Chris Murray

cmurray@rgj.com

The Wolf Pack's quest for a basketball practice facility, which is more than a decade in the making, appears to have come to an end.

Nevada will hold a press conference Tuesday to announce "a major new facilities project" for the basketball program.

Nevada athletic director Doug Knuth, basketball coaches Eric Musselman and Jane Albright and UNR president Marc Johnson will all be in attendance. A video of former Wolf Pack standout Ramon Sessions also will be shown during the event.

Sessions, according to multiple sources with knowledge of the project, has put forth an unprecedented donation for a Wolf Pack alum to help fund the roughly $2.5 million project that is expected to be completed this summer.

The Wolf Pack has been pushing for a basketball practice facility since Trent Johnson was the team's head coach from 1999-2004. Nevada went to four straight NCAA tournaments from 2003-07 but the recession shortly after that period kept the Wolf Pack from making the practice facility a reality.

Wolf Pack's next project: A basketball practice facility

The practice facility would be located at the Lombardi Rec Center, the longtime student fitness center on campus. But the construction of the $46 million Wiegand Fitness Center, which is expected to open in January, made Lombardi free for a renovation.

The project would include two basketball courts as well as a weight room and training table.

“It’s really a great project,” Knuth said of the Lombardi renovation in January. “In my estimation, to build a facility with two practice courts, (eight) baskets, a huge weight room, locker rooms for various teams, you’re talking about a $25 million building. We don’t have to build the infrastructure. The floor, ceilings and walls are there. We just have to renovate it and update the floors and it’s more like a ($2.5) million project for us.”

Sessions, who runs a yearly youth camp in Reno and has been one of the Wolf Pack's most altruistic alums, has made more than $26 million in his NBA career and agreed to a two-year, $12.5 million deal with the Charlotte Hornets this offseason. His donation is the lead gift for the project.

San Diego State, Utah State and UNLV, among other Mountain West schools, have recently added practice facilities, which are a must for nationally competitive programs.

“That’s a game-changer for men’s and women’s basketball to have a dedicated practice space,” Knuth said in January. “You don’t have to fight for the space, you have 24-hour access. Coaches have been asking for that for a long time here and it’s finally coming. It will put us on pace with other Mountain West schools.”

First look at the Wolf Pack basketball team

The practice facility is the latest in a series of facility improvements for Nevada.

In the last couple of months, the school has completed the McArthur Family Tennis Courts, Basin Street Club at Mackay Stadium, a resurfaced track at Mackay Stadium, a new track and field event site at Wolf Pack East, a renovated Mackay Stadium with new videoboards and sound system, a new floor and videoboards at Lawlor Event Center, a series of remodeled locker rooms and a remodeled indoor golf practice area.

Two more projects are expected to be completed in the near future: the basketball practice facility slotted for a summer 2017 completion date and Champions Plaza, a grand entrance to Mackay's north end, which also has a summer 2017 completion date.

Week in 1,000 Words: With Mackay Stadium done, what's next?

Knuth has said he'd like to complete a couple of major projects a year as the Wolf Pack tries to become a championship-level department in the MW.

“The analogy would be a homeowner who buys a house and upgrades the kitchen one year and the next year you do the bathrooms and the next year it’s landscaping and the next year you do another project, but you’re constantly upgrading and improving your home,” Knuth said in January. “That’s how I look at it.”