The Blue Jays led by 15 at halftime and cruised in the second half.
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Michigan will face UC San Diego in the NCAA Tournament First Round — here's the scoop on how to watch tonight's game.
Louisville-Creighton game delayed after fan throws water on court after Pat Kelsey technical
Pat Kelsey got a technical foul during the Louisville-Creighton game, resulting in a delay after an angry fan through water onto the court.
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Iowa State won’t have second-leading scorer Keshon Gilbert for the NCAA Tournament, but the Cyclones may be getting another guard back. Tamin Lipsey expressed cautious optimism that he’d be available Friday when Iowa State, the No. 3 seed in the South Region, faces Lipscomb (25-9) in the first round. Lipsey had missed Iowa State’s Big 12 Tournament quarterfinal loss to BYU with a groin issue.
Baylor guard Jeremy Roach eyes potential Round 2 March Madness rematch with his former team Duke
Jeremy Roach couldn’t help but chuckle when the NCAA Tournament bracket was announced. Roach, who spent four seasons at Duke before transferring to Baylor last April, faces the prospect of an intriguing second-round matchup against his former team on Sunday. The ninth-seeded Bears face Mississippi State on Friday with the winner likely to take on No. 1 ranked Duke, providing the Blue Devils get past 16 seed Mount St. Mary’s.
Who Is New Celtics Owner William Chisholm?
William “Bill” Chisholm is set to become the next owner of the Boston Celtics in the largest sale for a North American sports franchise. Chisholm led a group that will buy the team in a $6.1 billion deal, Sportico reported.
“When we announced the sale of the team last July, we noted how important it was to us that the next owner of the Celtics fully appreciated what this team means to the city it represents and its fans far and wide,” current owners Irving and Wyc Grousbeck said in a letter to investors Thursday. “We know that Bill does (quiz him on Celtics trivia if you want to be sure).”
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Wyc Grousbeck will stay on as CEO and Governor, overseeing team operations through the 2027-2028 NBA season.
Here’s a quick rundown of what to know about Chisholm, the man set to become the new Celtics owner, pending league approval.
Who is Bill Chisholm?
Chisholm was born and raised in Georgetown, Mass., 30 miles north of Boston. He played soccer at Dartmouth from 1988 to 1991 and then studied at Penn’s Wharton School, joining Bain & Company in 1996.
As an investor, Chisholm is the hands-on manager of Menlo Park, Calif.-based Symphony Technology Group (STG), a private equity firm with roughly $10 billion in assets under management that focuses on developing software businesses. Prior to starting STG in 2002, he also co-founded The Valent Group. Chisholm owns about a quarter of STG with cofounder Romesh Wadhwani holding the rest, according to a 2024 regulatory filing.
The Chisholm family has primarily lived in the San Francisco Bay Area, and they have been active in supporting type 1 diabetes research through leadership positions on the local board of Breakthrough T1D, formerly called the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation (JDRF). Bill’s wife, Kimberly, is a published author who previously taught at Cal-Berkeley. She discusses literature on YouTube and in online classes.
They also have homes in the Northeast, with the intention of buying property in Boston, according to a report from The Boston Globe.
What is Symphony Technology Group?
According to a 2009 profile of STG by Forbes, the company is known for a traditional private equity approach of seeking to improve portfolio companies’ operations with its in-house know-how. As of 2016, the company boasted more than 15,000 employees. In past interviews, Chisholm has emphasized STG’s single-sector focus, staff of experienced operators and desire to grow or “transform” portfolio companies.
What is Bill Chisholm’s net worth?
Chisholm’s net worth has not been publicly reported. However, STG has continued to grow in recent years. The company debuted on Buyouts’ list of the top 100 PE firms in terms of fundraising, with STG placing 54th thanks to its nearly $10 billion haul across five years.
The STG VI fund, which closed on $2 billion in 2020, generated an IRR of 6.48% as of 2023, Buyouts reported based on public records.
Wadhwani, who stepped aside as STG CEO in 2017, has an estimated net worth of $5 billion.
Who else is buying the Boston Celtics?
Chisholm’s group includes current Celtics stakeholder Rob Hale and Related Companies president Bruce A. Beal Jr., as well as global investment firm Sixth Street. NBA teams are allowed to sell private equity groups up to 30% of each franchise, with no single fund able to own 20% of a club. Controlling owners are required to hold at least 15% of their team.
The bidders beat out three other contenders for the Celtics, topping the previous high paid for an NBA team—$4 billion for the Phoenix Suns in 2022—by 50%.
What are Bill Chisholm’s plans for the Celtics?
While Chisholm has yet to address the media, he emphasized the franchise’s role in the Boston community—and his desire to bring more titles to TD Garden—in a statement announcing the sale.
In a separate statement, Wyc Grousbeck said Chisholm “burns with a passion to win on the court.”
The Celtics have signed core players to top-of-the-market deals, with a potential luxury tax bill of $280 million coming due in 2025-26.
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NBA champions Boston Celtics in record $6.1bn sale
A group led by American businessman William Chisholm has agreed to buy iconic basketball team Boston Celtics for a record $6.1bn (£4.7bn).
The amount will represent the highest ever paid for a North American sports franchise, eclipsing the $6bn purchase of the NFL's Washington Commanders in 2023, which due to the exchange rate to sterling at the time equated to £4.8bn.
It also topped the $4bn (£3.3bn) sale of another NBA side, the Phoenix Suns, in 2022.
Last year, Forbes ranked the Celtics - who are owned by the Grousbeck family and partner Steve Pagliuca - as the fourth-most valuable NBA team at $6bn (£4.6bn), with the Golden State Warriors first at an estimated $8.8bn (£6.7bn).
Chisholm, the co-founder and managing partner of California-based private equity firm Symphony Technology Group, is from the Boston area and a lifelong fan of the Celtics, who won a record 18th NBA championship last year when beating the Dallas Mavericks.
"Growing up on the North Shore and attending college in New England, I have been a die-hard Celtics fan my entire life," he said.
"I understand how important the Celtics are to the city of Boston - the role the team plays in the community is different than any other city in the country.
"I also understand that there is a responsibility as a leader of the organisation to the people of Boston, and I am up for this challenge."
Wyc Grousbeck and the current ownership group purchased the Celtics for $360m (£277m) in 2002.
Grousbeck is set to remain in his role as chief executive and governor until the end of the 2027-28 season, before Chisholm takes control of team operations.
Wagner ready for redemption in NCAA Tournament
Things look a little different for D.J. Wagner than they did 365 days ago. The same coach, sure, but a new city, new uniform and a chance to redeem last year's painful loss to Oakland in the first round of the NCAA Tournament. Around this time last year, Wagner went scoreless in 17 minutes as Oakland rained three-pointer after three-pointer to knock Kentucky out of the Big Dance in the first round.
Bronny James: 'I see everything that people are saying… but I just take that and use it as fuel'
My impression of Bronny James is that he is very self-aware. From his press conferences to his demeanor on the court, he understands his situation and the opportunities he has gotten, and he is putting in the work to try and make the most of them.
That comes across in a must-read, lengthy interview with The Athletic’s Joe Varden, where Bronny talks about everything with his rookie season. That includes the face-to-face confrontation between his father, LeBron James, and ESPN's Stephen A. Smith after Smith said on air, "I am pleading with LeBron James as a father: Stop this." Bronny, taking a page from his father's book, is using this as fuel.
"My first thought about everything is I always try to just let it go through one ear and out the other, put my head down and come to work and be positive every day," Bronny said. "But sometimes it just, it fuels me a little bit. I see everything that people are saying, and people think, like, I'm a f—— robot, like I don't have any feelings or emotions.
"But I just take that and use it as fuel for me to go out, wake up every day and get to the gym early, get my extra work in, watch my extra film every day, get better every day," Bronny continued. "That's what Rob wants me to do as a young guy, coming in, playing in the G League and learning from far on the bench watching the Lakers play."
Nepotism may be frowned upon, but it is as American as apple pie and has long run through the highest levels of power and money in society. Bronny has in the past been open about the chance he was handed — being drafted No. 55 by the Lakers and then given a multi-year NBA contract — but has also said what matters is what he does with that opportunity.
This season, Bronny has gotten better. Lakers coach J.J. Redick discussed Bronny's improved playmaking, while GM Rob Pelinka praised his work ethic. Bronny's defense has always been his strength, it was at the other end of the court where his confidence and skills needed to grow.
"I definitely think I've improved, not only as a player, but just having a different mindset as a player to go out and play my game and play the game that I know how to play," Bronny said. "I feel really good about it — I see the progress."
There has been progress, but there is still a ways to go, especially with his shot, if Bronny is going to eventually crack the Lakers rotation (something that was never expected this season and likely not next season, he was always a project). That was evident recently when he played 16 minutes recently against Denver (in a game where LeBron and Luka Doncic were out). There were positives like a clutch 3-pointer plus a steal, and he got to the foul line at one point, but he also was 1-of-5 shooting on the night. With the South Bay Lakers of the G-League, Bronny is averaging 17.4 points a game, but is shooting just 31% on 3-pointers.
There is a segment of fans who want to pile on Bronny, and while those fans want to hold him up as an example of a larger societal issue, at the core he's just a kid trying to take advantage of his chance. This was never a bad bet by the Lakers, they took him with the No. 55 pick — a spot deep in the draft where actual NBA rotation players are rarely found — and they have him on a cheap contract. Every team has (or should have) multiple developmental projects going on, and Bronny is one of the Lakers' projects.
Whether it works out or not remains to be seen, but give Bronny credit, he is putting in the work.
Mark Pope follows through with promise to pay Kentucky fans’ gas money for Milwaukee
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Kyler Filewich free throw: Why Wofford C shoots free throws underhand in March Madness
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The Celtics Just Set a Record. NBA Expansion Is Up Next
NBA owners are likely rejoicing over Thursday’s news that the Boston Celtics are being sold for $6.1 billion, the highest price ever paid for a sports franchise. Not only does it help the valuations of their own teams, but it sets the stage for the league’s expected expansion.
Though nothing formal is underway, the NBA looks on course to add multiple teams at some point in the next few years. Commissioner Adam Silver said late last year that the process had “begun internally at the league office,” with the intention to widen it to owners and potential bidders in the future.
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Before that, however, certain goals had to be met. First, the league needed labor peace, which it achieved in 2023 with a new seven-year CBA. Then it turned to its media deals. The NBA signed $76 billion worth of deals last July. The Celtics sale could be viewed as a third hurdle, a new benchmark price from which to begin the conversations with potential groups looking to join the league.
The Celtics announced that a group led by William Chisholm has reached a deal to buy the team in multiple stages.
Expansion is essentially selling equity in the league. Expansion fees are shared directly among owners—to offset the dilution of NBA-wide revenue from things like sponsorships and media deals—and in this case could easily be a $150-plus million windfall for the 30 existing teams for each new franchise added.
Speaking at owners meetings in New York in September, Silver slow-played the expansion process.
“There was not a lot of discussion in this meeting about expansion,” he said. “It was something that we told our board we plan to address this season, and we’re not quite ready yet. But I think there’s certainly interest in the process, and I think that we’re not there yet in terms of having made any specific decisions about markets or even frankly to expand.”
It’s unclear if expansion will be a topic at owners meetings in New York later this month. That said, for many in the league it’s a matter of when, not if. And Silver has said that if it were to happen, he would expect it to be two cities.
Seattle and Las Vegas are by far the most discussed potential landing spots. Fenway Sports Group, owners of the Red Sox and Liverpool FC, are interested in Vegas as an NBA market. So too is Golden Knights owner Bill Foley. In Seattle, the $1.15 billion renovation of KeyArena, now Climate Pledge Arena, was viewed as a significant hurdle cleared.
The NBA last expanded in 2004, when the then-Charlotte Bobcats became the league’s 30th franchise. The fee at the time was $300 million. Previous reporting has speculated that the NBA’s next expansion fee might be in the $4 billion to $5 billion range, but that was back when the highest price ever paid for control of an NBA team was $4 billion.
The NHL has added two teams in the past decade—the Golden Knights ($500 million expansion) and the Seattle Kraken ($650 million). The latest expansion teams in MLS have been Charlotte FC ($325 million), St. Louis City SC ($200 million) and San Diego FC ($500 million).
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Campbell hires Florida assistant John Andrzejek as men’s basketball head coach
Florida assistant coach John Andrzejek is taking over as the head coach at Campbell. The school announced the hiring Thursday and will hold an introductory news conference for Andrzejek after the Gators complete their season.
What March Madness games are on today? Men’s college basketball tournament schedule for First Round and more
The madness is here in full force.