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The WAC was quietly one of the more competitive mid-major conferences during the 2025-26 men’s college basketball season, so it should come as no surprise that it had one of the best conference tournament championship games. Utah Valley won the league’s regular season crown, and was looking for its first ever March Madness berth. Cal Baptist was a D2 school less than a decade ago, and finished second in the conference while enjoying its best season since climbing to the DI level.

There was going to be jubilation on one side and heartbreak on the other with two schools looking for their first ever men’s NCAA tournament appearance, and it played out in dramatic fashion. Trailing by two in the final seconds, Utah Valley threw an alley-oop to try to send the game to overtime. The pass was on point, but the finish was not. The Utah Valley player got rejected by the rim on the dunk, and Cal Baptist ran out the clock to win the league and clinch the auto-bid to the NCAA tournament.

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Watch the final play here. This is the double-edged sword of March in one sequence.

Utah Valley and Cal Baptist will have to continue their rivalry in a new conference next year. Both are leaving the WAC to join the Big West. Austin Peay, Eastern Kentucky, North Alabama, West Georgia and Central Arkansas will join the new-look WAC in 2026-27 alongside returning members Abilene Christian, Tarleton State, and UT Arlington.

It’s hard to keep up with conference realignment, but the drama keeps us coming back. Congrats to Cal Baptist. Better luck next year, Utah Valley. Get your printable blank bracket here.

The Kansas City Current rarely trailed in a game, let alone a home game, during the 2025 National Women’s Soccer League season.

But an imprecise first half set the stage for a furious second-half comeback against Utah Royals FC in Saturday afternoon’s season opener at CPKC Stadium.

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Second-half goals by Croix Bethune and Ally Sentnor gave the Current a 2-1 victory — the Current had trailed Utah 1-0 at halftime — in the debut match for new KC head coach Chris Armas.

“On these days you learn a lot about who you are,” Armas said. “Today I learned — I think we learned — that we still are a really gritty team, we’ve got really good attackers, we have depth. Going down a goal and coming back was a really good sign for this team.”

Tatum Milazzo put the visitors up 1-0 in the 35th minute, getting to the ball before Lorena. Milazzo’s header sailed into the net off a short corner routine.

The Current lost the shot count in the first half 6-3 and looked out of ideas at times. The hosts’ best chance was a low strike by Katie Scott that was easily saved.

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Defender Kayla Sharples said the Current, early on, didn’t match the energy the home crowd brought to the stadium.

“We weren’t freaking out or anything,” she said. “We were like, ‘OK, we have the whole next half. Let’s just settle into the game.’”

Halftime served as the perfect remedy. Armas said the team had created 26 transition moments in the first half, and one of the things he told his players at halftime was to calm down and keep the ball.

“Which we’ve been talking about all along — easier said than done from a coach when they’re out there, and they’re trying to go fast in these moments,” Armas said. “But you can see if we were a little bit sharper, maybe it leads to more final actions.”

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It did. The Current outshot Utah 15-6 in the second half. Another tweak came in how KC pressed Utah’s passing out of the back line. It allowed the Current to build up its attack set the stage for a comeback.

Bethune got the game level by scoring in her KC debut — and on her birthday, no less. The sequence began when Gabrielle Robinson launched a long pass toward the box after Utah cleared a Current corner kick in the 57th minute.

Kayla Sharples’ deft flick into the path of Bethune set her up one-on-one with Utah goalkeeper Mia Justus. Bethune slotted a good shot inside the left post with her left foot.

Kansas City’s Penelope Hocking nearly scored the winner after replacing Bethune as a substitute. But minutes later, it was Sentnor who found the solution and put the Current on top.

Sentnor took a pass from Debinha in the 69th minute, dribbling inside through six Utah defenders. Then she cut a right-footed shot across the grain and into the net.

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It was Sentnor’s first goal since being traded to the Current from Utah last summer. Add that to the two recent goals she’s scored with the U.S. Women’s National Team, and it’s plain to see that her confidence is starting to grow.

“I want to continue to hopefully score goals for this team,” Sentnor said. “And honestly just (continue to) create chances and continue to build as the season goes on, and not just peak right now.”

Up next: The Current hits the road for a few games now. First up in a three-matches-in-one-week stretch as a game at Chicago next Sunday, March 22 (1 p.m. Central Time).

Daniel Sperry covers soccer for The Star. He can be reached at sperry.danielkc@gmail.com.

While they might have been playing for a conference championship on Pi Day, the Utah State Aggies didn’t concern themselves with any complicated mathematics formulas Saturday afternoon in Las Vegas.

They just knew that two trophies were better than one, as they beat the San Diego State Aztecs 73-62 at the Thomas & Mack Center to claim the Mountain West Conference tournament crown after winning the regular season title.

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“The last three days we’ve just guarded our tail off,” Utah State head coach Jerrod Calhoun said. “I’m really proud of the guys. To win the regular season (outright) and a tournament title, we just made Utah State history. It’s never been done, so I’m just really, really proud of our guys.”

While there was perhaps a 3.14% chance the Aggies (28-6) wouldn’t hear their name called during Sunday afternoon’s NCAA Tournament Selection Show regardless of the outcome of Saturday’s game against the Aztecs (22-11), they made that positive outcome a 100% certainty while potentially also knocking their longtime rivals out of the field of 68.

Utah State, which will make its fourth straight appearance in the NCAA Tournament next week, also became the seventh team in school history to win 28 or more games in a season.

“I hear all these coaches talking about their team,” Calhoun said. “We just won the regular season and the tournament. We’ve got 28 wins with great metrics on both sides. Now we’ll see if we get rewarded. I’ll be anxious to see what kind of seed, what kind of matchup, but our guys will be ready.

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“Momentum is a powerful thing, and we’ve got great momentum right now.”

Senior guard MJ Collins Jr. led the way offensively for Utah State Saturday, totaling 20 points — including four 3-pointers — in 37 minutes on his way to being named MVP of the Aggies’ final Mountain West tournament.

“He’s the MVP for a reason,” USU graduate guard Drake Allen said of Collins. “That’s what he does. Whenever we needed a big shot down the stretch, he was ready to take them.

“We’re very confident putting the ball in his hands. We know he’s going to make big shots; he’s been doing it all year.”

Utah State also got 16 points, six assists and four rebounds from 2026 Mountain West Player of the Year Mason Falslev, 13 points, six rebounds and three assists from Allen and 11 points and six rebounds off the bench from senior forward Garry Clark.

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For their play, Allen and Falslev joined Collins on the MW All-Tournament Team.

The Aggies shot 46.2% from the field as a team despite connecting on just 6 of 21 3-point field goal attempts, but Utah State outscored SDSU 46-22 in the paint and only committed six turnovers, while the Aztecs racked up 14 miscues, which the Aggies converted into 17 points.

“That’s our defense,” Collins said. “We know we’ve got to get out in transition and get easy buckets, so when we we’re able to turn teams over, it makes everything much better.

“We get going, and it’s like the defensive energy gets contagious because we’re just flying around and playing green. When we can turn a team over and also take care of the ball, I think we’re unbeatable.”

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The top-seeded Aggies, who clinched the outright Mountain West regular-season title with a 94-90 win over New Mexico a week ago at the Spectrum, played greedy basketball in Las Vegas, roughing up No. 8 UNLV by 20 on Thursday and eliminating No. 5 Nevada by 13 Friday in the semifinals before taking out No. 2 San Diego State.

Four of USU’s five regular-season conference losses came against those programs, and yet the Aggies became the first team in the history of the Mountain West tournament to win in the quarterfinals, semifinals and the final by double-digits in the same year.

“We knew this was a revenge tour for us,” said Collins, who scored 20 points in the win over the Rebels and a dozen against the Wolf Pack. “Everybody we played, they beat us, so we took that personal.

“And you know, I wouldn’t have been able to do it without God, my family, my girl, Coach (Calhoun), the whole coaching staff and the whole community of Logan. They were behind our backs, and we came out here and played for them.”

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Calhoun seconded Collins’ declaration that the Aggies came to Sin City earlier this week seeking revenge, as well as getting back to firing on all cylinders after losing three out of four games in late February and early March to the three teams they faced in the tournament.

After beating San Diego State 71-66 in Logan on Jan. 31, the Aggies were crushed by the Aztecs, 89-72, at Viejas Arena on Feb. 25.

“I’m extremely, extremely proud of the toughness level that this group of guys came to Vegas with,” Calhoun said. “We were not going to be bullied. We were going to be the bully.

“I kind of deemed this our redemption tour. UNLV beat us twice, Nevada beat us at Nevada and we obviously got embarrassed a couple weeks ago by the Aztecs. We were coming in here to be the bully, we were coming in here for a redemption tour, and it certainly was accomplished.”

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Coached by Craig Smith, the 2018-19 Utah State team shared the regular season title with Nevada, then went on to win the Mountain West tourney behind an MVP performance from current Cleveland Cavaliers guard Sam Merrill. The Aggies beat San Diego State in the championship game that year, as well as in the title contest at the end of the 2019-20 season, just prior to the start of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The Aztecs avenged those defeats with victories in the MW title game in 2021 and ’23, but the 2025-26 version of the Aggies broke that 2-2 tie just prior to both teams leaving the Mountain West for the new-look Pac-12 Conference.

“First of all, congratulations to coach Calhoun, Utah State and their coaching staff,” said SDSU Brian Dutcher, who made his eighth appearance in the MW championship in the past nine seasons Saturday afternoon.

“Regular season champs and postseason champs, that’s hard to do, but they did it, and they did it with great efficiency. We knew the whole game was going to be decided in the paint, and they got in the paint more than we did. They lived in the paint, made plays from the paint and then made timely jump shots.”

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San Diego State, which advanced to the championship game with a hard-fought 64-62 win over New Mexico late Friday night/early Saturday morning, got 20 points from senior guard Reese Dixon-Waters and 12 points and eight rebounds from sophomore forward Magoon Gwath.

Both of those Aztecs were also named to the all-tourney team, while junior guard BJ Davis also contributed 14 points in the loss to Utah State.

Overall, San Diego State shot 40.8% from the floor Saturday, went 5 for 16 from 3-point range and finished 17 for 24 from the free-throw line.

Already short on sleep due to the tournament schedule, the Aztecs also played without the services of Miles Heide. Dutcher said the junior forward, who was averaging 5.6 points, 4.5 rebounds and 19 minutes per game, likely broke his left (shooting) hand during Friday’s game against the Lobos.

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“I mean, you don’t want to blame fatigue, but I think we got back to our hotel at 12:30 last night. Three games in a row,” SDSU junior guard Myles Byrd said. “Obviously, they just looked like the more fresh team in the second half.

“When it came to winning time, they made more plays, got to the paint, dropped off to the big, dunks, layups, offensive rebounds. They just made more winning plays than we did.”

Arguably the biggest play of the game came with five minutes left with the Aggies holding onto a 58-54 advantage.

Collins, who had already knocked down a 3-pointer just 30 seconds earlier, buried another trey from the left corner for what appeared to be a 61-54 lead.

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However, just as Collins was setting up to release his shot, Dixon-Watters flattened USU forward Zach Keller while trying to get to the Aggies’ leading scorer and was called for his fourth foul.

But before Keller could take aim at a potential five-point play, the Aggies had to sweat out a lengthy review by the officials to decide whether or not the foul came before or after Collins’ shot.

The call eventually went USU’s way, and Keller connected on both free-throw attempts to suddenly put the Aggies ahead by nine points.

“Yeah, it made me feel good,” Collins said of his pair of timely 3-pointers. “I got to chirping a little bit, but just credit to coach; he always tells me to make the right read. As I’m coming off the pin-downs and I’m taking a rear-view peek at Reese Dixon to see how he’s guarding me, I curled one of them, and I hit the 3.

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“And the second one he tried to shoot the gap, and I bumped it. A great screen by Zach, great pass by Mason, and the shot goes down. It’s a big swing because it was a five-point swing right there — Zach goes to the line, and he hits two free throws, so it was huge.”

The Aztecs, who would fall behind 65-54 on an easy bucket by Adlan Elamin moments later, were unable to get any closer than eight points the remainder of the game.

“Obviously, the critical play of the game was the five-point play in a four-point game,” Dutcher said. “That was really a huge momentum turner; took the lead from four to nine in one possession. Then they just kind of held on to it from that point on.

“But it was a hard-fought game, and its basketball. We’re disappointed. We wanted to win in the worst way and put ourselves in a position to do that, and then obviously Utah State did a great job defensively and really limited our opportunities at the offensive end.”

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The Aggies led by as many as six points in the first half, but the game was tied on six occasions, and a woeful offensive stretch by Utah State just before halftime helped San Diego State take a one-point lead into halftime.

While SDSU scored the final five points of the first half, Utah State missed nine of its final 10 shot attempts and the Aztecs enjoyed a 35-34 advantage as they headed to their locker room.

But that optimism quickly disappeared when Allen put together a 7-0 run all by himself coming out of intermission. The former Westlake High star got Utah State the lead back on a driving layup just 10 seconds into the second half, and then quickly added a 3-pointer and another layup in transitions thanks to a steal by Collins.

Suddenly down 41-35, Dutcher called for a timeout with 18:22 left, which led to a quick, 10-2 run by the Aztecs to go back up by two points.

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But the Aggies countered with two free throws by Allen to tie the game for the final time at 45-45, and a high-flying dunk by Collins on SDSU forward Pharoah Compton moments later got the lead back for the Aggies for good.

“It means the world,” Collins responded when asked about being named tournament MVP. “But it also shows how good our team is. Mason got Mountain West Player of the Year, and then I can come and get the MVP.

“… This is a team accolade. I wouldn’t be able to do it without them, so I’m thankful for them and coach Calhoun, of course. Like I’ve continued to say, the fans travel for us. On their spring break, they gave their time up to come and support us, so it means the world.”

For the third straight game, the contingent of Aggie fans at the Thomas & Mack Center dwarfed that of their opponent, particularly when comparing the student sections.

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Partly as a reward for that support, Utah State announced on Saturday that it will host a Selection Show watch party at 4 p.m. Sunday for the team and the media as well as the public. Doors to the Spectrum will open at 3:30 p.m.

“Tomorrow is going to be an unbelievable day for our fans,” Calhoun said. “We should pack the Spectrum. … Tomorrow is just a celebration.

“It’s a celebration, but it’s also go time. We need a day off, maybe two. I’ve got to call some coaches, get a good game plan on that, but we need a good seed.”

Calhoun later added, “We’re going to get back to Logan. We’re going to take tomorrow off physically, but it starts again tomorrow night.

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“We’ll be drinking more coffees, and we’ll be in Estes (Center). You don’t sleep as a coach. How could you? This is the greatest time in the world for college basketball coaches and players and fans. Buckle up; the next three weeks could be really good.”

Former Utah State star athlete Kaylie Ray tried to share her experience as a victim of the San Jose State volleyball scandal with lawmakers.

In response, she was given comments about her body. 

Arizona Democrat state senator Catherine Miranda told Ray, “I mean, you look pretty healthy… You look very much in shape and strong,” after Ray spoke about having to forfeit a game in protest of a trans athlete, at a senate education hearing on Tuesday. 

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“When she started saying those words, the only thing I was thinking is, ‘where could she possibly be going with this?’” Ray told Fox News Digital. “For whatever reason, my physical appearance or stature should have some type of effect on how competitive I am with men. So I was definitely caught off guard.” 

Ray said she would accept an apology from Miranda, if she is given one. Miranda’s office has not responded to repeated requests for comment. 

Ray showed up to the state house that day to share deep personal trauma from her college volleyball career.

At Utah State, she was an opponent of former San Jose State transgender volleyball player Blaire Fleming for two years in 2022 and 2023, all before having confirmed knowledge that Fleming was male. During that time, Ray said she saw teammates suffer finger injuries from taking Fleming’s signature spikes to the hands. 

“I had teammates who had seriously jammed their fingers, luckily not broken, but a handful of girls who had sustained minor injuries from the male player,” Ray said, adding that it happened way more often from Fleming’s spikes than those from female players.

She added that all of her teammates had their suspicions about Fleming from the moment they watched film ahead of their first matchup on Oct. 1, 2022. 

“When this player was presented to us, even on film, the immediate reaction is ‘whoa,’” Ray said. “It’s so obvious to the naked eye that this athlete has athleticism, explosiveness, and a power that is just not matched by any of the other athletes.” 

Utah State lost that first match against Fleming, three sets to one.

Ray said there were some people on her team that were making comments about Fleming being a male.

“After watching this player compete, it was so obvious to us, but obviously we don’t want to speculate,” Ray said. 

She said her team had to come up with a new strategy that they simply had no need for prior to Fleming’s arrival in the Mountain West.

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“Because Blaire attacked from such a high point of contact… the goal is to just get your hands over the net as far as you can,” she said. “Get your hands low and over, and if Blaire hits over the top of you, it’s a good swing by that player. There was kind of like a helplessness of, ‘let’s just do everything we can to force them to set other players.'”

Ray said there were some people on her team that were making comments about Fleming being a male. (Courtesy of ICONS, Getty Images)

Utah State won the rematch against SJSU in November, three sets to two. Then they met in the 2022 conference final, and Ray’s team emerged victorious for the second of what would be three straight Mountain West titles. But Ray says they were ultimately at the mercy of how well Fleming played that day. 

“We knew that if the male athlete had a phenomenal game, there was nothing we could do to stop that person… and to be quite honest with you, Blaire did not have a great game,” Ray said. “To be fair, I think you go into any match hoping that their best player doesn’t have their best night. I won’t say that it was total helplessness because we had beaten them before and we knew we were capable of doing it again.” 

The following season, Utah State won both matches against SJSU, both in straight sets. Fleming only played in the second of those two games, missing time to injury. In that second game, Fleming led SJSU in points, but Utah State had answers, and won the game en route to a third-straight conference title. 

It was the last time Ray would ever play Fleming.

When the scandal went national in 2024, Ray, as a captain, was trying to lead her team to a fourth straight Mountain West championship. 

“I wanted it so bad,” she said.

But then, official news of Fleming’s birth sex reached their locker room.

“I felt sick. I felt nauseousness in my stomach,” Ray said. 

Her team had to put competition aside. 

“[Utah State administrators] ended up sending an anonymous survey to our girls when we were on a road trip… simply to describe our thoughts and feelings about competing against San Jose, and our administrators took that information and allowed us to forfeit,” Ray said.

It was the first of seven total forfeited matches the Spartans saw that season, with each one bringing more and more scrutiny and risk to the program. But for Utah State, the forfeit also reverberated throughout their season, behind closed doors. 

“Girls were so sick about it… to have that loss on our record, it was really disappointing,” she said. “We were very distracted during the season.” 

Ray joined the lawsuit led by former SJSU co-captain Brooke Slusser against the Mountain West later that season, and they even challenged in court to have the result of the forfeited game reversed. But a Biden-appointed judge did not grant the reversal.

And because of that forfeit, Ray’s team finished behind SJSU in the standings. When the brackets came out, they faced the anxiety of knowing for certain, that if they were to make it back to the championship game, they would have to play SJSU. 

“The only thing that anyone could focus on, was ‘well, if we win, we have to play San Jose, do we have to forfeit again?’” Ray said of the team’s mindset before its first-round game against Boise State that tournament. “That was very much the attitude of my team… we were already defeated coming into the tournament.”

FORMER SJSU VOLLEYBALL STAR OPENS UP ON LIVING WITH TRANS TEAMMATE WITHOUT KNOWING ATHLETE’S BIOLOGICAL SEX

Brooke Slusser #10 and Blaire Fleming #3 of the San Jose State Spartans call a play during the first set against the Air Force Falcons at Falcon Court at East Gym on Oct. 19, 2024, in Colorado Springs, Colorado. (Andrew Wevers/Getty Images)

Ray and her teammates didn’t make it out of the first round. They lost to Boise State, who then went on to forfeit to SJSU in the semifinal.

Ray still hasn’t gotten over not winning that fourth conference title, which she believes her team would have won had circumstances been normal. But it wasn’t normal, in any sense.  

“We wanted it so bad, coupled with the trauma and the anxiety, and just the horrible, horrible emotions that occurred during the season, it was so hard to keep that goal in sight.”

Ray is done with college volleyball now. She played one more season at Weber State last fall and has graduated with a graduate degree. Now, much of her attention is put toward fighting to “save women’s sports,” just as she tried to do at her state’s capital building this past week. 

In January, she spoke alongside Slusser outside the U.S. Supreme Court at a rally during oral arguments for two cases related to males in women’s sports. That day, Ray got her first up-close look at the forces opposing her goal, with a passionate pro-transgender rally taking place right next to theirs. 

“It was the first time in my life seeing that collection of people. What struck me most is that up next to their speakers, they were waiving a flag, a transgender flag, but at the center of the flag there was a satanic symbol, it said ‘The Church of Satan,’” Ray said. 

“It was so clearly a battle between good and evil… When you upset a party of Satanic people, they don’t care what you have to say… when you’re fighting against evil, it’s going to be uncomfortable.”

SJSU is the latest battleground in that fight.

The U.S. Education Department‘s Office for Civil Rights (OCR) determined that SJSU violated Title IX in its handling of Fleming at the end of January. But SJSU and the California University (CSU) system are suing the federal government to challenge that investigation. 

“San Jose State is disgusting,” Ray said of the lawsuit. “It’s so despicable, and it’s so bizarre.”

Fox News Digital has reached out to SJSU and CSU for a response to Ray’s comments.

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U.S. Education Secretary Linda McMahon responded Wednesday, giving the institutions a deadline of 10 days to come to an agreement or risk federal funding cuts and a referral to the U.S. Department of Justice. 

“President Trump, you know what to do,” Ray added. 

Follow Fox News Digital’s sports coverage on X, and subscribe to the Fox News Sports Huddle newsletter.

ST. GEORGE, Utah (ABC4) — Spring breakers are flocking to Southern Utah, and local leaders are preparing for the rush.

Last year, Zion National Park saw more than 700,000 visits during March and April. Right outside of the park, the small town of Springdale is expecting to handle the majority of those visitors.

The Mayor, Barbra Bruno, says this is one of the best times of the year to visit and they usually see a lot more people.

“Well, it’s great to be here, because the weather’s great and things are starting to come to life,” she said. “We’re coming off of what we call a shoulder season, which used to be our quiet time of year. And frankly, isn’t just that quiet anymore.”

Spring break is kicking off this weekend, and it is likely Springdale will get busier.

“When I just drove over from my house at the other end of town, there was a lot of parking available. I suspect that, by tomorrow, that will not be the case. I think our town will be full of cars,” Bruno added.

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Local businesses are already seeing early signs of spring break travel. Jess Kavanagh works at Zion Adventure and says she has already seen an increase in visitors, from Utah and elsewhere.

“We’re definitely seeing plenty of people from within the state of Utah coming down this week. But every week is kind of different,” she said. “Statistically, where people are from, it kind of feels like you can track where the spring break is happening throughout the country.”

With crowds expected to build in the coming weeks, Mayor Bruno has a simple message for visitors.

“Just slow down. Our speed limit through most of Springdale is 30 and sometimes that’s even a little too fast. But just be careful. There’s a lot of traffic,” she said. “There’s a lot going on, and the bike lanes make it a little trickier on top of that.”

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ST. GEORGE, Utah (ABC4) — On Friday, the Utah State Bar presented a statewide survey on how often legal professionals face threats, intimidation or violence.

In 2006, the Utah State Bar conducted the first survey in the nation that examined threats and violences directed at members of a state legal profession. That survey found that 46% of respondents had receiving threats or violence in their career.

Now, two decades later, the Utah State Bar has conducted a similar study and presented the findings during a conference on March 13.

“For 2026, in the first two months. There have been 230 investigations of 176 threats on 151 different judges,” said Stephen Kelson, one of the main researchers behind the 2006 and 2026 survey.

The survey results indicated that there has been a drop in threats made online or through inappropriate communications, but there has been a significant increase in direct threats, according to Kelson.

He added that, since 2023, there have been over 100 threats to Utah courts, six swatting incidents, an incident in which private information was ‘doxxed’ or released publicly, and a security breach.

Police investigate possible threats at Salt Lake City courthouse

“There are threats that are taking place with our Utah courts and there have been, just in the last couple days, this [survey] doesn’t include those,” Kelson continued. “The point being is that while the Utah profession has not suffered a life taking event in many years, it doesn’t mean that threats and violence just aren’t frequently occurring.”

According to Kelson, legal practitioners in family law, criminal prosecution, and criminal defense typically see the highest number of violent threats. However, members of every legal practice reported receiving violent threats.

Kelson says public trust in legal professionals has decreased significantly, which could be a factor in the increase in threats. He said, “The legal profession, including the judiciary…over the last 20, 25 years, has been considered in low regard…Also, politics appears to be having an effect.”

Based on survey results, 5% of Utah’s legal professionals have definitively been on the receiving end of threats of violence or actual violence, though Kelson says that number could be higher, because only about 12% of all legal professionals in Utah responded to the survey.

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Additionally, some practitioners may brush off threats or don’t report them to avoid potential controversy. Kelson said, “An issue that comes up with threats and violence in the legal profession is that it’s not talked about…and it generally comes down to that, one, you don’t want that out there. There’s a fear or a concern that you don’t want to be that practitioner, because maybe it has a stigma to it.”

At the conclusion of his presentation, Kelson asked who in the audience had received threats, by a raise of hands. While not everybody raised their hands, nearly two dozen individuals did, including Kelson.

While investigating and prosecuting threats is up to law enforcement, Kelson says the legal field needs to acknowledge the potential danger that their professionals face.

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“We need to recognize it. It is affecting attorneys’ well-being here in the state of Utah. And as well, if it’s affecting the well-being, it means it’s affecting the practice, how attorneys are performing their jobs, which means it can have a direct effect upon the access to justice for the public,” he said.

Elizabeth Wright, the executive director of the Utah State Bar, added, “We want judges to be able to make decisions based on the law and facts in front of them and not be worried. that if they rule a certain way or rule against certain individuals that their family can be threatened.”

“So, the recommendation is going to be in regard to we need to educate our legal community of how to address this, prepare themselves, and so they can avoid the threats and violence and make sure it’s not going to happen to them,” Kelson continued. “it’s going to be through training and also to look at to help them be self-aware and recognize if there’s a real threat what can they do to protect themselves and those around them.”

Joseph DeGolyer contributed to this article.

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Nevada was one win away from its first MW Championship appearance since 2017 and two wins away from its first NCAA bid since the 2023-24 season. Both of those dreams faded away after a flat 79-66 loss to Utah State in the semifinal.

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Nevada rode a lot of momentum after winning the first two games of this tournament, but Utah State was the No. 1 seed for a reason. The Aggies’ defensive performance was just too much for Nevada to find the bucket.

Scoring Summary

1st Half

Nevada 32 – Utah State 39

2nd Half

Nevada 34 – Utah State 40

Final: Nevada 66, Utah State 79

First Half

The first 10 shot attempts of the game all missed, with both sides starting 0-5. Utah State broke that drought after three minutes with a layup for a 2-0 lead. Nevada broke its 0-6 start with a layup of its own by Vaughn Weems.

The first three of the game came from Utah State’s Karson Templin to give the Aggies a 9-5 lead under 14 minutes. The first three for Nevada came from the hands of Chuck Bailey in the corner, cutting it back down to a three-point game. Kaleb Lowery and Joel Armotrading traded scores in the paint and the Wolf Pack took a 12-11 lead just under 11 minutes.

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Utah State snatched the momentum right back, taking a seven-point lead before another media timeout under the eight-minute mark. Nevada had picked up six personal fouls at the mark, which turned into a perfect 8-8 from the free-throw line for the Aggies.

The Aggies pushed themselves back on top with an eight-point lead at 27-19. Nevada’s best scorer in Corey Camper Jr. was held scoreless for most of the half until he made his first shot of the game under five minutes. It was a three that made it 29-24 Utah State.

A 6-0 run within the final minutes of the first half gave Utah State a nine-point lead. Elijah Price turned in a layup followed by some free throws to cut it down to five, but Utah State scored in the paint just before the buzzer. Nevada shot just 36 percent from the field and 25 percent from three, with Camper going 2-9 and five points.

Second Half

The second half started similarly to the first, with both sides missing their first few shots. Utah State turned in a quick five points after that, forcing Nevada to call a timeout just two and a half minutes into the half.

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Nevada’s first five minutes went without a score until Tayshawn Comer hit a fadeaway shot to make it 45-34 Utah State. The Aggies responded with a three to make it 48-34 with 15 minutes left.

The soul of Nevada’s team seemed just to fade away. Utah State forced turnover after turnover, and by the next media timeout under 12 minutes, the Aggies had a 57-37 lead. Nevada struggled to find consistent ball movement and turned the ball over 15 total times, with a lot of them coming in bunches.

“It shows how much pride we have as a team,” Weems said about Nevada not giving up and keeping the game somewhat interesting. “We could’ve laid down and given up multiple times throughout the game, but during timeouts, we had all our coaches and players saying, ‘We’ve been in this situation before, keep playing.‘”

Momentum never truly turned over after that. Nevada played how it has in road games all season, with costly turnovers and simply missing too many shots. Utah State’s student section, The Hurd, traveled well all tournament, and that was no different in this game. Whether the crowd sucked Nevada’s soul out, or there was sluggishness after playing its third game in three days, or maybe it was both.

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Nevada ended the night shooting 41 percent from the field, 26 percent from three and 65 percent from the free-throw line. All around, it just wasn’t a good shooting night for Nevada by any means. Weems was the lead scorer with 17 points, but went 0-6 from beyond the arc. In games like this, Nevada needed a big game from Camper that just never came, as he finished with nine points on 3-12 shooting.

“It felt a little fatigued, but we knew what we had with four games in four days, so we were prepared for it mentally,” Camper said of potential sluggishness in this one.

Utah State shot 45 percent from the field and 21 percent from deep. Adlan Elamin led the Aggies with 15 points on 6-9 shooting. The Aggies had five players reach double digits, including four starters.

What’s Next

Nevada was two wins away from an automatic berth into the NCAA tournament, but for the second consecutive year, the Wolf Pack will not be dancing.

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The Wolf Pack submitted a bid to host an NIT game, so now it’s just the waiting game to see if Nevada will get that or participate in any other postseason tournament. Nevada declined to participate last year, but it appears Alford is more fond of the idea this year.

“I think it should be a no-brainer that we’re an NIT team,” Alford said about playing another game. “We’ve done a lot of good things this year and have beaten a lot of really good teams, so I hope and pray we get a bid for the NIT that we’d be very excited to play in.”