Sports
Celtics chase offensive improvement against lowly Nets
Feb 25, 2026; Denver, Colorado, USA; Boston Celtics guard Derrick White (9) talks with a referee during the second half against the Denver Nuggets at Ball Arena. Mandatory Credit: Christopher Hanewinckel-Imagn Images Although the Boston Celtics are coming off one of their worst offensive performances of the season, Jaylen Brown believes his team has plenty to feel good about entering its Friday night game against the visiting Brooklyn Nets.
The Celtics turned in a lackluster second half on Wednesday on a 103-84 road loss to the Denver Nuggets. Boston’s point total and shooting percentage (34.9%) were both season lows, and the Celtics were outscored 56-36 in the final two quarters.
The result ended Boston’s four-game winning streak. Three of those victories came on the road.
“It would’ve been great to finish out strong on the road trip with a win, but 3-1 on a West Coast swing, coming straight out of All-Star break is not half-bad,” Brown said. “We just gotta continue to get better little by little.
“I like where we’re at as a group. I think we’re playing some really good basketball. I think our guys have developed in areas that we continue to just push along, so we just gotta keep that up.”
Boston was playing its third game in four nights on Wednesday. The Celtics beat the Phoenix Suns 97-81 on Tuesday without Brown (right knee contusion), but he led the Celtics in points (23) and rebounds (11) against Denver.
“I like where we’re at as a team,” Brown said. “It’s a good test going back home, playing in front of our home crowd, but we got some tough matchups coming up so we gotta be ready.”
The Celtics are 9-2 in their past 11 games.
“(A) 3-1 trip … played four good teams,” Boston’s Derrick White said. “We knew it was going to be a tough back-to-back. I think we’re in a really good spot. Obviously, there’s a lot to improve on and we’re going to continue to work on. But it’s a big game coming up here on Friday. We gotta be ready to go for that.”
A game against the Nets may be just what the Celtics need to get back on track. Brooklyn fell 126-110 to the visiting San Antonio Spurs on Thursday, the Nets’ sixth consecutive loss. Michael Porter led the Nets with 25 points and 14 rebounds.
“I do believe we can be better than this and that’s the message: Work to be better. Be ready to compete,” Nets coach Jordi Fernandez said after the latest defeat. “We’re not wasting opportunities. Every game of the last 24 has to be played with intention.
“We move on to the next one. It’s an exciting game (Friday). I know the whole team cares. We just have to go out and fight and be 1% better.”
Brooklyn rank last in the NBA in scoring (107.0 points per game), field-goal percentage (44.4%) and rebounding (40.4 boards per game).
Although he didn’t score, Josh Minott made his Brooklyn debut in the Thursday loss. Boston sent Minott to Brooklyn for cash considerations at the trade deadline.
Minott most recently was playing for the Long Island Nets, Brooklyn’s G League affiliate. He averaged 5.8 points and 3.6 rebounds in 15.9 minutes per game with the Celtics this season.
The Friday game will be the fourth meeting between Brooklyn and Boston this season. The Celtics won 113-99 on the road on Nov. 18 before the Nets prevailed 113-105 in Boston three days later. The most recent matchup was a 130-126 double-overtime road win for the Celtics on Jan. 23, when Brown logged 27 points, 12 assists and 10 rebounds.
–Field Level Media
Sports
Tre Carroll aims high as Xavier hosts Georgetown
Feb 21, 2026; Indianapolis, Indiana, USA; Xavier Musketeers forward Tre Carroll (12) dribbles the ball against Butler Bulldogs forward Michael Ajayi (5) during the first half at Hinkle Fieldhouse. Mandatory Credit: Robert Goddin-Imagn Images Tre Carroll continues his drive for a conference scoring crown, as well as some school history Saturday, when Xavier hosts Georgetown in a Big East rematch in Cincinnati.
Carroll leads the conference in scoring for all games (18.5 points per game) and is second in league games (19.5). A Xavier player has never led the Big East in scoring during its previous 12 seasons in the conference.
Xavier defeated Georgetown 80-77 on Dec. 20 in Washington, D.C. 80-77 to give coach Richard Pitino his first Big East win.
The two schools enter Saturday’s game with identical overall and conference marks at 13-15 and 5-12.
Xavier has dropped three straight games, five of six and eight of 10 overall, while streaky Georgetown has dropped five straight following a four-game win streak that came on the heels of a six-game skid.
The Hoyas will be without starting guard KJ Lewis for the remainder of the season. The team’s leading scorer, at 14.9 points per game, went down with a left ankle injury during Tuesday’s 76-60 loss to Marquette. Lewis is third on the team with 5.1 rebounds
“In these Big East games in the dog days of February, teams that want it the most are winning, and right now it’s very disappointing, as we’re not playing the way we should be playing at home,” Georgetown head coach Ed Cooley said. “But, you know, we’ll move on and prepare for Xavier. It’s a lot of frustration around, just around Hoya Nation. As part of what we do, we’ll rise above it, and we’ll prepare for the next game.”
Malik Mack is now the active leading scorer on Georgetown at 13.7 points while Vincent Iwuchukwu is scoring 11.6 points.
Xavier is coming off of a 94-84 loss at Providence on Wednesday. Four Musketeers reached double figures, led by Roddie Anderson’s 27 points. Carroll was held to 15 points, three points below his season average.
“Until we get that defensive identity, it’s gonna be really, really hard,” Pitino said after his team allowed at least 85 points for the 12th time this season. “We can’t just rely on trying to outscore teams and that’s kind of what we are right now.”
–Field Level Media
Sports
Joey Aguilar Eligibility Ruling Is a Win for College Football
Quite often in this modern era of college football, it feels like the NCAA has lost the plot.
So many of the recent changes to the sport — such as the transfer portal, NIL and revenue sharing — are long overdue modern updates which have helped put some well-deserved power back in the players’ hands.
The NCAA, though, has refused to enforce or take a stand on issues that have arisen from these changes — things like tampering, exceeding the roster salary cap and the like — insisting that it is the government’s job to establish these guardrails.
Thankfully, the NCAA hasn’t totally given up on what really matters in college football: the first word in the sport’s name.
The NCAA secured a big win in court last week with the ruling that Tennessee quarterback Joey Aguilar would not be receiving an extra year of eligibility.
Thankfully, logic won out and Aguilar, who turns 25 this summer, won’t be back for his eighth season in college football.
His argument for one more year was an extension of Diego Pavia’s case last season which got him an additional year of eligibility. Pavia argued, with Aguilar and a host of other college football players joining the lawsuit, that years played at junior college shouldn’t count against Division I eligibility.
There’s many reasons why this argument doesn’t hold water but probably the biggest is…the second word in junior college.
The injunction that allowed Pavia to play last season was a net positive because of what he brought to the 2025 season as a Heisman finalist who led Vanderbilt to its first 10-win season in program history.
It also set a dangerous precedent, one which clearly made Aguilar think he could similarly get an extra year.
In theory, I’m ok with the occasional additional year of eligibility. When granted, they are basically always connected to players who have missed extensive time to injuries throughout their careers and whose pro prospects are low because of their injury history and age.
That doesn’t track with Aguilar’s path. He redshirted in 2019 at City College of San Francisco before the 2020 season was canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic. He then transferred to another JUCO program, Diablo Valley, playing in 16 games over the 2021-22 seasons.
After that, he hopped to the FBS level with a transfer to App State, where he started 25 games over two seasons there, missing minimal time.
The Pavia injunction made Aguilar eligible for the 2025 season so he landed at Tennessee after originally transferring to UCLA for what was essentially his bonus year.
It was an extremely successful season. He started all 14 games, racking up 3,565 passing yards and 24 touchdowns. He led the Southeastern Conference in passing yards during the regular season.
But once again, it was a full season competition — Aguilar’s fourth at the collegiate level with 10-plus games and fifth with six or more. That’s a full career and then some.
So it’s a relief the NCAA fought the case in court and even more that the Tennessee state judge sided with the organization over the local athlete.
Don’t get my point twisted: Player empowerment is good for college sports.
But with that power comes responsibilities. Among them, the responsibility of realizing when it’s time to move on to the next stage of football and/or life.
Sports
Tyler Reddick chasing history at COTA
Feb 22, 2026; Hampton, Georgia, USA; NASCAR Cup Series driver Tyler Reddick celebrates the win at EchoPark Speedway. Mandatory Credit: Mady Mertens-Imagn Images With two exciting finishes under its belt, NASCAR has opened its season strong and certainly raised questions. The biggest one might be this: Who or what can stop team owners Michael Jordan and Denny Hamlin, their two 23XI Racing teams and rising drivers Tyler Reddick and Bubba Wallace?
After last season found the organization and Front Row Motorsports in court against NASCAR regarding an antitrust accusation, with Jordan and company citing the sanctioning body as an unfair, monopolistic group, a settlement was reached on Dec. 11.
23XI Racing has not let any distraction slow it down, though the third race this season — the 95-lapper around the Circuit of the Americas (COTA) on Sunday in Austin, Texas — will be a much different animal to deal with than the first two drafting tracks.
It’s an affectionate animal for Reddick thus far.
The NASCAR Cup Series has visited the Texas twister of a track five times since the 2020 COVID-affected campaign.
Following Chase Elliott’s win in 2021 and Ross Chastain’s a year later, Reddick used a series of sharp lefts and rights to handily beat Kyle Busch in 2023 for his fourth career win and first with 23XI Racing in a race that had 16 lead changes and 3,110 green-flag passes (53.6 per lap).
Over the past two seasons, William Byron and defending winner Christopher Bell have been the best at figuring out the track that looks like it was designed on an Etch A Sketch.
Bell’s victory a year ago came against Byron, but the day’s biggest story was that road racing ace Shane van Gisbergen did not find the checkers first and finished sixth after leading 23 laps.
That’s disappointing for someone who went 5-for-6 on road courses in 2025.
The Jordan/Hamlin-led team brings a ton of momentum to the Lone Star State, and Reddick stands on the cusp of being alone in history Sunday.
No driver has ever opened with three points wins. Only Matt Kenseth (2009), Jeff Gordon (1997), David Pearson (1976), Bob Welborn (1959) and Marvin Panch (1957) have won two consecutive races out of the gate.
“If at any point during this week I’m running out of reasons to be motivated to go win, I’ll keep that in my back pocket, for sure,” Reddick said. “You know, it’s cool to be able, or have the opportunity to potentially do things like that, but … it’s all about just doing everything I can and showing up every week being as prepared as I can.”
Naturally, the hotshot leads in points as Texas looms in the Southwestern horizon. He has 125 points, while teammate Wallace, the top driver with 86 laps led, is 40 points back in second.
In fact, Wallace’s name could have replaced Reddick’s here this week, and the No. 23 Toyota that led in the closing laps at Daytona and Atlanta could be racing in Austin for history with a couple of breaks or better final maneuvers.
Yet winning in Texas sounds speculative.
“Pray for me,” Wallace joked about COTA, where he finished 20th last time.
Can Reddick win again in the Texas capital like he did in 2023, or is it possible the snaking COTA will constrict 23XI Racing’s successful run to start 2026?
The answer to both are as obvious as asking Michael Jordan if he knows his championship ring size.
–Field Level Media
Wordle today: Answer, hints for February 28, 2026
Hurdle hints and answers for February 28, 2026
