Women’s basketball grew to become an official NCAA sport in 1981. In the 45 seasons since then, Nevada has posted a profitable document simply 13 occasions. It has hit 20 wins solely twice. And it has never gained a convention title or performed in an NCAA Tournament.
Those stats ought to embarrass the Wolf Pack. Not for a lack of effort. Every coach related to this system over the many years has given every little thing they’ve to create the Wolf Pack’s first title group. But none has cracked the code.
Nevada could have a new coach subsequent season after Amanda Levens was fired Monday following a third 20-loss season within the final 4 years. Levens leaves the Wolf Pack as this system leaders in wins (126) and profitable proportion (45.1). Levens led the Wolf Pack inside a basket of the 2018 Mountain West Tournament title and earned a pair of WBI berths. She posted two of the varsity’s top-three win totals with 19 victories in her debut season and 20 extra in 2022.
But solely three of her 9 seasons ended with a profitable document with six of these seasons leading to a seventh place or worse end within the MW, together with this 12 months’s Tenth-place consequence. The reality Nevada’s most profitable coach, Levens, had an total shedding document speaks to the struggles this system has endured and the way low a bar has been set over the past 45 years. And there is no purpose for that to be the case.
Reno is a basketball city. The Nevada males’s program has been one of many West Coast’s prime operations within the 2000s with 12 convention titles, 9 NCAA Tournament berths and 15 20-win campaigns this century.
That success has not been mirrored by the Wolf Pack ladies regardless of a program funds that has exceed UNLV lately regardless of the Rebels profitable seven MW titles within the final 5 seasons; regardless of usually chartering flights this 12 months; regardless of having NIL help from the Grand Sierra Resort; and regardless of having amenities that embody a $12 million locker room/gamers lounge and comparatively new follow facility. No Wolf Pack program has excellent sources. But many rank behind these loved by Nevada women’s basketball.
The group’s $2,813,780 funds in fiscal 12 months 2025 was double that of some other Nevada women’s sport with the potential exception of monitor and subject and cross nation, two applications which might be included as one for accounting causes. Yet, success has been fleeting for basketball whereas Nevada swim and dive routinely has MW podium finishes; softball gained a regular-season MW title final 12 months; women’s tennis completed second within the convention; and women’s golf has flirted with NCAA Regional berths. Even monitor and subject is coming off a second-place MW end final month on the indoor MW championships.
Why has Nevada traditionally struggled in women’s basketball? It’s onerous to work out. But the Wolf Pack’s expectations for this system have never been excessive. Nevada’s administration has seemingly been high-quality with floundering leads to women’s hoops.
Jane Albright had robust tenures at Northern Illinois and Wisconsin earlier than a catastrophe at Wichita State. She was employed by Nevada after going 48-95 in 5 seasons with the Shockers and given 9 years with the Wolf Pack regardless of going 115-165 with 5 shedding information in her final six seasons, a stretch the place Nevada gained simply 32.4 p.c of its video games.
In 2017, she was changed with Levens, who additionally was given 9 seasons after a pair of untimely five-year extensions, the primary of which wasn’t even introduced till NSN put in a public-records request for the deal. Levens’ tenure had some excessive factors, however Nevada failed to advance previous the MW Tournament quarterfinal in any of the final eight seasons. The solely different MW group not to attain a semifinal in that interval was Utah State, which has misplaced 20-plus video games in six of the final seven seasons.
Since the NET rating system was created six years in the past, Nevada’s common NET rating has been 199.5 with the group going 1-6 in Quad 1 video games, 3-26 in Quad 2 video games and 18-36 in Quad 3 video games throughout these six seasons.
Nobody likes when coaches get fired and lives are uprooted. Levens’ program did extra group outreach than any group on campus, and did it as a result of it was the proper factor to do and never to get constructive publicity. But from a aggressive requirement standpoint, the Albright and Levens tenures confirmed Nevada didn’t demand on-court outcomes usually required with the extra high-profile sports activities on campus. During their mixed 18 seasons, solely six included profitable information.
While that is likely to be acceptable given Nevada’s historical past, the Wolf Pack ought to need and will require extra from this program. Women’s basketball is extra fashionable than ever and has the potential to earn income, which is crucial for a faculty like Nevada. The commonplace for women’s basketball ought to be larger than different sports activities on campus, very similar to it’s for soccer and males’s basketball. This is one in all each faculty’s most vital sports activities in garnering division curiosity and engagement.
That makes Stephanie Rempe’s rent of Nevada’s subsequent women’s basketball coach some of the vital of her tenure. The MW, as at the moment constructed, has been a winnable league with the convention not inserting two groups within the NCAA Tournament since 2010. Over the final seven seasons, seven of the MW’s 11 applications (pre-Grand Canyon) gained a minimum of one convention championship. Nevada was not one in all them. The others have been Air Force, San Jose State and Utah State.
With titles being handed across the convention, Nevada has appeared content material with mediocrity the final 20 years, which is never a good instance for one in all your most vital sports activities. The new MW shall be much more winnable with three of the top-four groups within the league this season — San Diego State (the regular-season champ), Colorado State (the event champ) and Boise State (six MW titles within the final decade) — headed to the Pac-12. The faculties changing them embody Hawaii (NET 117), UC Davis (171), UTEP (268).
Potential lies forward, however provided that Nevada units a new commonplace of expectation for its women’s basketball program, which in two seasons will turn out to be the only tenant of Lawlor Events Center as the lads’s group strikes into the sector at Grand Sierra Resort. That will mark the chance to model the sector as the house of women’s basketball. And with that ought to come a extra direct focus and requirement this turn out to be a profitable program, something it’s never actually been.
Columnist Chris Murray offers perception on Northern Nevada sports activities. Contact him at [email protected] or comply with him on Twitter at @ByChrisMurray.