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PHOENIX — The inadvertent consequence of dropping elite defensive squads into a Final Four in the desert is that the offense dries up. Add in the flint embedded on the sport’s grandest stage, and a brush fire is bound to spark somewhere. 
Which is how we found UConn head coach Geno Auriemma ripping into South Carolina’s Dawn Staley before the final buzzer had gone off on a 62-48 win that ended the Huskies’ undefeated season. 
Auriemma, man of many words, remained pointed when asked about it.

DALLAS (AP) — Cooper Flagg didn’t get a call, and his coach and a teammate got kicked out of the game trying to stick up for the rookie No. 1 pick of the Dallas Mavericks.
Less than a quarter later, Flagg was the first teenager to score 51 points in an NBA game in Dallas’ 138-127 loss to the Orlando Magic on Friday night.
Flagg scored 24 points in the fourth quarter after coach Jason Kidd and forward Naji Marshall were ejected complaining about what they thought was a no-call when Desmond Bane fouled Flagg.

Joel Embiid calls out Daryl Morey after being held out of game vs. Wizards originally appeared on The Sporting News.
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Philadelphia 76ers center Joel Embiid was not happy about being held out of the team’s 153-131 victory over the Washington Wizards on Wednesday night due to illness, and he let his feelings be known following Philly’s win over the Minnesota Timberwolves on Friday night.

PHOENIX (AP) — Ozzie Albies and Matt Olson opened the ninth inning with back-to-back home runs, sending the Atlanta Braves to a 2-0 victory over the Arizona Diamondbacks on Friday night.
Grant Holmes held the Diamondbacks to one hit through six innings, matching zeros with Arizona starter Eduardo Rodríguez.
Albies and Olson connected off reliever Paul Sewald (0-1), helping the Braves improve to 6-2 while the Diamondbacks dropped to 3-5. Arizona has scored only three runs in its last three games.

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PHOENIX (AP) — UCLA beats Texas 51-44 and advances to face South Carolina in the women’s NCAA Tournament championship game.

Dallas Mavericks rookie Cooper Flagg isn’t ready to be ruled out of the Rookie of the Year race just yet.
The race between Flagg and his former Duke teammate, Kon Knueppel of the Charlotte Hornets, has been close.
But Flagg sent a message Friday night, becoming the first teenager to score at least 50 points in an NBA regular-season game.
Despite the strong individual performance, the Mavericks suffered a 138-127 loss to the Orlando Magic.

51 POINTS FOR COOPER FLAGG.
FIRST TEENAGER TO SCORE 50 IN AN NBA GAME 🚨 pic.twitter.

The NBA is investigating the Bucks’ handling of Giannis Antetokounmpo, sources told ESPN’s Shams Charania, after the star forward told reporters Friday that he is being held out despite being healthy enough to play.

UConn’s Geno Auriemma ripped into the officiating crew during a live TV interview and then got into a heated argument with Dawn Staley in the final seconds of the Huskies’ 62-48 loss to South Carolina in the women’s Final Four on Friday night.

HOUSTON (AP) — Kevin Durant scored 25 points and the Houston Rockets won their fifth straight game, beating the Utah Jazz 140-106 on Friday night.
Durant shot 8 of 12 from the field and added five assists. It was the 45th time this season he’s scored 20 or more points while shooting 50% or better. That’s second among NBA players behind Oklahoma City star Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, who has done it 47 times.
Amen Thompson had 21 points and Alperen Sengun scored 19 for the Rockets (48-29), who clinched a playoff spot Thursday.

NEW YORK — Ahead of tipoff against the Chicago Bulls on Friday, Knicks coach Mike Brown said he wasn’t 100% pleased with where his team stood with five games left on the regular-season schedule before the playoffs begin in mid-April.
“You always want your team to be playing at the highest of high cylinders. Do I think we’re there right now? No. Do I have belief in this team? Yes I do,” Brown said. “I’ve seen us play really good basketball throughout the course of the year. Even in games where there’s quote-unquote manufactured pressure. We’ve played really good basketball.

When will it end. | Getty Images
No, we’re not gonna make it…
The New York Islanders made the Eastern Conference playoff race that much more interesting by losing their third straight regulation game to the Philadelphia Flyers, allowing the visitors to pull into a four-way tie of teams with 88 points.
The Islanders were outshot 12-2 and outscored 2-0 in the first period, then gave up the next goal in the second to Matvei Michkov before J-G Pageau got them on the board.

Texas A&M baseball closed out the weekend in emphatic fashion, jumping all over Vanderbilt in Game 3 for a dominant 12–0 run‑rule victory to secure their second straight SEC series win. It was the exact response the Aggies needed after dropping Thursday’s opener.
Before getting to the offensive explosion, the story of the day was sophomore right‑hander Aiden Sims, who delivered his strongest outing of the season and made a compelling case to climb the weekend rotation. He set the tone early and never let Vanderbilt catch its breath.

Three-peat.
A term often associated with individual players like Kobe Bryant, Michael Jordan and Shaquille O’Neal. Teams like Bill Russell’s Boston Celtics, the 1990-era Chicago Bulls, 1998-2000 New York Yankees, 1972-1974 Oakland Athletics and the 1980-1984 New York Islanders — are just some of the few teams ever to accomplish a feat that is rare. Only the greats of their sports have been able to win three championships in a row.
Astoria Pizazz entered the 2025-26 season riding two straight state championships in the 1A-4A hip-hop category.

Apr 3, 2026; Phoenix, AZ, USA; UConn Huskies head coach Geno Auriemma and South Carolina Gamecocks head coach Dawn Staley react in the second half during a semifinal of the Final Four of the women’s 2026 NCAA Tournament at Mortgage Matchup Center. Mandatory Credit: Joe Camporeale-Imagn Images | Joe Camporeale-Imagn Images
PHOENIX — South Carolina defeated UConn 62-48 in the first semifinal game of Friday night in Phoenix, Arizona to advance to Sunday’s national championship game.

Cody Campbell has rapidly become one of the most important figures in college football, almost singlehandedly responsible for the rapid rise of the Texas Tech Red Raiders program. 
After years of mediocrity, without a single nine-win season or better since the magical 2008 Graham Harrell, Michael Crabtree season under head coach Mike Leach, Texas Tech exploded back onto the national scene in 2025 thanks to the country’s best transfer portal class. They went 11-1 in the regular season, with their only loss coming on the road to a tough Arizona State team.

Now that the calendar has flipped to April, spring is truly in the air: the temperatures are getting warmer, the sun is shining longer, and the LSU Baseball games are getting sillier.
This time around, it was the Tigers (21-10, 5-5) scoring six runs in the eighth and ninth innings to rally back and beat Tennessee (19-11, 3-7) to take game one of this weekend’s series 7-5.
Landon Mack got the better of Friday evening’s pitcher’s duel between he and Casan Evans, but the Tennessee bullpen faltered late and LSU was able to guerrilla ball their way to a win.

Just two days ago, the Los Angeles Lakers had won 16 of their previous 18 games and were starting to look like a potential championship contender. But in a span of just a couple of hours, they have been reduced to a team that is hobbled and could quickly exit in the first round of the playoffs.
They not only lost 139-96 to the Oklahoma City Thunder on Thursday, but they also lost Luka Doncic to a hamstring injury in the third quarter.

NCAA Women’s Final Four live winners and losers: Updates on South Carolina, UConn, Texas, UCLA originally appeared on The Sporting News.
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Friday’s slate of games sets up nicely for competitive games, resulting in the National Championship matchup. South Carolina Gamecocks vs the UConn Huskies is not only a matchup of 1s vs 1s, it’s also a rematch. Last year UConn defeated South Carolina 82-59 in the National Championship game. 
The semifinal game tonight has been rather close.

President Donald Trump has signed an executive order calling for “urgent national action to save college sports,” signaling a major federal push to reshape the current landscape of collegiate athletics.
The order proposes sweeping changes, including federal regulation of NIL collectives, stricter transfer rules, and a revamped eligibility structure. One key component is a return to a modified one-time transfer rule, allowing athletes to transfer once with immediate eligibility and a second time only after earning a degree.

The tense encounter heard ’round the world after Friday night’s Final Four game between South Carolina and UConn might have happened for no reason.
South Carolina coach Dawn Staley and UConn coach Geno Auriemma got into a quick fracas after the former’s team beat the latter in Phoenix to go to the national title game.
Staley thinks Auriemma could have been mad at an alleged lack of a pregame handshake between the two, but photographic evidence refutes any anger the UConn coach could have let boil over.
The two clearly shook hands before the game.

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Marty Jaramillo joins CBS Sports HQ to explain

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Geno Auriemma even called out Dawn Staley during his interview before the fourth quarter on Friday night. (Ben Solomon/NCAA Photos via Getty Images)Ben Solomon via Getty Images

Geno Auriemma was heated after the third quarter on Friday night in Phoenix, and he went after both the officials working their Final Four game and South Carolina coach Dawn Staley in his ESPN interview.

Dec 31, 2025; Cleveland, Ohio, USA; Phoenix Suns guard Collin Gillespie (12) shoots a three point shot over rCleveland Cavaliers guard Donovan Mitchell (45) during the first half at Rocket Arena. Mandatory Credit: David Dermer-Imagn Images
PHOENIX – Thursday night was a historic one for Phoenix Suns guard Collin Gillespie, breaking a 20-year franchise record and possibly securing him a massive pay day at the end of this season. The 26-year-old swished his 227th 3-pointer in the second quarter vs. the Charlotte Hornets to becoming the Suns’ single-season franchise leader in made 3s.

Some Michigan State students got a firsthand look at the true athletic genius of Coen Carr.
A viral video has circulated on social media of Carr putting on a show in a pickup game against regular students at one of the Intramural (IM) buildings on campus. In the video, Carr is throwing down incredible dunks, knocking down jumpers and also toying with a defender with his pure athleticism.
Check out the video below:

Coen Carr playing pickup vs MSU students isn’t fair 😭
(via stevethebutcher28/IG) pic.twitter.

As two stalwarts of the sport face off in Phoenix’s Final Four, a few coaching titans are going at it as well.
Dawn Staley’s South Carolina Gamecocks and Geno Auriemma’s Connecticut Huskies are locked in a tight battle in the fourth quarter, but Auriemma gave a shockingly fiery sideline interview at a point where South Carolina had 14 free throws to UConn’s two.
After Holly Rowe asked about Sarah Strong’s ripped jersey, Auriemma replied: “There were six fouls called that quarter. All of them against us.

Commitments are beginning to fly off the board in the Class of 2027.
The end of March and beginning of April have marked not only a turn of the calendar, but a shift in the urgency for top prospects to begin narrowing their lists and making their decisions. In the past week alone, more than 10 blue-chip prospects announced commitments, including the nation’s No. 2 edge rusher, No. 3 quarterback and No. 8 wide receiver recruits.
Things are only going to heat up more heading into pivotal summer official visits, where thousands of prospects will commit in June, July and August.

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Look back at the best moments from the second r

Pittsburgh Pirates fans aren’t known for having reasons to cheer. They haven’t made the postseason since the 2015 season, which ended in a 4-0 loss in the wild card game to the Chicago Cubs. The Pirates last won a playoff game in 2013, and haven’t won a playoff series longer than a single game since 1992. That’s not a misprint; they have quite literally not won a best-of-5 or best-of-7 postseason series in 34 years. 
On Friday, however, Pirates fans finally got another big reason to celebrate.

The 2025 Baltimore Ravens were one kick away from sneaking into the postseason by winning the scrappy AFC North. However, it’s probably better that their effort looped wide right as time expired. 
Baltimore has a litany of issues. On offense, they’re massively one-dimensional, usually being held together by the magic of Lamar Jackson and Derrick Henry. On the defensive side, it’s a unit that can’t get the passer (31st in sack%), and as a result, is decimated on the back end (3rd-most PYPG allowed).

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