Category: Basketball

With a 109-99 victory over the spiraling Milwaukee Bucks, the Washington Wizards have their third two-game winning streak of the season.

This one was an offensive struggle. Not in the sense that either team played well on offense — more like what the bricklaying did to my basketball sensibilities. The teams combined to miss 55 three-point shots, shooting a combined 18-73 — “good” for 24.7%. Bilal Coulibaly missed one so badly, I rewinded several times convinced it had to have been blocked or tipped. If it was, I couldn’t find the evidence.

With their all-world star Giannis Antetokounmpo sidelined with a calf injury, the Bucks continued their drop in the standings. Giannis trade rumors are the number one topic around the NBA — so ubiquitous that the guys on Thinking Basketball briefly touched on it.

Just before tipoff, I had a classic, “There’s your problem!” moment when I realized the Bucks were starting three former Wizards — Ryan Rollins (who’s playing well this season), Bobby Portis (who’s been okay), and Kyle Kuzma (who’s been not much good).

The Wizards won with an atrocious 43.8% effective field goal percentage because they dominated rebounding battle (61-43 overall; 18-7 on the offensive glass) and got to the free throw line. The Wizards owned the boards despite playing a smaller lineup most of the night. In the 16 minutes Alex Sarr (17 rebounds; 7 offensive) rested, head coach Brian Keefe used a center-less lineup.

Give some credit to the opponent — Doc Rivers teams eschew pursuit of offensive rebounds in favor of getting back on defense. This approach may have had more merit in the past. Nowadays, teams In recent years, coaches (led by former Knicks coach Tom Thibodeau) have figured out a way “tag up” to pursue offensive boards without getting killed by fast breaks. Rivers has stuck to what worked for him in the past.

“Tagging up” is a system whereby offensive players immediately make physical contact with a defensive player as soon as a shot goes up. The strategy — developed by Aaron Fearnes in the Australian National Basketball League (he’s currently coaching the NCAA Charlotte 49ers) — increases the offense’s chance of getting the rebound while simultaneously matching up and creating pressure points to stymie transition opportunities. The concept has entered the NBA in recent years with the influx of international assistant (and head) coaches.

There was a lot to like from the Wizards in this one. Even accounting for a talent-deficient Bucks roster, the Wizards made life difficult for Milwaukee on the offensive end. On many possessions, the Bucks had to run multiple actions to get a shot. At times, you could see Milwaukee players rush a meh look early in the shot clock because they had a sliver of an opening.

One of the cool things in this one was that it was the youngsters making plays late to secure the win.

Thoughts & Observations

• One of my favorite defensive plays came in the second half. Coulibaly was pressuring Rollins full court and got called for a foul. Before the inbounds, Coulibaly and Rollins had some friendly-looking former teammate kind of interaction. Then when the play started, Coulibaly stepped around and in front of him and top locked — denying Rollins the ball and wrecking Milwaukee’s play and then the possession. It was excellent defense made more impressive by how casual it looked.
• A game after struggling against the massive Donovan Clingan, Sarr bounced back to control the action inside against Myles Turner and Portis. Sarr finished with career highs in offensive rebounds (7) and total rebounds (17). His previous high was 15, which he did twice — both this season.
• Kyshawn George shot poorly but played a strong overall game — 5 rebounds, 5 assists, 2 steals, a block, and just 1 turnover and 1 foul. George improving his decision-making is one of the big X factors for the team’s future.
• Jamir Watkins has a very long ways to go on the offensive end (he shot 1-7 last night), but he’s already a plus defender. He had another open court strip when pressuring the ball at midcourt.
• In the not good news category: Tre Johnson rolled his ankle when Rollins did a Bruce Bowen closeout. No word yet on how much time Johnson will miss. On the “quick return” side: he’s 19-years-old, which should dramatically accelerate his healing time. On the “it might take a while” side: the team is happy to lose games and has given guys plenty of time to recover from injuries so far. My guess is he’ll miss at least a game or two.

Four Factors

Below are the four factors that decide wins and losses in basketball — shooting (efg), rebounding (offensive rebounds), ball handling (turnovers), fouling (free throws made).

The four factors are measured by:

• eFG% (effective field goal percentage, which accounts for the three-point shot)
• OREB% (offensive rebound percentage)
• TOV% (turnover percentage — turnovers divided by possessions)
• FTM/FGA (free throws made divided by field goal attempts)

FOUR FACTORS	BUCKS	WIZARDS	LGAVG
eFG%	46.9%	43.8%	54.3%
OREB%	14.0%	33.3%	26.1%
TOV%	8.8%	12.7%	12.8%
FTM/FGA	0.071	0.260	0.209
PACE	102		99.5
ORTG	97	107	115.5

Stats & Metrics

PPA is my overall production metric, which credits players for things they do that help a team win (scoring, rebounding, playmaking, defending) and dings them for things that hurt (missed shots, turnovers, bad defense, fouls).

PPA is a per possession metric designed for larger data sets. In small sample sizes, the numbers can get weird. In PPA, 100 is average, higher is better and replacement level is 45. For a single game, replacement level isn’t much use, and I reiterate the caution about small samples sometimes producing weird results.

POSS is the number of possessions each player was on the floor in this game.

ORTG = offensive rating, which is points produced per individual possessions x 100. League average so far this season is 115.5. Points produced is not the same as points scored. It includes the value of assists and offensive rebounds, as well as sharing credit when receiving an assist.

USG = offensive usage rate. Average is 20%.

ORTG and USG are versions of stats created by former Wizards assistant coach Dean Oliver and modified by me. ORTG is an efficiency measure that accounts for the value of shooting, offensive rebounds, assists and turnovers. USG includes shooting from the floor and free throw line, offensive rebounds, assists and turnovers.

+PTS = “Plus Points” is a measure of the points gained or lost by each player based on their efficiency in this game compared to league average efficiency on the same number of possessions. A player with an offensive rating (points produced per possession x 100) of 100 who uses 20 possessions would produce 20 points. If the league average efficiency is 114, the league — on average — would produced 22.8 points in the same 20 possessions. So, the player in this hypothetical would have a +PTS score of -2.8.

Players are sorted by total production in the game.

WIZARDS	MIN	POSS	ORTG	USG	+PTS	PPA	+/-
Alex Sarr	32	67	118	22.4%	0.4	196	3
Kyshawn George	36	76	105	26.7%	-2.2	151	2
Bilal Coulibaly	28	59	124	11.9%	0.6	166	14
Bub Carrington	29	61	118	20.2%	0.3	156	-2
Justin Champagnie	26	55	120	15.3%	0.4	125	9
Khris Middleton	26	55	93	25.1%	-3.1	49	6
Tre Johnson	11	24	113	29.4%	-0.2	80	10
Malaki Branham	14	30	109	18.7%	-0.4	64	-2
Will Riley	18	39	105	14.0%	-0.6	29	3
Jamir Watkins	21	44	57	16.0%	-4.1	-4	7

BUCKS	MIN	POSS	ORTG	USG	+PTS	PPA	+/-
Ryan Rollins	26	56	133	24.5%	2.4	285	-3
Myles Turner	39	84	112	21.0%	-0.7	137	2
Bobby Portis	36	77	111	20.4%	-0.7	108	-21
Pete Nance	20	43	134	20.8%	1.7	192	-1
Kyle Kuzma	35	74	94	28.7%	-4.5	54	-8
Gary Trent Jr.	25	53	56	12.3%	-3.9	-5	-1
Andre Jackson Jr.	3	7	0	11.0%	-0.9	-228	1
AJ Green	37	79	48	9.2%	-4.9	-53	-10
Cole Anthony	18	37	44	27.4%	-7.3	-149	-9

Only eight NBA rookies have ever scored more points in a game than Cooper Flagg did in the Dallas Mavericks’ (19-29) heartbreaking 123-121 loss to the Charlotte Hornets at American Airlines Center on Thursday.

Wilt Chamberlain scored 52 or more points five times in his rookie season of 1959-60 and owns the single-game rookie scoring record of 58 points, which came against the New York Knicks on Feb. 21, 1960. Five years later, Rick Barry scored 57 points as a rookie, also against the Knicks. Earl “The Pearl” Monroe scored 56 as a rookie in 1968 against the Los Angeles Lakers, and Milwaukee Bucks’ rookie Brandon Jennings went out of his mind for 55 against the Golden State Warriors in 2009. Jennings matched Elgin Baylor’s high-scoring game as a rookie 50 years after Baylor scored 55 for the Minneapolis Lakers against the Cincinnati Royals. Elvin Hayes scored 54 against the Detroit Pistons in 1968, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar scored 51 against the Seattle Supersonics in 1970 and Allen Iverson scored 50 against the Cleveland Cavaliers in 1997.

That is the rarified air that Flagg entered on Thursday with his 49 points on 20-of-29 shooting, to go along with 10 rebounds against his former Duke roommate Kon Knueppel and the Hornets. Flagg’s 49 points also matched the rookie-season-high scoring mark of some guy named Michael Jordan. His Airness poured in 49 in a 136-129 win over the Detroit Pistons on Feb. 12, 1985 in the most prolific scoring outburst of Jordan’s rookie campaign.

Rookies just don’t do the things that Flagg does — and that’s before you take into account the fact that Flagg started doing these things as an 18-year-old. Scoring 49 points in an NBA game at Age 19 is unheard of. Chamberlain was 23 years old when he rewrote the NBA record books as a rookie in 1959-60. Barry was 21 and nine months when he scored 57 points in a game during his rookie season. Jennings was a full year and change older than Flagg when he scored 55 points as a rookie for the Bucks. Iverson was two months shy of 22 when he scored 50 as a rook. Flagg became, with Thursday’s performance, the youngest player in NBA history (19 years, 35 days) to record a 45-point game.

Mavericks fans have seen some things, man. The 2011 NBA championship was a basketball fairy tale written by a team that zigged when the entire league was mid-zag, with the unlikeliest of protagonists at center stage. The rise of basketball savant Luka Dončić in our own backyard was the stuff of legend, made all the more quizzical by his untimely ouster. When it’s all said and done, though, the Legend of Flagg has the potential to move all that to one side if his career continues on the trajectory his rookie season has taken off on.

COOPER up to 44pts! New career high and new Mavs rookie all time scoring high! pic.twitter.com/ByEV3e8JOp

— MavsHighlights (@MavsHighlights) January 30, 2026

When people tell you who they are, it’s wise to believe them. When people show you who they are and what they’re about, you’re left with no choice in the matter. Flagg’s ability to take over a game is no mere flash in the pan. He shows us the fundamentals that gird his game-changing, high-flying explosiveness on a night-in, night-out basis. His game isn’t perfect, but he’s already shown a unique aptitude for learning on the fly and improving the weak spots in his game on the job as the youngest player in the league. Just wait until he’s had a full NBA offseason or two under his belt.

This kid is already a certified monster. He’s an omega-level mutant in a world of superheroes — there appears to be no upper limit to the development of the powers he possesses. Flagg defends better than any rookie we’ve seen take a swim through Dallas, both in passing lanes and on the ball. He can get to the rim against basically anyone. His mid-range game could fool a casual fan into believing they’re watching the savviest vet in the game. If Flagg ever becomes a true 3-point shooter and if he can cut his turnovers by a third, he’s going to be the best player in the NBA one day.

All that is to say nothing of Flagg’s most impressive skill — the ability to elevate his game in the final five minutes of a close game. He’s a killer. His game-tying 3-pointer on Thursday over the outstretched arm of 6’10” forward Moussa Diabate with 33 seconds showing on the clock is just the latest evidence of Flagg’s latent greatness, magnified when the lights are at their brightest.

The lumps he’s taking with a ragged roster around him in his rookie season will serve Flagg well, as long as the Mavericks’ front office can get its shit together behind whoever is inserted into the captain’s chair as the team’s next general manager. As exciting as Flagg’s rapid on-the-job development has been to watch in his rookie season, his demeanor is the glue that will eventually hold a winning team together.

“It’s tough,” Flagg said in his postgame press conference on Thursday. “We fight the whole game, play really heard, stick together, give ourselves a chance to win. It’s tough, but there [are] a lot of positives we can take from this. … With the turnover, I’ve just got to be better. I haven’t seen a ton of double-teams closing out games, so I just have to be a lot better.”

This is not a young man getting in over his skis or drunk on his own power. This is a kid who knows only winning and has a thirst to get back to his regularly scheduled dominance as soon as the roster around him allows for it.

“Ten-plus years down the road, we’ll both be looking back on this as a pretty special thing,” Flagg said on Thursday. He was referring specifically to his in-game battle with his friend Knueppel, who piled up 34 points on eight made 3-pointers for the Hornets in the win, but Mavs fans are no doubt envisioning another “pretty special thing” when they peer 10 years into Flagg’s potential career arc.

It’s hard not to, even as we recover from a deep burn less than a year old, because we’re bearing witness to things already in Flagg’s rookie season that few fans are lucky enough to catch a glimpse of. Let’s not take this for granted. The history books suggest not to.

Welcome to Inside the Suns, your weekly deep down analysis of the current Phoenix Suns team. Each week the Fantable — a round table of Bright Siders — give their takes on the Suns’ latest issues and news.

Fantable Questions of the Week

Q1: The Suns were slowly but steadily rising in the standings before Booker and Green went down with injuries, but have stumbled since then. Do you believe that the Suns currently have enough talent on their roster to successfully adapt to playing without them?

GuarGuar: I don’t think we have enough talent to beat good-to-great teams as long as Book and Jalen are out. Our offense just becomes way too bad, and we are unable to consistently generate good looks at all. Their gravity means so much to what we do, especially Book.

Ashton: I do not.

Look, I am getting sick of “re-evaluation” timelines that literally mean nothing. It means both players need recovery. Yes, this is probably a rant, but what the hell is going on with communication between the medical staff and trainers to the coach and the front office?

Trainer: Player X had reflexes when hit with a medical hammer in his right knee. He is good to go.

Front Office: Okay.

Fire those guys! No commercials saying that you are proud Suns supporters from the medical community unless you can properly diagnose that they need to rest. I want a true medical opinion from someone who is not a Suns fan.

Look, I love this win streak as much as the board does, but enough is enough. If it costs some wins, then it is what it is. But let’s really get to the heart of the matter. It is NBA scheduling to squeeze as much blood out of a turnip with the B2B’s and cross-country road games. It is basically killing the livelihood of the game and the established players who play it.

This may be the future of the NBA? Because the injury endemic is not just contained to the Suns, it is across the entire league.

Oh yeah, the question. I love the younger legs that are playing on the roster, but in the end, I expect the Suns to lose a couple.

OldAz: It depends on if they are playing at home or not. On the road, they are only competing with bottom dwellers without Book and Green. At home, however, it is a completely different story. The reason? Dillon Brooks. Most role players play better at home. The crowd, familiar surroundings, pregame rituals all contribute. But without Green and Booker, Brooks is their leader and best player. At home he averages 24.2 on 50/40/89 splits which is significantly better than his road averages of 17.9 on 39/34/84. Those splits are way too pedestrian from your best player when you competing on the road. Additionally, no one able to penetrate into the lane minimizes the impact Gillespie and the 3 point shooters can have.

Rod: This made me think of a time long ago when a friend and I went motocross racing, and he broke his bike’s chain during practice. All we needed to fix it was a new master link, but we didn’t have one. We tried several oddball fixes, but none worked, and he couldn’t race that day.

With Book and Green out, the Suns are kind of like that chain. All the remaining links are fine, but without that master link to tie them together, it will not be able to function. With the Suns, I don’t think talent is so much the issue as the right type of talent to make the rest of the team function well together.

Book and Green are the team’s two master links and, much like my friend and I at the races, they don’t have another master link in their toolbox to replace either of them with. Whatever the Suns can Rube Goldberg together while they’re out might work for a short time but I don’t believe we can hope for more than the Suns treading water in the standings and playing .500 ball until at least one of them returns…and even that may just be wishful thinking.

Q2: What adjustments do you think Jordan Ott should make to attempt to get the most out of the team while Book and Green are sidelined?

GuarGuar: The only other player who can generate offense and create opportunities for others is Gillespie. Our offense needs to run through him the most with Book and Jalen out. Brooks is a ball stopper, and we cannot be running the majority of our offense through him; we won’t get anywhere. Grayson is a great guard at attacking close outs and playing in space…not creating his own shot. I’d try to feature Mark post-ups a little bit more, but overall, if we are gonna win with this current group, it’s going to be because of defense.

Ashton: None. There are still plenty of guards to fill the role, even with Goodie in a face mask and CG out with a hand sprain.

If there was one adjustment I would make, it would probably be to put Brooks in a “Jason Vorhees” hockey mask with some type of AI-driven voice moderation. Maybe then the refs will not notice him because the Suns will be without his services for a game or three.

OldAz: I would do 2 things. First, focus on defense. The players that remain are mostly tenacious defenders (and O’Neale tries really hard). Like in the first half against the Pistons, their defense can carry them to compete against a lot of teams in the league when their top scoring option (or 2) is on the shelf.

Second, the have to develop more 2 man actions. Williams, Oso, Dunn can all be good screen partners allowing Gillespie, Allen or Bouyea to get into the lane. This has the added benefit of potentially getting the other 3 on the floor for some of those catch and shoot 3 opportunities that have dried up since Book’s exit.

Rod: I think the Suns need to simplify their offense and concentrate more on getting more points inside the paint instead of continuing to fire away from three. They especially need to get Williams more touches and tell Oso to drive to the basket more when he’s switched onto a smaller player. They just don’t work hard enough to get the ball into Williams’ hands, and Oso isn’t usually very aggressive on offense, preferring to pass rather than attempt to score on most nights. We saw a lot of that (minus the Oso being more aggressive) against Brooklyn…and it worked!

Once they get teams worried about them getting into the paint, they should begin seeing more open shots available from outside. But even when fully/mostly healthy again, going back to an offense that heavily relies upon three-point shots shouldn’t be the goal. They say that variety is the spice of life but I think that variety is also the key to a successful offense in the NBA.

Q3:Suns two-way contract players Jamaree Bouyea and Isaiah Livers are both running low on game eligibility. The Suns currently have one open roster spot, which they could use to convert one of their contracts to a standard NBA deal, which would make that player eligible to play in all of the team’s remaining games (including the playoffs).

Which of them do you currently believe is the better choice to convert?

GuarGuar: This is a really tough question because both have played really well when given minutes, and I’d want both on our roster going forward. That being said, assuming Jalen is gonna be ok health-wise, it makes more sense to sign Livers because we lack players at his position. We don’t have a ton of wings, and while Livers isn’t very big, he’s able to slide into some of those forward spots and be effective. I love what Bouyea has brought this year, though I wish we could sign both.

Ashton: The better question is why not convert two roster spots for both? Waive Nick Richards. I might take some flak for that statement but, bam, under the luxury tax and two roster spots open that keeps the Suns under the tax line. It is tax season after all. Major edit here, Rod basically told me that even waiving Richards and keeping both of the young talented players actually increases the tax penalty. Oh man, I knew I was going to get slapped upside the head on this question.

Still, I think the conversation needs to be about opening roster spots. And I want them both. If you can make it work, please comment in the section below.

I think both Bouyea and Livers (common all, these rank among some of the best last names in NBA history) just need some future development, and that is what has gotten the Suns this far. Yes, Livers has an injury issue, but I am all in on youth development at this point.

However, if I had to pick just one, it would be Jamaree with the most potential. Tough call.

OldAz: You just had to time this question for right after their really good showing against the Pistons (admittedly, I am writing this at halftime, so hopefully neither one poops the bed in the 2nd half). If this team is fully healthy, Livers fills a role which is a greater need. In reality, they have yet to be healthy so having an extra player who can shoot and handle the ball is very valuable.

Both really do deserve a full contract. In reality both have far more value than Nigel-Hayes Davis and even Nick Richards. Ideally, if they can Move Richards and it does not bring back a PF that earns minutes then hopefully the deadline deal both frees up another roster spot AND saves them enough money that converting both of them does not put them back over the tax level. That’s a lot to hope for, so I will just answer the question and say Livers. When Book and Green return, there really won’t be many minutes for Bouyea and Book and Green don’t do the things Livers can do.

Rod: Hopefully they’ll be able to convert both of them before the end of the season but, assuming that both Book and Green return soon (and can stay healthy), I’d pick Livers. He gets my vote because he fits the need for more big bodies up front (yeah, he’s only 6’6″ but he’s also 232 lbs of muscle) and he’s proven productive on the court.

At this point in time, we have no idea what might happen at the trade deadline which could change everything. We might have space to convert both of them or some sort of deal might come flying in from out of left field that leaves the Suns without a roster spot to convert either one…or a need to do so.

As always, many thanks to our Fantable members for all their extra effort this week!

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Quotes of the Week

“We have to do more, keep him (Mark Williams) going.” – Jordan Ott

“I just want to continue to be out there, doing whatever I can in my power to be the best version of myself and try to get some wins.” – Mark Williams

“I feel good any game that we go into with our defenders. We love taking the challenge, make things tough for the opponent. That’s what we’re going to do, create havoc.” – Royce O’Neale

“We’re not backing down from that (physicality). That’s not the message that JO (Jordan Ott) has had to us this whole year. That’s not the message that BG (GM Brian Gregory) has had. That’s not the message (team owner) Mat Ishbia has had for this team. We’re not going to back down from physicality. Wherever that line is, we’re OK with it.” – Grayson Allen

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Suns Trivia/History

Mark Williams’ 27 points (13-of-15 FG) vs Brooklyn was his most in a Suns uniform and is tied for the third best in his career. His career high is 38 points with the Hornets during a game vs the Grizzlies back on Jan. 22, 2025.

Mark Williams now has 90 dunks in only 42 games this season. He’s 6th in the NBA in dunks despite missing five games.

He’s on pace to finish with 150+ dunks if he plays at least 70 games. The last Suns player to reach that mark was Amar’e Stoudemire … 16 years ago

— Shane Young (@YoungNBA) January 28, 2026

On February 1, 2016, after getting off to a 14-35 start, the Suns fired head coach Jeff Hornacek and appointed Earl Watson as interim head coach. The Suns would continue to struggle throughout the rest of the season to finish with a 23-59 record.

On February 4, 1969, the expansion Suns defeated the Philadelphia 76ers 125-116 to post their 13th win of the season. It was the third win in their first-ever 3-game win streak, and the last time they would have successive wins that season.

On February 6, 2008, the 34-14 Suns traded Marcus Banks and four-time All-Star Shawn Marion to the Miami Heat for Shaquille O’Neal. O’Neal, who had been sidelined with a hip injury before the trade, was inactive for his first 5 games as a Sun but would start for the Suns, averaging 12.9 points and 10.6 rebounds, in 28 of their final 29 games of the season, in which they were 17-11. The Suns would finish the season as the 6th seed in the West with a 55-27 record and bow out of the playoffs quickly, losing their 1st round series with the San Antonio Spurs 4-1.

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This Week’s Game Schedule

Friday, Jan 30 – Suns @ Cleveland Cavaliers (7:00 pm)
Sunday, Feb 1 – Suns vs LA Clippers (6:00 pm)
Tuesday, Feb 3 – Suns @ Portland Trail Blazers (9:00 pm) NBC/Peacock
Thursday, Feb 5 – Suns vs Golden State Warriors (8:00 pm) Prime Video

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This Week’s Valley Suns Game Schedule

Friday, Jan 30 – Valley Suns vs Delaware Blue Coats (7:00 pm)
Sunday, Feb 1 – Valley Suns vs Delaware Blue Coats (2:00 pm)
Wednesday, Feb 4 – Valley Suns @ Rio Grande Valley Vipers (10:00 am)

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Important Future Dates

Feb. 5 – Trade deadline (3:00 pm ET)
Feb. 13-15 – 2026 NBA All-Star weekend in Los Angeles, CA
March 1 – Playoff eligibility waiver deadline
March 28 – NBA G League Regular Season ends
March 31 – 2026 NBA G League Playoffs begin
April 12 – Regular season ends (All 30 teams play)
April 13 – Rosters set for NBA Playoffs 2026 (3 p.m. ET)
April 14-17 – SoFi NBA Play-In Tournament
April 18 – NBA Playoffs begin

First Victor Wembanyama is named the to the NBA All-Star starting five, the first French player in history to garner the honors.

Then the three young guards — Stephon Castle, Dylan Harper, and David Jones Garcia — were named to the NBA Rising Star competition.

And now Spurs rookie Carter Bryant has signed on to the Slam Dunk Contest.

BREAKING: Jaxson Hayes & Carter Bryant have accepted invitations to the NBA Dunk Contest, per @ShamsCharania. pic.twitter.com/JttW56oeHg

— Hoop Central (@TheHoopCentral) January 29, 2026

Yes, that Carter Bryant. The same one who was relentlessly teased for botching a couple of dunks.

Recently, when Victor Wembanyama and Keldon Johnson shaved their heads, Bryant was offered $20,000 to join in. When he refused, De’Aaron Fox decided he’d get a haircut if he blew three more dunks.

All kidding aside, Bryant has hops and has gotten notice by someone associated with the Slam Dunk Contest.

Don’t sleep on Carter Bryant in the NBA Dunk Contest. pic.twitter.com/SBwdGW2w1x

— Kevin Thomas (@KevoPosts) January 29, 2026

So far only Bryant and Jaxson Hayes are the only players invited. Three-time winner and reigning Slam Dunk Champ Mac McClurg will not participate in next month’s event after he was waived by the Indiana Pacers last November.

And a Carter Bryant warmup dunk for the sickos out there! pic.twitter.com/ekOxPDkOOL

— Silver & Black Coffee Hour (@SlvrBlkCoffeeHr) January 19, 2026

Check back for updates as contestants are confirmed.

The Slam Dunk Contest takes place on Valentine’s Day as part of All-Star Weekend.

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Our community guidelines apply which should remind everyone to be cool, avoid personal attacks, not to troll and to watch the language.

With four teams on the top three lines, the Big Ten continues to show out in USA TODAY Sports’ latest installment of bracketology.

But one Big Ten heavyweight, Purdue, drops to a No. 4 seed after falling 72-67 to Indiana on Tuesday night for its third loss in a row. The Boilermakers are now 7-3 in conference play, two games behind co-leaders Michigan, Illinois Nebraska and Michigan State.

The updated bracket finds s place for the Hoosiers, who have rebounded from a four-game slide with two wins in a row to climb to 14-7 overall and 5-5 in league play.

The Wolverines remain on the No. 1 line, joined by Arizona, Duke and Connecticut. Nebraska is a No. 2, along with Illinois, while Michigan State is a No. 3.

Purdue is replaced on the No. 3 line by Texas Tech, which moved to 16-4 on the heels of a five-game winning streak that included marquee victories against Brigham Young and Houston.

There was one slight change in the SEC. Auburn and Kentucky swapped spots, with the Tigers moving up to a No. 7 after winning four in a row and the always confounding Wildcats down to a No. 8 after getting losing by 25 points to Vanderbilt on Tuesday night.

March Madness Last four in

UCLA, New Mexico, Miami (Fla.), Indiana.

March Madness First four out

TCU, Virginia Tech, Seton Hall, Missouri.

NCAA tournament bids conference breakdown

Multi-bid leagues: Big Ten (11), SEC (10), ACC (8) Big 12 (7), Big East (3), Mountain West (3), West Coast (2).

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: March Madness Bracketology: Big Ten leads NCAA Tournament projection

Above Travis Steele’s desk in his office on the Miami University campus in Oxford, Ohio is a three-by-five index card tacked to the wall, right above a picture of his five-year-old whoodle Ryder.

On it is a message written in red ink:

Be obsessed with your trajectory, not your current results.

Mid-major power rankings: Keep eye on these college basketball teams in March

Bracketology: Big Ten dominates March Madness projection as Purdue slides

It’s a mantra Steele is trying to embody in the middle of his fourth season as the RedHawks’ men’s basketball coach. Wins and losses matter, of course, but success is ultimately judged by whether his players and program are getting better on a given day.

This season, though, the results have been too good to overlook — and the rest of the country’s starting to take notice.

As February approaches and the start of the NCAA tournament inches that much closer, there are two remaining undefeated teams in men’s college basketball. There’s No. 1 Arizona, a squad led by a pair of five-star freshmen who are representing one of the most decorated programs in the sport over the past 40 years. The other? Steele’s Miami team, which is 21-0, off to the best start in the history of the Mid-American Conference and ranked in the top 25 for the first time in 27 years.

Along the way, the RedHawks have become one of the biggest stories in the sport, with a long-stagnant program enjoying the kind of attention and acclaim it hasn’t received since a Wally Szczerbiak-led run to the Sweet 16 in 1999.

“It’s really flipped,” Steele said to USA TODAY Sports. “It just shows that anything can be done anywhere in the country. It just takes a lot of people pulling in the same direction and it takes a vision. If you have all the alignment right, man, anything can happen.”

The run hasn’t exactly come from out of nowhere — Miami won a program-record 25 games last season, after all — but it has thrust Steele, his players and the school into a position few could have realistically envisioned even three months ago.

“It’s exciting for me to be doing what I’ve been doing with CBS since 2010 and now have my alma mater so relevant in the national landscape of college basketball,” Szczerbiak said to USA TODAY Sports. “It’s awesome. It’s a dream for me.”

REQUIRED READING: Race for No. 1 seeds in March Madness: Who is in the hunt?

Miami Ohio basketball's long road back to relevance

Miami’s path to perfection has been hard-earned.

For decades, it was one of the more successful mid-major programs in the sport, crashing the regional semifinals of the NCAA Tournament four times from 1958-99 and serving as a launching pad for future NBA standouts like Szczerbiak and Ron Harper.

Since the turn of the century, though, the RedHawks’ fortunes waned. They’ve made the NCAA Tournament just once since their Sweet 16 appearance in 1999. In many of those years, they haven’t gotten particularly close, either. Over a 15-year stretch, from 2009-24, they finished with a winning record just once — and that was a 12-11 mark during the COVID-19-affected 2020-21 season.

When the university hired Steele after the 2022 season, it was in search of a long-awaited jolt.

“They wanted it, but the fan attendance wasn’t there, the support wasn’t there,” Steele said. “I knew it was going to be a rebuild in a lot of ways when I took it over. I knew we’d have to get more talent and get the culture right. But I probably didn’t realize quite how much the rebuild was going to be because of the disconnect with former players and the current program and the community and the current program. It just wasn’t there.”

At the time, Miami’s new coach was in search of a restart just as much as the program he was inheriting.

In 2018, at 36 years old, Steele was named the head coach at Xavier, where he’d helped lead the Musketeers to a Big East championship and a No. 1 seed in the NCAA Tournament as their top assistant the previous season. His teams never bottomed out, but they had a clearly defined ceiling, never winning more than 19 games and missing out on the NCAA Tournament four years in a row at a program that had made it to March Madness in 26 of 33 seasons before he took over. After going 19-13 in his fourth season at the school with a team that missed the tournament despite a 16-5 start, Steele was fired.

In the days that followed, he mulled his future. He wasn’t burnt out and didn’t feel the need to step away from coaching. While he felt like he didn’t have a purpose being away from a team and a locker room, he also didn’t want to rush back to the sideline for the sake of it. The fit had to be right.

In Miami, he found just that — a school with a strong academic reputation and an idyllic campus that allowed him to stay in southwest Ohio, where his wife, Amanda, was from and where he had lived since 2008. Just 15 days after he was let go at Xavier, he’d accepted a new challenge.

“You live and you learn, right?” Steele said. “I made a lot of mistakes at Xavier. I made some mistakes and you don’t want to make those again. You figure out fit is everything. What are your non-negotiables?”

Miami Ohio's basketball renaissance

In his early discussions with Miami athletic director David Sayler, Steele warned that his approach may take some time to materialize.

He wasn’t wrong. The RedHawks struggled in their first two seasons under their new coach, going 12-20 in the 2022-23 season and before a modest improvement to 15-17 in 2023-24. 

By Steele’s third season, and with players he brought aboard earlier in his tenure stepping into larger roles, Miami got a long-awaited breakthrough. It went 25-9, its first 20-win season since the 1999 Sweet 16 team, and fell one game short of the NCAA Tournament, losing to Akron 76-74 in the MAC championship game on a layup with two seconds remaining.

Now, a team picked to finish second in the MAC has shattered even the more optimistic expectations that greeted it entering the season. While it’s not rare for a power-conference program to flirt with an undefeated season heading into February, Miami’s only the seventh non-Gonzaga team from a mid-major league to start a season 20-0 since 1990.

“You really just enjoy the moment when you have it because you may never have this again,” freshman guard Justin Kirby said to USA TODAY Sports.

The RedHawks haven’t just gotten to 21-0, but they’ve done so with an unmistakable flair. 

Steele overhauled his style after arriving at Miami, leaving behind his more plodding approach at Xavier for an offense that’s now 46th of 365 Division I teams in tempo, according to KenPom. They’re not just fast, but efficient, ranking fourth nationally in 2-point percentage, 18th in 3-point percentage and 23rd in free-throw percentage while rarely turning the ball over. Six players are averaging at least 10 points per game and six of the team’s top eight scorers are shooting at least 40% from 3 — and the two who aren’t are both at 39.4%. They’ve managed to do that despite playing about half the season without starting point guard and team captain Evan Ipsaro, who tore his ACL in a Dec. 20 win against Ball State.

It’s a free-flowing style, another contrast from Steele’s Xavier tenure. He said he sometimes calls as few as five set plays over the course of a game, preferring for his veteran roster to play in the flow of a contest with the concepts he has taught them.

The 21-0 mark hasn’t come without some fits of anxiety. Miami’s past three wins have come by a combined 11 points, with two of those victories — against Buffalo and at Kent State — coming in overtime. In the Buffalo game, Eian Elmer hit a buzzer-beating 3 to send the game to overtime before Peter Suder broke a tie with a 3 of his own with one second remaining in the extra period. On Tuesday, the RedHawks overcame a 10-point first-half deficit to knock off UMass.

Miami (OH) hit TWO BUZZER-BEATERS vs Buffalo to remain undefeated at 19-0 🚨

First one was to get to overtime, then another to win the game 🤯

RedHawks simply REFUSED to take their first loss 🔥 pic.twitter.com/om1R84cRlt

— The College Sports Company (@CollegeSportsCo) January 17, 2026

Miami’s unblemished start has been made possible, in part, by a soft non-conference schedule that KenPom ranks as the fourth-easiest in the country. Three of its wins came against non-Division I teams and of the nine Division I squads they faced in non-conference play, only one (Wright State) currently has a winning record.

The RedHawks’ success isn’t a mirage, though. Their strength of record is 20th among all Division I teams, putting them above the likes of No. 18 North Carolina, No. 19 Clemson, No. 20 Louisville, No. 23 St. John’s and No. 25 Iowa.

As their wins mount, interest in the program has, too, with a fan base hungry for national relevance embracing the team that has given it to them. After averaging 2,656 fans per game last season, Miami moved to 8-0 in a Dec. 6 win against Maine in front of a home crowd of 1,349 on hand for the final home contest before the fall semester ended. With students back on campus, Tuesday’s 86-84 victory against UMass attracted 9,223 fans. It was the 10th-largest crowd in the history of 57-year-old Millett Hall, the RedHawks’ home arena, and the largest since 1996.

“The program has just totally taken off,” Szczerbiak said. “Ticket sales are through the roof. The excitement is there. It’s exactly what the program deserves and needs.”

Beyond attendance figures, the storybook start has reconnected generations of Miami fans to the program.

A quarter-century since he last suited up for the RedHawks, Szczerbiak has a daughter who’s a sophomore at Miami who attends all the games. Sophomore guard Luke Skaljac, who stepped in for Ipsaro after his injury, is the son of two Miami graduates and grew up in suburban Cleveland hearing stories from his father about Harper and Szczerbiak’s heroics.

Now, those halcyon days are back.

“It’s definitely surreal for him,” Skaljac said to USA TODAY Sports. “He’s kind of amazed this is happening right now and that I’m a part of it.”

luke skaljac overtime; miami ohio vs kent state pic.twitter.com/sA8Bgvq6Mn

— ◇ (@F0RGIAT0) January 21, 2026

How Miami Ohio built a winning roster — and kept it together

The RedHawks have been an unlikely success story, not only because of their record, but the way they’ve reached it.

During an age when immediate eligibility for transfers can radically reshape rosters at a given school annually, Miami has been a model of continuity. Twelve of the 15 players who have logged at least one minute this season for the RedHawks began their college careers at the school. 

Like virtually anyone else in the sport, Steele has used the transfer portal. Three of Miami’s top six scorers this season — Suder (from Bellarmine), Almar Atlason (Bradley) and Antwone Woolfolk (Rutgers) — transferred in from other Division I programs. It’s been more of a complementary tool, one used to fill in holes rather than build an entire team. For Steele, retention is his No. 1 priority.

At a mid-major like Miami, that’s far easier said than done. Every spring, eager power-conference programs pluck the top scorers and best players of teams from smaller leagues with shallower pockets.

For the most part, the RedHawks have managed to avoid that fate in a sport increasingly designed to make stories like theirs impossible. Though they lost players to Kentucky and Georgia Tech over the offseason, they brought back five of their top six scorers from last season’s 25-win squad, all of whom had remaining eligibility. It’s not just players, either. Four of Steele’s five assistant coaches have been by his side since he took over at Miami.

How’d they do it? Steele and his players credit a close-knit, familial atmosphere that has been fostered over the years, which has been enough to hold on to many standouts at a program that’s reportedly in the middle of the MAC when it comes to name, image and likeness resources.

“You just aren’t going to find a better fit than Miami, especially for a lot of us,” Skaljac said.

Steele said he doesn’t give a breathless recruiting pitch to his players after every season, instead stressing the value of long-term decisions over short-term ones and how staying at Miami and earning a degree from the school benefits them. 

“The grass isn’t always greener. It’s not,” Steele said. “I think those guys know that. They’ve heard stories from friends that are at other places. What we have is special. That doesn’t mean we’re going to be perfect keeping everybody. I’m OK with that. I want guys that want to be here.”

That carryover has allowed the RedHawks to dream at this late stage of the season.

As of right now, Miami figures to be a favorite in each of its 10 remaining regular-season games and it has already beaten the two teams directly behind it in the MAC standings, Akron and Kent State. Some sizable obstacles remain, though, with KenPom giving the RedHawks a 5.1% chance of finishing the regular season unbeaten.

But an undefeated season, while nice, was never the goal for this group. After the gutting loss in last year’s MAC title game, the biggest priority has been getting back to the NCAA Tournament for the first time in nearly 20 years. Even with Miami’s hot start, that’s hardly a guaranteed destination, especially coming out of what’s almost always a one-bid league. One ill-timed slip-up or an off shooting night could undo weeks and months of perfection.

That leaves the RedHawks with a straightforward objective – just keep winning. So far, they’ve been pretty good at it.

“The results will take care of themselves if our process is right,” Steele said. “It may not always happen immediately, but eventually it will figure itself out. That’s why our guys have been so loose. We feel no pressure, none. Our guys are enjoying it. We’re having fun on this journey together.”

Miami Ohio basketball 2026 schedule

Here's who the RedHawks have left on their schedule:

• Jan. 31: vs. Northern Illinois, 3:30 p.m. (ESPN+)
• Feb. 3: at Buffalo, 6:30 p.m. (ESPN+)
• Feb. 7: at Marshall, 4 p.m.
• Feb. 13: vs. Ohio, 8 p.m. (ESPNU)
• Feb. 17: at UMass, 7 p.m. (ESPN+)
• Feb. 21: vs. Bowling Green, 3:30 p.m. (ESPN+)
• Feb. 24: at Eastern Michigan, 6:30 p.m. (ESPN+)
• Feb. 28: at Western Michigan, 2:30 p.m. (ESPN+)
• March 3: vs. Toledo, 7 p.m. (ESPN+)
• March 6: at Ohio, 7 p.m. (ESPN+)
• March 12-14: MAC Tournament, at Cleveland

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Miami Ohio basketball is one of two undefeated teams left in NCAA

The trading deadline isn’t the only major event currently happening in the NBA calendar.

The league will reveal its reserves for the 2026 All-Star Game Sunday, Feb. 1 at 6 p.m. ET during the pregame show of the “Sunday Night Basketball” premier on NBC.

This comes after the league on Jan. 19 announced the 10 players — five from each conference — who were named All-Star starters.

Of course, there are more than 10 players deserving of the honor, and NBA coaches will determine the 14 reserves — seven from each conference — who will be making the trip to Los Angeles for the All-Star Game Feb. 15.

NBA All-Star Game reserve selection process

There are 24 All-Stars, with 12 per conference. Players are selected without regard for position.

The 10 starters (five per conference) are selected through three tranches: fan votes (50%), current NBA player votes (25%) and a media panel (25%).

For reserves, the collection of NBA coaches will cast votes for the players they think deserve the honor, and the totals are tallied, regardless of position.

There is one wrinkle this year, however.

Because the league is using a USA versus the world format in which three, 8-player teams will compete in a round-robin tournament, NBA commissioner Adam Silver will intervene and appoint additional All-Stars so that there are enough players to reach the quota of at least 16 U.S.-born players and eight international players. If necessary, the international players can include American players with ties to other countries.

NBA All-Star Game reserves predictions

Based on their performance from this season, here are the players I would pick as All-Star reserves.

Eastern Conference

Donovan Mitchell, Cleveland Cavaliers

Jalen Johnson, Atlanta Hawks

Jalen Duren, Detroit Pistons

Scottie Barnes, Toronto Raptors

Brandon Ingram, Toronto Raptors

Michael Porter Jr., Brooklyn Nets

Norman Powell, Miami Heat

Western Conference

Anthony Edwards, Minnesota Timberwolves

Jamal Murray, Denver Nuggets

Devin Booker, Phoenix Suns

Kevin Durant, Houston Rockets

Deni Avdija, Portland Trail Blazers

Kawhi Leonard, Los Angeles Clippers

LeBron James, Los Angeles Lakers

NBA All-Star Game starters

Here are the players already selected as All-Star starters.

Eastern Conference

Cade Cunningham, Detroit Pistons (second All-Star selection)

Jalen Brunson, New York Knicks (third)

Tyrese Maxey, Philadelphia 76ers (second)

Jaylen Brown, Boston Celtics (fifth)

Giannis Antetokounmpo, Milwaukee Bucks (10th)

Western Conference

Stephen Curry, Golden State Warriors (12th All-Star selection)

Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, Oklahoma City Thunder (fourth)

Luka Dončić, Los Angeles Lakers (sixth)

Victor Wembanyama, San Antonio Spurs (second)

Nikola Jokić, Denver Nuggets (eighth)

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: NBA All-Star roster predictions: Who will be the reserves?

The long, frigid month of January is coming to a close, but the action on basketball courts on college campuses nationwide is as hot as ever.

Our list of the five best men’s college games of the weekend includes a pair of top-10 showdowns in the Big Ten bookending the schedule. The Saturday offerings include a top-20 tilt in the Big 12 and a heated west-coast rivalry that is sadly about to become a thing of the past. There are plenty of other games to watch as well, so feel free to dial around if you’re stuck indoors awaiting the spring thaw.

No. 2 Michigan at No. 8 Michigan State

Time/TV: Friday, 8 p.m. ET, Fox

The Starting Five gets a Friday night jumpstart with this rivalry clash with maximum intensity guaranteed. The Wolverines haven’t been posting the huge victory margins as they were in December but have still been finding ways to win in the rugged Big Ten. The Spartans, of course, are also in the mix as usual hoping to hold on to a share of the league lead by defending their storied home floor at the Breslin Center. Veteran MSU point guard Jeremy Fears directs the offense well, but points on the interior will nevertheless be hard to get against the Wolverines, who average nearly six rejections a game. Michigan’s front court is equally effective at the offensive end, with Yaxel Lendeborg rarely choosing bad shots.

No. 13 Brigham Young at No. 14 Kansas

Time/TV: Saturday, 4:30 p.m. ET, ESPN

The headliner in the Big 12 this weekend features a couple of teams that are comfortably in the bracket hoping to optimize their seeding. This is not a new situation for the Jayhawks, of course, but they could use more high-end results regardless. The Cougars have won the games they were supposed to, but a win here in the hostile environs of Allen Fieldhouse would demonstrate real March staying power. Continuity has been fleeting for Kansas with freshman sensation Darryn Peterson in and out of the lineup, but improved production from Flory Bidunga has helped. BYU’s own touted rookie A.J. Dybantsa is coming off one of the least efficient games of his young career in Monday night’s loss at top-ranked Arizona, so a few early buckets would be most beneficial.

Saint Mary’s at No. 6 Gonzaga

Time/TV: Saturday, 10:30 p.m. ET, ESPN

These West Coast Conference rivals have staged some epic contests over the last couple of decades. Gonzaga’s pending departure for the new Pac-12 means it won’t be a regular event after this year, so we must enjoy the final installments. Unfortunately the Zags will still not be at full strength with leading scorer Braden Huff out with a knee injury, though center Graham Ike (ankle) might be back in the lineup. As usual, stingy defense is the Saint Mary’s hallmark, holding opponents to just 40.4% shooting. When the Gaels need a bucket, they most often look inside for Paulius Murauskas.

No. 23 Alabama at No. 21 Florida

Time/TV: Sunday, 1 p.m. ET, ABC

The SEC has been well-represented in recent Final Fours. These two programs have been part of that success, and they arguably have the highest ceiling of the league’s candidates this year. The Gators feature a frontcourt trio of Thomas Haugh, Alex Condon and Rueben Chinyelu, which will be a matchup problem for the Crimson Tide, even with the return of Charles Bediako. But the 3-point arc is the equalizer for Alabama, especially if primary facilitator Labaron Philon’s own shots are also falling.

No. 10 Illinois at No. 5 Nebraska

Time/TV: Sunday, 4:30 p.m. ET, FS1.

We wrap up the weekend back in Big Ten territory, where the Cornhuskers look to bounce back from their first loss of the season by completing a regular-season sweep of the Fighting Illini. It was way back on Dec. 13 when Illinois dropped a thriller at home to Nebraska, but the Illini have produced some impressive results since then. With no history of tournament success the Cornhuskers are not household names yet, but fans should get to know high-scoring forwards Pryce Sandfort and Rienk Mast. The Illini roster is similarly constructed, but Keaton Wagler requires extra attention at the arc. Backcourt mate Kylan Boswell remains sidedlined with a hand injury.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: College basketball games to watch schedule features Big Ten, Big 12

College basketball is past the midway point of the regular season, and a few low- and mid-major programs are starting to pull away as the top contenders from outside the power conferences to make the 2026 NCAA men's tournament.

That means the coaches of those smaller programs are also starting to gain attention across the sport — potentially even for jobs at bigger programs once the coaching carousel starts.

There were numerous mid-major coaches to jump to power programs after the 2024-25 season, with Will Wade heading to North Carolina State from McNeese after an tournament win and Bucky McMillan taking his up-tempo style from Samford to Texas A&M. Richard Pitino, the son of Rick Pitino, also moved from New Mexico to Xavier, a team that commonly faces his dad's St. John's squad, and Ben McCollum went from Drake to Iowa.

REQUIRED READING: Paying attention to Texas Tech yet? You should. That and more from college basketball weekend

Some of the top recent coaching hires among Power Four teams have come from the mid-major level. Michigan's Dusty May and Vanderbilt's Mark Byington, from Florida Atlantic and James Madison, respectively, have achieved turnarounds in their second seasons at new schools.

So, which coaches are in line to make a similar jump after this year? Here's a look at the top college basketball coaches who could be the next in line for a bigger job after the 2025-26 season:

Top college basketball head coaches on the rise

Josh Schertz, Saint Louis

Schertz will be likely one of the top names in the upcoming coaching carousel, as he has led Saint Louis to a 20-1 record and a No. 22 ranking in the USA TODAY Sports Coaches Poll.

The 50-year-old former Indiana State coach finished 32-7 in his final season with the Sycamores in 2023-24, and was one of the first four teams out of the field after falling to Drake in the Missouri Valley Conference championship game. He went 19-15 last season at Saint Louis.

Saint Louis features seven players averaging nine or more points per game this season, with his leading scorer averaging 13.1 points per game. The balanced attack could make Saint Louis a tough out in the tournament, should it get there.

Jerrod Calhoun, Utah State

Jerrod Calhoun, hired away from Youngstown State, led Utah State to an No. 10 seed in his first season in 2024-25. The Aggies are on track to reach March Madness again in 2026.

Calhoun and Utah State are 17-3 and tied for second in the Mountain West standings. He has done a nice job keeping the Aggies' forward momentum after former coach Danny Sprinkle left for Washington after the 2023-24 season.

Takayo Siddle, UNC Wilmington

Takayo Siddle has done nothing but win since taking over at UNC Wilmington in 2020-21, accumulating a 122-49 record through six seasons, with a CBI Championship in 2021-22. The former longtime Kevin Keatts assistant led the Seahawks to a tournament appearance last season and is primed for another bid this season.

Siddle, 39, will be an intriguing option for numerous potential power conference openings.

Travis Steele, Miami (Ohio)

Travis Steele's tenure didn't go well at Xavier, as he was fired after the 2021-22 season without reaching the NCAA tournament. He has turned it around at Miami (Ohio) with the 21-0 RedHawks one of two unbeatens left in the country. He could be in line for a jump back to a bigger school.

Steele went a combined 27-37 in his first two seasons at Miami (Ohio) but has a 46-9 record the past two seasons. His team runs a fast-paced offense, which leads the country in scoring (94.6 points per game).

Tony Skinn, George Mason

Tony Skinn took over as a first-time head coach at his alma mater in 2023-24, and is nearing his third consecutive 20-win season after winning Atlantic 10 coach of the year honors last season.

Skinn, 42, has the Patriots at 19-2 and in second place in the league standings behind Saint Louis. He was a key member of George Mason's Cinderella run to the Final Four in 2006, when he averaged 12.6 points per game as a senior.

Skinn was twice an assistant for now-Villanova coach Kevin Willard, serving as an assistant coach at Seton Hall from 2018-21 and again as an assistant at Maryland from 2022-23.

Eric Olen, New Mexico

Eric Olen landed one of the top mid-major jobs in college basketball last offseason after spending more than 20 years at UC San Diego as an assistant and head coach.

Olen led UC San Diego to four consecutive NCAA Division II tournament berths from 2015-19 and was 30-1 in 2020 before the tournament was canceled. He then oversaw the Tritons' jump to Division I and led the program to its first-ever Division I bid last season after finishing the regular season with a 30-5 record in the Big West.

Olen has kept things rolling in his first season at New Mexico, leading the Lobos to a 17-4 record with an 8-2 mark in Mountain West play. New Mexico's roster was gutted after Richard Pitino left for Xavier, but Olen has managed a roster led by two freshmen leading scorers.

Bryan Hodgson, South Florida

Bryan Hodgson spent eight seasons as an assistant at Buffalo and Alabama under Crimson Tide coach Nate Oats from 2015-23. Hodgson is in his third season as a head coach, and first at USF.

The 38-year-old New York native went 45-28 in his first two seasons at Arkansas State and has led the Bulls at 14-7 with a 6-2 record in American play so far this season.

Hodgson deploys a similarly high tempo offense like Oats', as USF ranks 17th nationally in adjusted tempo, per KenPom. USF also ranks No. 12 nationally in scoring offense, averaging 89.8 points per game.

Scott Cross, Troy

Scott Cross was fired by Texas-Arlington after the 2017-18 season despite being the school's all-time wins leader and the only coach in program history with a winning record.

He spent a season as an assistant at TCU during the 2018-19 season under Jamie Dixon before taking over at Troy, which he led to its third-ever tournament berth in 2024-25. The Trojans are 15-7 with an 8-2 mark in Sun Belt play with Cross looking for his fifth consecutive 20-win season after the Trojans won 20 combined games in his first two campaigns.

The 51-year-old has been a head coach for 19 years with a winning record in all but five seasons at two unassuming programs.

Ryan Miller, Murray State

A longtime assistant, Miller got his first head-coaching gig this season, and has led Murray State to a 16-6 record while sitting second in the Missouri Valley standings.

Miller, the older brother of 17-year NBA veteran Mike Miller, was an assistant at Creighton under Greg McDermott from 2021-25, and was also an assistant under Dixon at TCU from 2016-21. He also coached at Memphis as an assistant under John Calipari, along with stints at Pepperdine, New Mexico, Auburn and UNLV.

Miller might need a year or two at Murray State, but depending on how the Racers finish, he could be a hot name this cycle.

Matt Braeuer, Stephen F. Austin

Texas Tech coach Grant McCasland already has a solid coaching tree despite being in his third season at Texas Tech.

Braeuer is a first-year coach at Stephen F. Austin and is off to an 18-3 start this season with a first-place standing in the Southland. McCasland assistants have done well, with Ross Hodge at West Virginia, Dave Smart at Pacific and Braeuer at SFA.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Top college basketball head coaches on the rise for high-major jobs

AL MAZROWIAH, Bahrain (AP) — Patrick Reed shot 5-under 67 in the second round of the Bahrain Championship on the European tour on Friday and was 10 strokes behind clubhouse leader Calum Hill of Scotland.

Reed won the Dubai Desert Classic on Sunday and announced on Wednesday he was leaving LIV Golf.

The American will play on the European tour for the rest of the year, with the aim of finishing high enough in the Race to Dubai standings to earn full status on the PGA Tour in 2027.

Reed made seven birdies. Hill made 11 — and no bogeys — in his 61 to move onto 16-under par for the tournament and held a four-shot lead midway through the second round.

___

AP golf: https://apnews.com/hub/golf

It's quite fascinating how when the NCAA men's basketball tournament picture gets magnified, the bubble for teams hoping to make the field begins to move in all sorts of ways.

Teams like UCLA and Indiana pick up major victories that put them on track to avoid this uncomfortable position in the March Madness conversation. Then you get ones like TCU and Seton Hall that start to get punched in the mouth by their conference foes and are having a hard time recovering.

The bubble watch has taken notice and now reaches another critical point: January is wrapping up, which means there's about one month left in the regular season, and teams can be worry free or completely stressed by the time conference tournaments begin.

Here are the teams currently on the bubble in the latest USA TODAY Sports Bracketology.

UCLA

• Record: 15-6 (7-3)
• NET Ranking: 42
• Quad 1 record: 2-5
• Projected seed: No. 11 (first four)
• Quality wins: vs. Purdue
• Bad losses: vs. California (neutral)

The Bruins are in a resurgence at the right time, with its win against Purdue kick starting a three-game win streak. While a Quad 2 game, this weekend's home contest against Indiana will be a big opportunity to get out of the bubble. In the top half of the Big Ten, UCLA must stay in that group before the schedule gets tough in the middle of February.

New Mexico

• Record: 17-4 (8-2)
• NET Ranking: 38
• Quad 1 record: 1-3
• Projected seed: No. 11 (first four)
• Quality wins: at Virginia Commonwealth
• Bad losses: at New Mexico State, at Boise State

The Lobos are doing all they can to maintain their stock while the opportunities to impress aren't necessarily there, bumping the Quad 2 record to 4-0. However, New Mexico needs to handle San Jose State to set up a monster Mountain West showdown with Utah State on Feb. 4, which is shaping up to be a Quad 1 chance, one it needs to get off the bubble.

Miami (Fla.)

• Record: 17-4 (6-2)
• NET Ranking: 36
• Quad 1 record: 1-3
• Projected seed: No. 11 (first four)
• Quality wins: At Wake Forest.
• Bad losses: vs. Florida State

A team that has tumbled down the bracket, the Hurricanes find themselves in the bubble thanks to a missed opportunity against Clemson and a bad Quad 3 loss to Florida State. The lone Quad 1 victory is against Wake Forest, not really impressive. Miami has at least responded accordingly with two consecutive wins, and it will have to keep it going with California and Boston College on deck to avoid falling completely out of the field.

Indiana

• Record: 14-7 (5-5)
• NET Ranking: 32
• Quad 1 record: 1-6
• Projected seed: No. 11 (first four)
• Quality wins: vs. Purdue
• Bad losses: at Minnesota

Has some of the football magic rubbed off on Hoosier basketball? Whatever it is, things are going great in Bloomington with the hoops team trending up. Indiana finally got the much-needed Quad 1 win, and it's even sweeter it came against rival Purdue. Hopefully, the momentum travels to Los Angeles for a massive West Coast trip, with Quad 1 games in UCLA and Southern California up next. At least a split is needed, but a perfect visit would keep the good times rolling.

TCU

• Record: 13-8 (3-5)
• NET Ranking: 46
• Quad 1 record: 3-5
• Projected seed: First four out
• Quality wins: vs. Florida (netural), vs. Wisconsin (neutral)
• Bad losses: vs. New Orleans, vs. Notre Dame, at Utah

The Horned Frogs now see themselves currently on the outside looking in as the Big 12 gauntlet rages on. They did get a Quad 1 win against Baylor but couldn't build upon it by losing to Houston. There's no reason to panic yet since TCU does have a slight break facing Colorado and Kansas State next, so just win those games to get back to .500 in conference play.

Seton Hall

• Record: 15-6 (5-5)
• NET Ranking: 50
• Quad 1 record: 1-3
• Projected seed: First four out
• Quality wins: vs. North Carolina State (neutral)
• Bad losses: at DePaul

What started off as a promising season for Shaheen Holloway's team has fizzled out of a bit. The Pirates lost four consecutive games, including games against Butler and DePaul, that resulted in Seton Hall falling out of the field. It needs to improve its conference record and capture those few Quad 1 opportunities to boost that NET ranking, which is possible with trips to Villanova and Creighton on the horizon.

Missouri

• Record: 14-7 (4-4)
• NET Ranking: 73
• Quad 1 record: 3-4
• Projected seed: First four out
• Quality wins: vs. Florida, at Kentucky
• Bad losses: at Notre Dame, at Mississippi

Missouri really helped its case when it won three of its first four SEC games, but regressed when it proceeded to lose three of the next four. The Tigers have some quality wins, but their No. 73 NET ranking is extremely high for an at-large team. The Tigers need to handle Mississippi State and South Carolina when their resume can't afford to lose those contests.

Virginia Tech

• Record: 16-6 (5-4)
• NET Ranking: 54
• Quad 1 record: 1-5
• Projected seed: First four out
• Quality wins: vs. Virginia
• Bad losses: vs. Stanford

The Hokies are making progress toward being a major in the bubble, with three wins in the last four games. It only makes Virginia Tech think what if it were able to close out some of those conference losses, as two of them were by one point and another by three points. Regardless, Virginia Tech is trending upward, and there is no greater chance to continue them climb with Duke coming to town and then another Quad 1 chance at North Carolina State.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: March Madness bubble watch sees Indiana rise in tournament projection

Good morning, it’s Friday, January 30th. The Cleveland Cavaliers are 29-20 and play the Phoenix Suns tonight at 9 PM. They beat the Los Angeles Lakers on Wednesday.

This is Cleveland’s second and final game against the Suns this season. They previously beat the Suns at home on New Year’s Eve. We hope you like staying up late — because the Cavs will be in a different time zone for the next week and a half.

Today’s Game of the Day

• Portland Trail Blazers at New York Knicks – 7:30 PM, NBA League Pass

The Knicks have snapped back into a rhythm after their recent 2-8 funk. They are now on a four-game winning streak and will look to extend it on their home floor against a scrappy Blazers team that has hopes of making the playoffs for the first time since 2021.

The Rest of the NBA Slate

• Los Angeles Lakers at Washington Wizards – 7 PM
• Toronto Raptors at Orlando Magic – 7:30 PM
• Memphis Grizzlies New Orleans Pelicans – 7:30 PM
• Sacramento Kings at Boston Celtics – 7:30 PM
• Cleveland Cavaliers at Phoenix Suns – 9 PM
• LA Clippers at Denver Nuggets – 9 PM
• Brooklyn Nets at Utah Jazz – 9:30 PM
• Detroit Pistons at Golden State Warriors – 10 PM

Honorable mention to the Pistons and Warriors game. That could be worth checking on if the Cavs game ends up being a blowout one way or the other.

Cavs links of the day

• Cavs reportedly considering a home run swing before the deadline – Fear The Sword
• LeBron James tears up over Cleveland tribute video – ESPN
• “This is Donovan Mitchell’s city now,” Jaylon Tyson gets his viral moment after Cavs win over Lakers – Cleveland.com
• Cavs unusual raised court draws new scrutiny after Luka Doncic injury – New York Times

NBA links

• NBA Power Rankings: Cavs finally making moves – CBS Sports
• NBA Trade Deadline Preview – Yahoo Sports

On the Celtics off day, Anfernee Simons gave back to the Boston community and hosted the 2025-26 ‘Fit For a Cause’ event at the Auerbach Center. The purpose of the program is to encourage individuals to lead healthy and active lifestyles, while simultaneously raising money for their communities.

Simons was joined by fifty Boston Scientific employees, and thirty youth from the Boys & Girls Club of Boston, Boys & Girls Club of MetroWest, and YMCA of Greater Boston. After the event, Simons took questions from reporters on a multitude of topics from trade rumors, his defensive improvements, and giving back to the community.

Anfernee Simons is here at a fitness event at the Auerbach Center with 30 youth from the Boys & Girls Club of Boston, Boys & Girls Club of MetroWest, and YMCA of Greater Boston. pic.twitter.com/SaEj9IVKZn

— Noa Dalzell 🏀 (@NoaDalzell) January 29, 2026

Trade rumors

NBA Insider Chris Haynes went on to the SiriusXM NBA Radio and said that “Anfernee Simons is someone who is on the trade market.” Haynes continued on by saying the Celtics were looking for front court help and big man reinforcement. He thinks Boston will make a trade even if it is small, but mentioning Simons would make you think that it will be a legitimate contributor.

When asked about the rumors, Simons said: “Once you’ve been in the league for eight years, the trade rumors become constant…control what you can control.” Simons has been linked to a couple of trade rumors from early in the season in deals for Ivica Zubac and Nikola Vucevic according to HoopsHype’s Michael Scotto.

Scotto reported that “when the Clippers were struggling with a 6-21 record to begin the season, the Celtics inquired about an exploratory framework around Simons, a first-round pick, and a future first-round pick swap for Ivica Zubac and salary filler, which didn’t gain any traction.”

“The Chicago Bulls inquired on the possibility of trading center Nikola Vucevic for Simons and a Celtics first-round pick, which would have lowered Boston’s tax bill, but the Celtics weren’t interested, league sources told HoopsHype.”

Anfernee Simons on dealing with trade rumors this time of year pic.twitter.com/NT20ykAZOo

— Ian Inangelo (@iinangelo) January 29, 2026

DEFENSE

When Simons was first traded to Boston for All-Defensive Team guard Jrue Holiday, there were a lot of concerns about his defense. Simons was known as a negative defender for most of his career but this season has shown real strides in that area. He is averaging 0.6 steals a game this season with a defensive rating of 119.0 which are both tied for the third best marks of his career. Simons also is a +162 which is the highest mark of his career and currently 5th on the Celtics. Simons was asked about his defensive improvements while working with Celtics Player development coach Ross McMains and what specific areas that he has worked on.

“Just overall, having that mindset, finding ways to play make in that area. I think from the first day I got here, we drilled that every single day. That was the first thing we did, before we even touched the basketball, dribble the basketball, we dedicated the first 30 minutes of the workout to play making on defense and positioning on the defense.”

Asked Anfernee Simons about Ross McMains’ role in his growth on defense.

“That was the first thing we did before we even touched a basketball, dribbled a basketball, we dedicated the first 30 minutes of the workout to playmaking on defense and positioning on defense.” https://t.co/fW4ZbXWXR1pic.twitter.com/oSmHCOXe7C

— Bobby Krivitsky (@BobbyKrivitsky) January 29, 2026

COMMUNITY WORK

Anfernee Simons spent time talking to the kids about his daily routine and workout regiment, working with the Celtics strength and conditioning staff on orchestrating a sprinting drill, and showed them how to make healthy smoothies. Simons recognized the importance of giving back to the community and has really felt embraced by the city of Boston.

“Obviously, The community has been very welcoming to me. Everybody’s been trying to do their best to make me feel comfortable…I said before, it feels like I’ve been here longer than I actually have been here…family type organization and it feels very comforting coming to a new situation and everybody is wrapping their arms around you and making you feel welcome.”

Anfernee Simons on being embraced by the community in Boston:

“Obviously, The community has been very welcoming to me. Everybody's been trying to do their best to make me feel comfortable.”

“I said before, it feels like I've been here longer than I actually have been… pic.twitter.com/6skmdxOxar

— Ian Inangelo (@iinangelo) January 30, 2026

The ‘Fit For a Cause’ program is a fitness program that employees from Boston Scientific will participate in. It motivates employees to increase their physical activity while having the opportunity to improve their communities with a “pay it forward” prize: the opportunity to work with Boston Scientific and the Celtics to select a renovation project. The launch event will include a discussion about healthy living, “Train like the Celtics” competitions, and a nutrition demonstration.

Mercyhurst Lakers (11-11, 6-3 NEC) at Chicago State Cougars (2-19, 0-8 NEC)

Chicago; Saturday, 2 p.m. EST

BOTTOM LINE: Mercyhurst will look to keep its four-game win streak alive when the Lakers take on Chicago State.

The Cougars have gone 1-5 in home games. Chicago State ranks sixth in the NEC with 7.9 offensive rebounds per game led by CJ Ray averaging 2.2.

The Lakers are 6-3 against NEC opponents. Mercyhurst has a 2-2 record in games decided by less than 4 points.

Chicago State is shooting 39.3% from the field this season, 3.4 percentage points lower than the 42.7% Mercyhurst allows to opponents. Mercyhurst averages 6.0 made 3-pointers per game this season, 4.8 fewer made shots on average than the 10.8 per game Chicago State gives up.

The matchup Saturday is the first meeting of the season between the two teams in conference play.

TOP PERFORMERS: Doyel Cockrill III is shooting 43.0% and averaging 13.3 points for the Cougars. Ray is averaging 1.1 made 3-pointers over the last 10 games.

Bernie Blunt is averaging 16 points for the Lakers. Jake Lemelman is averaging 12.6 points over the last 10 games.

LAST 10 GAMES: Cougars: 0-10, averaging 61.7 points, 25.5 rebounds, 10.8 assists, 8.0 steals and 1.2 blocks per game while shooting 37.9% from the field. Their opponents have averaged 73.8 points per game.

Lakers: 7-3, averaging 67.9 points, 29.3 rebounds, 14.7 assists, 7.5 steals and 3.9 blocks per game while shooting 45.8% from the field. Their opponents have averaged 61.4 points.

___

The Associated Press created this story using technology provided by Data Skrive and data from Sportradar.

Over the last ten games, the Celtics are 5-5 with clutch losses to the Spurs, Pacers, Bulls, and Pistons. Only the Hawks on Wednesday night really roughed up Boston.

There hasn’t exactly been a statistical drop off from their overachieving regular season.

Poor shooting has bit them in the butt every third game or so, and they’ve put up some stinkers of late. But really, they’ve just been the victim of some hot shooting of late: a 21-of-45 avalanche in a three-point loss to the Bulls, the Pacers uncharacteristically hitting 16-of-37 in a two-point loss, and the Hawks making 18-of-42 in a blinding display on Wednesday.

There were some marked free throw disparities in the mix too, notably only four trips to the line against the Spurs and then just 9 two days later in Indiana and 9 again against the Bulls last week. But then again, that’s the way the league has been trending for the last month or so.

The .500 record could just be the product of a late-January swoon or the basketball gods tipping the scale one way or another. As Joe Mazzulla put it after a thorough thrashing by the Hawks, it was just a “bad day at the office.”

Maybe it was. Maybe it was just a motivated Atlanta team exacting revenge after the Celtics hung 132 ten days prior in State Farm Arena.

Or maybe it wasn’t.

“Honestly, we just guard the ball well,” Nickeil Alexander-Walker explained after seemingly stumping the now slumping Celtics. “We did a better job of staying in front, staying out of rotation. The last few games, like they were getting clean looks off screens and we were a step behind, step slow. We weren’t as physical. Tonight was. It was a two-way street like just up in the physicality as a whole, and then allowing us to be more, I would say, allowing us to be more aggressive.”

With a long and rangy trio of Alexander-Walker, Dyson Daniels, and Jalen Johnson as point-of-attack defenders, the Hawks were able to blow up a lot of the Celtics early actions between Payton Pritchard (5-of-11, zero assists), Derrick White (5-of-13, three assists), and Jaylen Brown, and generate sixteen turnovers.

And you have to think that there’s a throughline between that Hawks defense and the Celtics’ 3-1 record against the beast of the East, Detroit Pistons. While the -11 total point differential over those four games suggests a close matchup between them, the eye test shows Boston’s struggle with the ball pressure.

Zoom out and the Celtics are still just a fraction away from having the most efficient offense in the league, second to only the Nuggets. That’s certainly a feather in Mazzulla’s cap given the circumstances entering the season. However, with the trade deadline on the horizon and Jayson Tatum’s impending decision to return, it has to give the front office and coaching staff a moment of reflection that come playoff time when the games become a little more physical and handsy, what are Boston’s realistic chances in raising Banner 19?