Basketball Page 801 - Sports News, Headlines & Highlights
Florida Atlantic athletic director still speechless after Final Four berth
From the eighth-floor lobby of Manhattan’s New York Marriott Marquis hotel, Florida Atlantic athletic director Brian White couldn’t find the exact words to describe what being in the Sweet 16 meant to the Owls’ program and community as a whole. And that was nearly six hours before tipoff of FAU’s wi...
Don't call Florida Atlantic a 'Cinderella'
Don’t fall for the Cinderella trap. That’s the general consensus from Florida Atlantic superfans, boosters, and radio-play-by-play announcers celebrating the Owls’ East regional title at the Time Square Marriott Marquis well after midnight. Given the trend in this NCAA Tournament beginning with Furm...
Tennessee and FAU’s ADs are brothers — and their schools faced off in the Sweet 16
NEW YORK — As the NCAA Tournament bracket was released 11 days ago, both Danny White and Brian White knew only one of their schools could get to the Final Four before they knew who Tennessee or Florida Atlantic would play to open the yearly showcase. Three complete regions had been called without a ...
Florida Atlantic proves just how quickly its tenacity can make opponents unravel
NEW YORK — Don’t let Florida Atlantic hang around. Memphis messed around and found out. Fairleigh Dickinson truly never had the legs to keep up with the Owls, but also felt the result of letting the grittiest team in the nation have time to respond. Surely a Rick Barnes-coached team from a battle-te...
Markquis Nowell authored the quintessential point Guard-en Party to vanquish Michigan State
NEW YORK — The last time an East Regional was held in Madison Square Garden, diminutive UConn point guard, Shabazz Napier led the Huskies to an unexpected Final Four and a national title. Flash forward nine years and Kansas State’s 5-foot-8 floor general, Markquis Nowell, staked his claim as New Yor...
What in the hell were the Mavs thinking on this play?
The Dallas Mavericks have seemingly spent this season in a state of perpetual confusion. Things started alright but have worsened as the 2022-23 campaign nears a close. Trading for Kyrie Irving only complicated matters by doing the opposite of what team governor Mark Cuban had hoped. Wednesday night...
The Sports Nihilist takes on the Sweet 16
Welcome to Deadspin’s The Sports Nihilist, where all is for naught and we are but accidental jolts of electrified meat stuck to the surface of a rock in an indifferent universe. Fuck you....
Austin Reaves has been the biggest beneficiary of the Lakers’ Russell Westbrook trade
It’s a new age in L.A. Move out of the way, LeBron James. Make way for… Austin Reaves. OK, chew on that for a minute, swallow the thought, and breathe. There’s obviously room besides Reaves in the Los Angeles Lakers’ lineup for the scoring king when he’s healthy enough to return to action. LeBron is...
Don’t label Princeton an underdog — it’s PRINCETON!
The days between games during the NCAA Tournament can feel like months. Practices are held. Flights are booked. Press conferences are completed. Stories are written. Narratives are created. And while most love an underdog, there’s one that’s received the label without filling the criteria. Because d...
NCAA Tournament Sweet 16's most vulnerable teams
By the time this week is over, the NCAA Tournament field will again shrink by at least 400 percent. One-fourth of the teams to win a pair of March Madness games last week will do so again. Half of them won’t win one more game. And after riding high over the last week and adding important wins to a p...
New Balance wants us to believe Jack Harlow can ball with Kawhi Leonard
Amid all the talk about load management and the L.A. Clippers’ legit chances of bringing home their first NBA title, we’ve totally neglected one blemish on the résumé of Kawhi Leonard. The fact that New Balance tries to sell the world that rapper Jack Harlow is a formidable opponent to “The Claw” on...
Fred VanVleet has shown Chris Paul the way to an NBA Championship
A precedent has been set. It is time for Chris Paul to take action. The Phoenix Suns are gearing up for a playoff run in the most wide-open Western Conference since Dennis Rodman and David Robinson were sharing the screen in stuffed-crust pizza commercials. With Kevin Durant likely to be available f...
The Kawhi Leonard-Paul George Clippers are proving load management doesn’t work
Very few games offer as clear a view of colliding worlds as the Los Angeles Clippers and Oklahoma City Thunder did at the Crypto.com Arena on Tuesday night. Unfortunately, Paul George’s hyperextended knee put a damper on the evening. Midway through the third quarter, we witnessed the brilliance of G...
The Golden State Warriors core is discovering its first gray hairs
The Golden State Warriors have been hovering at or around .500 all season long. In 2020 and 2021 you could chalk it up to injuries and the reloading process. That championship hill their overwhelming talent allowed them to ascend is starting to appear too steep for their core to climb on its own. A ...
Four-letter words flying during NCAA Tourney — and we love it
One of the beauties of college sports is that viewers get to see young people act like young people. Sure the professionals play the game better, but sometimes youthful exuberance makes up for the many more fundamental mistakes. While we get to view their excitement, the coaches and sports informati...
Leave it to an influencer to talk mess with only 9 points to her name
Something happened at the end of Miami’s 70-68 upset of No. 1 seed Indiana in the second round of the women’s tourney Monday night that got a lot of run — not because it was a great play but rather because of the internet. With 12 seconds left on the clock and the Hurricanes up 1, Haley Cavinder sun...
Dillon Brooks’ admiration for Kyrie Irving can’t be just about basketball
The recent rise in profile for Dillon Brooks is a credit to him. In the current landscape of the NBA, new stars are rising with LeBron James and Kevin Durant getting older. Luka Dončić, Nikola Jokić, and Giannis Antetokounmpo are firmly among the best needle-movers in The Association. Brooks isn’t c...
Rick Pitino's introductory press conference harkens back to glory days of St. John's basketball
In front of 98-year-old Lou Carnesecca, and seated next to St. John’s University President, Reverend Brian J. Shanley, Rick Pitino was introduced as the new St. John’s University coach at Madison Square Garden at noon on Tuesday....
The WNBA head coaching situation, in Black and white
When the WNBA tips off the 2023 season on May 19, it will be with two Black women head coaches on the sidelines of courts on which 79 percent* of the league’s players are Black women and other women of color. (This figure is accurate as of March 2023, when six of the WNBA’s 12 teams had more than 12...
The men's NCAA Sweet 16 storylines to watch
The Sweet 16 is when the NCAA Tournament starts to feel less like an ear-splitting house party and more like an interpersonal kickback in the penthouse suite. The setting is more personal, the opponents are scouted more thoroughly and the quality of basketball gets upgraded significantly. The CBS an...