Oklahoma linebacker Kenneth Murray said he met with the Las Vegas Raiders staff during the 2020 NFL scouting combine and that the meetings went well. LSU’s Patrick Queen and Wisconsin linebacker Zack Baun may also be prospects that the team could evaluate. (Heidi Fang/Las Vegas Review-Journal)
Golden Knights fever is gripping Las Vegas as the second round of the NHL playoffs continue. Longtime observers of the local sports scene are comparing to the team’s popularity to that of the UNLV basketball team during its heyday. It has been 27 years since UNLV last played in the Final Four. Knights goalie Marc-Andre Fleury was only 5 years old when the Rebels beat Duke to win the 1990 national championship. “You’d go to the bank, and everybody would ask how the Rebels were going to do against Oklahoma, against LSU. I think what is happening (with the Knights) is similar. The most important part is that it is uniting the community like UNLV basketball did.”
The Wrangler National Finals Rodeo has returned to Las Vegas. The 10-day sporting event, which kicks off Thursday at the Thomas & Mack Center, is expected to bring more than 170,000 people to the city, generating a frenzy among hotels to lasso in the lucrative crowd. Casinos are aiming to corral guests by offering rodeo packages that include meals and tickets, hosting top country singers and sporting events. Many of the visitors for rodeo week come from California, Texas, Montana, Oklahoma, Wyoming and Colorado. More than two dozen country singers will perform over the next two weeks, including George Strait at T-Mobile Arena, Cody Johnson at the South Point and Dwight Yoakam at The Cosmopolitan of Las Vegas.
