Sports
Indiana rides offense to 52-14 rout over Charlotte
Indiana’s Andison Coby (0) carries defenders during the Indiana versus Charlotte football game at Memorial Stadium on Saturday, Sept. 21, 2024. Indiana racked up six touchdowns and a field goal in its first seven possessions and pulled away late in the second quarter to crush visiting Charlotte 52-14 in a nonconference victory Saturday afternoon at Bloomington, Ind.
Kevin Rourke went 16 of 20 passing for 258 yards and a touchdown, while also running for another score for the Hoosiers (4-0).
Rourke’s 12-yard TD run extended Indiana’s lead to 23-14 with 3:05 left in the second quarter, and his 19-yard scoring toss to Ke’Shawn Williams with 26 seconds left in the half padded the cushion.
Ty Son Lawton rushed for two scores for Indiana, which was coming off an easy 42-13 win over UCLA in its Big Ten opener last weekend at Pasadena, Calif. Lawton’s second touchdown Saturday, from 5 yards, came on the first possession of the second half as the Hoosiers built a 38-14 lead.
Charlotte quarterback Trexler Ivey completed 14 of 23 passes for 119 yards and one touchdown. C.J. Stokes ran for a 13-yard score for the 49ers (1-3), whose only win this season came against FCS member Gardner-Webb last week.
The Hoosiers, who outscored their first three opponents 150-13, forced a three-and-out from Charlotte to open the game, then then covered 49 yards on six plays to take a 7-0 lead on Lawton’s 8-yard rush.
Indiana was on the doorstep of the end zone on its next possession but settled for Nicolas Radicic’s 27-yard field goal for a 10-0 advantage.
Despite being outgained in total yards 510-256 in the game, Charlotte was within 17-14 late in the second quarter.
Henry Rutledge’s 33-yard end-around put the 49ers at the Indiana 7-yard line at the end of the first quarter, and Stokes’ run pulled them within 10-7.
Justice Ellison’s 2-yard touchdown pushed Indiana’s lead to 17-7, but Ivey’s 25-yard strike to Isaiah Myers closed the gap to three points before the Hoosiers scored two TDs in the final 3:05 of the first half.
–Field Level Media
Sports
After homer-filled night, Tigers turn to Framber Valdez vs. Twins
Jun 5, 2026; Detroit, Michigan, USA; Detroit Tigers starting pitcher Framber Valdez (59) throws a pitch against the Seattle Mariners in the first inning at Comerica Park. Mandatory Credit: Lon Horwedel-Imagn Images The first game of the Minnesota-Detroit series turned into Home Run Derby on Tuesday night.
The American League Central rivals combined for eight long balls — four by each team — but the host Tigers made better use of their homers in a 10-4 victory in the opener of a three-game series.
The teams will match up again on Wednesday night, with Minnesota looking to cool off a Detroit team that has won six of its last seven games.
Left-hander Framber Valdez (3-4, 4.21 ERA) will start for the Tigers in Game 2 of the series. He posted a win in his most recent start, but it didn’t come easily.
Valdez labored through five innings against Seattle on Friday, throwing 102 pitches in a 7-3 victory. He allowed five hits, two walks and also hit a batter, but the Mariners scored only once against him.
“I wasn’t putting my head down,” Valdez said through an interpreter. “I was trying to go as deep as I could, and it was in my mind, ‘I’m not going to let them score. I am not going to let them score.’ I am grateful for my teammates for scoring the runs and for making plays behind me to save runs.”
Familiarity between Valdez — who spent his career with Houston before signing with Detroit this past offseason — and the former American League West rival Mariners played a role in the long at-bats on Friday.
“He’s played them a lot through his whole career,” Tigers manager A.J. Hinch said. “He’s got a lot of history with that lineup, especially at the top. He had to battle and he did.”
Valdez will face Minnesota for the 10th time in his career. He has a 4-2 record and a 3.61 ERA in his previous nine outings.
Valdez endured one of his worst outings of the season against the Twins on April 8. He was pounded for eight runs and 10 hits in five innings.
The Twins, who have lost five of their past six games, have not announced a starter for Wednesday’s game. Minnesota’s staff will look to cool off Tigers catcher Dillon Dingler, who homered twice during a four-hit outburst on Tuesday.
Hinch has played mix-and-match with his roster in recent seasons, utilizing the versatility of players such as Matt Vierling, Zach McKinstry and Colt Keith.
Minnesota manager Derek Shelton is doing the same with his players. He notes that only Byron Buxton, an outstanding center fielder, is locked into a certain spot on the field.
“We have the ability to be more matchup-based,” Shelton told MLB.com. “Very similar to where we were earlier in the year. We had the ability to do that, and there’s a chance that we could definitely see that.
“Now, some of that’s also going to come with performance. You still have to perform to be able to get that. But we could definitely be more matchup-based with the way our roster’s constructed right now.”
Buxton returned to the lineup with a bang on Tuesday. He hit Troy Melton’s first pitch of the contest for his 19th homer of the season.
Buxton had been out of the lineup the previous two games. He sustained a right shoulder contusion while crashing into the wall against Kansas City on Friday.
Buxton remains hopeful the team can make a playoff run.
“We have to push each other day-in and day-out to make sure we get where we want to get to,” Buxton told The Minnesota Star Tribune.
–Field Level Media
Sports
Kawhi Leonard Era Drifting Toward Uncertain End With Clippers
Like a sailboat on the water without any wind, the Los Angeles Clippers are afloat, although seemingly unable to go anywhere.
Kawhi Leonard had been paired with Paul George on the roster to no avail and another partnership between Leonard and James Harden proved fruitless. The 2019 George deal, in particular, is putting heavy stress on the franchise to this day.
George is long gone, having already played two seasons with the Philadelphia 76ers.
It’s easy to see now that trading four first round draft picks, as well as Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, to the Oklahoma City Thunder to acquire George was about as foolish as it can get. It didn’t seem all that bright at the time, either.
But the Clippers were desperate to get Kawhi Leonard a wing man and in theory, it actually should have come closer to bringing a title to their side of Los Angeles than it did.
The Clippers were the No. 2 seed in the 2020 Western Conference playoffs but the squad hardly looked comfortable in the sequestered setting of that year’s postseason, held exclusively in the Orlando, Fla., area because of the pandemic.
Among the betting favorites when the playoffs began, the Clippers failed to win the franchise’s first title when they couldn’t even get out of the second round. Making the collapse even worse was that the title did come back to Los Angeles, only with the LeBron James-led Lakers.
Signing Leonard in 2019 was supposed to be the Clippers’ counter move to the Lakers bringing aboard James in 2018. But injuries and disappointments have kept the Clippers adrift in the Leonard era, and issues continue to mount.
At 34, Leonard had the best offensive season of his career in 2025-26, was one of the highlights of the revamped All-Star Game in his own arena this past February, and yet not much of that production is being remembered now.
Leonard and the Clippers are embroiled in controversy, with the NBA about to decide soon if punishments will be handed out for possibly circumventing the salary cap through alleged payments Leonard received from a now shuttered banking company.
A $28 million endorsement deal Leonard had with the company Aspiration, is nearing the end of a league-wide investigation.
The harshest of punishments could see the league void Leonard’s Clippers’ contract that runs through next season and is set to pay the shooting forward just over $50 million.
It would be an awkward end to a rocky era, that so far has included Leonard playing 331 of a possible 574 regular-season games with the team. He missed the entire 2021-22 season with a chronic knee injury.
The Clippers have reached the playoffs a respectable five times since Leonard has joined the organization, but the two-time NBA champion has been limited in the postseason as well.
These were supposed to be better days for the Clippers and billionaire owner Steve Ballmer. Two seasons ago, the team moved into a new $2 billion arena south of L.A. in Inglewood. The state-of-the art venue makes the Lakers’ former arena, sitting nearby, look like a relic.
Yet, it figures to be a long time before the Clippers can even come close to replicating what the Lakers accomplished in the city during the 1980s when they won five titles in nine seasons.
The first four games the Clippers ever played in the building two seasons ago they lost. This past season, they opened with a 6-21 overall record as Leonard missed 10 of those games with yet another injury.
Once Leonard was shed of his minutes restriction upon his return, he leaned into the role as offensive leader as never before. He averaged 32.7 points over a 13-game stretch from Dec. 20- Jan. 14, including a career-best 55-point game. He finished the campaign scoring 27.9 points.
The team surged just enough to earn a spot in the play-in tournament but lost to the Golden State Warriors. Along the way, Harden and longtime big man Ivica Zubac were traded.
Is an influx of trade talent in Bennedict Mathurin and Darius Garland, not to mention 2006 and 2009 first-round draft picks, enough to put a winner around Leonard? The pick in the upcoming draft is No. 5 overall.
Those odds, as well as the chances that the NBA forces the Clippers to split from Leonard this offseason, seem slim. But maybe the parties eventually part in a trade.
At this point, setting sail on the partnership seems as if it would be in the best interest of all.
Sports
Three World Cup Futures Bets Worth Making Before Kickoff
Jun 3, 2026; East Rutherford, New Jersey, USA; A general view of the FIFA World Cup Trophy on display during the FIFA World Cup Trophy Tour at American Dream. Mandatory Credit: Caean Couto-Imagn Images Crunch all the numbers you like.
But with the wild variability of international play, smart handicapping of international soccer events like the World Cup often defies the data.
The good news for bettors is that you can often find more value than you might in the more controlled pro club environment, where there are much larger samples and far fewer secrets.
With that in mind, let’s look at three futures wagers you should be making right now as we set to open up the 2026 World Cup on Thursday.
Confederation to win The World Cup
World Cup winners have historically correlated to World Cup host location.
European sides have won 10 of the 11 tournaments played on European soil. South American sides have won nine of the 11 tournaments played elsewhere, and seven of eight played in the Americas.
Further, all of this year’s South American entrants have very recent experience managing the travel and playing conditions in the United States from the 2024 Copa America that was hosted in many current World Cup venues.
Only two South American teams rank in the top 10 (Argentina, Brazil) in overall squad value, but trans-Atlantic economic disparities often drive down valuation of South American talent relative to Europe. Colombia, Uruguay and Ecuador all have considerable quality, enough that a deep run from any of the trio is not out of the question.
None of this is a guarantee that a South American side will win. But it’s almost certainly more likely than the implied probability 23.8% of a +320 wager.
Confederation to Win The World Cup Best Bet: Conmebol (+320, FanDuel)
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Most Assists for Colombia
There are plenty of questions about the fitness of James Rodriguez, who barely saw the field in half a season with Minnesota United in MLS and last played in a World Cup in 2018.
But he has always been the best version of himself when playing for his national team. And that best version at age 34 is the guy providing the final ball rather than finishing it.
Rodriguez led all of Conmebol in World Cup Qualifying with seven assists and was also the top assist man at the 2024 Copa America. And his first two opponents should provide plenty of opportunity for creating chances from corner kicks and free kicks, as World Cup debutants Uzbekistan and last-gasp qualifiers DR Congo are likely to be quite cagey and conservative.
That Rodriguze is not favored over Luis Diaz in this market is a blatant oversight. Take advantage by backing him to lead his team in goals assisted at +450 odds and an implied 22.2% probability.
Most Assists for Colombia Best Bet: James Rodriguez (+450, Caesars)
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Ivory Coast Phase of Elimination
The Elephants have plenty of talent playing, but their tournament itinerary feels like a recipe for disaster.
They open against Ecuador, a nation overshadowed on their continent by the likes of Argentina and Brazil, but one that has now gone unbeaten in 19 matches.
If they lose that encounter — and they’ll be slight underdogs — they enter a second match against Germany as a must-draw, a bad place to be against a Julian Nagelsmann-managed squad that excels on punishing mistakes of desperate opponents.
So there’s a very real chance the Elephants could enter the final matchday without points, knowing they only have a faint chance to advance as a third-place side. And they’d face a Curacao side that has more talent than you might think under manager Dick Advocaat, and one that might smell a chance of their first-ever World Cup win.
Maybe it’s not the most likely scenario. But it’s plausible, and one worth betting on at +450 odds and an implied 22.2% probability.
Ivory Coast Phase of Elimination: Group stage (+450, Fanatics)
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After homer-filled night, Tigers turn to Framber Valdez vs. Twins
Kawhi Leonard Era Drifting Toward Uncertain End With Clippers
