British boxer continues ascent and wants Usyk next
American shocked by his first knockout, in fifth round
Moses Itauma made another emphatic statement as the British heavyweight prospect became the first fighter to stop Jermaine Franklin.
Anthony Joshua and Dillian Whyte were both taken the distance in points wins in Franklin’s two previous visits to the UK but the durable American was brutally taken out midway through the fifth round by Itauma in Manchester.
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Earlier in the season, the Omaha World-Herald’s Evan Bland referred to it at the Evan Bland Experience. Cornhusker fans got to experience the Experience once again today on a sunny, but chilly and very windy day at Haymarket Park.
In the first inning, with one out Jasa walked Hogan Denny on four-straight pitches and then followed with an impressive strikeout of Indiana’s best hitter Jake Hanley. Clean-up batter Caleb Koskie singled to put two on base with two outs. It looked like Jasa righted the ship as he got two quick strikes on Brayden Ricketts, but then threw four straight balls to walk him. Bases loaded and he struck out Cooper Malamazian. What a roller coaster inning.
That was pretty much the way it went for the righthander through his outing today. He’d get ahead in counts or get a strikeout and then walk a batter or two. But, through five innings he was able to get out of trouble and kept the Hoosiers off the scoreboard. Meanwhile, the Big Red offense got off to another hot start, which they’ve done quite a bit this season. And, they finished big as well.
To no one’s surprise, Mac Moyer started off the bottom of the first getting on base, this time with a single past a diving third baseman. Jeter Worthley followed up and showed some masterful bat skills pushing a bunt toward the second baseman, beating it out and moving Moyer to second. Perhaps a bit rattled, Hoosier starter Tony Neubeck hit Case Sanderson to load the bases with no outs.
Up came Dylan Carey who walked to score Moyer. Designated hitter Cole Kitchens then hit a deep sacrifice fly to center to score Worthley. A Jett Buck infield ground ball pushed Sanderson across the plate. The good start put Nebraska up 3-0 after one.
Nebraska goa runner on base on the second and third innings but didn’t threaten until they loaded them up in the bottom of the fourth with one out due to Neubeck hitting Joshua Overbeek, giving up a single to Rhett Stokes and walking Mac Moyer.
Jeter Worthley hit a chopper to Mateo Noto at third who fired it home to force Overbeek at the plate for the second out. Sanderson then sliced a shot that Noto knocked down, but couldn’t pick up in time to throw out a runner. Stokes scored and the bases were still load with Dylan Carey coming to the plate. He walked on a full-count pitch in the dirt to score Stokes.
Indiana brought in Ivan Mastalski to try and get the Hoosiers out of the inning with Kitchens in the box. Mastalski got him to chase a 2-2 high fast ball to strike him out and end the threat. After four innings, Nebraska held a 5-0 lead.
Indiana got to Jasa in the top of the sixth inning. After getting a lead-off flyout to centerfield, Jasa walked Brayden Ricketts for the second time in the game. He then struck out Cooper Malamazian and looked to get out of the inning. However, Cole Decker rapped a single to put two runners on.
Coach Childress came out for a conversation with the 6’7” Colorado native and to burn a little time for the bullpen to warm up a bit. None the less, Owen ten Oever, a big fella from Brooklyn, NY tied into one and launched it over the right-centerfield ball. All of a sudden, it was a 5-3 ball game and little lefty Chase Olson came in to get the last out, thanks to a brilliant diving catch by Drew Grego in rightfield.
Back came the Cornhuskers in the bottom of the sixth. The top of the order loaded the bases with a Moyer single, followed by Worthley getting hit by a pitch and Sanderson drawing a walk. That ended the day for Mastalski, who was replaced with Jackson Yarberry.
With bases loaded and no outs, Yarberry struck out Carey looking. Then struck out pinch-hitter Miken Miller swinging, and then got Jett Buck to pop-up to centerfield. That was the second time this game that Nebraska left the bases loaded.
Indiana put up another run in the top of the seventh, and could have easily scored more. Olson walked Will Moore to start the inning. That was one of four walks he and his reliever, Ryan Harrahill gave up. The only Hoosier to put a bat on the ball was a sacrifice bunt by Koskie. Otherwise, Indiana did not hit the ball out of the infield and left the bases loaded when Cole Decker was out on a tapper back to Harrahill.
As fans worried about the bullpen and whether or not it would stop the bleeding, back came the Cornhusker offense in the bottom of the seventh. Yarberry walked Grego and Stokes with an Overbeek sacrifice bunt in between. He then struck out Moyer, and then . . . came the return of two-out hitting.
Worthley singled. Sanderson singled. Carey hit a three-run bomb to leftfield. Miller singled. Buck was hit by a pitch. Yarberry was replaced by Pete Haas. Grego singled, driving in two more and Overbeek grounded out back to the pitcher. If you haven’t been counting on your fingers, Nebraska was now up 12-5.
That bullpen meltdown mentioned a moment ago, yeah, it happened in the top of the eighth. At one point, two Nebraska pitchers threw 18 balls out of 19 pitchers, giving free bases to five straight Hoosiers and walking in two runs.
Jace Ziola came out for the eighth inning. The big freshman from Skutt Catholic got a quick flyout from ten Oever, but then hit the nine-hole hitter and walked the two Hoosiers at the top of the order. In came Braxton Stewart to face Hanley with bases loaded and one out. He walked him and walked in a run.
In came Pryce Bender with bases loaded and one out. He started with a strike and got Ricketts to flyout deep to center for the second out. It was fitting that the inning ended on kind of a crazy play when Malamazian singled off Bender to right field and Hanley tried to score from second base. Grego fielded the ball and fired it home way ahead of the runner. Worthley tagged him eight feet down the line, standing up. Indiana appealed the play for some reason, but the call was upheld. Avoiding a major melt-down, Nebraska was still up Indiana 12-7.
Proving that he could throw the ball over the plate, Bender was back on the mound for the ninth inning. While he wasn’t perfect, giving up two hits and a couple of baserunners, he got the side out without giving up any additional runs. Ball game! Nebraska 12, Indiana 7.
Today’s game was eerily similar to yesterdays with Nebraska getting out to what should have been a comfortable lead only to have Indiana come back and make things interesting. Today, the seven-run inning provided a cushion that the Hoosiers could not overcome.
Today there was no excuse for Indiana getting back into the game. Young pitchers should be able to come into a game with a big lead and throw the ball over the plate. When your team has a lead, you don’t have to be quite so perfect, yet at one point Nebraska pitchers threw thirteen or fourteen balls in a row.
Nebraska stays undefeated at home and has won every B1G series they have played at this point of the season. Tomorrow they will look for the sweep against Indiana with the first pitch scheduled for 12:02. Cooper Katskee will make his first weekend start and will go up against another Indiana lefty, Brayton Thomas.
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SAN FRANCISCO — It can be foolhardy to buy into spring training stats, good or bad, especially for veterans.
The same caveat goes for early season results, the sample size way too small to put too much stock into it either way.
But both in his look and his actual production, Giancarlo Stanton put together about as good a spring as the Yankees could have hoped for — most significantly, while staying healthy. And now he has carried that into the early days of the regular season, continuing to offer encouraging signs about what kind of impact he might provide the Yankees this season if he can continue to stay on the field.
“He’s locked in,” Cody Bellinger said before the Yankees wrapped up their series against the Giants on Saturday. “I feel like he’s been locked in all spring and carried it over into the regular season. Just the quality at-bat and hitting the ball hard.”
Following Saturday’s 3-1 victory at Oracle Park, Stanton is 6-for-12 with a home run in the first three games of the season. He also even made an impression with his legs — no small feat — scoring from second on José Caballero’s single to left field on Opening Day. Later in that game, he smoked a 114.4 mph RBI single off Giants ace Logan Webb.
Lighting up Statcast is nothing new for Stanton, but it is a continuation of how he looked toward the end of camp. In the final week of games, he was hitting just about everything with exit velocities in excess of 100 mph, prompting Aaron Boone to say, “If we can just bottle this up and move it north …”
So far, so good, and not just in the actual results.
“Really good [at-bats],” Boone said Friday after Stanton homered in a 3-0 win. “He’s disciplined and develops his plan and goes up there and is executing really well. Even first at-bat where he strikes out, I feel like, man, he’s got the right thought, he’s got the right plan, it didn’t line up. Then he hit a ball pretty good to right and then got the wrinkle in the zone that he stuck [for a home run]. He’s in a good place.”
This is the kind of impact Stanton delivered regularly last season — one of his best as a Yankee, besides the fact that it did not start until the middle of June as he waited for the excruciating pain from his tennis elbow in both arms to subside.
In 77 games, he hit .273 with a .944 OPS and 24 home runs, good for an 8.5 percent home run rate — the same mark he had in his NL MVP season in 2017.
The 36-year-old is still playing through pain and managing his elbows on a daily basis, but he has found a way to keep them in check while not affecting his ability to inflict pain on baseballs. And while no one is expecting Stanton to return to his MVP form at this stage of his career, the Yankees would certainly sign up for this version and keeping him on the field, which has been far from a given in recent years.
Because when Stanton has been healthy, he and Aaron Judge have formed one of the more fearsome duos in club history. They each homered in the sixth inning Friday, marking the 60th time they have gone deep in the same game — with the Yankees 53-7 in those games.
The 60 games in which they have homered together are the second most by a pair of teammates in Yankees history, trailing only Lou Gehrig and Babe Ruth (75 times), according to the Elias Sports Bureau.
With under a minute left in the third quarter, Terrence Shannon Jr. gathered the ball on the Wolves end of the floor and began a three-on-one fastbreak down 12 points.
With Julius Randle or the rim as his options, he dropped it off behind him to Bones Hyland, who had zero Detroit Pistons players within 15 feet of him on the right wing. Slowing down, he took a dribble, and hoisted an important three that would cut the lead to single digits.
Bonk.
Front rim.
For a Timberwolves team 30% from the field and 23% from three at the end of the third quarter, it was a perfect encapsulation of a game that went wayward offensively from the start.
For much of the game, the Wolves were actually getting pretty good looks from behind the arc. Wide open threes from the wing for Naz Reid, Bones Hyland, Donte DiVincenzo, and even Julius Randle. The problem is, they fell at such a measly rate that Detroit was able to turn them into points at a high rate.
The Pistons outscored the Wolves on 21-10 on the fastbreak, the main source of being able to build their lead in second half. The Wolves would also go on to shoot their worst field goal percentage of the season at 31%, just below their previous worst against Orlando (34%).
Despite the Wolves having just a five point halftime deficit, the unraveling came in the aforementioned latter half for Minnesota. The Pistons were able to dismantle the Wolves offense slowly by taking Julius Randle away as their playmaking hub. With a similar approach to Naz Reid as well, Detroit doubled the primary passers in the Wolves offense late with their back to the basket, and forced them to make quick decisions. Reid and Randle would combine for seven turnovers, and combine for 5-28 from the field.
No clearer realization than Saturday as to how bad the Wolves need their three rotation players injured back in the fold.
The good news? They might be getting them back shortly.
Julius Randle couldn’t sit in his usual cadence of 4-8 dribbles with his back to the basket before making his finishing move to ultimately score.
By the time he was thinking about what he was going to do next and starting to feel comfortable a couple dribbles in, the Pistons would bring a hard double and rotate to his primary passing option. It ultimately would end up with Randle committing four turnovers, and decentralizing the Wolves primary playmaking hub that they needed to play through heading into the game.
“We didn’t play with very much pace [on offense],” coach Chris Finch said afterward. “Our offense fed their transition game more than anything else.”
It wasn’t just Randle that was getting sped up but the scrambling and crisp rotating that the Pistons were doing. Even without Cade Cunningham, they stayed true to their physical identity and and made the Wolves think faster than they wanted to.
Naz Reid was another example. Not only going 0-7 from three, he also committed three uncharacteristic turnovers, mostly coming from possessions with his back to the basket.
It feels often with Reid that the first few shots he takes often dictate what the rest of his game is going to be. Though he can come alive and go on a signature blowtorch scoring run, it often helps if he is able to find his place in the game early.
As Finch pointed out, Saturday was one where it went sour from the jump.
“He missed two wide open ones when he first got in the game, and the next couple shots were a little forced in the post…trying to plow through physicality,” he said. “He was praying for something to go his way.”
Praying for something to go your way could apply for many of the people who took the floor not named Rudy Gobert and Donte DiVincenzo.
But as I said above…trying to force the playmaking from a couple areas on the floor against an incredible defensive team like Detroit (second in the league in defensive rating (108.7)), it often won’t go your way. It just might help to get some of your reinforcements back.
1). Out of necessity, Terrence Shannon Jr. made the second start of his NBA career on Saturday. He tallied eight points, and was one of the bright transition spots for the Wolves. He also did a nice job causing chaos on the glass, not necessarily with high rebounding numbers, but jarring balls loose for other Wolves players to secure a second chance. He won’t be in the rotation when his team was at full strength, but I thought it was an encouraging stint for him after a discouraging beginning to the season.
2). The Julius Randle double team stuff is real. He loved to play at his own pace. When a double team speeds him up and forces him to make a quick decision, he needs someone else around him to move and make themselves open. He shoots 40% when he’s being guarded tightly, and there’s a reason the second most passes he makes to a person is Donte DiVincenzo; it’s because he moves a TON. It’ll be interesting to see how teams play randle moving forward. Anthony Edwards makes it so that they can’t really double him. When he’s off the floor? It seems as though it’s the right strategy.
The Wolves will have a travel day on Sunday and head down for a Monday evening clash with Cooper Flagg and the Dallas Mavericks. Over his last eight games, Flagg has averaged 23.8 points, 6.8 assists and 6 rebounds, making a late push for Rookie of the Year.
With the slew of injuries the Wolves have taken on, it would be fair to assume at least one of Ayo Dosunmu or Anthony Edwards will be back in the fold.
Tipoff is at 7:30 PM CST.
Even if no one predicted this would be an important one when the schedule came out, that’s a great win for the 76ers.
Philadelphia snuck out with a 118-114 win over the Charlotte Hornets Saturday night.
They are 41-33 (Birds), still the seventh seed in the Eastern Conference.
In his first game back in three weeks, Tyrese Maxey eased his way back into 26 points on 10-of-18 shooting along with eight assists.
Joel Embiid, off another big first quarter, finished with a game-high 29 points going 8-of-19 from the floor with six rebounds and two blocks, including a crucial denial with 7.4 seconds remaining. Paul George steadily put up 26 points, 12 rebounds and four steals shooting 9-of-19 from the field.
VJ Edgecombe sliding back into that fourth option role, finished with 13 points on 11 shots. Brandon Miller led the Hornets with 29 as well.
Remarkably, the Sixers were pretty much at full strength, only missing Johni Broome (meniscus tear). Charlotte was without Tidjan Salaun (calf strain).
Here are some thoughts at the buzzer.
The first ticket to the Final Four has been punched.
Behind 25 points from freshman superstar Keaton Wagler, No. 3 seed Illinois pulled away from No. 9 seed Iowa 71-59 on Saturday, March 28 in the Elite Eight of the 2026 Men's NCAA Tournament.
The victory clinched the Fighting Illini’s first Final Four appearance since 2005, when a Deron Williams-led team that won 37 of its first 38 games fell to North Carolina in the national championship game.
Next Saturday in Indianapolis, they’ll face the winner of Sunday’s matchup between No. 1 overall seed Duke and No. 2 seed UConn.
With his father, former NBA All-Star Peja Stojaković, Andrej Stojaković had 17 points 7-of-9 shooting for Illinois. Tomislav Ivišić added 13 points and two blocks for the Illini.
Despite a subpar outside shooting day from one of the nation’s best offenses, coach Brad Underwood’s team dominated the glass, getting 16 offensive rebounds that led to 13 second-chance points.
The Illini took control late in what had been a back-and-forth game that featured seven ties and 13 lead changes. Trailing 51-50 with 7:20 remaining in regulation, Illinois rattled off eight unanswered points while holding Iowa scoreless for 2:54 and without a made field goal for 5:37.
In his final college game, Bennett Stirtz had a team-high 24 points for the Hawkeyes, who were appearing in their first Elite Eight since 1987. Nobody else on Iowa’s team had more than 10 points.
After shooting 57.1% from the field in the first half, the Hawkeyes shot just 23.1% in the second half, missing 20 of their 26 field-goal attempts, including 12 of their final 13 shots.
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Illinois vs Iowa: Illini beat Hawkeyes in Elite 8, advance to Final Four
The game had a ton of drama and resisted easy definitions. It wasn’t that the teams traded leads back and forth—the Sox never led, in fact—but every time I thought I had a handle on the direction of the game, a big moment occurred to completely erase that thought. For example, the Sox mishandling some plays, including logging their second error in as many games, had me thinking defensive deficits. That was until Marcelo Mayer came through in a big way with a great scoop and throw to first in the late innings. When the lack of offense seemed like the story of the game—despite scoring five runs, it felt like they were in a drought and they repeatedly came up short in big moments—Wilyer Abreu launched a two-out homer in the ninth inning.
This game will be remembered for its ABS adventures and umpiring miscues. The Sox ran out of ABS challenges with the first at-bat in the third. This was way too early, and a mistake by Roman Anthony with nothing on the line. Fully expect additional coaching on this point as players get used to incorporating it into game strategy. More ABS drama when Eugenio Suárez successfully challenged his strikeout, twice, on consecutive pitches.
Today ABS wasn’t popular in Red Sox Nation but it’s good to know that the game is a little fairer with it in the mix. So there’s that.
Even less popular was a big mistake by the home plate umpire, who egregiously called a check swing on Trevor Story to end a Sox rally as well as their eighth inning. It led to Story likely popping some blood vessels, and to Alex Cora’s ejection.
Personally, I sweated this game out and despite making it to extra innings, the Sox lost in eleven.
He walked the first batter faced in his MLB career, loading the bases in the process. In a dramatic sequence, he thought he got out of the jam, twice, while pitching to Eugenio Suárez. Suárez challenged—and won—the call both times. Credit to Watson for coming back and eventually getting the out. He did eventually get his first MLB K.
His day: 2-3, 1R, 1 CS.
I’m making a choice by putting this first in the list, but it’s important. Yuck. Jahmai Webster said he was told “it doesn’t mean what you think it means.” Hm. Dave O’Brien and Lou Merloni sounded a little skeptical, and so am I. To be clear, I don’t care about being “family friendly” at all but women find this gesture ugly and threatening. It’s unimaginative to boot.
They needed 35 and 27 pitches to get out of their respective first innings. Gray ran up several full counts and dropped the ball while trying to tag the runner at the plate. Whether or not the cold weather affected his spin, he couldn’t make the pitches he wanted. Weissert gave up a first-pitch HR, followed soon by a walk and a single.
0-4 today, 0-7 so far as a Red Sox. The Sox need him to chip away and get on base in his typical small-ball ways. He killed a rally in the seventh after being called out on strikes.
Despite Abreu’s fireworks, the Sox had trouble getting themselves going in big moments and had 15 K’s on the day. Way too many.
It’s early but this also feels like too many.
He rang up Story on a so-called check swing with the pitch in the dirt. What was egregious was not consulting another umpire.
The glass-half-full part of me says it was Wilyer Abreu’s no-doubter with two outs in the ninth to tie the game. It was outstanding, but I think the reality is that the play of the game was Story’s at-bat that was unfairly cut short by mistaken umpiring.
The Iowa Cubs were broadsided by the Columbus Clippers (Guardians), 4-3.
Iowa scored three runs in the bottom of the first inning and then didn’t score again. First, left fielder Justin Dean walked to lead off the bottom of the inning. He then stole second, went to third on a bad throw and scored on a fielder’s choice by first baseman Jonathon Long.
Two batters later, right fielder Kevin Alcántara did this.
The two-run home run went 393 feet and came on a slider from a right-hander that drifted outside the zone.
The I-Cubs got a good 3.1 innings from starter Will Sanders. Sanders gave up one run on a solo home run by Petey Halpin but nothing else. The final line on Sanders was one run on five hits over 3.1 innings. He struck out six and walked just one.
Luke Little relieved Sanders. He did not allow a run or a hit over 1.1 innings. He did walk two while striking out one.
Meanwhile, Iowa only had three hits after the first inning. One of them was this double by center fielder Brett Bateman.
Columbus got one run in each of the seventh, eighth and ninth innings to lose the game. Ethan Roberts gave up a run in the seventh and Yacksel Rios allowed a run in the eighth and ninth to blow the save and take the loss. The final line on Rios was two runs on four hits and three walks over two innings. He struck out one.
Alcántara was 1 for 4 with the two-run home run. Bateman was 1 for 3 with a double and a steal.
Time/Place: 8:40 p.m., Petco Park
SB Nation Site: Gaslamp Ball
Media: Detroit Sportsnet, MLB.TV, Tigers Radio Network
Pitching Matchup: RHP Jack Flaherty (0-0, 0.00 ERA) vs. RHP Randy Vásquez (0-0, 0.00 ERA)
* Note: Stats in the table below are Fangraphs’ 2026 projections
| Player | G | IP | K% | BB% | ERA | FIP | fWAR |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Flaherty | 29 | 160.0 | 25.7 | 8.4 | 4.03 | 3.89 | 2.5 |
| Vásquez | 36 | 137.0 | 15.8 | 8.3 | 4.80 | 4.94 | 0.7 |
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The first shake-up of the season for the line-up, with Gabriel Moreno and Jordan Lawlar each sitting this one out, replaced by James McCann and Jorge Barrosa respectively. Maybe we can become the first NL West team apart from the Dodgers to win a game? The Rockies already lost their second game, joining us, the Padres and Giants, who all came into play at 0-2. The Giants have run their scoreless streak to open the season to 20 innings against the Yankees at time of writing, while the Padres are trying to avoid being swept by the Tigers. Hopefully, this is Detroit getting it all out of the way early, since they will be joining the D-backs in flying to Arizona tonight…
Tonight is Eduardo Rodriguez’s first start in 2025, and we’ll be hoping for an improved version of E-Rod for 2026. He comes in having made 39 starts for Arizona, with an ERA just over five (5.02). That’s an ERA+ of 85. Among those with more than twenty starts for the Diamondbacks, that puts him right in between Rodrigo Lopez and Barry Enright. It is also two points better than Brandon Pfaadt’s career figure, though the latter is not earning twenty-one million dollars this year. If Rodriguez can become the first Arizona starter to make it through five innings this year, that might be a good sign. Otherwise, we may be looking at a Joe Ross sighting.
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The Detroit Pistons might have had one of their worst offensive showings of the season against the Minnesota Timberwolves on Saturday afternoon. Lucky for them, their elite defense showed up and allowed the Pistons to coast to a 109-87 win. It was the sixth time Detroit has held an opponent to 90 or fewer points this season. They are the only team in the league to hit that mark six times.
They also held the Timberwolves to just 31% shooting from the floor, the Pistons’ second-lowest mark of the season against any opponent.
Both teams were shorthanded, including their superstars. The Pistons played without Cade Cunningham and Isaiah Stewart. The Wolves played without Anthony Edwards, Jaden McDaniels, and Ayo Dosunmu. Both teams have been winning without their stars, however, because other players have been able to step up. That wasn’t the case for either team in what was mostly a defensive slugfest on Saturday.
Jalen Duren was limited to just 10 points and 13 rebounds in 29 minutes, attempting only seven shots. He had trouble dealing with Rudy Gobert’s length, and Minnesota, like most teams lately, has it in their game plan to limit passes to Duren in the post whenever possible. Daniss Jenkins, meanwhile, who has been on a bit of a hot streak since stepping into the starting lineup for Cunningham, was mostly awful against the Timberwolves.
Up until about the five-minute mark of the fourth quarter, when the game was pretty well decided, Jenkins was shooting 2-of-12 with as many assists as turnovers (three). He was sloppy with his handle, making ill-advised passes into non-existent windows, missing clear passing lanes, and giving up a lot of penetration on defense. In garbage time, he was able to hit four pretty easy looks, which allowed him to escape with a respectable 12 points on the night.
It’s not the first time Jenkins has had a stinker like that; he’s a second-year player, after all, but it might be the first time the Pistons have won a Daniss no-show in a while. They did it because so many other role players did just enough on offense — Detroit had seven players in double-figures, with Tobias Harris’ 18 leading the way — and because Detroit’s elite defense made everything difficult for an underpowered Minnesota attack.
To shout out just a couple specific guys — every Ron Holland three is a blessing, and we got two of them tonight to go with his stellar defense. Also, Kevin Huerter is looking more and more like a rotation mainstay, but I don’t know how it will happen when both Cunningham and Stewart return. Huerter had 11 points and made several smart reads as a cutter and a ball handler. He’s reminding me more and more of the rotation impact Dennis Schröder had on Detroit last year. A steadying presence who isn’t giving away anything on either side of the floor, and someone you trust to make the right decision if he has the ball in his hands.
Wolves’ role players not named Donte DiVincenzo couldn’t get anything going against Detroit’s stifling defense. Julius Randle, Naz Reid, Bones Hyland, and Mike Conley combined to shoot 8-for-38 from the floor. That’s 21% from the field. Only DiVencenzo was able to ride some hot 3-point streak shooting into a respectable night. He scored a game-high 22 and hit five threes. But he had 14 attempts, and was just 7-of-18 from the floor overall.
Even as Detroit was trying to give the game away with its patented rash of mind-boggling turnovers, Minnesota could do nothing with them. Detroit committed 19 turnovers on the night, and Minnesota was only able to turn those 19 extra possessions into seven points.
Unsurprisingly, Ausar Thompson and Holland get the lion’s share of the credit with their ability to hound players on the perimeter. Thompson had four steals and Holland two, as just one way to quantify their impact. But, really, it was a team effort. Caris LeVert had a couple of big blocks inside, Huerter continues to move and switch very well on defense, and Harris and Paul Reed were locked in and giving Detroit everything they had.
Detroit is now one win away from clinching the Central Division title, improved Detroit’s NBA Draft position courtesy of a pending swap with the Timberwolves, and they now sit 4.5 games up on the Boston Celtics for the first seed in the Eastern Conference.
The Knicks are finding important leadership voices beyond their main stars.
Fans mostly see one side of Mitchell Robinson: a silly, goofy personality who doesn’t take himself too seriously. Recently, however, Robinson has been one of the most vocal players calling out a few worrying Knicks trends and emphasizing the need to fix them ahead of the postseason.
“The guys are starting to trust me a lot more,” Robinson said after practice Saturday. “They’re putting trust in me, so I’m telling them what I see and things that I think we can get better at. Being more vocal, it’s coming naturally. The guys mentioned a few times, I’m the anchor of the defense. They trust me on the defensive end. That helps a lot.”
After the Knicks barely escaped with a one-point win over the tanking Nets last week, Robinson said, “Our approach got to be better. We can’t just look at their record and say, ‘we’ll whoop their ass.’ We just got to be better altogether. Until we figure that part out, then it’s going to be a long roller coaster.”
After the Knicks lost to the Hornets on Thursday, Robinson commented on an Instagram video of himself, saying, “don’t even matter unless we change our approach we ain’t doing s–t special keep that bulls–t up myself included [sic].”
The video showed Robinson mentoring second-year center Ariel Hukporti, giving him advice on how to tailor his rebounding strategy based on who was taking a shot.
It’s part of personal growth for Robinson, the longest-tenured Knick. During his first few years in the league, he was not nearly as comfortable with the media. Now, he’s consistently letting his thoughts — and concerns — be heard.
Two things he’s repeatedly harped on are the Knicks’ approach and connectivity.
“We’re gonna do some talking and get better connected and stuff like that,” Robinson said. “That’s basically what we have to do, at this point right now.
“In the playoffs, you’re playing the same team, potentially, seven times. The more we’re connected, the better off we’ll be. You’ve seen what we did last year, and we’re trying to go farther.”
There is value in having veterans beyond Jalen Brunson, Josh Hart and Karl-Anthony Towns provide different voices and perspectives in the locker room. Robinson is not the only one.
Coach Mike Brown identified Jordan Clarkson, who has been playing himself back into the rotation lately, as another important leader.
“You can have leadership in a lot of different ways,” Brown said Saturday. “As of late, the reality of it is, a guy like Jordan Clarkson is starting to separate himself and showing that he’s one of the leaders of the team. Just because you start, just because you score a ton or shoot a ton, or you’re one of the best defenders, that doesn’t necessarily mean that you’re a leader. Because one of the things is, leaders aren’t afraid to tell the truth. They do what they say. Being a leader means you gotta be on point all the time. You can’t be worried about whether your teammate likes you at the time because you’re saying something that’s truthful or you’re holding people accountable or not.
“So when you look at a guy like Jordan, who’s been through a lot, who’s still stayed ready, even when he was out, for him and listening to him speak up in front of the group now, that’s starting to show real leadership. Other guys have spoken up, other guys are trying to do it, and Mitch is one of them.”
Brunson is the formally recognized captain. Hart is the biggest talker. Towns, given his stature, is expected to be influential with his voice.
But Mikal Bridges and OG Anunoby are not particularly vocal. This leaves a bit of a void behind the aforementioned trio — one that Robinson and Clarkson can fill.
ATLANTA (AP) — Hubert Kós broke his own NCAA record while defending his title in the 200-yard backstroke to help the Texas men win a second straight national championship in swimming and diving on Saturday.
Kós won with a time of 1 minute, 34.13 seconds as the Longhorns piled up 445.5 points. He set an NCAA record of 1:34.21 in winning the event last season. Kós also broke the NCAA record in the 100 backstroke earlier this meet. Florida junior Jonny Marshall finished second and Virginia sophomore David King took third.
Runner-up Florida had 416 points. Indiana (351), Arizona State (328) and Tennessee (272) rounded out the top five.
Virginia freshman Maximus Williamson began the day by winning the 200 IM in 1:38.48. Indiana senior Owen McDonald was second, followed by Texas senior Baylor Nelson.
Florida senior Josh Liendo clocked a 39.91 to win the 100 freestyle. LSU junior Jere Hribar was second, followed by Tennessee senior Gui Caribe.
Arizona State junior Ilya Kharun won the 200 butterfly in 1:37.66, a half-second in front of Michigan senior Tyler Ray. Virginia freshman Thomas Heilman placed third.
Kharun, Adam Chaney, Remi Fabiani and anchor Jonny Kulow won the men’s 400 free relay with a NCAA record time of 2:42.15. N.C. State placed second and Florida was third. The Sun Devils won five of the seven relay races.
Texas A&M freshman Emilio Trevino won the title in platform diving with 465.40 points. Purdue sophomore Tyler Wills (451.15) and Florida sophomore Jesus Gonzalez (427.25) followed.
Coach Bob Bowman has led Texas to back-to-back championships. He guided Arizona State to the championship in 2024 before taking the Longhorns job.
Hall-of-Fame coach Eddie Reese led Texas to 15 championships during his 46-year run from 1978-2024.
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AP sports: https://apnews.com/sports
RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) — Nikolaj Ehlers had a goal and an assist to lead the Carolina Hurricanes to a 5-2 win over the New Jersey Devils on Saturday.
Shayne Gostisbehere, Jackson Blake, Jordan Staal and Seth Jarvis also scored for the Hurricanes, who won for the fourth time in five games. Brandon Bussi stopped 17 shots to win his second straight start after losing his previous three.
Timo Meier and Evgenii Dadonov scored for New Jersey and Jacob Markstrom had 29 saves. It was only the second loss in seven games for the Devils.
Ehlers, who has seven goals and 10 assists in 13 games this month, fueled a three-goal second period for the Hurricanes. The Hurricanes signed Ehlers to a six-year, $51 million contract in the offseason.
After not scoring a goal in the first 11 games of the season, Ehlers has 23 goals in 61 games. The 30-year-old left wing spent the first 10 seasons of his NHL career with Winnipeg. He has found a role in Carolina on a checking line with Staal, the Hurricanes’ captain, and gritty veteran winger Jordan Martinook.
Ehlers’ power-play goal at 10:10 of the second period tied the game at 1-1. Blake fooled New Jersey defenseman Jonas Siegenthaler on a goal that gave Carolina a 2-1 lead at 13:48. Ehlers set up Staal at 15:13 to make it 3-1.
Gostisbehere returned after a nine-game absence due to a lower-body injury. He added a goal at 15:25 in the third and Jarvis tacked on an empty-net goal.
Meier finished a pretty play by Dawson Mercer to give New Jersey a 1-0 after the first period.
Carolina out-shot New Jersey 34-20.
Devils: Host Chicago on Sunday.
Hurricanes: Host Montreal on Sunday.HOUSTON – After a buzzer malfunction at Toyota Center caused an 11-minute delay during the first half of Saturday’s Elite Eight game between Iowa and Illinois, officials sitting courtside resorted to an old-fashioned solution.
Kevin Johnson sat at the scorer’s table armed with two blue-and-white air horns, which he used to signal timeouts, substitutions and the end of each half.
Johnson, who has worked for the Houston Rockets as a game clock operator for 25 years, said the game operations crew always keeps air horns and stopwatches available in the arena just in case. On Saturday, as the delay dragged on, Johnson had a feeling they would be needed. He relayed a message into his headset and an employee scurried through the back hallways of Toyota Center to fetch the two emergency horns.
“They tried to go up and they were going to cut (the scoreboard) off. I said, ‘OK in the meantime, just get the air horns out here in case there’s a problem,’” Johnson said. “They were going to try and switch them back but the horn is tied to the whole thing. When they turned the screens back on, the horn is not going to stay cut off.”
Johnson was working the NCAA regional games in Houston along with the rest of the Rockets’ regular scorer’s table crew. He and shot clock operator Larry Stick, another longtime member of the Rockets’ staff, said a similar malfunction happened once before at a Rockets game many years ago – but they emphasized that incidents like that are rare in NBA arenas.
However, Johnson and Stick said it’s not unusual for scorekeepers and clock operators who work high school games to use manual air horns.
At NBA games, Johnson and Stick control the horn by flipping a switch on a Tissot handset, which resembles a simplistic video game controller. But that controller broke on Saturday, which caused a constant buzzing sound to emanate from the scoreboard overhanging the court.
At halftime, arena employees tried to switch out the Tissot unit entirely, but it still didn’t work. The scoreboard and horn remained inoperable for the second half. So Johnson returned to his seat, put down his cup of blue sports drink and positioned the air horn on the table in front of him.
“Got to stay ready,” he said.
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Iowa-Illinois game delayed by buzzer malfunction. Break out the air horn
