will Page 49 - Sports News, Headlines & Highlights
Fictional Hooper Bracket: Rucker Region
This region is a little more unconventional than the Venice Courts. There are old favorites like Tommy Sheppard, but also characters from anime, commercials, and a Ray Allen appearance that you might have forgotten about from the early 2000s....
The Golden Knights are running out of racetrack
Normally, a team five seasons out from its creation fighting for a playoff spot would be a mark of success. They’ve built and grown over four years, taken their lumps, accrued draft picks and developed their own, and were starting to see the first signs of something real. But nothing is normal about...
The Fictional Hooper Bracket: Venice Beach Region
It’s basketball time folks. Ignore Tom Brady trying to own the spotlight on Selection Sunday and decipher Progressive Insurance sales representative Baker Mayfield’s social media post later, and give the hardwood the attention it deserves. It’s almost spring, hit the CBS music, pull Ernie, Kenny, an...
The Cinderellas most likely to have a ball in March
The introduction of the modern seeding system to the NCAA Tournament in 1979 gave way to the age of upsets. Before long, the Cinderella moniker was attached to dozens of teams that played well beyond expectations. The immortal words of John Wooden, architect of college basketball’s transcendent dyna...
That was some fiendish Atlético Madrid treachery
You’re not supposed to miss a blister. You’re not supposed to get nostalgic about a paper cut on that webby part between your thumb and forefinger. You shouldn’t smile at stubbing your toe against the bed or couch that causes you to limp for an hour....
Will Wade has been fired — free Christian Dawkins
Christian Dawkins is in federal prison. Will Wade is at home. This is a story about sports, money, college basketball, a corrupt justice system, and racism. It’s an American saga. ...
The best to not do it
Over the years, we’ve seen some great runs during March Madness and some highly talented teams. But the most talented teams don’t always take it all the way to a national championship. Many have fallen short, and some didn’t even make it to the Final Four. Here we rank some of the best teams in NCAA...
Chris Finch is the NBA’s Coach of the Year
The Minnesota Timberwolves’ surge up the NBA standings has been a warm fire during another frigid winter. For the past decade, this has been an utterly moribund franchise. The time was nearing for Karl-Anthony Towns to begin asking for an escape hatch as his super-max contract approached its expirat...
Tennis doesn’t want Naomi Osaka around
Naomi Osaka loves tennis, but tennis doesn’t seem to love her back. ...
Texas A&M got jobbed
Did the NCAA Tournament selection committee watch the SEC Tournament? There’s no way it paid proper attention. Otherwise, its messaging to Texas A&M — as well as ACC Tournament Champion Virginia Tech, should the Hokies have not upset No. 2 Tournament seed Duke on Saturday night — is their resumes we...
Record-breaking NIL contract will have the NCAA pocket-watching again
The NIL landscape has opened up a world of big and small endorsement opportunities that have no tangible connections to college campuses. This deal, the largest NIL one ever signed by a non-professional athlete, has placed a spotlight on the hinterland of the NIL landscape....
Goodbye and good riddance to Will Wade
It took way too long to oust Will Wade from his place atop LSU men’s basketball, but the deserved guillotine finally made its swift chop on Saturday afternoon, a major moment in the 4-year-plus NCAA investigation into wrongdoing surrounding his time in Baton Rouge. Wade was fired with cause, meaning...
If OBJ didn’t work out in Cleveland, don’t expect Amari Cooper to either
Amari Cooper is a good receiver. He’s not as good as Odell Beckham Jr. was when he left New York for Cleveland though. Sure, there are some arguments you could make against the latter statement. For example, perhaps Cooper hasn’t been a true No. 1 in Dallas since CeeDee Lamb got there. Doubtful, but...
Auburn getting upset in the SEC tourney could be a bad omen
Auburn men’s basketball has the odds-on favorite to go No. 1 overall in the NBA Draft on its roster. It has two possible lottery picks in its front court. All it had to do was win a couple games in the conference tournament, and its No. 4 AP Poll ranking most likely would’ve translated into one of t...
Jerry Jones making a run at NFL’s Most Despicable Owner
Jerry Jones has had a sordid history as an NFL magnate. But as he’s embarked on his twilight years, Jones has saved his worst for last....
NFT hacks Jeff Passan at height of lockout negotiations, completely whiffs opportunity
You know, back in the day, when things made sense and air was fresh and all french fries were crispy, when you hacked someone’s Twitter or Facebook or email, you did it for entertaining reasons. Remember the days of “Wetbutt” breaking Cubs trades (“Days Of Wetbutt” was an underrated Cinderella album...
Will Wade’s LSU benefit scandal resurfaces in NIL era
For 50 years, NCAA Narcs were the equivalent of law enforcement locking up upstanding citizens for possession. Rather than actively fighting for the rights that they were forced to finally accept last year, their Infractions Committee doggedly pursued victimless crimes like Rick Majeris paying for p...
Students brawl in final minutes of Wagner-Bryant blowout
On Tuesday night, Bryant men’s basketball team dismantled Wagner in the championship game of the Northeast Conference Tournament, sending the Bulldogs to their first NCAA Tournament in school history....
Joel Embiid is deserving of the MVP, but the award should go to Nikola Jokić
Nikola Jokić and Joel Embiid showed on Monday night why they are the two front runners for MVP in the NBA. Embiid scored 43 points and tallied 14 rebounds and three blocks while leading the Philadelphia 76ers to an important 121-106 victory over the Chicago Bulls that vaulted them past the Milwaukee...
The fastest NFL Combine ever created a new class of sonic boom or bust prospects
The NFL’s Underwear Olympics has always had a tangential connection to actual football. Bench press reps are the equivalent of Strong Man competitions, but until linemen are pulling trucks, they don’t move the needle. Besides, the best combine bench press numbers typically are posted by the lineman ...