Sports
East Region: No. 1 Duke's chance for title run goes through Cooper Flagg
Feb 5, 2025; Syracuse, New York, USA; Duke Blue Devils head coach Jon Scheyer talks with guard Cooper Flagg (2) against the Syracuse Orange during the first half at the JMA Wireless Dome. Mandatory Credit: Rich Barnes-Imagn Images A decade has passed since Duke won its most recent of five national championships, the longest title drought for the program since claiming its first in 1991. All five of those titles came under the direction of legendary coach Mike Krzyzewski.
Duke has the firepower in 2025 to end an excruciating wait and for Coach K’s successor, Jon Scheyer, to truly launch a new era of Blue Devils basketball.
Before he is expected to go No. 1 overall in this summer’s NBA draft, sensational freshman forward Cooper Flagg is the linchpin of Duke’s national title aspirations. Flagg’s recovery from an ankle injury sustained in the ACC tournament looms over the Blue Devils as they begin the road to San Antonio against the winner of a First Four matchup on Wednesday between American University and Mount St. Mary’s.
East Region No. 1 seed Duke plays its opening weekend as close to home as possible while still requiring the Cameron Crazies to leave campus. Games on Friday and presumably March 23 are in Raleigh, N.C., practically within Kon Knueppel’s shooting range away from Cameron Indoor Stadium in Durham.
The virtual home game may be the only favor the selection committee gave Duke, however. The East is loaded with contenders — and not just among the top seeds. No. 2 Alabama, No. 3 Wisconsin and No. 4 Arizona are all intriguing picks to advance to the Alamodome.
Coach Dana Altman’s teams routinely exceed expectations in March, making fifth-seeded Oregon a team to watch. Sixth-seeded BYU was playing some of the best basketball in the country over the final weeks of the regular season, and NCAA Tournament fixture Saint Mary’s is a matchup nightmare with the seventh seed’s methodical offense and stifling defense.
Even double-digit seeds like Vanderbilt (No. 10), which made noise in the stacked Southeastern Conference, and Atlantic 10 champion VCU (No. 11) have qualities that make them intriguing Sweet 16 possibilities.
The East is also rife with star power, boasting explosive scorers in Alabama’s Mark Sears, Wisconsin’s John Tonje and Arizona’s Caleb Love. The region also comes with a clear A-1 star, though.
For the rest of the field, the East is an extended game of capture the Flagg — so long as the Duke phenom is at 100 percent health.
Top shot
ACC champion Duke (31-3) features a 2025 lineup remarkably similar to its 2015 national championship team, combining freshman standouts in Flagg, Knueppel and Khaman Maluach with veterans capable of taking over in a pinch. Tyrese Proctor has been a steady upperclassman leader and could be this Duke team’s version of Quinn Cook from the last Blue Devils championship.
Despite some late-season losses in the deep SEC, Alabama (25-8) deservedly hovered around the nation’s No. 1 ranking much of the season. The 2024 Final Four team returned the explosive Sears and versatile forward Grant Nelson, and at times has looked like the best team in the nation.
The trio of offensively proficient Wisconsin, Arizona and BYU can score with anyone in the East region. Defending at a level comparable to Duke — which already held Arizona to 55 points in a November win and led the ACC in both points scored (82.7 per game) and fewest allowed (61.9) — is another matter.
Games to watch
4 Arizona vs. 13 Akron
While not quite at the level of the 1990 UNLV-Loyola Marymount Elite Eight matchup, Arizona and Akron have the potential to deliver the highest-scoring contest of this year’s March Madness.
The Wildcats average 81.7 points per game, while the Zips put up 84.6 points per contest. What’s more, both have depth and no shortage of scorers capable of going off, with seven Zips posting between seven and 14 points per game, and seven Wildcats producing from 7.1 to 16.6 points per game.
Their similar offensive styles promise a high-tempo, exciting matchup.
6 BYU vs. 11 VCU
The first round does not feature more of a clash of styles than BYU’s potent offense against VCU’s stifling defense.
BYU broke out late in the Big 12 Conference season, scoring 85-plus points in six of eight games, including wins at Arizona (96-95), at Iowa State (88-85, double-overtime) and vs. Iowa State in the Big 12 tournament (96-92). With his 43.3 percent 3-point shooting, Richie Saunders is a threat to take over any game from beyond the arc.
However, VCU’s 62.4 points per game defensive yield — the ninth-lowest in all of Division I — includes holding opponents to 29.9 percent shooting from outside.
7 Saint Mary’s vs. 10 Vanderbilt
The East’s 7-10 matchup is not a contrast quite as stark as the 6-11 pairing, but Saint Mary’s and Vanderbilt are teams with much different profiles. First-year Commodores coach Mark Byington brought the same up-tempo approach that carried James Madison into the second round last season to his new post with similar success.
Vanderbilt averages 79.6 points per game with an offense ranked No. 30 nationally in adjusted efficiency per KenPom.com metrics. Saint Mary’s counters with the nation’s eighth-ranked adjusted defensive efficiency, continuing the longstanding tradition of tough-nosed Randy Bennett-coached teams.
Six-foot-10 Mitchell Saxen is a defensive presence on the glass, posing a potential mismatch problem for an undersized Commodores lineup.
Get to know …
Cooper Flagg, Duke
Much depends on the outlook for his return from an ankle injury sustained in the ACC tournament, but Flagg has the game to join the exclusive company of freshmen to win the NCAA Tournament Most Outstanding Player — a club that includes Tyus Jones from Duke’s last title run.
Mark Sears, Alabama
The star of Alabama’s 2024 Final Four run is back, looking to finish the job in 2025. Sears is streaky, evident in his late-season performance with 31 points combined over the Crimson Tide’s final three contests. When he’s on, however — evident in a 30-point game on March 5 against SEC tournament champion Florida — Sears is as dangerous as any scorer in the country.
John Tonje, Wisconsin
An uncharacteristically high-scoring Wisconsin offense (80.5 points per game) starts with the dynamic John Tonje. He followed up a 6-of-6 3-point shooting performance in the Big Ten tournament vs. UCLA with a 32-point outing in the semifinal win over Michigan State. His 41-point performance against fellow East region team Arizona on Nov. 15 ranks among the best individual efforts of the entire 2024-25 season.
Caleb Love, Arizona
An All-American in 2023-24, Love opted for another season at Arizona after a disappointing Sweet 16 exit last year to Clemson. The Wildcats thrive through their balance but still very much go as Love goes.
Nate Bittle, Oregon
Seven-footer Nate Bittle returned from an injury that held him out much of the 2023-24 season to lead Oregon in scoring and rebounding in 2024-25. His versatility, able to score both with his back-to-the-basket down low and step out beyond the arc, makes Bittle especially difficult to game-plan for, helping open the floor for perimeter scorers Jackson Shelstad and Keeshawn Barthelemy. Bittle has played some of his best games against Oregon’s toughest opponents — like East region counterpart Alabama, which the Ducks beat during the Players Era Festival over Thanksgiving weekend.
Augustas Marciulionis, Saint Mary’s
It once seemed impossible to note Augustas Marciulionis without adding that he is the son of Lithuanian National Team legend and longtime Golden State Warrior Sarunas Marciulionis. As the engine driving Saint Mary’s, Augustas Marciulionis is making his own name — and can take it further with a big NCAA Tournament. He is an outstanding combo guard, averaging a team-high 14.3 points per game and is among the best passers in the field with 6.1 assists per game.
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6 BYU (-2.5) vs. 11 VCU
After opening at BYU -3.5 across most major sportsbooks, VCU moved to a +2.5-point underdog by the deadline of this column. Early bettors were obviously bullish on the Rams, opting to support their defensive approach over the free-flowing Cougars. If the line continues moving in VCU’s favor, there could be significant value in BYU.
5 Oregon (-6.5) vs. 12 Liberty
Every March Madness features seismic 12-over-5 upsets. With Altman-coached teams being undefeated in the first round, and this Oregon team causing size matchup problems for Conference USA champion Liberty, don’t expect it to be this one.
4 Arizona-13 Akron over/under 166.5
With nine 100-point games between them, Arizona vs. Akron figures to be a track meet. Given the winner could reasonably be pegged to reach the mid-90s, this one should clear the 166.5-point over/under with room to spare.
Out of the East
Duke faithful held their breath when Flagg went down in the ACC tournament. The response of the rest of the Blue Devils to finish the dual regular-season and postseason conference championship should inspire confidence, though, that this team is not a one-man show.
Certainly, Duke needs Flagg near 100 percent to navigate the toughest of the four regions. Alabama matches up well with the Blue Devils, and a potential Flagg-Grant Nelson showdown in the Elite Eight could be a blast. Yet the Tide need to lock down defensively to overcome a potentially deadly 3-point shooting barrage from Wisconsin to have a shot at a return Final Four trip.
–Field Level Media
Sports
A'ja Wilson has no shortage of motivation after Aces' early exit in '24
Oct 1, 2024; Brooklyn, New York, USA; Las Vegas Aces center A’ja Wilson (22) and New York Liberty forward Breanna Stewart (30) during game two of the 2024 WNBA Semi-finals at Barclays Center. Mandatory Credit: Wendell Cruz-Imagn Images LAS VEGAS — Entering her eighth season in the WNBA, Las Vegas Aces superstar A’ja Wilson is poised to build on what was arguably the most dominant individual campaign in league history.
Wilson joined Cynthia Cooper (1997) as the second player in league history to win a unanimous MVP award and joined an exclusive club as the fourth player to win the award three times. She averaged 26.9 points and 11.9 rebounds per game last season and set the all-time single-season mark for points (1,021) and rebounds (451).
Unfortunately for Las Vegas, injuries and fatigue from their two previous championship runs mounted and resulted in the team’s worst regular-season record (27-13) since 2019. The Aces’ three-peat hopes ended with a 76-62 home loss to the New York Liberty to drop their semifinal series 3-1.
It’s that loss on her home floor that served as Wilson’s motivation this offseason.
“Losing sucks, especially on your home court,” Wilson said “It still kind of burns a little bit, but I’ve used that as fuel to help my teammates understand how hard it is to win in this league. Yes, we can celebrate the two championships. They were great. But for us to move forward, we have to understand how hard this league is and value the basketball and the little things. I think that’s what we lacked last season, so we’re going to make sure that we can show up better than we did.”
While the Aces appeared to be on top of the world heading into their potential three-peat campaign in 2024, the reality inside the locker room was that both the internal and external pressure to win another championship had become suffocating. A common theme across media day was the fact that the team feels less pressure entering the 2025 season, a sentiment Wilson shared as the unquestioned leader of the team.
“(Three-peat talks) obviously impacted us, because it’s like, y’all think we don’t want to win? We’re trying as well,” Wilson said.
“I would definitely say it’s refreshing this year. I feel like this is one of my only years where it feels like there’s no weight. There’s a lot of weight to be defending champs. It’s a lot of weight to be trying to win one. We don’t have that. We actually have a clean slate to really dial into getting back to who we are culturally, like, in our system and everything.”
Leading the Aces back to the top of the mountain for a third time in four years is one of a few historically significant achievements Wilson can collect this upcoming season. Wilson could also become the first four-time MVP in league history, though the meaning of that is something she hasn’t quite allowed herself to ponder yet.
“I haven’t given it much thought, but it would be a blessing to have my name in that conversation,” Wilson said. “Every year, I try to be better than I was the year before just to give myself a chance in this league. Because the league is getting better. We’re growing. At this point, you just want to maintain your stamina. You want to maintain your mental, all of that, because the season gets hard. I can’t think too much about that just yet, but I’m definitely going to try to be better than I was last year.”
As Aces coach Becky Hammon put it, fans can expect to see an even better version of Wilson this season.
“What I see is, she went and got better,” Hammon said. “Which is hard to do when you’re already the best, but it speaks to her work ethic, her desire and her mindset this whole offseason. We talked a lot this offseason. She’s a busy lady, but I can tell you what she always does is her workouts. She’s always getting her workouts in. That comes first and foremost, she never gets her priorities jumbled up.”
When Hammon was asked what a player like Wilson would possibly need to improve after last season’s campaign, the coach did not feel like revealing too much.
“There was (something for Wilson to improve), and she did,” Hammon said. “I’m not going to tell you what it was. Actually, there were two things.”
–Will Despart, Field Level Media
Sports
Jacob Wilson joins Aaron Judge in spotlight for Yankees-A's series
May 5, 2025; West Sacramento, California, USA; Athletics shortstop Jacob Wilson (5) throws to first for an out against the Seattle Mariners during the seventh inning at Sutter Health Park. Mandatory Credit: Dennis Lee-Imagn Images The top two hitters in the majors square off Friday night when the New York Yankees face the Athletics in the opener of a three-game series in Sacramento, Calif.
It’s no surprise to see Yankees star Aaron Judge off to a superb start after winning American League MVP honors last season. He has a major league-best .400 batting average and entered Thursday’s play tied for the big-league lead with 12 homers and 34 RBIs.
But who had Athletics rookie Jacob Wilson ranking second in the majors at .357 as the season nears the quarter pole? Wilson has played in just 64 career games and quickly has solidified himself as a future All-Star, perhaps even this season.
Sharing the marquee board with Judge seems quite surreal for the 23-year-old shortstop who was the No. 6 overall pick of the 2023 draft.
“It’s a great feeling, for sure,” Wilson said of his name being mentioned with Judge. “Obviously, everybody has seen what he is doing. It’s pretty incredible watching him do his thing on a daily basis. To be up there with him is pretty cool for me.
“I’m excited to play against him this week and see what it looks like in person.”
Wilson had his first career four-hit game during Wednesday’s 6-5 home loss against the Seattle Mariners and has six multi-hit outings in the past eight games. He went 8-for-14 with one game-winning hit in the three-game series against the Mariners and is 16-for-34 (.471) with four walks during the eight-game stretch.
The hot hitting led to Athletics manager Mark Kotsay moving Wilson to the leadoff spot on Wednesday. Kotsay indicated Wilson may be sticking at the top of the lineup.
“I think you’ll see Jacob up there now,” Kotsay said. “Jacob’s earned it. … Jacob has shown enough over the last week. He’s walking and taking pitches, and, obviously, swinging the bat really well.”
Judge arrives in Sacramento in the midst of a four-game funk in which he is 2-for-15.
The two-time MVP just went 1-for-10 in a three-game home series against the San Diego Padres, but the one hit was a homer.
Judge grew up 50 miles south of Sacramento in Linden and starred for Linden High but wasn’t highly sought by major league teams. The then-Oakland Athletics selected him in the 31st round in 2010.
Judge instead went the college route and starred for Fresno State. He was chosen in the first round (32nd overall) by the Yankees in the 2013 draft.
Trent Grisham was one of the heroes of Wednesday’s 4-3, 10-inning win over the Padres. He hit a tying two-run pinch-hit homer in the eighth inning.
Grisham had two homers and five RBIs in the series against the Padres — one of his former teams — and already has 10 long balls in just 89 at-bats. He hit just nine last season in 179 at-bats.
“I’m having fun with the guys, I would say that more than anything,” Grisham said. “The clubhouse is really good in here, led by Cap (Judge). So, I would say the guys have been the most enjoyable part.”
New York is starting right-hander Will Warren (1-2, 5.65 ERA) in Friday’s series opener. Right-hander Osvaldo Bido (2-2, 4.71) will be on the mound for the Athletics.
Warren, 25, struck out a career-high eight in 4 2/3 innings while losing to the Tampa Bay Rays on Sunday. He gave up five runs (three earned) and seven hits. Warren hasn’t previously faced the Athletics.
Bido, 29, received a no-decision against the Miami Marlins last Saturday when he gave up four runs on three hits over five innings. He is winless (0-1) over his last three starts. Bido hasn’t faced the Yankees.
–Field Level Media
Sports
Report: Boxing legend Manny Pacquiao coming out of retirement
Aug 21, 2021; Las Vegas, Nevada; Manny Pacquiao (right) fights Yordenis Ugas in a world welterweight championship bout at T-Mobile Arena. Mandatory Credit: Stephen R. Sylvanie-Imagn Images Boxing legend Manny Pacquiao plans to end his retirement and return to the ring on July 19 against Mario Barrios in Las Vegas, ESPN reported Thursday.
Pacquiao, 46, will be fighting for the first time since losing a unanimous decision to Yordenis Ugas in 2021.
The fight will be for Barrios’ WBC welterweight championship belt. Barrios turns 30 on May 18.
Pacquiao is an eight-division champion who is slated to be inducted into the boxing Hall of Fame in June. He reportedly will formally announce his return to boxing next week. The report stated that Pacquiao has been cleared to compete by the Nevada State Athletic Commission.
In recent years, Pacquiao has been focusing on his political career in the Philippines.
The boxer nicknamed “PacMan” has a 62-8-2 record with 39 knockouts during his career. He won his first major title — the WBC flyweight crown — at age 19 in 1998.
Pacquiao was 54-3-2 prior to turning 33 and 8-5 afterward. One of those losses was to Floyd Mayweather Jr. via unanimous decision in 2015, a bout that reportedly drew nearly $400 million in pay-per-view sales.
Barrios (29-2-1, 18 knockouts) fought to a 12-round, split-decision draw against Abel Ramos last November. This will be his third defense since winning the title by beating Ugas in 2023.
–Field Level Media
A'ja Wilson has no shortage of motivation after Aces' early exit in '24
Best Mothers Day gifts: Show mom some love
