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🚨 Headlines
🏀 Historic comeback: Getting into Monday, NBA groups had misplaced 1,552 straight video games when trailing by 24+ factors within the fourth quarter. The Timberwolves did not get the memo, getting back from 24 all the way down to stun the Thunder in OT.
🇺🇸 Eagles eye White Home journey: In 2018, President Donald Trump rescinded the Eagles’ invitation to the White Home after some gamers refused to attend. Seven years later, the Eagles say they’d be “honored to go to” and “sit up for receiving the invitation.”
🏀 Hook ’em: Texas is No. 1 within the AP girls’s basketball ballot for the primary time in 21 years. The Longhorns are the fourth crew to carry the highest spot this season (South Carolina, UCLA, Notre Dame), tied for probably the most ever in a season.
🏈 “Tush Push” ban? The Packers have reportedly submitted a proposal to have the NFL change its guidelines concerning the “Tush Push,” which the Eagles have run to excessive success. Inexperienced Bay, notably, misplaced to Philly on this 12 months’s playoffs.
🏀 19 dimes: Nikola Jokić had 19 assists in Monday’s win over the Pacers, becoming a member of Wilt Chamberlain as the one facilities to achieve that mark. The three-time MVP is averaging 10.2 assists per sport this season, which ranks second within the NBA.
🏀 High 10 shakeup: Preseason vs. now
On October 14, the Related Press launched its preseason males’s faculty basketball ballot. 4 months later, half the highest 10 groups in that preliminary ballot aren’t even ranked. This isn’t regular.
Crashing out:
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Kansas: For the second straight 12 months, the Jayhawks had been the preseason No. 1 crew. And for the second straight 12 months, they’ve didn’t reside as much as that hype. This 12 months is worse, with KU falling out of the rankings for simply the second time since 2009.
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UConn: The 2-time defending champs went from preseason No. 3 to “is that this crew even good?” fairly shortly. They’ve already misplaced extra video games (9) than all of final season (3) and the season earlier than (8), and their three-peat odds are at the moment 50-to-1.
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Gonzaga: The Zags had been as soon as No. 6 within the nation. They’re now No. 3 in their very own convention. That is international territory for Mark Few, who has solely ever completed first (22 instances) or second (3 instances) within the WCC since taking the reins in 1999.
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Baylor: You’ll be able to’t fault media members for considering extremely of the Bears, who’ve been persistently nice below Scott Drew and possess loads of expertise. However this simply hasn’t been their 12 months. The most recent lowlight? An unpleasant loss to Huge 12 doormat Colorado.
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North Carolina: The Tar Heels went from preseason No. 9 to “First 4 Out” within the newest NCAA match projection, which feels overly optimistic if you happen to ask me. A 12 months after compiling 10 Quad 1 wins,* Hubert Davis’ crew has… one (vs. UCLA).
The opposite facet: Whereas 5 preseason High 10 groups at the moment are ranked, three preseason unranked groups at the moment are within the High 10.
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No. 7 St. John’s: Rick Pitino’s renaissance in Queens is without doubt one of the finest tales in sports activities. The Purple Storm’s prime 5 scorers are all transfers, they usually’ve delivered the varsity’s highest rating in 33 years.
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No. 8 Michigan State: The Spartans had been picked to complete fifth within the Huge Ten. As an alternative, they’ve misplaced simply 5 video games and are at the moment on tempo to win the convention. Whoops!
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No. 10 Texas Tech: The Purple Raiders did not crack the High 25 till January 27. 5 days later, they upset Houston and it has been a reasonably regular rise ever since (although the Cougars did get revenge on Monday).
My take: The preseason ballot has at all times been a crapshoot, so I do not wish to learn too a lot into this. That stated, the switch portal has clearly made it much more tough to guage groups earlier than they take the courtroom. Outcomes from the earlier season imply little when applications add new veterans every offseason, and parity is at an all-time excessive due to expertise being extra evenly distributed all through the nation.
🎥 Watch: AP ballot motion, week-to-week
*Quadrants, defined: A Quad 1 win is a house win towards a crew ranked within the prime 30 of the NET rankings, a neutral-site win towards a NET top-50 crew, or a highway win towards a NET top-75 crew.
⚾️ When faculty groups play the professionals
Have you ever ever puzzled how faculty baseball groups would fare towards execs? Unsurprisingly, the reply is just not very properly.
48-0: The Purple Sox beat Northeastern College on Friday to enhance to 38-0 this century — and 48-0 all-time — towards their native “rivals” at Northeastern and Boston Faculty. There have been some shut calls, although.
Zoom out: The Sox aren’t the one MLB membership that schedules faculty groups in spring coaching. And although these video games do not imply something and do not characteristic many massive league regulars, wins have been exceedingly uncommon for the school squads.
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MLB groups went 63-4 in exhibitions towards faculty groups between 2009-18, per FanGraphs, successful by a mean rating of 8.8-1.9.
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All 4 losses got here by the hands of Florida colleges: Miami beat the Marlins (2011), the College of Tampa beat the Phillies (2015), and the State Faculty of Florida beat the Pirates (2009) and Orioles (2012). Do not let the Manatees get sizzling!
Turning the tables: Essentially the most notable instance of school youngsters beating the professionals is, in fact, the Miracle on Ice. However maybe the second-most notable got here in 1992, when a “Choose Group” of school basketball stars took down the Dream Group in a scrimmage forward of the Barcelona Olympics. That sport is the topic of HBO’s aptly titled new documentary, “We Beat the Dream Group,” streaming now on Max.
*Enjoyable reality: The primary sport Fenway Park ever hosted was a 2-0 Sox win over Harvard on April 9, 1912. 11 days later, Boston performed its first official sport there, a 5-3 win over the New York Highlanders (now the Yankees).
🏀 Athlete highlight: One-armed hoopers
Baileigh Sinaman-Daniel made historical past not too long ago when the junior guard at Lesley College turned the first D-III girls’s basketball participant with one arm to attain in a collegiate sport. Weeks later, she scored her second basket — on her birthday.
What she’s saying: “When folks take a look at me, I simply hope they see me as Baileigh,” stated the Virginia native, who was born with a tiny proper arm that she’s unable to make use of. “I hope they see me as a basketball participant and as any individual who’s keen and capable of do every thing that everyone else is doing.”
She’s not alone… Hansel Enmanuel, who misplaced his arm at age six in a tragic accident, was a viral sensation in highschool, has 1.5 million Instagram followers and will get constant minutes for D-I Austin Peay. The junior guard had considered one of his finest video games of the season final week, recording 6 factors, 5 rebounds and three steals in 25 minutes.
🎥 Watch: The Hansel Enmanuel story
🏀 The contenders: 40 earlier than 20
The nice Phil Jackson as soon as proposed a easy but highly effective rule: If an NBA crew reaches 40 wins earlier than 20 losses, they’re formally a title contender.
By the numbers: 37 of the final 41 NBA champions gained 40 video games earlier than shedding 20, so Jackson was clearly onto one thing. The one groups that match that standards this season?
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Cavaliers* (47-10)
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Thunder (46-11)
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Celtics (41-16)
Simply missed: The Nuggets (38-20), Grizzlies (37-20) and Knicks (37-20) all misplaced over the weekend, eliminating them from 40/20 rivalry.
The 4 exceptions: Since 1980, 4 groups have gone on to win the NBA championship regardless of failing the “40 earlier than 20” take a look at.
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1994-95 Rockets: Houston (47–35) limped into the postseason however made historical past as soon as they bought there, changing into the lowest-seeded crew (sixth) ever to win all of it.
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2003-04 Pistons: Detroit (54-28) discovered their lacking piece in late February after they acquired Rasheed Wallace on the commerce deadline. Ball Do not Lie!
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2005-06 Warmth: Miami (52-30) was 11-10 when Stan Van Gundy resigned in December. Pat Riley changed him and promptly gained his fifth title as head coach.
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2020-21 Bucks: Milwaukee (46-26) was cold and hot for a lot of the pandemic-shortened season earlier than catching hearth when it mattered most.
Meals for thought… Who’s the most probably crew to develop into the fifth exception to the 40/20 rule? I am going to go together with the Nuggets, who gained two years in the past and have the very best participant on the planet. I briefly thought-about the Knicks, who’ve a roster constructed for the postseason, however then I noticed that they are 0-7 towards OKC, Cleveland and Boston (yikes!) and ran for the hills.
*Getting into historic territory: Cleveland is on tempo for 68 wins, which is a mark solely six groups have ever reached: the 2015-16 Warriors (73-9), 1995-96 Bulls (72-10), 1996-97 Bulls (69-13), 1971-72 Lakers (69-13), 1966-67 Sixers (68-13) and 1972-73 Celtics (68-14).
✍️ Additional factors
💩 No extra P00P: NBC Sports activities Philadelphia’s newly-designed scorebug alerts the top of “P00P” video games, so named for what the outdated scorebug appeared like anytime the Phillies and Pirates had been tied 0-0.
🏒 No extra 4 Nations? Regardless of the success of the NHL’s 4 Nations Face-Off, commissioner Gary Bettman is not certain there shall be room for it sooner or later. As a reminder, NHL gamers return to the Olympics in 2026 and the World Cup of Hockey returns in 2028.
⛳️ Now streaming: Scottie Scheffler’s arrest throughout final 12 months’s PGA Championship is again within the highlight due to Season 3 of “Full Swing,” which premiered on Netflix right now and options new footage and interviews with gamers (together with Scheffler himself).
🏎️ F1 lids: Formulation 1 groups launched helmet designs for all 20 drivers forward of the 2025 season, which begins subsequent month in Australia. Which one’s your favourite?
💔 Guardians proprietor dies: Guardians proprietor Larry Dolan has handed away at age 94. A lifelong Cleveland resident, Dolan and his household are the longest-tenured house owners in Guardians historical past, having owned the crew for the previous 25 years.
🚌 Scary journey house: A bus carrying the IU Indianapolis males’s basketball crew caught hearth on Sunday evening on the best way house from a sport in Kentucky. The hearth, brought on by a “mechanical difficulty,” destroyed the bus, however everybody on board escaped unhurt.
📺 Watchlist: Reunion in Los Angeles
The Lakers host the Mavericks tonight (10pm ET, TNT) of their first matchup because the Luka Dončić commerce.
Surprisingly even: Los Angeles has gained six of eight video games since buying Dončić. Dallas has been practically nearly as good, successful 5 of their final seven regardless of shedding Anthony Davis to harm.
Extra to look at:
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🏀 NBA: Cavaliers at Magic (7:30pm, TNT) … The primary-place Cavs have gained seven straight video games and 11 of their final 12.
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🏀 NCAAM: No. 2 Duke at Miami (7pm, ESPN); No. 24 Mississippi State at No. 6 Alabama (9pm, ESPN2) … Tonight may be just a little bizarre for Duke affiliate head coach Jai Lucas.*
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🏒 NHL: Oilers at Lightning (7:30pm, Disney+) … Edmonton’s Leon Draisaitl (86) and Tampa’s Nikita Kucherov (83) are second and third in factors.
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⛳️ TGL: The Bay vs. Jupiter Hyperlinks (9pm, ESPN) … The Bay (3-0-0) are the one crew that hasn’t misplaced. Did we simply jinx them?
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⚽️ Champions Cup: Inter Miami (1-0) vs. Sporting KC (8pm, FS2); LAFC (1-2) vs. Colorado Rapids (10pm, FS2) … First spherical, second leg.
*Coach in ready: Lucas has reportedly agreed to develop into the brand new head coach at Miami, the place he’ll succeed Jim Larrañaga, who stepped down in December. So he’ll be teaching towards his future crew tonight as he waits for the contract to be finalized.
🏀 MVP trivia
MVP favourite Shai Gilgeous-Alexander is vying to develop into the eighth level guard to win the award.
Query: Are you able to identify the seven level guards who’ve gained?
Trace: Lakers, Suns, Warriors, Royals, Celtics, Bulls, Thunder.
Word: Allen Iverson and James Harden are combo guards, however each had been listed as taking pictures guards after they gained MVP.
Reply on the backside.
📸 Photograph end: Purple, White and Blue
What. A. Shot.
Trivia reply: Magic Johnson (3x), Steve Nash (2x), Stephen Curry (2x), Oscar Robertson, Bob Cousy, Derrick Rose, Russell Westbrook
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