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TL’s Sunday Sports Notes | March 30

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While We’re Young (Ideas) | On NCAA Madness to Come

By TERRY LYONS, Editor of Digital Sports Desk

BOSTON – There are two (somewhat) hidden gems in the annual NCAA championship calendar. One is underway, and the other is Memorial Day Weekend – this year at nearly Gillette Stadium in Foxboro. Sometimes, they are overlooked with all of the hullabaloo of March Madness, the GranDaddy of them all. The two best?

  1. The NCAA Frozen Four
  2. The NCAA Lacrosse Championship

Here’s the bracket for the on-going men’s ice hockey tournament, noting local favorite Boston College was a 3-1 winner over nearby Bentley on Friday afternoon in a very hard-fought game. BC improved to 27-7-2 overall. UConn, Penn State and Denver advanced as well, all three knocking out New England-area schools. Denver will play Boston College on Sunday night at 7:00pm with the winner advancing to the Frozen Four. Boston University played Saturday afternoon and defeated Cornell, 3-2, in overtime, to advance to the national semifinals in St. Louis … You can see all the results by visiting HERE.

When all is settled to four hockey teams, the Frozen Four will convene in St. Louis, Missouri – the hockey capital of the Mississippi River – although the river that runs through it never freezes.

The Frozen Four usually pits schools from New England (and occasional New York State) against schools from the west (Minneapolis-St. Paul, Michigan, Denver). This year, Penn State is representing the top notch Big Ten schools.

Going into the tournament, the four schools ranked in the Top Four were the same to be assigned No. 1 seeds. They were:

  1. Boston College
  2. Michigan State (was ranked as No. 1, while BC was No. 2)
  3. Maine
  4. Western Michigan

No. 3 Maine was ousted by Penn State, 5-1, on Friday while No. 2 Michigan State was eliminated by Cornell, the lone Ivy League representative.

While the men’s Final Four basketball tournament is April 5 & 7, the Frozen Four is scheduled for April 10 & 12.

LAX: Come Memorial Day Weekend, May 24 & 26, with ancillary (Women’s semis/finals and Division II and III men’s championships all weekend, one of the great American events will be staged in nearby Foxborough, Mass., at the home of the New England Patriots (NFL) and Revolution (MLS). Tickets range between $33 and $100 and are available on Ticketmaster. The top schools currently ranked include:

  1. Cornell
  2. Maryland
  3. Ohio State
  4. Princeton

That’s two Ivy League schools and two Big Ten schools at the top but plenty of others knocking at the door, and there’s two months of action and tournament games to come.

One important thing of note, the women’s basketball Finals Four, women’s Frozen Four and the women’s lacrosse championship are tremendous events with outstanding student-athletes, competing at a very high level. I do not want to take one thing away by listing the men’s tournaments without mentioning the women, especially in lacrosse as we’ll see them play in Foxborough this May.

HERE NOW, THE NOTES: As long as the topic is tournament time, let’s look at the newest college tournament on the block. The College Basketball Crown is a new 16-team, single-elimination postseason men’s basketball tourney, featuring teams from the Big Ten, Big 12 and Big East conferences, along with additional at-large participants. It’s scheduled from March 31 to April 6, 2025, and will be played at two Las Vegas venues – the MGM Grand Garden Arena and T-Mobile Arena. All games will be broadcast on FOX and FS1.

Look for the likes of Boise State, Georgetown, Oregon State and Villanova competing for NIL (Name, Image and Likeness) money. According to reports, the champion team will receive a $300,000 in NIL money, the runner-up will earn $100,000, and the semifinalists will each take home $50,000 in NIL.

Utah vs. Butler will tip off the event on Monday, March 31, at 3 p.m. EDT.

Club World Cup Prize Pool at $1 Billion

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ZURICH – (Staff and Wire Service Report) – The 32 teams competing in the World Cup for Clubs (not National teams) this summer will be vying for as much as a $125 million first-place check from a $1 billion prize pool. FIFA announced the financial incentives on Wednesday of the tournament scheduled to be played in June and July at venues around the United States.

FIFA president Gianni Infantino said in a statement, “The distribution model of the FIFA Club World Cup reflects the pinnacle of club football and represents the biggest-ever prize money for a football tournament comprising a seven-match group stage and playoff format with a potential payout of USD 125 million foreseen for the winners.

“In addition to the prize money for the participating teams, there is an unprecedented solidarity investment program where we have a target of an additional 250 million dollars being provided to club football across the world. This solidarity will undoubtedly provide a significant boost in our ongoing efforts in making football truly global.

“Not only that, but FIFA will neither retain any funding for this tournament, as all revenues will be distributed to club football, nor will it touch FIFA’s reserves, which are set aside for global football development through the 211 FIFA Member Associations.”

Clubs’ prize money will add up throughout the event, starting at $2 million per win and $1 million per draw in the group stage.

As teams progress through the tournament, they will receive an extra $7.5 million for reaching the round of 16, $13,125,000 for getting to the quarterfinals and $21 million for advancing to the semifinals. Spots in the final are worth another $30 million, and the championship adds an additional $40 million.

Additional participation incentives will be granted to the teams, starting as low as $3.58 million for the Oceania champion, Auckland City, and going as high as $38.19 million for the biggest teams from the European federation, UEFA.

Representing Major League Soccer will be the Seattle Sounders and Inter Miami.

Matches will be played in Miami Gardens, Fla. (site of the opener between Inter Miami and Al Ahly of Egypt on June 14); East Rutherford, N.J. (site of the final on July 13); Pasadena, Calif.; Charlotte; Atlanta; Philadelphia; Seattle; Orlando; Nashville; Cincinnati and Washington.

Notable teams in field include Manchester City and Chelsea from England, Real Madrid and Atletico Madrid from Spain, Bayern Munich and Borussia Dortmund from Germany, Paris Saint-Germain, Inter Milan and Juventus from Italy, River Plate and Boca Juniors from Argentina and Flamengo, Palmeiras and Fluminese from Brazil.

–Field Level Media

NBA Makes $154.6m Cap Projection

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NEW YORK – (Staff and Wire Service Report) -The NBA will increase the salary cap by 10 percent for the 2025-26 season, according to multiple reports from the NBA’s annual Board of Governors meeting. The increase — the maximum allowed under the collective bargaining agreement — is reportedly projected to bring the cap number from $140.6 million to $154.6 million. Additionally, the luxury tax threshold is projected to rise from $170.8 million to $187.9 million, per Tuesday’s report.

For teams that exceed the luxury tax, the First Apron level is projected to be $195.9 million and the Second Apron level to be $207.8 million.

It is a move that was anticipated ahead of the league’s new broadcast rights kicking in next season. This increase would mark the third time in the past four years that the salary cap has increased by 10 percent.

–Field Level Media

March Madness Tip-Off

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While We’re Young (Ideas) – Special NCAA Edition

By TERRY LYONS, Editor of Digital Sports Desk

PROVIDENCE – Highly respected sports industry guru Tony Ponturo, he of multi-time nominee and winner for both the Most Powerful Man in Sports and in the theatre industry, wrote a thought-leadership book entitled, “Revenge of the C+ Student.” Ponturo, a two time TONY Award winner for his efforts on Broadway, reviving “Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf” and producing 2010 Best Musical “Memphis,” helped make the brands “Bud” and “Bud Light” household names on a worldwide basis. Just ask The Budweiser Clydesdales.

Ponturo spent 26 years selling Bud, the exact same amount of time this columnist spent working for David Stern at the National Basketball Association. Looking at those two parallel lines, and enlightened by Ponturo’s book and his transcript, I’d love to author a similar sports business practice book and I’d call it, “At Least I Was Good at Geography.”

To wit, I give you this year’s brackets for NCAA Division I Men’s Basketball.

In the East, we have:

  • No. 2 Alabama
  • No. 3 Wisconsin
  • No. 4 Arizona
  • No. 5 Oregon
  • No. 6 BYU (Utah)
  • No. 7 St. Mary’s Moraga (California)
  • No. 14 Montana

In the West, we have:

No. 1 Florida

No. 2 St. John’s (New York)

No. 3 Texas Tech (Lubbock, Texas)

No. 4 Maryland

No. 5 Memphis (Tennessee)

No. 6 Missouri

No. 8 UConn (Hartford, Connecticut area)

No. 9 Oklahoma

No. 14 UNC Wilmington (North Carolina)

No. 16 Norfolk State (Norfolk, Virginia)

There’s a few more.

In the South, there’s Michigan State (Lansing), Marquette (Wisconsin), Yale (New Haven, Connecticut), and Michigan (Ann Arbor) – four schools where you can’t get much further North, unless Canada does become the 51st State and UConn is south of Yukon.

In the Midwest, the bracket claims, UCLA (Los Angeles), Gonzaga (Spokane, Washington), Utah State (Logan, Utah), and then a slew of Southeastern or Southern schools like Wofford (Spartanburg, South Carolina), High Point (North Carolina), Clemson (South Carolina), Kentucky, McNeese (Lake Charles, Louisiana), Tennessee and Georgia.

There are other examples, but you surely get the point.

In recent years, the NCAA made adjustments to the brackets so an Eastern team such as St. John’s (full disclosure as my alma mater) can play in the West Regional but remain in Providence, Rhode Island to do so. But, success in Providence sends teams in that pod to San Francisco while a successful weekend in Seattle for Arizona or Oregon sends a team to Newark New Jersey.

The tournament itself increased from 64 to 68 teams in 2001, so we’ve been bickering about this stuff for decades. Still, there is no resolve and it’s pretty bad when there’s no Big East team in the East.

Admittedly, this is nothing new being reported. The days of a truly East vs West NCAA Tournament went out with the 16 team set-up which gave the National Invitational Tournament (NIT) in New York the golden opportunity of securing a very deep field in the late ‘60s and early ‘70’s. As the times changed and the Big Dance played to a bigger ballroom of dancers, the money kicked in and TV programmers maxed-out the billions being spent.

Suffice it to say, the names of the regionals should no longer be East, West, South and Midwest, and maybe the NCAA should take a page out of the NHL’s book and rename the basketball regionals something like:

  • Lester Patrick
  • Conn Smythe
  • James Norris
  • Charles Francis Adams

Joking aside, it’s time to rid the tournament of its D- grade in Geography, as the Men’s and Women’s basketball committees divvy-up the schools with goals other than to stack them to represent a region of the USA.

May it be suggested:

  • Dave Gavitt Division (East)
  • John Wooden Division (West)
  • Ray Meyer Division (Midwest)
  • Guy Lewis Division (South-Texas-Southwest representation)

Those names, in tribute of Dave Gavitt (founder of the BIG EAST), John Wooden (the great UCLA coach), Ray Meyer (coached Chicago’s DePaul University from 1942 to 1984) and Guy Lewis (coach of University of Houston from 1956 to 1986). To pay proper respect to college basketball in the United States, the Most Outstanding Player from each division would be recognized and awarded with:

  • Gavitt MOP received the Patrick Ewing Trophy
  • Wooden MOP honored with the Kareem Abdul-Jabbar Trophy
  • Meyer MOP receives the Oscar Robertson Trophy
  • Lewis MOP honored with the Junior Bridgeman Trophy

Should the tournament choose to expand, we could very easily add:

  • Gonzaga Division (Northwest) – MOP award John Stockton Trophy
  • Coach K Division (Southeast) – MOP gets the Michael Jordan Trophy (apologies to Grant Hill, Ralph Sampson, Artis Gilmore and Len Bias).

Those two divisional mentioned do not need further explanation, I hope.

The bottom line as the 2025 NCAA Men’s Basketball tournament begins, is that the famed, crack committee did a pretty good job of selecting the right teams and fairly distributing them across the four existing regional pods, sans the Group of Death they sent out West.

The West is so stacked, a hot team like Florida, after its No. 1 vs No. 16 tilt against Norfolk State, will have a rough road to the Final 4, including:

  • Winner of UConn v.Oklahoma
  • Winner of Memphis v. Colo State/or/Maryland v. Grand Canyon
  • A Regional Final against No. 2 St. John’s or others (Kansas/Texas Tech) etc

There’s gotta be a better way.
They were partying at West End Johnnies at an NCAA Regional in Boston

PICKS: Here are a few picks that are going into a combination of my two or three bracket submission with friends and family. (Note: I always bang out one bracket on Selection Sunday night and set it aside). Then with more thought and research I do another bracket for use in pools.

TEAMS CONSIDERED HOT: These teams were playing the best over the past few weeks and into their conference tournaments:

  1. Florida
  2. Duke
  3. Houston
  4. Auburn
  5. Tennessee
  6. Michigan State
  7. St John’s
  8. Alabama
  9. Texas Tech
  10. Iowa State

FACTS: In the Round of 64, the higher seed wins 71.5% and that includes No. 8 v. No. 9 which are really equal … In the Second Round, the better seeds win at a 73.1% clip. After that, the advantage for the higher seeds declines gradually:

  • Sweet 16 – 63.8% victory pace for higher seed
  • Elite 8 – 55%

In terms of vulnerable seeds since 2009, the No. 6 seeds are (29-31) against the No. 11s. In just the last 10 years, No. 11 seeds are 22-18 vs. No. 6

Applying the 6 vs 11 raw data to this particular year’s bracket set-up surfaces a few interesting upset possibilities:

  • In the East bracket, can No. 11 VCU upset No. 6 BYU in Denver where you have to figure in the travel and altitude?
  • In the South, No. 6 Ole Miss has to play the hot play-in winner of North Carolina.
  • In the West, No. 6 Missouri (22-11) has a tough draw vs. No. 11 Drake (30-3).
  • And, in the Midwest bracket, No. 6 Illinois will face play-in winner Xavier, a team that finished the Big East regular season quite strong with seven straight victories to close out the season before meeting and losing to Marquette at the Garden.

The teams entering the tournament that have executed the best in terms of both Offensive and Defensive efficiency:

  • Auburn
  • Duke
  • Florida
  • Houston
  • Arizona
  • Tennessee
  • Louisville

Not to bore anyone with a full Round-by-Round, Pick-by-Pick selection show, (see Jay Bilas’ column on ESPN.com as he does a much better job than everyone else put together), I’ll simply list my Regional Finalist predictions. Yes, they are rather high seeds.

  • East: Duke vs. Wisconsin
  • Midwest: Houston vs. Tennessee
  • South: Auburn vs. Michigan State
  • West: Florida vs St. John’s

No matter what – whether your bracket is torn up tomorrow or your favorite team survives and advances – it’s time for March Madness. Enjoy the ride. Enjoy the spectacle of the best of College Basketball (Men’s and Women’s) with a love of the game and not the X and O marks on a piece of paper, otherwise known in American culture as “your bracket.”

TL

PGA Tour: Valspar Championship

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PALM HARBOR – (Staff and Wire Service) – The PGA Tour’s Florida Swing rolls on with the Valspar Championship, which tees off Thursday at Innesbrook Resort.

While it lacks the event status of Bay Hill or TPC Sawgrass the past two weeks, Innesbrook’s Copperhead course is among the favorite tour stops for several players. With a field highlighted by Xander Schauffele and Justin Thomas, our golf experts break down the tournament and share their favorite prop picks along with best bets to win this week.

VALSPAR CHAMPIONSHIP
Location: Palm Harbor, Fla., March 20-23
Course: Innisbrook Resort, Copperhead Course (Par 71, 7,352 Yards)
Purse: $8.7M (Winner: $1.566M)
Defending Champion: Peter Malnati
FedExCup leader: McIlroy

HOW TO FOLLOW
TV: Thursday-Friday: 2-6 p.m. ET (Golf Channel/NBC Sports App); Saturday-Sunday: 1-3 p.m. (Golf Channel/NBC Sports App), 3-6 p.m. (NBC/Peacock)
Streaming (ESPN+): Thursday-Friday: 7:30 a.m.-6 p.m. ET; Saturday-Sunday: 7:45 a.m.-6 p.m.
X: @ValsparChamp

PROP PICKS
–Sam Burns to Beat Xander Schauffele (+110 at DraftKings): Neither player enters in particularly good form, but at least two-time winner Burns is playing a track that he has had tremendous success on in the past — despite missing the cut here last year.

–Corey Conners Top 20 Finish (+120 at BetRivers): This is a strong potential payout for a player who has a pair of top-10s in a signature event and at The Players the past two weeks.

2025 Prop Pick Record: 11-17-1

BEST BETS
–Tommy Fleetwood (+1100 DraftKings) has finished T22 or better in 14 consecutive worldwide starts as he still seeks his first stroke-play victory in the United States.
–Xander Schauffele (+1200) called the state of his game “gross” as he has scuffled to a T40 and a 70th in his first two starts back from a rib injury, but did shoot a final-round 65 here in 2024 and is the highest-ranked player in the field at No. 3.
–Sepp Straka (+1600) has been as consistently competitive as anyone to begin 2025, with last week’s T14 adding to a win at the AmEx and a T5 at Bay Hill.
–Justin Thomas (+2000) has three top-10s in his past six event starts, and he has said Copperhead is among his favorite courses on tour. He hasn’t won since the 2022 PGA Championship. He is third at the book with five percent of the money backing Thomas to break his winless drought this week.
–Sam Burns (+2200) has one top-20 result in seven starts this year and missed the cut at The Players, but he has won this event twice.
–Michael Kim (+3000) is already making his 10th start of the season. Fatigue is a concern, with a missed cut last week following five consecutive top-13s.
–Corey Conners (+3500) is a two-time winner on tour who has quietly finished solo third and T6 in marquee events the past two weeks. He leads the field with 16 percent of the money and five percent of all bets at DraftKings backing Conners to claim his third tour win this week.
–Lucas Glover (+6000) is coming off a T3 at The Players as he makes his 20th start in this event.

NOTES
–The field includes 18 of the top 50 players in the Official World Golf Ranking, including eight of the top 25.
–The ninth hole will play from the No. 11 tee this year to add length to the hole and to bring bunkers into play.
–Malnati seeks to join Paul Casey (2018-19) and Sam Burns (2021-22) as the third player to successfully defend a Valspar title in the past seven editions of the event.
–Neal Shipley, the low amateur at last year’s Masters, is in the field on a sponsors exemption. He is joined by Luke Clanton, who earned an exemption by winning the 2024 Valspar Collegiate Invitational before earning his PGA Tour membership through University Accelerated. He is eligible to accept membership upon turning professional at the conclusion of his junior season at Florida State. Blades Brown, 17, will make his fourth start of the season. He tied for 34th at the Mexico Open in his lone made cut this year.
–Vijay Singh set the tournament scoring record of 266 in 2004, while Padraig Harrington set the 18-hole record of 61 in the first round in 2012.

–Field Level Media

TL’s Sunday Sports Notebook | Special Edition

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Bracketology: NCAA Fails Geography 101

By TERRY LYONS, Editor of Digital Sports Desk

PROVIDENCE – Highly respected sports industry guru Tony Ponturo, he of multi-time nominee and winner for both the Most Powerful Man in Sports and in the theatre industry, wrote a thought-leadership book entitled, “Revenge of the C+ Student.”Ponturo, a two time TONY Award winner for his efforts on Broadway, reviving “Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf” and producing 2010 Best Musical “Memphis,” helped make the brands “Bud” and “Bud Light” household names on a worldwide basis. Just ask The Budweiser Clydesdales.

Ponturo spent 26 years selling Bud, the exact same amount of time this columnist spent working for David Stern at the National Basketball Association. Looking at those two parallel lines, and enlightened by Ponturo’s book and his transcript, I’d love to author a similar sports business practice book and I’d call it, “At Least I Was Good at Geography.”

To wit, I give you this year’s brackets for NCAA Division I Men’s Basketball.

In the East, we have:

  • No. 2 Alabama
  • No. 3 Wisconsin
  • No. 4 Arizona
  • No. 5 Oregon
  • No. 6 BYU (Utah)
  • No. 7 St. Mary’s Moraga (California)
  • No. 14 Montana

In the West, we have:

No. 1 Florida

No. 2 St. John’s (New York)

No. 3 Texas Tech (Lubbock, Texas)

No. 4 Maryland

No. 5 Memphis (Tennessee)

No. 6 Missouri

No. 8 UConn (Hartford, Connecticut area)

No. 9 Oklahoma

No. 14 UNC Wilmington (North Carolina)

No. 16 Norfolk State (Norfolk, Virginia)

There’s a few more.

In the South, there’s Michigan State (Lansing), Marquette (Wisconsin), Yale (New Haven, Connecticut), and Michigan (Ann Arbor) – four schools where you can’t get much further North, unless Canada does become the 51st State and UConn is south of Yukon.

In the Midwest, the bracket claims, UCLA (Los Angeles), Gonzaga (Spokane, Washington), Utah State (Logan, Utah), and then a slew of Southeastern or Southern schools like Wofford (Spartanburg, South Carolina), High Point (North Carolina), Clemson (South Carolina), Kentucky, McNeese (Lake Charles, Louisiana), Tennessee and Georgia.

There are other examples, but you surely get the point.

In recent years, the NCAA made adjustments to the brackets so an Eastern team such as St. John’s (full disclosure as my alma mater) can play in the West Regional but remain in Providence, Rhode Island to do so. But, success in Providence sends teams in that pod to San Francisco while a successful weekend in Seattle for Arizona or Oregon sends a team to Newark New Jersey.

The tournament itself increased from 64 to 68 teams in 2001, so we’ve been bickering about this stuff for decades. Still, there is no resolve and it’s pretty bad when there’s no Big East team in the East.

Admittedly, this is nothing new being reported. The days of a truly East vs West NCAA Tournament went out with the 16 team set-up which gave the National Invitational Tournament (NIT) in New York the golden opportunity of securing a very deep field in the late ‘60s and early ‘70’s. As the times changed and the Big Dance played to a bigger ballroom of dancers, the money kicked in and TV programmers maxed-out the billions being spent.

Suffice it to say, the names of the regionals should no longer be East, West, South and Midwest, and maybe the NCAA should take a page out of the NHL’s book and rename the basketball regionals something like:

  • Lester Patrick
  • Conn Smythe
  • James Norris
  • Charles Francis Adams

Joking aside, it’s time to rid the tournament of its D- grade in Geography, as the Men’s and Women’s basketball committees divvy-up the schools with goals other than to stack them to represent a region of the USA.

May it be suggested:

  • Dave Gavitt Division (East)
  • John Wooden Division (West)
  • Ray Meyer Division (Midwest)
  • Guy Lewis Division (South-Texas-Southwest representation)

Those names, in tribute of Dave Gavitt (founder of the BIG EAST), John Wooden (the great UCLA coach), Ray Meyer (coached Chicago’s DePaul University from 1942 to 1984) and Guy Lewis (coach of University of Houston from 1956 to 1986). To pay proper respect to college basketball in the United States, the Most Outstanding Player from each division would be recognized and awarded with:

  • Gavitt MOP received the Patrick Ewing Trophy
  • Wooden MOP honored with the Kareem Abdul-Jabbar Trophy
  • Meyer MOP receives the Oscar Robertson Trophy
  • Lewis MOP honored with the Junior Bridgeman Trophy

Should the tournament choose to expand, we could very easily add:

  • Gonzaga Division (Northwest) – MOP award John Stockton Trophy
  • Coach K Division (Southeast) – MOP gets the Michael Jordan Trophy (apologies to Grant Hill, Ralph Sampson, Artis Gilmore and Len Bias).

Those two divisional mentioned do not need further explanation, I hope.

The bottom line as the 2025 NCAA Men’s Basketball tournament begins, is that the famed, crack committee did a pretty good job of selecting the right teams and fairly distributing them across the four existing regional pods, sans the Group of Death they sent out West.

The West is so stacked, a hot team like Florida, after its No. 1 vs No. 16 tilt against Norfolk State, will have a rough road to the Final 4, including:

  • Winner of UConn v.Oklahoma
  • Winner of Memphis v. Colo State/or/Maryland v. Grand Canyon
  • A Regional Final against No. 2 St. John’s or others (Kansas/Texas Tech) etc

There’s gotta be a better way.

They were partying at West End Johnnies at an NCAA Regional in Boston

PICKS: Here are a few picks that are going into a combination of my two or three bracket submission with friends and family. (Note: I always bang out one bracket on Selection Sunday night and set it aside). Then with more thought and research I do another bracket for use in pools.

TEAMS CONSIDERED HOT: These teams were playing the best over the past few weeks and into their conference tournaments:

  1. Florida
  2. Duke
  3. Houston
  4. Auburn
  5. Tennessee
  6. Michigan State
  7. St John’s
  8. Alabama
  9. Texas Tech
  10. Iowa State

FACTS: In the Round of 64, the higher seed wins 71.5% and that includes No. 8 v. No. 9 which are really equal … In the Second Round, the better seeds win at a 73.1% clip. After that, the advantage for the higher seeds declines gradually:

  • Sweet 16 – 63.8% victory pace for higher seed
  • Elite 8 – 55%

In terms of vulnerable seeds since 2009, the No. 6 seeds are (29-31) against the No. 11s. In just the last 10 years, No. 11 seeds are 22-18 vs. No. 6

Applying the 6 vs 11 raw data to this particular year’s bracket set-up surfaces a few interesting upset possibilities:

  • In the East bracket, can No. 11 VCU upset No. 6 BYU in Denver where you have to figure in the travel and altitude?
  • In the South, No. 6 Ole Miss has to play the hot play-in winner of North Carolina.
  • In the West, No. 6 Missouri (22-11) has a tough draw vs. No. 11 Drake (30-3).
  • And, in the Midwest bracket, No. 6 Illinois will face play-in winner Xavier, a team that finished the Big East regular season quite strong with seven straight victories to close out the regular season before meeting and losing to Marquette at the Garden.

The teams entering the tournament that have executed the best in terms of both Offensive and Defensive efficiency:

  • Auburn
  • Duke
  • Florida
  • Houston
  • Arizona
  • Tennessee
  • Louisville

Not to bore anyone with a full Round-by-Round, Pick-by-Pick selection show, (see Jay Bilas’ column on ESPN.com as he does a much better job than everyone else put together), I’ll simply list my Regional Finalist predictions. Yes, they are rather high seeds.

  • East: Duke vs. Wisconsin
  • Midwest: Houston vs. Tennessee
  • South: Auburn vs. Michigan State
  • West: Florida vs St. John’s

No matter what – whether your bracket is torn up tomorrow or your favorite team survives and advances – it’s time for March Madness. Enjoy the ride. Enjoy the spectacle of the best of College Basketball (Men’s and Women’s) with a love of the game and not the X and O marks on a piece of paper, otherwise known in American culture as “your bracket.”

TL

St. John’s Wins Big East Title

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NEW YORK – (Staff and Wire Service Report) – It was 25 years in the making and it came in the same year legendary St. John’s coach Lou Carnesecca passed away just before his 100th birthday.

Big East Player of the Year RJ Luis Jr scored 27 of his 29 points in the second half, and the top-seeded St. John’s Red Storm pulled away to secure an 82-66 victory over second-seeded Creighton. With the victory, which surely had the late Coach Carnesecca smiling down with blessings upon his team on Saturday night, the Red Storm secured its first Big East conference tournament championship since 2000. With it comes an automatic bid to the NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament and a likely No. 2 seed.

Embed from Getty Images

The Red Storm (30-4), ranked No. 6 in the nation, won their ninth straight game by overcoming an early eight-point deficit a day after rallying from a 15-point deficit to beat Marquette Friday night in the semifinals.

The tournament’s most valuable player, Luis was 1 of 5 in the first half before making 10 of 13 shots as St. John’s dominated the second half. The Red Storm made 14 straight shots to turn a 41-38 deficit with 12:53 left into a 70-55 bulge with 5:16 remaining.

Luis scored 12 points during the decisive barrage, which started when Zuby Ejiofor hit a jumper and completed a 3-point play to forge a 41-41 tie. The Red Storm never trailed after Deivon Smith’s tough jumper in the lane countered a Steven Ashworth 3 and put the Red Storm up 45-44 with 11:07 left.

Luis took over from there, hitting two 3s and three layups in the Red Storm’s dominating 25-11 blitz.

Ejiofor followed up his career-high 33-point showing against Marquette by contributing 13 of his 20 in the second half. Kadary Richmond contributed 12 points and 12 rebounds as the Red Storm shot 71.9 percent in a 57-point second half and 52.3 percent overall.

Ryan Kalkbrenner scored 15 on 7-of-10 shooting for the Bluejays (24-10), who lost their fifth title game in five tries since joining the Big East from the Missouri Valley in the 2013-14 season. Jackson McAndrew added 14 while Ashworth and Jamiya Neal contributed 13 apiece as Creighton shot 43.3 percent and misfired on 20 of 26 3-point attempts.

Embed from Getty Images

The Blue Jays made seven of their first eight shots and opened a 17-9 lead on a basket by McAndrew with 13:22 remaining. Creighton made four of its final 22 shots and St. John’s sliced the deficit to 28-25 by halftime.

Luis hit a corner 3 to forge a 38-38 tie with 14:26 left, and Ejiofor completed a 3-point play nearly two minutes later for a 41-41 deadlock. After St. John’s took its first lead, Ashworth hit a 3 over Vincent Iwuchukwu with 11 1/2 minutes left. St. John’s Smith hit a jumper in the lane, and Richmond made a strong move to the rim for a 47-44 lead a little over a minute later.

After Neal dunked to get Creighton within 49-48, Luis converted a crafty layup off a bounce pass from Smith for a 58-50 lead with about 7 1/2 minutes left.

– Field Level Media

Celtics, Tatum Defeat the Heat

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MIAMI – (Staff and Wire Service Report) – Boston’s Jayson Tatum scored a game-high 28 points, leading the visiting Boston Celtics to a 103-91 win over the slumping Miami Heat on Friday night. Boston (48-19) also got 25 points from Jrue Holiday, who made 10 of 15 shots, including shooting 5-of-8 on 3-pointers.

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Derrick White was key for the Celtics as he scored 12 of his 18 points in the fourth quarter. Through three quarters, he was 0-for-6 on 3-pointers. But he made 3-of-5 from deep in the fourth quarter.

The Heat (29-37), who are 9-25 versus teams with a record of .500 or more, have lost a season-high six straight games. A 10-2 run early in the fourth quarter keyed by a White trey gave the Celtics breathing room and they cruised from there.

Boston, which is 16-4 over its past 20 games, made 19 3-pointers to just 13 for Miami.

Andrew Wiggins led Miami with 23 points, and the Heat got 19 points and a game-high six assists from Tyler Herro.

Boston’s Jaylen Brown, the reigning NBA Finals MVP, sat out the game due to a right-knee injury. Boston replaced the 6-6 Brown with 7-1 Luke Kornet in the starting lineup.

Miami switched up its starting lineup, too, but not due to injury. The Heat started Jaime Jaquez Jr. and Duncan Robinson in place of Kel’el Ware and Davion Mitchell … but to no avail.

To open the game, Boston made its first five shots to take a 14-6 lead. The first four of those shots were 3-pointers.

Miami, though, hung in there, trailing just 30-23 by the end of the first quarter.

In the second quarter, the Heat tied the score 37-37 on a 3-pointer by Mitchell. After a Celtics miss, Miami took its first lead of the game, 39-37, on a Pelle Larsson cutting dunk with 5:34 left in the half.

Miami held Boston to 25.0 percent shooting in the second quarter as the teams went into halftime tied, 50-50. Miami shot 61.1 percent in the second quarter, including a 12-4 edge in paint points.

Holiday led all first-half scorers with 16 points. Wiggins had 14 points for Miami.

Miami led by as many as five points in the third, but the Celtics recovered to take a 78-77 lead into the fourth.

Boston then started the fourth with its 10-2 run, and Miami never got back on top.

–Field Level Media

Green Carries Creighton Over UConn

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NEW YORK – (Staff and Wire Service Report) – Creighton’s Jasen Green scored a career-high 19 points and second-seeded Blue Jays withstood a comeback try by third-seeded UConn and earned a 71-62 victory Friday night in the semifinals of the Big East tournament.

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The Creighton Bluejays (24-9) advanced to the championship game for the fifth time since joining the Big East, but they have yet to win the title. Creighton will face top-seeded St. John’s, which pulled away to beat Marquette 79-63 in the first semifinal.

Green made all seven of his shots in the first half, and the Bluejays led by 11 at halftime. He got his only second-half basket with 2:43 left when he sank a turnaround jumper at the left side of the paint over Alex Karaban, who was playing with four fouls.

Green, who entered averaging 4.3 points, eclipsed his previous career high of 14 against Georgetown set Feb. 23. He scored one point in 21 minutes during Creighton’s double-overtime comeback win over 10th-seeded DePaul on Thursday.

The biggest night of Green’s career occurred when UConn keyed on Ryan Kalkbrenner and held the star center to 12 points on 5-of-13 shooting.

Kalkbrenner had help from others besides Green. Jamiya Neal also scored 19, including a dunk in the final seconds that infuriated the Huskies and resulted in double technical fouls. Steven Ashworth contributed 12 a night after hitting the tying 3 with 21 seconds left in regulation.

The Bluejays shot 75 percent in the opening half and 52 percent overall.

Solo Ball and Liam McNeeley scored 13 apiece as the Huskies (23-10) had their five-game winning streak halted. Hassan Diarra added 11, but Karaban was held to six on 3-of-10 shooting and picked up his fourth foul with about 15 1/2 minutes left.

McNeeley made 6 of 20 shots for the Huskies, who hit 42.6 percent from the floor and were 8 of 21 (38.1 percent) from 3-point range.

Karaban’s drive to the rim forged a 28-28 tie with 6:44 remaining in the first half, but Creighton got others besides Kalkbrenner involved in an 18-7 run to end the half. Green scored 10 first-half points, including a basket on a drive to the hoop with 29 seconds left before the break to help the Bluejays hold a 46-35 edge at halftime.

Kalkbrenner hit a difficult jumper in the lane for a 55-38 lead with 16:27 left. The Huskies answered with 12 straight points, getting within 55-50 when Aidan Mahaney sank a 3-pointer from the right side with 12:11 left.

The Huskies were within 59-56 following consecutive hoops from Tarris Reed Jr. Neal sank a trey with 5:24 to go for a six-point edge after UConn coach Dan Hurley berated the officials for an out-of-bounds call against his team. Creighton hiked its lead to 66-58 when Green made his final shot.

–Field Level Media

St. John’s Comes Back vs. Marquette

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NEW YORK – St. John’s University center Zuby Ejiofor scored 23 of his career-high 33 points in the second half as top-seeded Johnnies pulled away for a 79-63 victory over fifth-seeded Marquette on Friday night in the Big East tournament semifinals.

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The Red Storm (28-4) advanced to their first conference tournament title game since beating UConn in 2000. St. John’s will face either third-seeded UConn or second-seeded Creighton.

St. John’s won its seventh straight and improved to 11-0 at Madison Square Garden this season by outscoring Marquette 44-26 in the final 20 minutes after facing an early 15-point deficit.

After being held to four points in the quarterfinal win over Butler on Thursday, Ejiofor dominated the second half, hitting seven of eight shots from the field. Ejiofor surpassed his previous career best of 28 set Dec. 7 against Kansas State and shot 11-of-15 overall.

Six days after hitting the game-winner in overtime in Milwaukee, Ejiofor also sank 11 of 12 free throws and pulled down nine rebounds before exiting to a standing ovation in the final seconds.

RJ Luis Jr. added 13 on 4-of-18 shooting for the Red Storm, who shot 41.8 percent overall and scored 44 points in the paint. Kadary Richmond collected 12 points, 10 rebounds and six assists while Aaron Scott contributed 11.

Kam Jones started hot and led the Golden Eagles (23-10) with 24 points. He scored 15 by halftime when Marquette took a two-point lead.

Stevie Mitchell added 11 but David Joplin was held to nine on 3-of-12 shooting and Chase Ross was limited to eight as the Golden Eagles shot 34.5 percent after halftime and 39 percent overall.

Jones scored 10 points, hitting two open 3s along with a crafty reverse layup as the Golden Eagles took a 12-5 lead a little over four minutes in. Jones sank his third 3 for a 20-9 lead with 14:07 left, and the Golden Eagles soon took a 15-point lead on a layup by Joplin.

St. John’s answered with a 22-7 run and forged a 31-all tie with 5:11 left on a corner 3 by Deivon Smith. There were two more deadlocks the rest of the half before Marquette entered the break with a 37-35 lead following two free throws by Mitchell with 30 seconds left.

Scott hit a corner 3 for a 42-all tie with 17:14 left and Ross was assessed a flagrant foul for throwing Ejiofor to the floor. Scott hit a 3 from the right side in front of coach Rick Pitino before Jones could cover as the Red Storm took a 51-45 lead with 15:23 left.

After Scott’s 3, Ejiofor and Luis combined for the next 19 Red Storm points, upping the lead to 70-56 on the center’s powerful two-handed dunk with 5:26 remaining to start finishing it off.

–Field Level Media

Ullmark Sticks It to Bruins

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OTTAWA – (Staff and Wire Service Report) -Two goals and an assist from Drake Batherson led the Ottawa Senators to a 6-3 win over the visiting Boston Bruins. Ottawa opened a 4-1 lead after one period and never looked back, ensuring its fifth straight win and a seven-game unbeaten streak (6-0-1).

Ridly Greig and Shane Pinto each added a goal and an assist, Tyler Kleven and Claude Giroux also scored, and Linus Ullmark made 22 saves for the Senators.

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Ullmark stopped eight Boston shots in the third period.

Casey Mittelstadt, David Pastrnak and Marat Khusnutdinov each scored for Boston, which was looking to win its third straight for just the second time this season.

The goals by deadline acquisitions Mittelstadt and Khusnutdinov were their first as Bruins.

Boston’s Jeremy Swayman allowed four goals on 15 shots before Joonas Korpisalo relieved him with 15 saves on 16 shots after the first period.

Ottawa landed the first six shots and validated its dominant start with a 2-0 lead. Pinto scored first on a turnaround shot from the right circle just 3:44 into the proceedings.

The Senators doubled their lead at 9:09 when Nikolas Matinpalo wrapped the puck around the boards to Kleven, who fired a one-timer from high on the left.

Mittelstadt made it 2-1 at the 10:57 mark. After a hard forecheck forced a turnover, Vinni Lettieri sent a backhand pass across the crease to his fellow Minnesota native, who beat Ullmark with a wrist shot.

Then, two goals in a 22-second span put the hosts back in full control at 4-1. Batherson moved the buffer back to two at 16:21, finishing a tic-tac-toe passing sequence with Brady Tkachuk and Tim Stutzle on the power play.

A Swayman misplay helped keep Ottawa’s offense in the zone, and Greig netted the second quick-fire goal after Pinto’s point shot created an open net-front rebound.

Pastrnak struck first in the middle period, deflecting John Beecher’s wrist shot from the point from near the crease at 6:59.

Batherson reestablished the three-goal difference again at 11:01, potting the rebound of a Thomas Chabot point shot that Dylan Cozens tipped. The Bruins responded just 2:54 later, as Khusnutdinov took Elias Lindholm’s feed down the slot for a wrist shot goal.

Ullmark made a highlight-reel save with 1:29 left in the second, diving across to snatch Mason Lohrei’s one-timer after Jakub Lauko threaded a cross-ice pass. A Nikita Zadorov post in the final minute also kept Ottawa’s lead at 5-3 after two periods.

Giroux’s empty-netter with 1:16 left in regulation iced the game.

–Field Level Media

PGA TOUR: It’s The PLAYERS

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PONTE VEDRA BEACH – The unofficial “fifth major” of the 2025 PGA Tour season kicks off on Thursday with the first round of The Players Championship at the TPC Sawgrass in Florida.

Contested on the famed Stadium Course, one of the year’s deepest fields will vie for one of the tour’s most coveted trophies. Can Scottie Scheffler create history by winning for a third consecutive year?

“The Players Championship is absolutely our busiest tournament outside of the majors and it’s no surprise that Scottie Scheffler is the clear favorite this week as he goes for his third consecutive win in this tournament,” BetMGM senior sports trader Matt Wall said.

The iconic 17th hole with its island green will again be the focus of several prop markets at sportsbooks, including closest to the pin and the number of balls hit in the water.

Our golf experts preview the event and provide their favorite prop picks along with the best bets to win this week.

THE PLAYERS CHAMPIONSHIP
Location: Ponte Vedra Beach, Fla., March 13-16
Course: TPC Sawgrass, The Players Stadium Course (Par 72, 7,352 Yards)
Purse: $25M (Winner: $4.5M)
Defending Champion: Scottie Scheffler
FedExCup leader: Sepp Straka

HOW TO FOLLOW
TV: Thursday-Friday: 1-7 p.m. ET (Golf Channel); Saturday: 2-7 p.m. (NBC/Peacock); Sunday: 1-7 p.m. (NBC/Peacock)
Streaming (ESPN+): Thursday-Friday: 7:30 a.m.-7 p.m. ET; Saturday: 8 a.m.-7 p.m.; Sunday: 7:30 a.m.-6 p.m.
X: @ThePlayers

PROP PICKS
–Michael Kim to Beat Jordan Spieth (-125 at DraftKings): Kim might be the hottest player few people are talking about with five consecutive finishes of T13 or better, including fourth at Bay Hill. His lone PGA Tour title to date came seven years ago at the John Deere, but we like him as a +6500 darkhorse to win this week. Spieth is making his fifth start in his return from wrist surgery and while he has posted a T4 and T9 against softer fields, he has a T69 and missed cut in two signature event starts. He failed to make the weekend here last year.

–Hideki Matsuyama Top 20 Finish (+125 at BetMGM): Matsuyama has four top-10s since 2015 at The Players, tied with Brian Harman for the most of any player in the field. While he has cooled off a bit since winning The Sentry to tee-off the year, he has posted a T13 and T22 in his past two starts, both at signature events, and tied for sixth year last year.

Johnnies’ Luis Jr. Named Big East MVP

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NEW YORK – St. John’s forward RJ Luis, Jr. was named 2024-25 BIG EAST Player of the Year. St. John’s coach Rick Pitino was chosen BIG EAST Coach of the Year and Connecticut forward Liam McNeeley was tabbed as BIG EAST Freshman of the Year.

The conference’s head coaches make the selections and are not permitted to vote for their own players. The awards were presented at Madison Square Garden prior to the start of the 2025 BIG EAST Tournament Presented by JEEP. It is the 43rd consecutive year the BIG EAST is playing its postseason tournament at the World’s Most Famous Arena.

Luis, a junior wing from Miami, was a critical piece in helping St. John’s win the outright BIG EAST regular season title and earn the top seed in this week’s BIG EAST Tournament. He averaged a team-leading 18.1 points, 7.1 rebounds and 1.4 steals. His scoring average ranked fourth in the BIG EAST and his rebounding mark was sixth.  He finished the regular season with a flourish, averaging 24.3 points over the last three games. He is the first BIG EAST Player of the Year from St. John’s since Walter Berry captured the award in 1985-86.

Pitino, the leader of St. John’s revival, is in his second season in Jamaica Estates. He became the first coach in college basketball history to lead five different schools to regular season conference crowns. This year’s St. John’s team is 27-4 overall, 18-2 in BIG EAST play and ranked sixth in this week’s Associated Press poll. Pitino is the active winningest coach in college basketball with 881 victories. This year’s St. John’s squad tied a school record with 27 regular season victories and compiled an 18-2 BIG EAST mark, which tied the league record for a regular season win total.

McNeeley is the second straight Husky to earn Freshman of the Year honors. Stephon Castle was last season’s winner. McNeeley, a forward from Richardson, Texas, was named BIG EAST Freshman of the Week seven times despite missing eight games early in the league campaign due to injury. He finished second on the team in scoring with a 14.7 average and pulled down a team-leading 6.2 rebounds. McNeeley’s single-game high of 38 points in a win at Creighton on Feb. 11 was the highest point total by a UConn rookie in a BIG EAST game.

BIG EAST Player of the Year

RJ Luis, Jr., St. John’s

BIG EAST Coach of the Year

Rick Pitino, St. John’s

 BIG EAST Freshman of the Year

Liam McNeeley, Connecticut

Bridgeman Passes Suddenly, 71

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LOUISVILLE – Former Louisville Cardinals college star, NBA legend and Milwaukee Bucks part-team owner Junior Bridgeman collapsed and died on Tuesday. He was 71.

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Bridgeman had a medical emergency while at a luncheon at the Galt House Hotel in Louisville, Ky. He reportedly told a reporter he thought he was having a heart attack. First responders were summoned and he was transported from the scene by ambulance.

The Al J. Schneider Company, which owns the hotel, confirmed Bridgeman’s death on Tuesday evening.

“Junior Bridgeman was an integral part of our community. From his athletic impact to his philanthropic efforts, he will be deeply missed,” Lance George, chief marketing officer, said in a statement. “Our thoughts and prayers go out to the Bridgeman family during this time.”

Bridgeman was a billionaire entrepreneur and a big name in Louisville in addition to his basketball exploits.

Just six months ago, he purchased a 10 percent ownership stake in the Bucks. He reportedly bought it at a $3.4 billion valuation.

“The Milwaukee Bucks are shocked and saddened by the tragic passing of Bucks legend and owner Junior Bridgeman,” the Bucks said in a statement. Junior’s retired No. 2 jersey hangs in Fiserv Forum, serving as a constant remembrance of his outstanding play on the court and his impact on the Bucks’ success.

“His hard work and perseverance led him to become one of the nation’s top business leaders and, last September, Junior’s professional life came full circle when he returned to the Bucks family as an owner. His memory will always be an inspiration to the Bucks organization.”

Bridgeman arrived on the scene while playing for the University of Louisville for three seasons (1972-75) and was a two-time Missouri Valley Conference Player of the Year. He averaged 15.5 points, 7.6 rebounds and 2.7 assists in 87 games. The Cardinals reached the Final Four in his last season, losing 75-74 in overtime to powerful UCLA.

 

TL’s Sunday Sports Notes | March 9

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While We’re Young (Ideas) | On Site at the MIT Sloan Sports Conference

TGL’s Mike McCarley (2nd left) at the MIT Sloan Sports Analytics Conference (Photo by T. Peter Lyons/Digital Sports Desk)

By TERRY LYONS, Editor of Digital Sports Desk

BOSTON – The sports world descended upon the Hynes Convention Center in downtown Boston this weekend to probe, ponder and pontificate on nearly every aspect of the major sports – and some others. The annual MIT Sloan Sports Analytics Conference (#SSAC25), also known as #AnalyticsInMotion, played to a sold out crowd for two full days of seminars, presentations and start-up fund-raising.

Yours truly, representing a combination of Digital Sports Desk, Pivottv Media and Boston VC Sports, was in attendance for the full conference and enjoyed panels on “Sports in 2045,” featuring New England Patriots team president Jonathan Kraft and former head of ESPN and current President and Chief Operating Officer of Endeavor (NYSE: EDR) and TKO Group Holdings Mark Shapiro, along with “Building Sports Empires with an Entrepreneurial Edge, featuring Michele Kang (Washington Spirits – NWSL) and Gerry Cardinale of RedBird Capital Partners.

Cardinale was particularly interesting because of his wide-ranging and incredibly successful career, not only in the sports world, but at Goldman Sachs prior to his founding of RedBird.

RedBird’s most recent investments include European football’s AC Milan; Everpass Media (the NFL); Skydance Media (Larry and David Ellison); Artists Equity (Ben Affleck and Matt Damon); All3Media (largest content creator in the UK); Fenway Sports Group (Boston Red Sox, Liverpool FC, Pittsburgh Penguins, New England Sports Network); the Yankees Entertainment & Sports (“YES”) Network (New York Yankees and Amazon); The Springhill Company (LeBron James and Maverick Carter); the United Football League (UFL) (Disney/ESPN, Fox and Dwayne Johnson); the Indian Premier League’s Rajasthan Royals; and Formula One’s Alpine Racing team.

Carter appeared on another panel with Draft Kings head Jason Robins on Saturday and spoke of “Re-writing the Playbook” and the fact the RedBird-Springhill venture, headed up by Carter and James with their distinguished brands, including UNINTERRUPTED, The Shop, and The Robot Company, recently merged with Fulwell 73 Productions (London) to form a new global entertainment company, Fulwell Entertainment.

The conference – light in the sport of baseball because of the fact nearly all front office and analytics teams are quite busy at Spring Training camps – delved into “The New Age NFL Office,” the “Next Generation of Sports Venues” and the “Globalization of Sports,” a panel that featured NBA Deputy Commissioner Mark Tatum.

Tatum spoke of the NBA’s plans to return to China and play a pair of games in Macau this October, the first since the controversial 2019 dust-up caused by (then Houston Rockets GM< now Philadelphia 76ers GM) Daryl Morey’s tweet to “Fight For Freedom. Stand With Hong Kong.” Tatum fully explained that after the NBA put out a statement defending Morey’s rights to express his opinion, that China’s CCTV removed NBA programming from its airwaves but later returned things to normal operating, all the while the league’s primary broadcast outlet – “Tencent” continued to air games and highlights. The Brooklyn Nets and Phoenix Suns were tapped to play October 10 and 12 at the Venetian Arena, which is controlled by the Adelson family — by way of the Las Vegas Sands conglomerate — now the majority owner of the Dallas Mavericks.

Tatum also reiterated the NBA is doubling down on efforts to expand growth in the game on the continent of Africa and in India, where a cool billion people are available to say, “I Love This Game.”

Early on Friday, Mike McCarley of the new (indoor) TGL pro golf league was amongst the panelists on Emerging Sports and he was presented with the MIT Sloan “Alpha” award for excellence as a start-up sport, recognized for the incredible use of data, technology, social media and broadcast excellence.

While the panelists previously mentioned filled the “Bill James Room” and the “Sue Bird Room” – the two largest ballrooms in the convention center, there were dozens of break-out rooms for smaller presentations, research paper workshops and even some player participation displays of golf swings being “closest to the pin” or batting cages and a hitters’ “exit velocity.” There was even a new name for one of the break-out rooms, dubbed the “Shane Battier Room.”

MIT Sloan panel: “Have the Nerds Ruined Basketball?’

HERE NOW, THE NOTES: Ready for your first look at the BIG EAST brackets?

BIG EAST Men’s Basketball Tournament, Presented by JEEP

First Round, March 12 (Peacock)

No. 9 Butler vs. No. 8 Providence 4:00

No. 10 DePaul vs. No. 7 Georgetown 6:30

No. 11 Seton Hall vs. No. 6 Villanova 9:00

Quarterfinal, March 13 (Peacock/FS1)

Butler/Providence vs. No. 1 St. John’s 12:00

No. 5 Marquette vs. No. 4 Xavier 2:30

DePaul/Georgetown vs. No. 2 Creighton 7:00

Seton Hall/Villanova vs. No. 3 UConn 9:30

Semifinal, March 14 (FOX)

Quarterfinal Winners 6:30

Quarterfinal Winners 9:00

Championship, March 15 (FOX)

Semifinal Winners 6:30

TIDBITS: Much was said and written about Nikola Jokic’s 31 points, 21 rebounds and a career-high 22 assists stat line as the Denver Nuggets outlasted the Phoenix Suns, 149-141, in overtime Friday night. Jokic became the first NBA player with a triple-double of at least 30 points, 20 rebounds and 20 assists and he tied his team record with his 29th triple-double of the season, stretching his career total to 149. That’s pretty good. … Old school NBA stat geeks had to wonder what some of Hall of Famer Wilt Chamberlain’s best stat lines were when the “Stilt” played back in the ‘60s and ‘70s. … Here’s one, picked at random, from Wilt’s 1967-68 season – the year he had his highest assist totals of 8.6 per game. On March 4, 1968, Wilt played all 48 minutes, scored 58 points, grabbed 35 rebounds and had four assists. … Of course, on March 2, 1962, Chamberlain scored 100 points, added 25 rebounds but had only two assists. … On February 28, 1962, Chamberlain played all 48 minutes, scored 61 points, added 28 rebounds and six assists. … Obviously, none of those were triple-doubles, but there’s one key statistical anomaly. There’s a distinct possibility Chamberlain might’ve had a triple-double if the NBA charted blocked shots and/or steals at the time. With that in mind, statisticians recreated a March 18, 1968 stat line which clocked Chamberlain’s single game output at 53 points, 32 rebounds, 24 blocks, 14 assists and 11 steals with the blocks and steals “unofficial.” … The great Nate Thurmond once had 22 points, 14 rebounds, 13 rebounds, and 12 blocks when he led the Chicago Bulls to a victory against the Atlanta Hawks while San Antonio’s David Robinson clocked 34 points, 10 rebounds, 10 assists, and 10 blocked shots in a February 2, 1994 Spurs win over Detroit. … There have been other quadruple doubles since that great game but one game, in particular, stands out as one of the all-time greatest performances. In a Game 7 of the 1962 NBA Finals, Boston center Bill Russell scored 30 points and added 40 rebounds with four assists in the Celtics’ 110-107 series clincher over the LA Lakers. Elgin Baylor of the Lakers had 41 points and 22 rebounds in the losing effort.

The Red Sox front office went to work and agreed to terms with 23 players on one-year contracts for the 2025 season. Signing one-season deals were: Wilyer Abreu, Brennan Bernardino, Triston Casas, Cooper Criswell, Hunter Dobbins, Richard Fitts, Jhostynxon Garcia, Romy Gonzalez, Vaughn Grissom, Luis Guerrero, David Hamilton, Zack Kelly, Chris Murphy, Carlos Narváez, Zach Penrod, Luis Perales, Quinn Priester, Blake Sabol, Justin Slaten, Nick Sogard, Greg Weissert, Josh Winckowski, and Connor Wong.

THIS JEST IN: On Saturday, forward Zuby Ejiofor hit a buzzer-beater to send the St. John’s men’s basketball team (27-4, 18-2 BIG EAST) back home from Marquette (Milwaukee) with a men’s basketball program record 27th regular season victory. Ejiofor, a junior forward for the Johnnies, buried a luck-out toss at the buzzer to upend Marquette (22-9, 13-7 BIG EAST), 86-84, in overtime. On the final day of the regular season, St John’s managed a tough road win behind clutch performances from RJ Luis Jr. and Kadary Richmond. Luis led St. John’s with 28 points, shooting 10-for-19 from floor with a trio of 3-pointers, to go with 11 rebounds marking his ninth double-double of the season. Meanwhile, Richmond recorded the first St. John’s triple-double in since Metta Sandiford-Artest (formerly Ron Artest), reached the milestone on Jan. 9, 1999. Richmond’s clutch performance included 10 points, 12 rebounds, 11 assists and four steals. … Ejiofor, who also sank a game winner at the buzzer in the team’s first BIG EAST road game of this season, at Providence on Dec. 20, finished with 17 points and 12 boards.

St. John’s captured the No. 1 seed in the upcoming BIG EAST tournament to be held at Madison Square Garden this coming Wednesday through Saturday. Digital Sports Desk will be on-site at The Garden for the tournament.

YOU CAN’T MAKE IT UP: There’s a whole new meaning to the the word SNOWboard. According to the AP, there’s a $10 million reward for information leading to the arrest of a former Canadian Olympic snowboarder who is wanted for allegedly running a multinational drug trafficking network and orchestrating multiple murders related to his drug ring. The FBI added Ryan Wedding, 43, to its 10 Most Wanted list, while announcing the U.S. State Department’s $10 million offer. … “Wedding went from shredding powder on the slopes at the Olympics to distributing powder cocaine on the streets of U.S. cities and in his native Canada,” said Akil Davis, the assistant director of the FBI’s Los Angeles field office. “The alleged murders of his competitors make Wedding a very dangerous man.” … Seems that the drugs were flowing from South America to Mexico to Southern California and then to Canada, calling into question the USA’s claims that drugs were flowing north to south. … Authorities alledge that Wedding’s group killed two members of a family in Canada in retaliation for a stolen drug shipment in what officials there said was a case of mistaken identity, then two other people, associated with the ring.

St. John’s: Pitino to Face Longtime Rival

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PROVIDENCE – (Staff and Wire Service Report) – One of the major storylines entering March Madness was the legendary coaching talent walking the sidelines in Providence.

A second-round matchup between second-seeded St. John’s (31-4) and 10th-seeded Arkansas (21-13) pits two of the best in Rick Pitino and John Calipari.

The duo last faced off in an NCAA Tournament in 2014 when Pitino was at Louisville and Pitino at Kentucky. They’ve combined to win three national championships and 113 total tournament games and are the only two coaches to advance to Final Fours at three schools.

The storyline is irresistible but Pitino, the active leader in wins, tried to keep the focus on the players suiting up, not the men in suits on the bench.

“I don’t go against coaches, we go against teams,” Pitino said. “He doesn’t have to worry about me. My jump shot is long gone. We’re preparing for his players. He’s preparing for our players. John and I don’t play one-on-one anymore.”

Pitino led the Big East champion Red Storm to their first NCAA win since 2000, beating Omaha 83-53 on Thursday. It was the largest margin of victory in a tournament game in program history.

A 12-2 run out of halftime broke open a 33-28 game and squashed any doubt of an upset.

Leading the Red Storm to their 10th straight win, RJ Luis Jr. made five of the team’s 14 3-pointers and finished with a game-high 22 points (8-of-14 shooting) and eight rebounds.

“I think it’s keep on playing, make adjustments and be relentless in the pursuit of excellence defensively and I think we did that, we accomplished that,” Pitino said.

St. John’s looks to keep the momentum going against Arkansas, which overcame a 0-5 start to SEC play to make the tournament and beat Kansas 79-72 in its Thursday opener behind a season-high 22 points from Jonas Aidoo.

“Gutted it out,” Calipari said.

Aidoo entered the tournament as the team’s eighth-leading scorer (6.4 points per game), but the Tennessee transfer has heated up averaging 15 points and nine rebounds over the last five contests.

“We all know we have something to prove. We went through a lot of adversity, injuries, missing players, let a couple games go,” Aidoo said.

Arkansas used just eight players against Kansas, including New York native freshman Boogie Fland who played in his first game since Jan. 18.

“Boogie for not playing what? How many months? … We can’t have contact because if someone gets hurt I’m down to five,” Calipari said. “So he practiced but there was no contact and he went in and did what he did (Thursday),” logging six points, three assists and three steals.

The Thursday win was Calipari’s 58th all-time in the NCAA Tournament, breaking a tie with Kansas’ Bill Self for the most among active coaches.

Calipari made it clear. He is enjoying this team’s March march.

“Every one of us, including me, had doubts and we all had to convince ourselves we’re going to do this,” Calipari said. “I had a card I read every morning and every night before I went to bed, and it was, I’ve been blessed throughout my life. Forget basketball. I have been blessed.

“I’m going to enjoy this journey and grow as a coach from it. I am going to make sure I keep an eye on my players, and let’s write our own story, and in the end it says, ‘Have Faith.’”

The winner of Saturday’s second-round game is headed to San Francisco for the West Region semifinal next week and a Sweet 16 date with winner of 11th-seeded Drake and third-seeded Texas Tech.

– Field Level Media

March Madness: Coach Cal Awaits

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PROVIDENCE – (Staff and Wire Service Report) – RJ Luis Jr. made a career-high five 3-pointers and second-seeded St. John’s found its shooting stroke en route to an 83-53 victory over No. 15 seed Omaha in the first round of the NCAA Tournament on Thursday night in Rhode Island.

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St. John’s (31-4) earned its first tournament win since 2000. Coach Rick Pitino and the Big East champs will face John Calipari and No. 10 seed Arkansas in the second round Saturday.

Luis led all scorers with 22 points and added eight rebounds. He made 5 of 8 attempts from deep as St. John’s — a 30.4 percent 3-point shooting team entering the night — matched a season high with 14 3-pointers to counter Omaha clogging the lanes.

Simeon Wilcher scored 13 points for the Red Storm. Kadary Richmond had 10 points, eight rebounds and six assists, while Zuby Ejiofor added 10 points, seven boards, four assists and three blocks.

JJ White posted 15 points and five assists to lead Omaha (22-13), which was playing in its first Division I NCAA Tournament after claiming the Summit League championship.

Marquel Sutton scored 11 for the Mavericks, and Isaac Ondekane pulled down 10 of his 11 rebounds in the first half.

St. John’s missed its first five shots and let Omaha stake out a 7-0 lead, prompting an early timeout from Pitino. After Richmond got the Red Storm on the board, Luis scored eight St. John’s points in a row, bookended by a pair of 3-pointers.

The Mavericks moved ahead 20-14 before St. John’s turned the tables. Wilcher cut the lead in half with a 3-pointer, prompting a 16-2 run that featured triples by Deivon Smith, Ruben Prey and another from Wilcher.

Omaha scored six in a row to cut it to 30-28, but Vince Iwuchukwu got inside for a bucket that turned into a three-point play with two seconds left, giving St. John’s a 33-28 halftime edge.

Luis kept the Red Storm 3-point party going by making one 14 seconds into the second half. Teammate Aaron Scott splashed a trey, then Luis and Wilcher went on a two-on-one that ended in an alley-oop dunk by Luis, giving St. John’s firm control at 43-30.

Luis knocked down another two triples to hand St. John’s its first 20-point lead with 13:14 to go. Critically, the Red Storm had assists on their first eight made field goals of the half with no turnovers.

St. John’s held the Mavericks to 7-of-34 field-goal shooting (20.6 percent) and outrebounded them 31-19 in the second half.

–Field Level Media

TL’s Sunday Sports Notes | March 16

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By TERRY LYONS, Editor-in-Chief, Digital Sports Desk

NEW YORK – At one point in 2023, this column took a deep dive into a lifetime of memories created within New York City’s Madison Square Garden. It’s worthwhile to take a look back at that column and soak in the many experience from such a magical world.

This week, writing from a press room we used to call “The Rotunda” but now renamed “The Expo,” it’s time to recall the rise of the Big East Conference, which began in 1979-80 but didn’t make “The Garden” its post-season HQ until 1983 after fiddling around with a moving post season home that included:

  • 1980 – Providence Civic Center (Georgetown 87-81 over Syracuse)
  • 1981 – Carrier Dome (Syracuse 83-80 over Villanova)
  • 1982 – Hartford Civic Center (Georgetown 72-54 over Villanova)

In ‘83, the tournament moved to The Garden, and the BIG EAST never looked back, finding the perfect meeting place for a bevy of teams taking the subway, the Tubes, Amtrak or an easy flight into town. When the conferences played square-dancing do-si-do and Val Ackerman was named Commissioner, she and the “Catholic 7” school presidents made sure they kept the rights to play at MSG. Then Ackerman re-upped to the point where this year marks the 43rd consecutive season the BIG EAST champion has been crowned at The Garden.

Just last season, Ackerman and Garden event guru Joel Fisher announced the tournament will continue to be held at The Garden through 2032, ensuring “The World’s Most Famous Arena” will host 50 consecutive BIG EAST men’s basketball tournaments.

Ackerman and the Big East are not just about men’s hoops, as Ackerman was formerly the President of the WNBA (1996-2005) and represents women’s sports about as strongly as anyone in the USA. All totaled, sponsored athletic programs of the Big East institutions provides big time college participation opportunities for more than 3,800 student-athletes on over 200 men’s and women’s teams in 22 sports.

The memories of the past run deep (as the link to column above connects), but what’s most important is that new memories are being created each and every year. The future is quite bright, as long as Ackerman is in the Commissioner’s chair and the game officials continue to excel by allowing the players, ahem, student-athletes to determine the outcomes with a “let them play” style. That works, as long as the teams are evenly matched and there’s no B.S. or malicious intent on the physical nature of the game.

At this tournament, the game officials just might be the MVPs.

HERE NOW, THE NOTES: While the topic is NCAA college basketball, here’s to sharing my United States Basketball Writers’ annual choices for men’s and women’s All-Americans, and the Wayman Tisdale Rookie award, along with the Hank IbaCoach of the Year award:

Men’s All American Vote (Ranked)

Men’s All-America 1 – Johni Broome, Auburn

Men’s All-America 2 – Cooper Flagg, Duke

Men’s All-America 3 – RJ Davis, North Carolina

Men’s All-America 4 – Ryan Kalkbrenner, Creighton

Men’s All-America 5 – Kam Jones, Marquette

Men’s All-America 6 – Mark Sears, Alabama

Men’s All-America 7 – RJ Luis, St. John’s

Men’s All-America 8 – Hunter Dickenson, Kansas

Men’s All-America 9 – Caleb Love, Arizona

Men’s All-America 10 – Alex Karaban, U Conn

Men’s All-America 11 – Kadary Richmond, St. John’s

Men’s All-America 12 – Ace Bailey, Rutgers

Men’s All-America 13 – Eric Dixon, Villanova

Men’s All-America 14 – Dylan Harper, Rutgers

Men’s All-America 15 – Hunter Sallis, Wake Forest

Men’s Most Outstanding Player Vote (Ranked)

Oscar Robertson Trophy 1 – Cooper Flagg, Duke

Oscar Robertson Trophy 2 – Johni Broome, Auburn

Oscar Robertson Trophy 3 – Cam Jones, Marquette

Wayman Tisdale Rookie (First Year) Player of the Season Vote (Ranked)

Tisdale Award 1 – Cooper Flagg, Duke

Tisdale Award 2 – Liam McNeeley, U Conn

Tisdale Award 3 – Tahaad Pettiford, Auburn

Hank Iba Award for National Coach of the Year Vote (Ranked)

Henry Iba Award 1 – Bruce Pearl, Auburn

Henry Iba Award 2 – Tom Izzo, Michigan State

Henry Iba Award 3 – Rick Pitino, St. John’s

On the women’s side, here is my All-American ballot:

Women’s All-America 1 – Paige Bueckers, U Conn

Women’s All-America 2 – JuJu Watkins, USC

Women’s All-America 3 – Lauren Betts, UCLA

Women’s All-America 4- Madison Booker, Texas

Women’s All-America 5 – Ta’Niya Latson, Florida State

Women’s All-America 6 – Aneesah Morrow, LSU

Women’s All-America 7- Hailey Van Lith, TCU

Women’s All-America 8 – Olivia Miles, Notre Dame

Women’s All-America 9 – Hannah Hidalgo, Notre Dame

Women’s All-America 10 – Georgia Amoore, Kentucky

Women’s All-America 11 – Kiki Rice, UCLA

Women’s All-America 12 – Mikaylah Williams, LSU

Women’s All-America 13 – Izzy Higginbottom, Arkansas

Women’s All-America 14 – Grace Larkins, South Dakota

Women’s All-America 15 – Joyce Edwards, South Carolina

HAVERBACK: Also, of importance, the USBWA recognized the long service to the game of women’s basketball by Rose DiPaula, Director of Strategic Communications and Content Development at the University of Maryland, who was honored with the U.S. Basketball Writers Association’s Mary Jo Haverbeck Award winner for 2025. … The award is presented annually to recognize those in women’s college basketball who have rendered a special service to the USBWA and sportswriters who cover college basketball. It is named after the late Mary Jo Haverbeck, the longtime women’s sports communications director at Penn State who passed away in January 2014. The award pays tribute to Haverbeck for her pioneering and visionary work as one of the first women to work in the sports communication profession.

BIG EAST LEGEND: After the press conferences were completed on Friday night, St. John’s coach Rick Pitino presented John Paquette, the retiring BIG EAST head of communications (since Day 1), with an “official” No. 35 St. John’s uniform/jersey to commemorate Paquette’s 35 years of service to the BIG EAST conference. A classy move by Pitino and St. John’s players/athletic staff as Paquette had only announced his decision to retire (at the end of the school year) this week. “While it’s impossible to imagine a BIG EAST world without John Paquette in it, we join in the chorus of congratulations that we know will come his way with this announcement,” said BIG EAST Commissioner Val Ackerman. “The BIG EAST will be eternally grateful to John for countless late nights, unrelenting travel, his unmatched knowledge about our proud history, and the extraordinary relationships he’s developed with media members across the country. Simply put, few have done more for the BIG EAST than John. We wish him, Debbie, Phil, Charlotte, Terry, and his family nothing but the best as they begin this new family chapter.” Paquette has been active in College Sports Communicators (CSC) – (formerly the SIDs), the national trade organization of college athletics communicators. He has served terms on the CSC Executive Board and Board of Directors and was CSC President for the 2023-24 academic year. Paquette is a member of the CSC Hall of Fame. He’s also mentored countless communications staffers and interns who have gone on to enjoy productive careers in the sports industry.

TIDBITS: Red Sox Slugger Rafael Devers made his 2025 spring training debut on Saturday. He batted second, ahead of INF Alex Bregman and INF Trevor Story. … San Francisco Giants right fielder Jerar Encarnacion is tied for the MLB spring training lead in RBI with 13. … Throughout spring training, the New York Mets pitching staff has raved about teammate Clay Holmes’ “stuff,” saying it’s been “nasty” which is the ultimate compliment. On Friday, Holmes was named as the starter for the Mets’ March 27 in Houston. Mets manager Carlos Mendoza, is converting a career reliever to a starter over the past few months and like what he’s seen. … It’s Selection Sunday, and the Southeast Conference might get a load of invites to the Big Dance. SEC Commissioner Greg Sankey believes it would be “justified” (his word not ours) for his conference to receive as many as 14 bids to the NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament. “It’s a unicorn league right now. We’re not going to change our name, but we stand alone historically. And I think that’ll be rewarded,” said Sankey as noted in D-1 ticker. “We went 30-4 against the ACC,” he added. … St. John’s went (0-1) against the SEC, dropping a November 24 game to Georgia (66-63). … Villanova relieved head coach Kyle Neptune of his duties after three years at the help. Neptune was an assistant to the NCAA chmpionship coach Jay Wright and went to Fordham for a year or so, turning around the Rams’ fortunes before returning to ‘Nova. The Villanova job is one of the gems of college basketball coaching. They’ll be lining up for interviews in Philly.

THIS JEST IN: Red Sox spring training signee Trayce Thompson leads the Majors in spring training Home Runs with six. He also leads the Grapefruit League in OPS (1.585) and has hit .357 (10-for-28) with 13 RBI in 14 games. At the moment, there’s no clarity on whether the 33-year old veteran MLB outfielder with a career .212 batting average will make the big league club or not. There’s a decent chance he’ll get picked up by another club if the Sox part ways when camp breaks or he might become a fill-in for Wilyer Abreu, who may or may not be ready for Opening Day after a gastrointestinal virus caused him to lost a significant amount of weight this spring. Abreau, however, was in the Red Sox starting lineup on Saturday, batting eighth.

YOU CAN’T MAKE IT UP: There were multiple reports this week on the upcoming fate of the MSG Network and its counterpart in the amazing Sphere venue – the combination being Sphere Entertainment. According to reports in Front Office Sportsa month ago and many financial reports this week, Sphere reported financial results for the three months ending Dec. 31. Revenue declined 2% to $308 million with a net loss of $126 million for the fourth quarter. The company also warned that bankruptcy is an option for the regional sports network if it cannot refinance its $804 million in debt that originally came due last October 11. The RSN’s debt sits within the MSG arm, and creditors can’t make a claim on Sphere. The company and its lenders have entered into several forbearance agreements to extend the deadline, with the current expiration date on March 26. … In other words, “It could be trouble for MSG Net.” … Now, why is that such a “You Can’t Make It Up” item? It seems New York Knicks franchise owner James Dolan – who has been on a two-year rant on this topic – called for a financial resolution to be voted on at this month’s NBA Board of Governors meeting as he’s asking for clearer accounting of the league’s finances, according to a letter received this week by the league office and the NBA Board of Governors. Back in September, Dolan said he wouldn’t be voting on the league’s 2024-25 budget or voting for a chairman of the board. … What’s his beef? … Last year, Dolan sent another letter criticizing the league for its new television deal, which he said would render regional sports networks as “unviable” moving forward. … “The NBA has made the move to an NFL model — deemphasizing and depowering the local market,” Dolan wrote in the letter, which was obtained by ESPN. “Soon, your only revenue concern will be the sale of tickets and what color next year’s jersey will be. Don’t worry, because due to revenue pooling, you are guaranteed to be neither a success nor a failure.

“Of course, to get there, the league must take down the successful franchises and redistribute to the less successful. This new media deal goes a long way to accomplishing that goal,” wrote Dolan and his attorney. … The NBA signed a new 11-year media rights deal worth $76 billion, granting broadcast rights on behalf of the league to ESPN/ABC, NBCUniversal, and Amazon Prime Video, starting in the 2025-26 season. This agreement will significantly increase the number of nationally televised games and thus limited individual team “home broadcasts.” … In summary, a guy who is bankrupting a regional sports network, complete with linear and streaming rights in the No.1 major market in the USA, is now peering into the line-by-line operation of the league office which has helped increase franchise values from some $32.5 million (expansion of 1998-99) to $125m (expansion of 1995) to some $4 or $5 or even $6 billion in 2025, according to recent reports of the proposed sale of Boston Celtics. He’s seeking minutia from a league office that took the national TV deal from $88m in 1982-83 to its current $76 billion?

C’mon now.

Interestingly, New York Mets club owner Steve Cohen recently added more than 400,000 shares to his position in Sphere Entertainment through his Point72 Asset Management hedge fund, according to a Feb. 14 SEC filing. It pushed the billionaire’s stake in Sphere to 7.3%, according to a report this week in Sportico.

What do the Mets see that MSG/Knicks/Rangers do not?