New York Knicks guard Jalen Brunson drives down court as Sacramento Kings guard Russell Westbrook gives chase. JASON SZENES/ NY POST
But when he hits free agency again — which he can if he doesn’t take his player option for 2028-29 — he will be eligible for a max contract of five years and projected to be worth a little over $417 million.
He hopes the Knicks play ball.
“If I’m thinking about playing well to make sure I get paid, that could mess with me,” Brunson told Vanity Fair. “I play best when I have a free mind, and that did that for me. A lot of people say I sacrificed for the team. One hundred percent I sacrificed for the team. But most importantly, I made sure my family and I are taken care of. … Obviously we’d love for them to do right by me. I think anyone would. I feel like I sacrificed.”
New York Knicks guard Jalen Brunson reacts after hitting a 3-point shot in the first half at Madison Square Garden in New York, New York, Tuesday, January 27, 2026. JASON SZENES/ NY POST
An All-Star in three straight seasons, Brunson, 29, has continued to play at a high level this year. He’s averaged 27 points (on 47 percent shooting) with 6.1 assists and 3.3 rebounds per contest. In what’s been a streaky, topsy-turvy year for the Knicks, they’re still firmly in the thick of the Eastern Conference race, sitting in third place with a 35-20 record, six games back of the Pistons for first.
The 29-year-old Brunson, however, said earlier in February that he isn’t concerned so much about regular-season results come the spring and summer months.
“I don’t look at regular-season games as a barometer because, come playoffs, it’s a different basketball game,” Brunson told reporters. “Especially when you talk about a seven-game series. I’ve been with different teams that went to the Finals or played deep in the playoffs that lost the season series to teams and still won in the playoffs.”
MANHATTAN, Kan. (AP) — P.J. Haggerty scored 34 points, Nate Johnson added a career-high 33, and Kansas State cruised past Baylor 90-74 on Tuesday night in the debut of Wildcats' interim head coach Matthew Driscoll.
K-State (11-15, 2-11 Big 12) never trailed and held a double-digit lead for most of the second half to end a six-game skid. Driscoll replaced previous head coach Jerome Tang, who was fired Sunday night after four season at the helm.
Johnson’s layup gave the Wildcats a 21-point lead with 10:39 remaining. He surpassed his previous career-best 31 points with a dunk with 1:37 remaining.
Haggerty shot 15 of 23 overall. Johnson was 11-of-16 shooting and made five of the Wildcats' eight 3-pointers. Johnson also had nine assists and matched a career-high with six steals.
Isaac Williams IV scored 16 points to lead Baylor (13-13, 3-10), which has lost four straight. Tounde Yessoufou added 14 point for the Bears. Cameron Carr chipped in with 12 points and Dan Skillings Jr. scored 11. The Bears made just three of their 24 3-point attempts.
Johnson made four 3s and scored 16 points, and Haggerty added 13 points to help K-State build a 41-34 halftime advantage. The Wildcats shot 5 of 11 from long range while Baylor missed 11 of 12 attempts from beyond the arc.
Williams' layup pulled the Bears to 66-57 with 8:20 left but they didn't get closer.
Up next
Baylor hosts Arizona State on Saturday.
K-State is on the road Saturday to face No. 13 Texas Tech.
AUSTIN, Texas (AP) — Dailyn Swain scored 21 points and grabbed 10 rebounds and Matas Vokietaitas recorded a double-double and Texas held off gutty LSU for an 88-85 win on Tuesday night.
Vokietaitas scored 17 points and grabbed 10 rebounds. Tramon Mark and Jordan Pope each scored 18 for a Texas squad which shot 56% (29 of 52). The Longhorns' 23-of-34 performance from the foul line helped keep the Tigers alive.
Pope, Swain and Mark were each in double figures with 11, 11 and 10 points respectively before halftime after which Texas appeared poised to runaway with it.
In his return from a knee injury, Max Mackinnon came off the bench to score 21 of his 29 points in the second half for LSU. Marquel Sutton scored 19 points, Mike Nwoko 15 and Jalen Reece 14 for LSU.
Pope's jumper with 32 seconds left made it 87-82 to help seal the win. The basket occurred after Nwoko missed a floater in the lane which would've reduced the Tigers' deficit to a point. Pope missed two foul shots with 1:16 left.
The Longhorns (17-9, 8-5 SEC) led 30-25 with 5:17 left before outscoring LSU 18-8 before halftime and led 48-33 at intermission.
LSU (14-12, 2-11) rallied, however, and managed to get within four points on two occasions at the midway point of the second half.
Texas has won five straight conference matchups for the first time since 2021.
Marred by injury all season, LSU has lost four straight and 11 of 13.
LEXINGTON, Ky. (AP) — Blue Cain scored 20 points, Jeremiah Wilkinson added 19 points off the bench and Georgia beat Kentucky 86-78 on Tuesday night for its first win at Rupp Arena since 2009.
Georgia (18-8, 6-7 SEC) had lost 12 straight at Kentucky since a 90-85 victory on March 4, 2009.
Cain made two free throws with 4:05 remaining for a 78-69 lead following a Flagrant 1 foul. But the Bulldogs turned it over on the ensuing inbounds play and Otega Oweh raced the other way for a fast-break dunk while being fouled. His free throw cut Kentucky’s deficit to six.
Marcus Millender answered with a long 3-pointer for Georgia to make it 81-72 with 3:33 remaining. The Bulldogs did not score again until Somtochukwu Cyril grabbed an offensive rebound and banked in a shot in the paint with 44.3 seconds left for an 83-78 lead.
Denzel Aberdeen made Kentucky’s last field goal of the game with 3:03 left before the Wildcats missed five straight.
Cyril and Millender each had 14 points for Georgia, which had lost five of its last six overall.
Oweh led Kentucky (17-9, 8-5) with 28 points. Collin Chandler added 18 points on a career-high six 3s and Aberdeen scored 14. The Wildcats entered allowing an average of 65 points per game.
Wilkinson made a 3-pointer with two seconds left in the first half to give Georgia a 39-34 lead at halftime. Cain and Cyril combined for 17 points on 6-of-8 shooting.
Up next
Georgia: Returns home to play Texas on Saturday.
Kentucky: Goes on the road to play Auburn on Saturday.
Sean Marks 10-year tenure as GM of the Brooklyn Nets may be most easily understood through a series of snippets from the NetsDaily archives:
June 30, 2019 … 5:13 p.m. ET … The Clean Sweep
In a coup with few historic precedents, the Brooklyn Nets will sign Kevin Durant, Kyrie Irving and DeAndre Jordan in the next few weeks becoming the big winners of free agency 2019…
Sources: Durant will sign a 4-year, $164M deal with the Nets; Irving will sign 4-years, $141M.
February 9, 2023, 1:34 a.m. ET … End of the Big Three….
The inability of the Nets to capitalize on their signings of KD and Kyrie — and the subsequent trade for James Harden — now becomes a managerial failure of the first order with first Harden, then Irving and finally Durant asking out.
“This is the greatest failure in NBA history,” said Zach Lowe on NBA Today without exaggeration. One league source told NetsDaily Wednesday that a housecleaning is likely to follow at HSS Training Center this off-season.
June 25, 2024, 10:46 p.m. ET … Rebuild!
NetsWorld turned upside down.
Mikal Bridges, the centerpiece of the Brooklyn Nets trade of Kevin Durant a year and a half ago, has been traded to the New York Knicks in one of two monster moves that has sent Brooklyn into a full rebuild. In the other, the Nets and the Houston Rockets executed a swap of picks that will bring two of the Nets trade assets from the James Harden trade back to Brooklyn. adding to the rebuild.
The trades are the latest in a series of moves that have taken the Nets from being the odds-on NBA championship favorite in 2021-22 to a team whose short-term future looks bleak.
Up, down, up again?
It’s tempting to recount a long list of successes and failures over the decade, but why? The Nets success, failure, even identity are tied to Sean Marks, his skills, his personality. He has been the Nets, for good or bad. That is undeniable after a decade in the job in the NBA … maybe in most jobs. He has gone from having been personally and emotionally thanked on the concourses of Barclays Center to having some of those same fans demand his firing on social media and having pundits literally laugh at his draft choices on national TV. At present, there is no indication — none— that his relationship with Joe Tsai, the principal owner, is anything but solid. His contract, whose terms have never been publicly discussed, appears to have one more season to run after this one. Think continuity, continuity, continuity. Joe Tsai does.
It’s also tempting to grade the tenure, or grade where the Nets stand currently, maybe even grade each transaction, then add it all up. Not much value there either. Everyone from fans to pundits knows what happened (see above) and their opinions aren’t going to change. It’s clickbait to be discussed and forgotten. Besides, there are plenty of pundits who have and continue to grade Marks.
Just this morning, Sam Quinn of CBS Sports did his semi-annual rankings of NBA front offices, apparently unaware of the anniversary. He ranked Marks and the Nets at No. 15. That put them just behind the Miami Heat (Pat Riley) and just ahead of the Detroit Pistons (Trajan Langdon, his former acolyte!) Like many who believe in Marks, both inside and outside the organization, Quinn’s analysis is somewhat defensive.
The Nets are the team I most consistently find myself defending in arguments about these rankings. A lot of the criticism Brooklyn’s front office gets is unfair. Sean Marks took over a team without control over its first-round picks, built it into a championship favorite, and then watched it fall apart because of a pandemic. I’m not punishing a general manager for COVID, and if I were to punish general managers over abrupt James Harden trade requests, we’d be dinging a huge chunk of this list. Besides, they’ve rebounded quite nicely.
And Rick Carlisle, as good a head coach as there is in the NBA right now, had kind words for the Nets future just last week.
“They do a great job of developing young players here. Jordi’s been really top of the heap with what they’ve done the last couple of years. [Nolan] Traore’s gonna keep getting better. [Egor] Dëmin’s getting better. Their young bigs have progressed a lot over the last couple of years. The future here is very bright.”
That’s better than any pundit’s take!
What it ALL means is that GMs, including Marks, are judged on one thing: “what have you done for me lately?” and “lately” in the context of multi-year rebuild is very very subjective. The Nets are tanking or “playing the probabilities” as some might say and it shows in the (losing) record. On the other hand, Marks & co. have followed the time-honored rebuilding path — acquire good young players and draft picks, optimize cap space and otherwise be patient just as he did in the first rebuild in hopes of getting back to the promised land. And never, ever, minimize luck, good or bad.
Brian Lewis recently interviewed Yankees’ GM Brian Cashman, one of Marks’ biggest supporters (and a GM with similar longevity and legions of fans who think he too has stayed too long.) He advised fans to think about what Marks has done once already, believing he can do it again.
“Process is something that is important, but doesn’t guarantee ultimate outcomes,” Cashman told The Post. “Sean has proven he can build a winner. He’s done that. Ultimately they didn’t get to the promised land with the championship, but he did everything lined up to put himself and put themselves in a position to do so. And I know he’s capable of doing that again.
“That’s what he’s going through right now in the fact that Joe Tsai — one of the brightest minds of our generation — sees the talent in Sean to stay invested in [him] to lead that operation. I think it’ll pay off for him in the end, and pay off for the Brooklyn Nets, because Sean is someone that you’d rather have on your team than put in the open market for somebody else to benefit from.”
In our own discussions, we heard that last line more than once from professionals much of what Lewis heard from Cashman and others. He’s very smart and has a record better than most when it’s all added up, but there are others who take more tempered approach. Smart yes but at the same time subject to big mistakes brought on by hubris is one criticism.
The Nets, said one, have had a general tendency to hang on to players too long, often have too high an asking price. Then, those players “fuck up the locker room” before being traded on the cheap or cut. That list is long, but can be repeated by any Nets fans who’s worn black-and-white and felt black-and-blue: Ben Simmons, Spencer Dinwiddie, James Harden, Cam Thomas and of course, Kyrie Irving. (No we are not re-litigating Kyrie’s exit.)
That he said has let to volatility and plain old-fashioned chaos, something players like to avoid.
On the other hand, said the same source, the Nets — Marks and Tsai — know what to do when the big decision arrives, arguing they can “kill” at the right moment, noting what they got for Kevin Durant and Mikal Bridges, trades that ultimately led to a haul of more than 10 draft picks and some ancillary assets.
It’s all part of the way Marks looks at things, say those who know him: don’t dwell on the failures or successes. Move on. He is not one to replay his failings over and over in his head. These are sunk costs. And he doesn’t care that someone, whether Brian Windhorst or Bill Simmons or Jake Fischer, doesn’t like what he did. He has a thick skin and an ability to shut out what he dismissively calls “noise.”
“One thing I really appreciate about him is he never looks back” Irina Pavlova, the Mikhail Prokhorov executive ran the Nets and led the search committee that recommended him, told Lewis. “Once something’s gone, ‘Boom. What’s next?’ He builds from there, which is great, especially for a team like the Nets where there’s something going wrong all the time.”
Indeed, Marks understands it is a business, something he learned as a player, toiling for seven NBA clubs and one in Poland. He in fact holds the NBA record for fewest minutes — less that 10 per game — in a career lasting 10 years or longer. He’s also worked with two of the most successful businessmen ever, ones who earned their fortunes in the cut-throat post-Communist Russia and still-Communist but wild west economically China. He’s not a babe in the woods.
He is charismatic, helped by that daunting 7-foot visage, but often hubris has taken over, say critics. He may not be a dictator but he knows what he wants is a common refrain … and a big part of that is loyalty.
Historically, his selection of head coaches, arguably the most impactful decision any GM ever makes, has been the weakest lines on his resume’. At this point, it seems like Marks has finally found his coach. It seems everyone from owner to fans to players to competitors believe that Jordi Fernandez is the real deal. Hiring him was another one of those “killer” moves the league source described. Multiple teams had interviewed Fernandez but decided for whatever reason, passed But before he hired Fernandez, Marks record was not so good, the thinnest entry on his resume’.
He chose a development expert in Kenny Atkinson, who did his primary job but then was dumped. The official press release back in 2020 said the departure was by mutual agreement but by the time Atkinson returned to the head coaching job in Cleveland last year he made it very clear that he was “fired” and that it still stung. He said he was told that he lost his job because didn’t match what the Nets wanted in the treatment of “superstars.” Steve Nash, who Marks had long wanted in some capacity before hiring him to replace Atkinson, was a valiant attempt to match a superstar coach with a superstar team, but one of those superstars let it be known he wanted Nash — and Marks — fired and the x’s and o’s? Well, that was an issue. Jacque Vaughn, on the other hand, is seen in less positive terms. Much less positive.
Indeed one big issue, intimately related to those coaching issues, was his and the organization’s willingness to do the bidding of those superstars. Kyrie didn’t think the team needed a coach. He or KD could do it, he said. KD wanted Ime Udoka even after he had been suspended by his previous employer for harassment. Durant also didn’t like a lot of the supporting roster, didn’t like how the roster was constructed. Harden remained out of shape virtually the entire time he was on the roster, his attention devoted more to strip clubs than weight rooms. Among each other, there always seemed an uneasy truce.
A lot of that has been seemingly been rectified in public actions. There’s plenty of evidence that they are going for the homegrown, high character player. It’s not just lip service. The historic five first rounders spoke to that, their youth, their character, their willingness to make things work. Marks & co. apparently learned their lesson. No need to call about Ja Morant! No more short term fixes. No more chances.
As B.J. Johnson, Marks No. 2 said in the SCOUT docu-series produced by the Nets internal media, “A lot of work went into what Brooklyn is going to be in the future. Regardless of who comes in here, we’re not going to change. They’ve got to adjust to us. Overall, that’s what it’s about here.”
More than a subtle admission that the previous plan — go for it all, spend wildly, throw together the best of the best and hope for a ring — wasn’t the right choice. They will have to find a superstar or superstars to bring them back into contention. Maybe it’s whoever they get lucky enough to get in the lottery come May 10. Maybe it’s someone who is attracted by the progress they see in the young kids and Jordi Fernandez and of course, there’s always the bright lights and big city of New York. If you can make it here … you know the rest.
Overall, the current report card is mixed, but generally positive as Carlisle alluded. Lessons get learned.
The development operation is seen as a solid, better than most. One league source discussing one of the Net recent pick-ups told ND that the player may not have shown much with his previous team “but he has a chance with Nets development staff.”
The performance team retains a very good reputation as well despite a lot of turnover, essentially four performance directors in four years and some recent drama. The medical team is staffed by the Hospital for Special Surgery. None better. The scouting staff is reportedly the largest in the NBA and Marks just recently added the Oklahoma City Thunder’s director of scouting. That can’t hurt. Its success of course will take some time to define.
The “soft science” part of the staff — analytics, capology, etc. — is also seen in a positive light, but again there’s been turnover. There are some rising stars like Kory Jones and Kyle Hines. Both are nominally assistant GMs for Long Island but play bigger roles than that, Jones in Brooklyn’s basketball operations, Hines in scouting and development. Makar Gevorkian is the capologist who’s helped Marks through some of the team’s bigger moves.
Now, the big challenge for the Nets GM: the next 10 years. Whether he’s around or not, his imprint is going to on this team, his team for a long time. Brooklyn is now younger after the deadline than they were before and they were the youngest in the league by a not insignificant margin. Their draft pick in June will also be a teenager. But for all the preparation, it’s time to execute. As one league source told NetsDaily, the right draft choice alone could mean the difference of years.
Every indication is that the rebuild portion of the team’s overall strategy is now nearing an end. Now, it’s build rather than rebuild. Expect aggressive moves across the board.
As we have repeated ad infinitum, they have every possible asset needed to be aggressive, the 33 draft picks (10 first rounders and 20 second rounders that can be traded whenever they want,) perhaps $50 million in cap space and as Sam Quinn noted, an owner willing to spend. It should be noted, as Bloomberg News did, that about half of Tsai’s net worth is now sports-related and the Brooklyn Nets are the centerpiece. He wants to win. He will accept no less.
Feb 1965; Unknown location, USA; FILE PHOTO; North Carolina guard Doug Moe (35) in action during the 1965 season. Mandatory Credit: Malcolm Emmons-USA TODAY Sports
Malcolm Emmons/Malcolm Emmons-USA TODAY Sports
DENVER — Doug Moe, an ABA original who gained fame over a rumpled, irreverent and sometimes R-rated decade as coach of the Denver Nuggets in the 1980s, died Tuesday. He was 87.
Moe’s son, David, notified several of the coach’s friends that his father had died after a long bout with cancer, Ron Zappolo, a longtime Denver TV personality and good friend of Moe’s, told The Associated Press.
The Nuggets, in a social media post, called Moe “a one-of-a-kind leader and person who spearheaded one of the most successful and exciting decades in Nuggets history.”
Moe went 628-529 over 15 seasons as a head coach, including stints with the San Antonio Spurs and Philadelphia 76ers. He never won a title — his most memorable run coming in 1985 when his best Denver team fell to the Los Angeles Lakers in the Western Conference finals. He was the NBA Coach of the Year in 1988.
More than for wins and losses, Moe will be remembered for his motion offense and for the equally entertaining shows he put on while prowling the bench during his coaching days.
His Denver teams led the league in scoring over five straight seasons in the early ‘80s, and he rarely ran a set play.
He called the people he liked the most “stiffs,” (or worse) and used more colorful language to drive points home to some of his favorite foils — Kiki VanDeWeghe, Danny Schayes and Bill Hanzlik stood out.
The coach stalked the sidelines in one of his well-worn sports coats, usually without a tie (he had a small stash of “emergency suits” in his closet for bigger events), his hair a mess and his overtaxed voice barely at a croak by the end of most games.
The Nuggets bench, along with the 10 rows behind it, was no place for children, but within hours, Moe would be at the bar or coffee shop hanging with many of those same players he’d excoriated, often himself wondering where that foul-mouthed man on the sideline had come from.
“Sometimes I think I have a Jekyll-and-Hyde personality. I clown around a lot before and after a game, but once a game starts, my emotions just take over,” Moe said in a 1983 interview with The New York Times.
Years before John Elway arrived, Moe was Denver’s biggest sports personality. Zappolo, the sportscaster, said there was a sweet teddy bear behind the game-day bluster.
“I don’t know if there’s ever been a more important sports figure in Denver, not only because of how successful he was, but how colorful he was and how kind he was,” Zappolo said. “There are a lot of people walking around today who feel like they were Doug’s best friend.”
A legend in Brooklyn and North Carolina before a pro career in the ABA
Douglas Edwin Moe was born Sept. 21, 1938, in Brooklyn, New York. As a teen he became well-known in New York basketball circles, where he would sometimes head to gyms using fake names to play on teams he wouldn’t otherwise be eligible for.
He paired with good friend Larry Brown at North Carolina, where as a 6-foot-5 small forward he twice earned All-America honors. But Moe’s college career was terminated early because of a point-shaving scandal for which he received $75 to fly to a meeting; he refused to throw games.
After a few years in Europe, Moe again became a package deal with Brown, as they winded their way through the new and fledgling ABA. Moe was a three-time All-Star over a five-year career that ended early because of his perpetually ailing knees.
His playing days done, he teamed again with Brown, working as his assistant with the Carolina Cougars, and then with the Nuggets toward the end of the franchise’s ABA days.
Moe insisted he never wanted a head coaching job — didn’t want to work that hard — but Brown coaxed him into taking a job in San Antonio. With the help of George Gervin, Moe won the division twice and made one conference final in four seasons with the Spurs.
Moe’s next stop was Denver, where he took over after another of his Carolina buddies, Donnie Walsh, got fired in 1980. The ensuing 10 seasons marked a golden era for the Nuggets, who played in rainbow uniforms and rewrote record books but never climbed out from the shadows of the Lakers and Celtics dynasties of the era.
Moe coached the top-scoring duo in NBA history and in its highest-scoring game
Alex English and VanDeWeghe finished 1-2 in scoring in the 1982-83 season, a feat no teammates have accomplished since. The Nuggets lost a 186-184 game to the Pistons in 1983 that remains the highest-scoring game in NBA history. Moe won 432 games with the Nuggets, and the franchise retired that number, with Moe’s name attached.
It took more than 30 years after Moe retired and moved back to San Antonio for the Nuggets to break through and become NBA champions.
Oddly enough, one of Moe’s most colorful coaching coups came at the expense of the Nuggets on the last day of the 1977-78 season when he was with the Spurs. In an early game, Denver, coached by Brown at the time, fed David Thompson on the way to a 73-point outburst against Detroit that briefly put him ahead of Gervin in a neck-and-neck battle for the scoring title.
So, that night, Moe told the Spurs to get out of “Ice’s” way. Gervin scored 63 against the Jazz to win the title by .07.
Moe’s coaching peak, however, came with the Nuggets, where his teams got considerably better when Fat Lever and Calvin Natt came via a trade in 1984. But both were injured during that 1985 conference final against the Lakers. The Nuggets dropped the last three games in a 4-1 series loss, and Moe never got closer.
Though the focus of the Nuggets was offense, Moe spent ample time preaching defense — insisting it, not the team’s scoring ability, would make the difference between winning and losing.
Once, incensed at the lack of effort during a blowout loss at Portland, he commanded his team to stop trying on defense and to let the Blazers make layups at will over the final minutes to set the franchise scoring record for a single game. That earned him a fine and suspension, only weeks after he was fined for throwing water on an official.
For the most part, though, Moe made a career out of not taking himself too seriously — a wryly wrinkled counterbalance to the slicked-down Pat Riley and the Laker Showtime teams that dominated the NBA’s Western Conference over the decade.
Moe even punctuated one of his lowest moments — his firing by the Nuggets in 1990 — by wearing a Hawaiian shirt and popping open champagne at the news conference while his wife, whom he called “Big Jane,” looked on. A day to celebrate, he insisted, because he would now be getting paid to do nothing.
Moe finished his head coaching career with an unsuccessful stint in Philadelphia that lasted less than a season before returning to Denver in supporting roles, including a return to the bench as George Karl’s assistant.
“Because I’m stupid, or something like that,” Moe said when asked to explain why he was coaching again.
Far from it.
And despite his insistence that he did little more than throw a ball out there, there was a well-honed, much-practiced method behind what looked like the madness of his always-in-overdrive passing game.
“There will never be another sports figure like Doug Moe,” Zappolo said. “He really was one of a kind.”
CORAL GABLES, Fla. (AP) — Tre Donaldson scored Miami's last 15 points and finished with 32 to lead the Hurricanes to a 67-66 victory over Virginia Tech on Tuesday night.
Donaldson made a pair of free throws to pull Miami within 57-54 with 7:36 remaining, and his 3-pointer with 6:50 left sparked a 7-0 personal surge to give the Hurricanes a 61-59 lead with 4:40 left. The Hokies scored six straight points capped by Tobi Lawal’s dunk for a 65-61 advantage.
Donaldson hit a jumper and tied it 66-all with a 3-pointer with 1:18 left. He then made the first of two free-throw attempts with 12 seconds to go before Ben Hammond missed a jumper at the buzzer.
Donaldson shot 13 of 24 and made three of the Hurricanes' four 3s. Dante Allen scored 10 points for Miami (21-5, 10-3 Atlantic Coast Conference), which has won four straight and six of its last seven games.
Amani Hansberry scored 16 to lead Virginia Tech (17-10, 6-8). Jailen Bedford scored 12 points and Hammond 10. The Hokies have lost four of their last five games.
Virginia Tech shot 50% in each half and were 8 of 20 (40%) from long range but just 2 of 3 from the line. Miami was 9-of-13 shooting from the line.
Virginia Tech made 5 of 11 from 3 for a 34-31 halftime lead.
Indiana Fever star Caitlin Clark is just getting started in her professional basketball career, but if there's one thing that might make her consider giving it all up is saying no baked goods.
Los Angeles Lakers star LeBron James revealed during an episode on his podcast, "Mind the Game," that he gave up eating chocolate chip cookies and drinking wine in the first two months of the season as he returned from a sciatic nerve injury.
This is not Ben Middlebrooks | Icon Sportswire via Getty Images
Game Summary:
Having witnessed the Carolina magic too many times, when Tre Holloman sprained his ankle in the first minute, and then Darrion Williams left blood on the floor – I was beginning to expect the worst.
But I kept feeling better every time the Heels missed one of their 28 MISSED 3PT shots.
Quadir Copeland decided this was his game, and played what has to be one of the best games of his career with 20 points, 6 rebounds, 7 assists, 4 steals and NO TURNOVERS. He’s going to make some NBA team very happy.
TWO GAME LOSING STREAK ENDED
TWO GAME LOSING STREAK TO UNC ENDED
24 points – UNC’S LARGEST DEFICIT OF THE SEASON
LARGEST MARGIN OF VICTORY SINCE 1962– Everett Case over Dean Smith
Teams
eFG%
TO%
OR%
FTR
Wolfpack
55.5%
6.4%
34.3%
25.0%
UNC
35.8%
18.9%
39.5%
35.0%
Overall Takeaways:
The Pack held UNC to 15% from 3PT
Excepting Jordan Snell’s 2 late 3PT misses, the Wolfpack was 9-18 (50%) from 3PT
Only 4 turnovers
Only lost rebounding total by 2, won defensive rebounds 26-23
NC State had 7 steals, UNC had none
Coach Wade Post Game Comments
Individual Highlights
Darrion Williams came back and gave the Pack 13 / 1 / 1 after taking a bad fall and getting stitched up
Jordan Snell picked up what has to be his only technical foul ever – career high
Quadir Copeland led scoring with 20, assists with 7, steals with 4
WASHINGTON, DC – JANUARY 30: Deandre Ayton #5 of the Los Angeles Lakers celebrates after scoring against the Washington Wizards during the second half at Capital One Arena on January...
It appears Deandre Ayton ran into trouble on his way back to Los Angeles.
According to a report by TMZ, the Lakers big man was temporarily detained at the Lyden Pindling International Airport as authorities searched his bag for marijuana.
Deandre Ayton shoots a free throw during the game against the Oklahoma City Thunder. NBAE via Getty Images
The Central Division of the Royal Bahamas Police Force said Ayton was allegedly spotted smoking weed on the premises, giving authorities the right to search his bag.
In a stunning twist, the search came up empty and Ayton was released.
However, Ayton’s attorney, Devard Francis, has a different account of what went down.
He told TMZ that his client, Ayton, was briefly help by authorities as they searched his bag for weed. When nothing was found, Ayton was released and no chargers were filed.
Ayton is currently on his way back to Los Angeles as the Lakers will begin practicing this week before returning to action Friday night against the Clippers.
Ayton, a native of the Bahamas, suited up for the Bahamian National team during Olympic qualifying in 2024. He averaged a double-double of 19.5 points and 11.8 rebounds, teaming up with current NBA players Buddy Hield, VJ Edgecombe Jr. and former NBA player Eric Gordon.
A former No. 1 pick, Ayton has been up-and-down for the Lakers this season by averaging 13.2 points and 8.5 rebounds in 28.2 minutes per game.
The Knicks have an immediate chance coming out of the All-Star break to set a strong tone for the second half of their season — in either direction.
They’ve already been punked by the Pistons, who are six games above them in first place in the Eastern Conference, this season.
The point differentials of 31 and 38 represent the two largest losses for the Knicks this season.
Their scoring totals in those games — 90 and 80 points — are their lowest of the season.
But both those games were in Detroit.
On Thursday, the Knicks finally get to host the Pistons at Madison Square Garden, in what will be the last regular-season matchup between the two teams this year.
It wasn’t just that the Knicks were blown out previously, it was the manner in which it happened.
They were bullied physically, with the Pistons’ aggressive defense throwing them entirely out of rhythm.
Ausar Thompson, who largely guarded Jalen Brunson during their first-round matchup last postseason, has emerged as one of the few defenders who has bothered Brunson, particularly in that second matchup.
“It’s pretty simple. They just physically kicked our ass,” coach Mike Brown said after the first matchup. “There’s no ifs, ands or buts about it.”
That was thematic, and did not change at all in the second meeting. In fact, it worsened.
Pistons Ausur Thompson (right) has been a tough defender for Jalen Brunson this season. Rick Osentoski-Imagn Images
“They kicked our behind, starting with me,” Brown said after the second matchup.
Over the first half of the season, the Pistons established themselves as a runaway leader atop the East.
That role was supposed to be there for the Knicks’ taking entering the season, with the Celtics and Pacers weakened without Jayson Tatum and Tyrese Haliburton, respectively, due to torn Achilles tendons.
Instead, a roller-coaster first half of the season has the Knicks coming out of the break in third, behind the Pistons and Celtics.
Last year proved that regular-season outcomes don’t always predict playoff results, though.
Jalen Brunson and the Knicks will be seeking their first win of the season over the Pistons on Thursday night. Bill Streicher-Imagn Images
The Knicks went 1-3 against the Pistons and 0-4 against the Celtics in the regular season last year, then eliminated them in the first and second rounds, respectively.
“I don’t look at regular-season games as a barometer because, come playoffs, it’s a different basketball game,” Brunson said previously. “Especially when you talk about a seven-game series. I’ve been with different teams that went to the Finals or played deep in the playoffs that lost the season series to teams and still won in the playoffs.”
Other than the Pistons, there are reasons to believe the Celtics — sitting a half-game above the Knicks — and the Cavaliers — one game below — can make a jump and rise to another level in the second half of the season.
The Celtics could be getting Tatum back for the playoffs.
He recently began some on-court work and did not rule out a return this year.
And the Cavaliers acquired James Harden from the Clippers just ahead of the deadline, providing Donovan Mitchell with the best co-star he’s had.
“He’s a very dangerous player in our league,” Brunson said of Tatum. “Seeing him go down last year, it sucks to see. You never want to see that from anyone in any sport. The fact that he’s worked so hard to get to where he is and preparing to come back is a testament to who he is. Basketball fans around the world definitely are excited to see his comeback.”
The power dynamic in the East is a bit different than the Knicks likely expected entering the season.
Coming out of the break, though, they have an immediate chance to send a message.
The Rams handed No. 19 Saint Louis its first Atlantic 10 Conference loss of the season with an 81-76 win at Thomas M. Ryan Center in Kingston, Rhode Island, on Tuesday, Feb. 17. As the clock hit double zeros, fans rushed the court to celebrate the upset victory.
The loss dropped Saint Louis to 24-2 on the season and 12-1 in Atlantic 10 play, while Rhode Island improved to 15-11 (6-7). While the loss likely will not be enough to keep the Billikens out of the NCAA Tournament, it is a tough loss to take.
Saint Louis had won 18 straight games since a 78-77 loss to Stanford on Nov. 28. Robbie Avila led the Billikens with 21 points, five rebounds, two assists and two steals in the loss.
Jonah Hinton hit nine 3-pointers en route to a 29-point performance on 10-of-17 shooting from the field in the win for the Rams. Myles Corey added 15 points and five rebounds, while Tyler Cochran added 11 points for Rhode Island.
Tanking, in a nutshell, is strategically and effectively losing games through playing or not playing players that can help win. In the long run, the hope is to position oneself in the draft and in free agency to improve the team long term.
One of the latest sports figures to partake in the conversation was Dallas Mavericks minority owner and basketball advisor Mark Cuban, who took to social media to express his take.
Cuban posted on X, formerly Twitter, saying that "tanking isn't the issue" and went on to explain "why the NBA should embrace tanking," even providing his own experience as a previous majority owner of the Mavericks for more than two decades.
"The NBA has [quite] been misguided thinking that fans want to see their teams compete every night with a chance to win. It’s never been that way that way," Cuban wrote. "When I got into the NBA, they thought they were in the basketball business. They aren’t."
"They are in the business of creating experiences for fans. Few can remember the score from the last game they saw or went to. They can’t remember the dunks or shots. What they remember is who they were with. Their family, friends, a date. That’s what makes the experience special."
Cuban, the Mavericks' majority owner for 23 years and now minority owner, said that fans understand when their team isn't good. What fans prioritize more is hope, he implied.
"Fans know their team can’t win every game. They know only one team can win a ring. What fan that care about their team’s record want is hope. Hope they will get better and have a chance to compete for the playoffs and then maybe a ring," Cuban wrote. "The one way to get closer to that is via the draft. And trades. And cap room. You have a better chance of improving via all 3, when you tank."
Tanking happens often in the NBA and it has for a better part of the last two decades. At least Cuban said so on X.
He also added that fans "appreciated it" whenever they would willfully lose games.
"We didn’t tank often. Only a few times over 23 years, but when we did, our fans appreciated it. And it got us to where we could improve, trade up to get Luka [Doncic] and improve our team," Cuban wrote on X.
Cuban and the Mavericks acquired Doncic via a trade with the Atlanta Hawks, who selected Doncic with the third overall pick in the 2018 NBA Draft, for Trae Young, who Dallas chose at the fifth pick, and a protected future first-round pick.
Positioning themselves for that pick, they finished the previous season with a 24–58 record, which included a 3-15 start through their first 18 games, and finished the season winning just two of 14 games.
During the 2024-25 season, the Mavericks sent Doncic, along with Maxi Kleber and Markieff Morris, to the Los Angeles Lakers in a controversial blockbuster trade in return for Anthony Davis, Max Christie and a first-round pick.
Dallas finished the 2024-25 season with a 39-43 record, losing in a postseason play-in qualification game to the Memphis Grizzlies.
The Mavericks became the second straight team, after the Hawks, to qualify for postseason play and to receive the first overall pick despite only having a 1.8% chance to win the NBA draft lottery.
The bottom NBA standings in the 2025-26 season
The Sacramento Kings have the worst record in the league at 12-44, just above them are the Washington Wizards at 14-39. Here are the bottom ten teams in the NBA standings through the All-Star break in the 2025-26 season.
Tank-a-thon predicts 2026 NBA Draft through All-Star break
The following order in the 2026 NBA Draft, according to Tankathon.com, predicts the Kings with the No. 1 pick and the Wizards at No. 2.
The Pelicans would have the No. 3 pick but it goes to the Hawks after a they acquired an unprotected 2026 first-round pick from New Orleans during the 2025 NBA Draft as part of a deal for the 13th pick, which was Derik Queen. The Hawks secured the right to the most favorable 2026 first-round pick between the Pelicans and the Bucks.
Here's the hypothetical order of the 2026 NBA Draft as of Feb. 17, according to Tankathon.com:
No. 1: Sacramento Kings
No. 2: Washington Wizards
No. 3: New Orleans Pelicans (traded to Hawks)
No. 4: Indiana Pacers
No. 5: Brooklyn Nets
No. 6: Utah Jazz
No. 7: Dallas Mavericks
No. 8: Memphis Grizzlies
No. 9: Milwaukee Bucks
No. 10: Chicago Bulls
Cuban: Bigger issue in NBA than tanking
Cuban stands by that tanking is one of least of the NBA's concerns, or should be. Rather he insisted that the NBA should focus on game attendance.
"The NBA should worry more about fan experience than tanking," Cuban wrote on X. "It should worry more about pricing fans out of games than tanking. You know who cares the least about tanking , a parent who cant afford to bring their three kids to a game and buy their kids a jersey of their [favorite] player. Tanking isn’t the issue. Affordability and quality of game presentation are."
The average cost for a family of four to attend an NBA game during the 2025-26 season is $277.65 for the cheapest available tickets, a parking spot, two beers, two sodas and four hot dogs, according to Bookies.com.
ORLANDO, Fla. (AP) — Jordan Burks scored 16 of his 23 points before halftime and Themus Fulks scored 14 points and UCF ended a pair of streaks on Tuesday night by beating TCU 82-71.
UCF (18-7, 7-6 Big 12) stopped its three-game losing streak while ending TCU's (16-10, 6-7) three-game winning streak.
Reserve George Beale Jr. added 11 points for UCF.
The Knights built a 9-2 lead and never trailed en route to a 58%-shooting effort (15 of 26) before the break. UCF shot 49% (28 of 57) overall.
Micah Robinson scored 20 points, David Punch 14, Xavier Edmonds 12 and Jayden Pierre and reserve Tanner Toolson 10 each for the Horned Frogs.
Toolson's 3-pointer with 14:37 left before halftime brought TCU within 11-10. Burks countered with his own 3 and Punch followed with a shot in the lane and TCU would never get closer.
UCF went on a 10-2 run to extend the lead to 24-14 with 10:27 before halftime and stayed ahead by double digits with the exception of two seconds late in the second half.
TCU went on a 9-0 run cutting the Knights' 19-point lead to 10, but a Fulks floater pushed the lead to 67-55 with 6:04 left. TCU used a 14-3 run to draw within 78-69 with 59 seconds left before Fulks made two free throws with 57 seconds to go.
OXFORD, Miss. (AP) — Cotie McMahon scored a career-high 39 points to surpass 2,000 for her career and No. 17 Mississippi beat No. 21 Tennessee 94-81 on Tuesday night.
Ole Miss (21-6, 8-4 Southeastern Conference) never trailed and held a double-digit lead for the entire second half. McMahon's jumper gave the Rebels a 25-point lead with 1:51 left in the third quarter.
McMahon has 2,038 career points, is the fourth player in program history to surpass 2,000 and the first since Angel Baker (2022-23).
Latasha Lattimore recorded her fourth consecutive double-double and sixth this season, finishing with 14 points and 12 rebounds for the Rebels. Christeen Iwuala chipped in with 16 points and Tianna Thompson scored 12.
Talaysia Cooper scored a season-best 30 points on 12-of-26 shooting to lead Tennessee (16-8, 8-4). Lauren Hurst added 16 points off the bench.
McMahon had 16 points, seven rebounds and four assists in the first half to help Ole Miss build a 44-33 halftime advantage. Iwuala scored 12 first-half points for the Rebels. Cooper scored nine points to pace the Lady Vols.
The matchup was rescheduled from Jan. 26 due to winter weather. The Lady Vols entered having won nine of the last 10 games in the series.
