Photo illustration / AP photos
The action expected in Las Vegas sports this year includes UFC heavyweight Francis Ngannou, the Las Vegas Raiders and Vegas Golden Knights, Las Vegas Aces guard Kelsey Plum, UNLV football and Las Vegas native Julian Strawther at Gonzaga.
Thursday, Jan. 6, 2022 | 2 a.m.
From new professional teams to entrenched local favorites, 2022 will surely deliver another slate of big moments and stories in the world of Las Vegas sports. Here’s one prediction for each of the 12 months ahead.
January: The Raiders just miss the postseason, prompting owner Mark Davis to clean house by relieving both interim coach Rich Bisaccia and general manager Mike Mayock. After a failed run at Michigan coach Jim Harbaugh, Davis hires Bills offensive coordinator Brian Daboll as the Raiders’ next coach. It’s a terrific get, given what Daboll has done with Buffalo’s once-limited offense during the past two seasons, and he will receive some say on which general manager is brought in.
February: Jack Eichel debuts for the Vegas Golden Knights slightly ahead of schedule coming off his neck surgery, and he plays alongside several different forwards in his first few weeks as coach Pete DeBoer tinkers to find his preferred lineups. Even if the chemistry isn’t immediate, Eichel helps Vegas pull away for its third Pacific Division title in five years.
March: Liberty High graduate Julian Strawther becomes a March Madness legend, continuing his breakout sophomore campaign by leading Gonzaga through the NCAA Tournament to its second straight Final Four appearance. This time, Bulldogs finish the job and win the national championship.
April: Oregon edge rusher Kayvon Thibodeaux is the first name called at the 2022 NFL Draft on the Las Vegas Strip. Reports indicate the Jacksonville Jaguars are torn between Thibodeaux and Michigan counterpart Aidan Hutchinson for the first overall pick, but they ultimately settle on the former. NFL commissioner Roger Goddell makes the announcement from a stage set up within the Fountains of Bellagio, and Thibodeaux is ferried across the water to shake his hand.
May: The Golden Knights beat their first two Stanley Cup Playoff opponents, the Anaheim Ducks and Edmonton Oilers, in six games or less but encounter trouble in the Western Conference Finals. The Colorado Avalanche get revenge after last year’s upset ouster by Vegas, sending the Golden Knights home one round short of the Stanley Cup Final for the third consecutive season.
June: The Vegas Knight Hawks follow in the footsteps of their Foley Entertainment Group siblings, the Golden Knights, and reach the playoffs in their inaugural Indoor Football League season at Dollar Loan Center. The Knight Hawks don’t quite reach the finals as the Golden Knights did, but they build momentum for their second season.
July: Local UFC heavyweight champion Francis Ngannou, after edging former teammate Ciryl Gane in a unification bout in January, gets the megafight he wants against former light heavyweight champion Jon Jones as the headliner of International Fight Week. The bout lives up to the considerable hype and long wait, with Ngannou enduring early trouble to knock out Jones in the third round.
August: The Aces enter the WNBA Playoffs as the overall No. 1 seed and leave behind the postseason failings of yesteryear. They win the title in their fifth season in Las Vegas behind the lethal inside-out combo of Kelsey Plum and A’ja Wilson. The former shows last year’s breakout was no one-off, as she becomes every bit as invaluable as the latter face of the franchise.
September: UNLV’s football team shocks California in Week 2 of the college football season to pick up a victory over a power-conference team and give third-year coach Marcus Arroyo his first signature win. The Rebels show flashes of that early strong play the rest of the year—though not in a blowout October road trip at Notre Dame—but ultimately finish 5-7 to come up short of bowl eligibility for the ninth straight season.
October: Kyle Busch picks up a second victory in his hometown, and first since 2008, when he prevails in the South Point 400 NASCAR playoff race at Las Vegas Motor Speedway. The victory helps put the 37-year-old Durango High graduate into the Cup series’ all-important championship final four and breaks a tie with older brother Kurt Busch, who also has one Cup win in Las Vegas.
November: The yet-again young, retooled Raiders start to show progress late in the season, but they’re too far behind in the NFL’s toughest division to make a real playoff push. The AFC West, already difficult with quarterback Patrick Mahomes’ Chiefs and Justin Herbert’s Chargers present, gets significantly more so when future Hall of Famer Aaron Rodgers is traded to the Broncos in the offseason.
December: Las Vegas’ National Lacrosse League team debuts at Michelob Ultra Arena and makes an immediate mark through the combination of affordable tickets and the spectator-friendly speed of the box lacrosse game. Community outreach efforts can’t help but succeed given billionaire majority owner Joe Tsai’s passion for the sport and partner Wayne Gretzky’s celebrity.
This story appeared in Las Vegas Weekly.
