Angeles earlier this season. Sharp and the team are currently on the road for two games, facing Colorado State Wednesday night and Air Force on Saturday.

It's Rivalry Week for both the Wolf Pack men's and women's basketball teams as they take on the UNLV Rebels, and more than just state pride is on the line.

With victories over the Rebels, the Wolf Pack could earn up to three points in the Governor's Series, presented by NV Energy. As Governor Brian Sandoval announced in October, the Governor's Series is a head-to-head athletic and academic challenge between the longtime Silver State rivals. More information on the Governor's Series, including how the scores are tallied, can be found here.

Nevada currently holds a 7.5 to 4.5 lead over UNLV in the series heading into this week's games, and each contest will be worth 1.5 points in the Governor's Series for the winner. The Wolf Pack took the lead with its 42-37 football victory in October (three points), the team's scoreless tie in soccer (1.5 points) and its finish at the Mountain West Cross Country Championship (fifth to UNLV's ninth for three points).

The Governor's Series, presented by NV Energy, also features an academic component with a sport-by-sport comparison of each school's Academic Progress Rate scores worth three points.

The school with the most points at the end of the school year will be crowned the winner of the Governor's Series and will get the opportunity to keep the trophy on its campus for the following year.

The Wolf Pack men's basketball team plays at UNLV tonight (Tuesday) at 7 p.m. and the game will be televised by CBS College Sports, while the women's basketball squad takes on the Rebels at 6:30 p.m. Wednesday at Lawlor Events Center. Tickets are just $7 for adults and $4 for youth/seniors and can be purchased by calling 775-348-PACK, online by clicking here or by visiting the Legacy Hall or Lawlor Events Center box offices.

We hope you will tune in to watch the men tonight and come out to Lawlor to support the women tomorrow night as we continue our quest to win the Governor's Series!

A recent donation by University of Nevada supporter Dixie May has made changes possible at Hixson Park. Field renovations, beginning with a new 60% sand, 40% clay mixture in the infield, commenced on Tuesday. The first step in the process is to remove the old infield and use that material to resurface the warning track. Later in the week, the new mixture was laid.

With the new infield material in, a settling agent will be put down, allowing the new surface to solidify into a playable infield.

The infield is not the only area of the park getting a re-boot. The outfield will see a new 110-foot padded batter's eye, with the Nevada logo (pictured below) on either end. In addition, matching navy padding will be inserted on each vertical support pole in the outfield fence.



Check www.NevadaWolfPack.com for further updates on the field renovations and come check out the Wolf Pack softball team when it opens home play on March 15 at 3 p.m. vs. UTSA. More photos will be available as things come together at Hixson.

It's been a wild two weeks for Nevada graduate Colin Kaepernick.

His NFL Playoff debut left the country (and the Green Bay Packers) spinning as he set an NFL record with 181 rushing yards to go along with 263 yards through the air in leading the San Francisco 49ers to a 45-31 win.

That led to an appearance on the cover of Sports Illustrated for Kaepernick.

He followed that up with a brilliant performance on Sunday, leading the Niners to a 28-24 win over the Falcons in Atlanta. The victory came in comeback fashion as San Francisco trailed 17-0 in the first half. Of course, Kaepernick leading his team to victory after falling behind by 17 points is nothing new.

Now comes a cover appearance on ESPN the Magazine, along with newspapers around the country as the media tells the story of Kaepernick and his background running the Pistol offense at Nevada. 

On Feb. 3 in New Orleans, Kap will become the eighth Nevada player to take part in a Super Bowl and the first Wolf Pack quarterback. New Nevada football coach Brian Polian pointed out just how special it is for Nevada to have a Super Bowl quarterback.

Wednesday night, the Northern Nevada community will show its support for Kaepernick by holding the "largest Kaepernicking party in the world" during the men's basketball game against San Diego State in front of a nationally televised audience on CBS Sports at Lawlor.

Nevada junior right-handed pitcher Bradey Shipley ranks 89th as selected by College Baseball Daily in their countdown of the top 100 players in collegiate baseball for 2013.  Shipley the 2012 Western Athletic Conference Pitcher of the Year went 9-4 with a 2.20 ERA his sophomore year.

This past summer playing for the Anchorage Bucs in the Alaska League he was named the league's top prospect.

Link to College Baseball Daily story on Shipley.

The University of Nevada (9-5) men's basketball team plays its first game in the Mountain West tonight at Air Force (8-4).  The new conference is one of the best in the nation with three teams ranked, two others receiving votes and six with an RPI in the top 40.  The MW boasts the third best RPI in the country through games of January 6, trailing the Big Ten and Big East.  Only the Big East has more top 40 RPI teams at seven.

New Mexico ranks 11th in RPI followed by Colorado State (20), UNLV (23) and Wyoming (24) putting three in the top 25 in RPI.  Boise State and San Diego State are 33rd and 40th in RPI.  Air Force (165), Nevada (182) and Fresno State (213) round out the conference.

In the Associated Press poll SDSU in the highest ranked MW team at 16 while UNLV and New Mexico are 24th and 25th.  Wyoming is receiving votes.

In the USA Today Coaches poll SDSU is 15th and UNLV ranks 19th.  Wyoming, who Nevada will host on Saturday is 25th.  New Mexico and Colorado State are receiving votes.

The conference schedule will be one of the toughest in Pack history.  All eight teams will make their way to Lawlor Events Center this season providing the Wolf Pack with its strongest home schedule in decades.