LOS ANGELES — The night began with an exhilarating ring ceremony and marching band ended with the electrifying sound of a trumpet for the guy on the mound who didn’t have a World Series ring. “Yeah, they got their rings,” Los Angeles Dodgers closer Edwin Diaz told USA TODAY Sports, “but I got the ball.” […]

SACRAMENTO, CA — Everyone watches women’s sports, including Kevin Durant. After Ashlon Jackson knocked down a buzzer-beating 3-pointer to send No. 3 Duke to the Elite Eight for the second consecutive season, her phone exploded with hundreds, maybe thousands, of messages, she said. “I put my phone on Do Not Disturb last night,” Jackson said on […]

Following Texas women’s basketball’s uninspired 86-70 loss to Vanderbilt in February, head coach Vic Schaefer publicly called out his squad. The challenge led to some hard conversations between the Longhorns.  “We had to come back to drawing board. What’s our goals for the season? What do we want out of this season too? What are […]

SACARMENTO, CA — The Oklahoma women’s basketball team upset South Carolina in the regular season, but the Gamecocks got the last laugh in the Sweet 16.  No. 1-seeded South Carolina defeated No. 4 Oklahoma 94-68 in a wire-to-wire victory in the 2026 Women’s NCAA Tournament on Saturday, punching the Gamecocks’ ticket to their sixth consecutive […]

CHICAGO – Dusty May’s youngest son wanted to keep playing basketball. Just like his dad once did. Eli May had it all planned out. He was going to walk-on at South Florida, just like his eldest brother, Jack, did at Florida, and middle brother, Charlie, at UCF. But then Michigan called two years ago. That’s […]

HOUSTON — The Illinois men’s basketball team was in the airport in Champaign, Illinois, preparing to board a flight to Houston for the NCAA Tournament regional, when Illini freshman forward David Mirkovic made a prescient purchase. Mirkovic’s teammate, Keaton Wagler, sent him a link to an artificially generated photo of Mirkovic wearing a black cowboy […]

The Milwaukee Bucks have officially been eliminated from NBA playoff contention for the 2025-26 season. The franchise had not missed the playoffs since the 2015-16 season but will now instead land in the NBA draft lottery. Center Myles Turner and the Bucks fell to 29-44 on the season after losing 127-95 to Victor Wembanyama and […]

HOUSTON – Keaton Wagler’s eyes flirted with the rim and his feet appeared to follow suit. The Illinois freshman guard dribbled past the 3-point line and suddenly spun to his left, sending his defender stumbling backward as if propelled by an invisible force. Iowa guard Isaia Howard scrambled to his feet, but by then Wagler […]