Sports
No. 19 Saint Louis faces La Salle ready to absorb more blows
Feb 3, 2026; Davidson, North Carolina, USA; Saint Louis Billikens forward Ishan Sharma (9) handles the ball defended by Davidson Wildcats guard Parker Friedrichsen (5) during the second half at McKillop Court at John M. Belk Arena. Mandatory Credit: Jim Dedmon-Imagn Images No. 19 Saint Louis will be in search of a bit more edge as it tries to continue its Atlantic 10 Conference dominance at home against La Salle on Saturday.
Saint Louis (22-1, 10-0 Atlantic 10) will face struggling La Salle (7-16, 3-7) after it dodged defeat at Davidson on Tuesday night. The Billikens rallied from 13 points down in the first half to earn a 91-82 victory.
“We’ve certainly taken punches, and we know we’re going to take more,” Billikens head coach Josh Schertz said. “You can’t have a glass jaw and be a championship team. You know you’re going to get stood up, you’re going to get knocked down, but you build the muscle of getting back up. We’re building a muscle of resilience.”
The Billikens enjoyed a NET ranking of 15 this week. While any regular-season loss may diminish that ranking and cost them a place in the Associated Press Top 25, their real chance at making the NCAA Tournament will likely come in the conference tournament.
The Atlantic 10 sent just one team to the NCAA Tournament in each of the past two seasons, although that doesn’t lessen the importance of the regular season.
Schertz runs a nine-player rotation with six averaging double-figure points. The Billikens have multiple long-range shooters, giving the team plenty of scoring threats while creating a defensive nightmare.
Ishan Sharma poured in 29 points in a 35-point victory at St. Bonaventure two weeks ago. Trey Green scored 23 in victories over George Washington and Dayton at home last week. It was Brady Dunlap’s turn at Davidson, where he scored 22.
“It’s incredible,” Schertz said. “They really pull for each other. They want to be great themselves, but they’re not so small that their success would take the shine away from the other one. That doesn’t threaten them.
“When Ish did what he did against Dayton (18 points) and Brady wasn’t great (no shot attempts), Brady was incredibly happy. He was frustrated in his own situation, but he was incredibly happy for Ish.”
La Salle has struggled with injuries this season as 11 players have combined to miss 98 games. Forwards Jerome Brewer Jr. and Josiah Harris did not play at Loyola on Tuesday during a 71-61 loss.
Stepping up in their absence, Explorers guard Jaden Johnson played 37 minutes against the Ramblers and produced season highs with 16 points and eight assists.
Brewer and Harris combined for 34 points when La Salle lost to Saint Louis 84-72 at home on Jan. 10. The Billikens shot 10-of-23 (43%) from 3-point range.
La Salle coach Darris Nichols was frustrated with his team’s 3-point defense during the Explorers’ subsequent 67-58 loss to Saint Joseph’s at home on Jan. 31.
“The whole game plan was not to let them get 3s off,” Norris said. “They got 32 off. They made 10-for-20 at halftime. We didn’t execute the game plan.”
The Explorers allowed Loyola to launch 30 shots from 3-point range Tuesday and 10 were successful.
Defending the perimeter will be vital against the Billikens, who are shooting 40.7% from beyond the arc. That ranked fourth in Division I through Thursday’s games.
–Field Level Media
Sports
Why the Anthony Davis Trade to Washington Wizards Feels Like a Dead End
According to reports, former Dallas Mavericks big man Anthony Davis wasn’t thrilled about being traded to the Washington Wizards.
Davis claims these reports were “overblown,” which comes off as not being completely false, but maybe a bit exaggerated. Regardless, what’s left of the 32-year-old will be forced to report to the Wizards, one of the worst NBA teams over the last decade.
Already, reports are surfacing that the Wizards will plan on shutting down Davis for the remainder of the season. During his one year in Dallas, Davis only played 29 total games. He’s dealing with a hand injury and a groin injury and hasn’t suited up since early January.
The Mavericks severed ties with Davis after just one year following the catastrophic failure that was the Luka Doncic trade. Moving on from the injury-prone center allows the Mavericks to build around No. 1 overall pick Cooper Flagg, who has looked the part during his rookie season.
Superstar point guard Kyrie Irving has yet to make his season debut for the Mavericks after tearing his ACL in late March of last season.
But Davis was the real loser of this trade.
His agent, Rich Paul, publicly and privately demanded that the Mavericks would find a new home for him prior to Thursday’s NBA trade deadline.
In a blockbuster deal, Davis wound up on the Wizards, who still have not won 15 games this season and currently find themselves as the No. 13 seed in the Eastern Conference.
Washington’s first-round draft pick is protected as long as they find themselves within the top eight selections. By sidelining Davis, the Wizards could continue to let their tank roll on, improving their probability of drafting one of college basketball’s biggest stars this offseason.
After this season, Davis is owed two very large sums of money on his deal with the Wizards that should keep him in Washington over the next two seasons. By shutting down Davis, the Wizards are planning for the long term, where they’ll hope he can get healthy and contribute on a young roster next season.
The Wizards are awful, but they do have a little bit of young talent.
They’ve invested draft picks into Alex Sarr, who could pair nicely with Davis in Washington’s front court next season. Bub Carrington and Bilal Coulibaly are one of the worst backcourt duos in the league, but individually, they are decent role players. Kyshawn George and Shariffe Cooper are both capable of surprises, also.
Washington will need to keep their fingers crossed that their ping pong ball strikes gold in the NBA Draft Lottery. Adding Darryn Peterson or AJ Dybantsa to the young core will help the Wizards grow quickly.
The Wizards will also keep their fingers crossed that Davis can give them any production. In the last decade, David played in over 60 games just once, appearing in 76 games with the Los Angeles Lakers in 2023. If the Wizards can get that All-Star version of Davis, this trade looks like a steal.
But even with Davis healthy, how will the Wizards be much better unless they land Peterson or Dybantsa?
Davis should be thanking LeBron James for that championship they won together in the NBA bubble. Now on the most irrelevant team in the NBA, Davis will spend the rest of the regular season in the shadows instead of contending for more titles.
Sports
Wizards' Anthony Davis expected to sit out rest of season
Jan 6, 2026; Sacramento, California, USA; Dallas Mavericks forward Anthony Davis (3) stands on the court before the start of the game against the Sacramento Kings at the Golden 1 Center. Mandatory Credit: Cary Edmondson-Imagn Images Newly acquired Anthony Davis is not expected to make his debut with the Washington Wizards until the 2026-27 season, NBA TV reported.
Davis, 32, has ligament damage in his left hand as well as a groin injury. The Wizards, who have a 14-36 record and are nine games out of the final play-in spot in the Eastern Conference, reportedly would prefer giving Davis the time off to heal.
He was acquired from the Dallas Mavericks at the trade deadline on Thursday as part of a nine-player, three-team deal that also involved multiple draft picks.
Davis has not played since Jan. 8, when he was injured in a loss to the Utah Jazz.
He appeared in just 20 games this season with Dallas and averaged 20.4 points, 11.1 rebounds, 2.8 assists and 1.7 blocks.
A 10-time All-Star, Davis was the centerpiece of the trade last February that sent Dallas star Luka Doncic to the Los Angeles Lakers. After his arrival with the Mavericks, Davis played only nine games because of injuries.
The Wizards also are waiting for the debut of Trae Young, the four-time All-Star guard they acquired from the Atlanta Hawks in a trade on Jan. 9. He has yet to play because of a right knee MCL sprain and a bruised right quad.
–Field Level Media
Sports
IOC: Sports leaders reach consensus on new gender policy
Kirsty Coventry, president of the International Olympic Committee, speaks at the opening ceremony of the 2026 Winter Olympics on Friday in Milan. MILAN — Global sports leaders have reached consensus on a new set of eligibility criteria for transgender athletes, with the new policy expected to be announced within the first half of this year, the International Olympic Committee said Saturday.
It would be the first uniform policy adopted by the IOC and international sports federations, applying to major events in dozens of sports, including the Games and world championships. Currently, federations have their own rules which can vary.
Details of the new policy are unclear but it is expected to severely restrict the participation of transgender athletes who compete in women’s categories if they have undergone full male puberty before any subsequent medical transition.
The IOC, under its first female president, Kirsty Coventry, took the lead in June, opting for a uniform approach.
“Protecting the female category is one of the key reforms she wants to bring in,” IOC spokesman Mark Adams told a news conference at the Milan-Cortina Winter Games on Saturday.
“I would say it is going to happen shortly, within the next few months.”
“It has been out to consultation phase and we had the ‘pause and reflect’ (period) on it,” Adams said. “Generally speaking there is consensus within the sporting movement. I think you will have a new policy in the first half of this year. Don’t hold me to it, but that is roughly the timescale.”
In September, Coventry set up the “Protection of the Female Category” working group, made up of experts as well as representatives of international federations, to look into how best to protect the female category in sports.
Before Coventry’s decision, the IOC had balked at any universal rule on transgender participation for the Games, instructing international federations in 2021 to come up with their own guidelines. Under current rules, still in force, transgender athletes are eligible to take part in the Olympics once cleared by their respective federations.
Only a handful of openly transgender athletes have taken part in the Games. New Zealand’s Laurel Hubbard became the first openly transgender athlete to compete in a different gender category to that assigned at birth when the weightlifter took part in the Tokyo Olympics in 2021.
Currently, for example, World Aquatics allows transgender athletes who have transitioned before the age of 12, to compete. World Rugby bans all transgender athletes from elite-level competitions.
President Donald Trump has banned transgender athletes from competing in school, college and pro events in the female category in the United States, as Los Angeles prepares to host the 2028 Summer Olympics.
Trump, who signed the “Keeping Men Out of Women’s Sports” order in February, has said he would not allow transgender athletes to compete at the LA Games.
–Reuters, special to Field Level Media
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