il Page 718 - Sports News, Headlines & Highlights

Porter Moser is Loyola's key to success, not Sister Jean
Florida. Miami. Tennessee. Nevada. Kansas State. Georgia Tech. And now, No. 1 seed Illinois. Those are the programs that the Loyola Ramblers have knocked off since 2017, during the regular season, or in the NCAA Tournament....

Celtic, Rangers are unlikely duo to show that kneeling has outlived usefulness in Euro soccer
The debate over players kneeling right before kickoff in soccer games across Europe started almost before they started doing it last summer. On one side were those who said it was worth the symbolism and regular reminders that the fight is A) everyone’s, and B) ongoing, even if these kinds of thing...

The Colorado Avalanche make medicine sick
It isn’t much of a story when a preseason favorite starts rising to the top of the standings. Most everyone thought the Colorado Avalanche would be a Cup contender this year, playing 56 preseason games and one warm-up series before a West Division final with the Vegas Golden Knights that will contai...

The Celtics have to do something to save their season, no exceptions
It’s obvious, but it still needs to be said....

South Dakota’s Gov. Kristi Noem wants an anti-trans bill that’s even more anti-trans
It’s not worth pretending, even for a minute, that South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem had a sudden change of heart and developed a sense of humanity that led her to reject the state’s anti-trans sports act, House Bill 1217, one of many such initiatives being pushed in Republican-run states....

Urban Meyer might have a point about NFL free agency sucking (really)
Urban Meyer’s derision for the NFL’s free agency process seems like easy fodder, but there’s a lot of truth to his complaint about signing players without meeting them. It’s not good for the players, either, because they wind up making a critical decision about their career without having a full pic...

Oregon’s Sedona Prince lays bare on social media the second-rate conditions of NCAA women’s tourney
Thank you to Sedona Prince for thinking of all of the old folks who aren’t on TikTok and sharing your video on Twitter. As you say, it really does need the attention of a wider audience....

The lie that politicians are seeking to protect women with transgender exclusion bills
Soaring in like a phalanx across state legislatures, this has been the year of bills designed to keep transgender boys and girls from participating in sports....

TAKE THE QUIZ! Here's an 'Elite Eight' trivia questions for NCAA Tourney's opening day
Welcome, welcome. Come on, sit down — you know you’re not leaving your couch for the next four days. The first game tips off in a few hours, which gives you some time to test your Men’s March Madness knowledge. Are you up for the task? We have assembled an “Elite” list of eight questions that you ma...

Which NCAA conference has cut down the most nets since '85 bracket expansion?
Brace yourselves. For once, Carolina and Duke can celebrate together, because the ACC has been the conference of champions since the tournament expanded in 1985. ...

Tanks a lot! Rockets going from 44-28 to 11-28 is putrid, but not most historic NBA drop-off ever
On Feb. 4, the Rockets went to Memphis and beat the Grizzlies by 12 points for their seventh win in eight games, moving to 11-10 for the season. Certainly, Houston was outperforming expectations after trading away James Harden, but nobody knew how bad things were about to get....

Flyers need to shake off epic Rangers beatdown in a hurry, and history’s on their side
The 9-0 beating that the Flyers took at Madison Square Garden on Wednesday night wasn’t a record breaker, but it was a rarity. It’s the first time Philadelphia has gotten shut out by that wide of a margin since 1969 against Chicago, only the 82nd game in NHL history that was 9-0 or worse, and the 17...

How Trevor Ariza & P.J. Tucker could shape the Eastern Conference Championship race
With the trade deadline now seven days away, there’s a whole lotta shit that still might happen. ...

Duke? UNC? UConn? Ranking the best NCAA national champs over the past 20 years
Selection Sunday will be the first time we’ve been able to fill out a bracket in two years. A lot has changed since then, especially in college basketball, as it’s been as upside down as the rest of the world is. Juniors and seniors are the biggest draws this season, as only a few freshmen like Okla...

The content you need: Jeff Van Gundy’s cat joins the ESPN broadcast booth
In this era of video conferencing, our personal lives can blend with our professions. You’ve been on Zoom calls where a child interrupts their parent. You’ve been on others where the dog won’t quit yapping, or a cat just… appears. Well, meet Neatsy (is that how you spell it, Jeff?), one of Jeff Van ...

Only people worse than Indianapolis Colts are sports writers who take part in sham press conference
Shame on the Indianapolis Colts. Shame on the NFL. And most of all, shame on the sports writers willing to go along with a bogus press conference....

Don't give DeShaun Watson the benefit of the doubt just because you want him to play QB for your team
At the time of writing, there are now three lawsuits against Deshaun Watson from women who say they were assaulted by the (currently) Houston quarterback. All of them have been met, mostly, with claims of tenuous connections between the lawyer representing the women, Tony Buzbee, and some billboards...

Top scorers in Tournament include all-time greats and one other guy ...
The list of all-time leading NCAA Tournament scorers is a who’s who of legends. Guys who threw teams on their backs and hacked a trail with a machete to a title. Glen Rice still tops the list with his transcendent performance in 1989, leading Michigan to an unlikely title over Seton Hall. His 184 po...

Racist Meyers Leonard traded to OKC, likely to be cut
Meyers Leonard behavior was so racist that a team in 74-percent white Oklahoma is cutting him...

Deadspin Presents: Our National Champ Bracket of the 32 most recent NCAA Tourney winners
We love a good bracket around here. And not just in March, but especially in March. So we’re paying tribute to the reason we’re doing brackets in the first place with a bracket based on 32 previous brackets....