RENO — The Nevada basketball program unveiled yet another new uniform Monday morning.
The new “Battle Born” uniforms, which will be worn for the first time Wednesday night when arch-rival UNLV visits Lawlor Events Center (8 p.m.), will be added to the traditional home white, the traditional road blue, to the turquoise jerseys which were part of the national Nike N7 campaign, silver and the black unity uniform.
The jersey was funded by Strengthening the Pack, a fan-based fundraising group that isn’t affiliated with the university. The idea originated more than a year ago.
The new jersey has yellow trim around the letters and numbers along with a symbol of the state flag on the back. The jersey also has an outline of the state along with the Nike logo. The Nay-colored shorts have the Battle Born symbol on the state flag.
“They came from last season after the team released the black uniforms, which they call the ‘Unity’ uniforms,” said Brad Platt, president of Strengthening the Pack. “We reached out to Coach Muss after that and said, ‘Let’s reach out even further and unify the whole community behind the concept of Battle Born.’”
After the decision to add the uniform, head coach Eric Musselman, athletic director Doug Knuth and deputy athletic director Rory Hickok flew to Nike headquarters in Oregon to discuss the new jerseys.
“Our guys are really excited,” Musselman said at his weekly press conference. “We showed them some of the layouts and what we were thinking about doing and even talked to Gov. (Brian) Sandoval about it. We’re overly excited.
“I admired about how outside the box Oregon was. I have two teenage sons, and whenever we would go into a sporting goods store they want to buy teams who have unique branding. We want to be different. We want to be creative and stay ahead of the curve.”
Last year Nevada was different with his different pre-game warm-up, using the same warm-up that Musselman’s dad, Bill, used at the University of Minnesota, This year it’s been the various uniforms,
“We want to be different,” Musselman said. “I think it helps recruiting. Guys put on a different uniform and have a different vibe. There is a chance we might wear them (Battle Born uniforms) at the Mountain West tournament.”
The Nevada players said they liked the new uniforms, which Platt said were almost unveiled earlier this year.
“It’s great,” forward Jordan Caroline said. “If you look good, you are going to play good, especially in a big game like this.”
“They are pretty nice,” senior guard D.J. Fenner said. “This is the second time I’ve put it on, and it’s just as exciting as the first time. It’s pretty cool (wearing it for UNLV). A lot of things go into a rivalry, and this is one thing that makes the rivalry a little more exciting.”