The Madness has arrived. Tuesday night the 2025 men’s NCAA tournament kicks into gear, with two of the First Four games coming from Dayton, Ohio. In the first game No. 16 St. Francis (PA) will square off with No. 16 Alabama State, with a trip to Kentucky to take on the top overall seed Auburn on the line. In the second game, No. 11 North Carolina — a surprising inclusion in the tournament — takes on No. 11 San Diego State with the winner facing No. 6 Mississippi. Wednesday night brings the First Four to a close. In the first game No. 16 American tangles with No. 16 Mount St. Mary’s, with the winners taking on Duke. The second game Wednesday night features No. 11 Xavier against No. 11 Texas
Category Archives: BASKETBALL
Mar 17, 2025; Sacramento, California, USA; Sacramento Kings forward Domantas Sabonis (11) reacts after a play during the second quarter against the Memphis Grizzlies at Golden 1 Center. Mandatory Credit: Sergio Estrada-Imagn Images Sacramento Kings star big man Domantas Sabonis injured his right ankle during Monday night’s victory over the Memphis Grizzlies and could be in jeopardy of missing some games. At a minimum, the Kings will list Sabonis’ availability for Wednesday’s home game against the Cleveland Cavaliers at some point on Tuesday. Sabonis recently missed six games with a hamstring injury. The 132-122 victory over Memphis was his second game back. Monday wasn’t an easy night for Sabonis as he initially exited less than three minutes into the game with blood spilling down his face and a cut over
The Louisville Cardinals were the saddest team in men’s college basketball only one year ago. Kenny Payne’s disastrous head coaching tenure reached rock bottom with consecutive seasons of some of the worst basketball in history for a program with as much tradition as the Cards. In 2022-23, Louisville started 0-9 with losses Bellarmine, Wright St., and Appalachian St. to open the season. They went 2-18 in the ACC, and finished 4-27 overall. Last season wasn’t much better: Louisville went 3-17 in the ACC and finished 8-24. Payne was fired after the season, and eventually replaced by College of Charleston coach Pat Kelsey. Kelsey wasn’t the Cards’ first choice, but his infectious energy, up-tempo offense, and consecutive NCAA tournament appearances gave Cardinals fans hope for the future. If nothing else, it
Mar 15, 2025; Denver, Colorado, USA; Washington Wizards guard Jordan Poole (13) (center) celebrates with teammates following his three-point basket in the fourth quarter against the Denver Nuggets at Ball Arena. Mandatory Credit: Ron Chenoy-Imagn Images The Washington Wizards have endured a long season but are fresh off one of their most enjoyable moments. The Wizards will look to follow up a stunning victory over the Denver Nuggets with another solid performance when they visit the Portland Trail Blazers on Monday night. Washington (15-51) completed a surprising season sweep of the Nuggets on Saturday with a 126-123 victory. Jordan Poole swished a 35-foot, 3-pointer with 1.8 seconds remaining to break the tie and give the Wizards their sixth win in the past 10 games. Poole immediately could sense the victory
Mar 13, 2025; Kansas City, MO, USA; Brigham Young Cougars forward Richie Saunders (15) drives to the basket around Iowa State Cyclones forward Joshua Jefferson (2) during the first half at T-Mobile Center. Mandatory Credit: William Purnell-Imagn Images Richie Saunders recorded 23 points and five assists and Fousseyni Traore added 15 points to help No. 17 BYU produce a 96-92 victory over No. 12 Iowa State on Thursday to reach the semifinals of the Big 12 championship in Kansas City, Mo. Trevin Knell made all four of his 3-point attempts while scoring 14 points as fourth-seeded BYU (24-8) won its ninth straight game. Mihailo Boskovic added 10 points for the Cougars, who will face either top-seeded Houston or 16th-seeded Colorado in Friday’s semis. Curtis Jones sank a career-best seven treys
Unrivaled announced the league’s All-Unrivaled First and Second Teams on Thursday — and the results were largely unsurprising. Napheesa Collier, who has been the league’s most dominant player on both ends, was named to the first team, along with Kayla McBride (Laces Club) and Chelsea Gray (Rose Club). The All-Unrivaled Second Team was comprised of Skylar Diggins-Smith (Lunar Owls), Rhyne Howard (Vinyl), and Angel Reese (Rose Club). All three had standout seasons; Diggins-Smith averaged 17.9 points and 4.8 assists, while clinching 5 games with game-winners. Howard averaged 20.5 points and 1.3 steals per game, while Reese averaged 13.1 points and 12.1 rebounds per game. Each of the league’s top two teams was honored with two All-Unrivaled selections; the Lunar Owls were represented by Collier (First Team) and Diggins-Smith (Second Team)
March is when stars are born. It’s when players are asked to step up in crucial moments, when they attempt the improbable and pull off the seemingly impossible. In basketball, the stage doesn’t get any bigger than March Madness. It feels like we see a few freshmen really break out during the NCAA Tournament every season. Last year was no exception. We watched JuJu Watkins scored 30 points in a Sweet 16 win over Baylor, we saw Hannah Hidalgo stuff the stat sheet in a second round victory over Ole Miss, and we were astonished by Audi Crooks’ record-setting performance – 40 points on 18-of-20 shooting to go along with 12 rebounds – in an unlikely triumph over Maryland. This March, we have more stellar rookies to pay attention to.
Georgia Bulldogs guard Silas Demary Jr. (5) drives the ball on Auburn Tigers guard Tahaad Pettiford (0) as Auburn Tigers take on Georgia Bulldogs at Neville Arena in Auburn, Ala., on Saturday, Feb. 22, 2025. Auburn Tigers lead Georgia Bulldogs 29-24 at halftime. There is plenty on the line for both Georgia and Oklahoma when the pair square off in the first round of the SEC tournament on Wednesday in Nashville, Tenn. For the Bulldogs (20-11), the No. 11 seed in the tournament going against the No. 14 Sooners (19-12), an NCAA Tournament berth appears secure. Georgia is mainly battling to improve its tournament position, as it is expected to make the program’s first appearance since 2015 and just its fourth in the last 23 years. Bulldogs coach Mike White
Feb 15, 2025; Blacksburg, Virginia, USA; Virginia Tech Hokies forward Tobi Lawal (1) works against Virginia Cavaliers forward Blake Buchanan (0) during the second half at Cassell Coliseum. Mandatory Credit: Brian Bishop-Imagn Images Cal and Virginia Tech have struggled down the stretch, yet one of them will claim at least a second game in the Atlantic Coast Conference tournament. The teams meet in the first round Tuesday afternoon in Charlotte, N.C. No. 10 seed Virginia Tech (13-18) has lost two in a row and three of its last four, including Saturday’s 65-47 setback at then-No. 11 Clemson. Tuesday’s winner meets No. 7 seed Stanford on Wednesday night. “Let’s go play well,” Virginia Tech coach Mike Young said. “Won at Cal earlier in the year.” No. 15 seed Cal (13-18) has
READ MORE: WNBA star Angel Reese blasts Delta over Toronto crash offer By JAKE NISSE Published: 23:54 EST, 7 March 2025 | Updated: 01:17 EST, 8 March 2025 Angel Reese has threatened to boycott WNBA games if the league does not meet players’ demands for the new Collective Bargaining Agreement, as the Chicago Sky forward continued to complain about her salary. Reese signed a four-year, $324,383 rookie scale contract ahead of her first pro season, and is set to make just under $75,000 in 2025, according to Spotrac. And while WNBA players are set to negotiate a new CBA after the players’ union opted out of the current one in October (it still runs through October 31, 2025), Reese said on her ‘Unapologetically Angel’ podcast that players could skip games if
The Sun Belt Conference tournament is back. And so is the format known as “The Gauntlet.” Four teams tied atop the Sun Belt standings this season with matching 13-5 records in conference play — South Alabama, James Madison, Troy, and Arkansas State — and those four teams have earned byes into deep in the tournament. South Alabama enters as the No. 1 seed in the conference, as they were undefeated against the other three teams this season to secure the tiebreaker advantage. The Jaguars were 2-0 this season against Arkansas State, and notched wins over both Marshall and James Madison. Alabama State, courtesy of the top seed, earned a bye to the Sun Belt semifinals. The Duke entered last weekend with a chance to clinch the conference title and No.
Let’s get this out of the way first: the court design at the Big 12 women’s basketball tournament is awful, atrocious, distracting and ridiculous. The floor in Kansas City, Missouri, was designed through a partnership with “Undefeated Inc.” which bills itself as an “authentic lifestyle brand and sneaker store inspired by sports, art, music and street culture.” And this is what they came up with, a basketball court that looks like a wildly bad game of tic-tac-toe. It makes Oregon’s court look normal. It’s unclear what the Big 12 and this brand were going for here, but it’s not good. It pales in comparison to the colorful design at the ACC Tournament in Greensboro, North Carolina. But reader, I’m asking you to ignore this appalling hardwood design for a moment.
Mar 2, 2025; South Bend, Indiana, USA; Notre Dame Fighting Irish guard Hannah Hidalgo (3) reacts in the first half against the Louisville Cardinals at the Purcell Pavilion. Mandatory Credit: Matt Cashore-Imagn Images Hannah Hidalgo posted 20 points, nine rebounds and six assists as No. 3 Notre Dame halted a two-game skid, defeating No. 25 Louisville 72-59 to gain a piece of the Atlantic Coast Conference championship on Sunday at South Bend, Ind. Notre Dame (25-4, 16-2 ACC) shares the regular-season title with NC State, which will hold the No. 1 seed for the ACC tournament based on defeating the Irish in double overtime last Sunday in Raleigh, N.C. Notre Dame will be the No. 2 seed. Olivia Miles scored 15 points and Sonia Citron and Maddy Westbeld both had
When this women’s college basketball season began, most folks figured that the race for the national player of the year would come down to three returning guards: UConn’s Paige Bueckers, USC’s JuJu Watkins and Notre Dame’s Hannah Hidalgo. And indeed, all three players have been mightily impressive this season and likely secured spots on the All-American First Team. A fourth player quickly rose to the top to join them in that debate and conversation in UCLA center Lauren Betts, who is averaging about 20 points and 10 rebounds per game and is the nucleus of a Bruins’ squad that started the year 23-0 and looks like a legit contender for the national title. But it feels like there’s a fifth player we should be talking about for a spot on
Portland Trail Blazers’ guard/forward Shaedon Sharpe has turned down the dunk contest multiple times at this point, but he might need to do it in order to save the competition. The high flyer has a bevy of highlight reel dunks to his name in his young career, but this one might take the cake as the 2024-2025 NBA Dunk of the Year. This angle is even better: First of all, OH MY GOD! Any time that a player throws the ball into no mans’ land and the opposition intercepts it, you just know that something insane is going to happen. This is how the Vince Carter dunk against France happened, same with Carmelo Anthony’s against the Jazz. You never throw the ball back across the court into the mass of
- 1
- 2