Sports
No. 2 Purdue knows No. 7 Miami's top two players well
Purdue Boilermakers guard Braden Smith (3) passes the ball while being defended by Queens University of Charlotte Royals forward Gus Larson (7) during a NCAA Tournament first round game Friday, March 20, 2026, at Enterprise Center in St. Louis. Second-seeded Purdue may not necessarily be familiar with the strengths and weaknesses of No. 7 seed Miami ahead of the teams’ meeting in West Region second-round play on Sunday in St. Louis.
But the Boilermakers certainly know what to expect from the Hurricanes’ top two scorers, having played them last season when they were in the Big Ten.
Malik Reneau, a 6-foot-9 senior who averaged 13.1 points and grabbed 5.6 rebounds in his third season at Indiana, transferred home to Miami and has enjoyed his best season. Reneau, who scored a game-high 24 points Friday night in the Hurricanes’ 80-66 elimination of Missouri, averages 19.0 points and 6.6 rebounds.
Then there’s 6-2 combo guard Tre Donaldson, who tallied 11.3 points per game a season ago for Michigan. This season, Donaldson supplies career-high averages in points (16.5) and assists (5.8) for the Canes. He comes off a 22-point effort Friday night, including multiple clutch 3-pointers down the stretch.
“It definitely helps,” said Purdue point guard Braden Smith of their familiarity with Reneau and Donaldson. “You gotta be ready to just bounce back quickly.”
Both teams are dealing with a quick turnaround after winning first-round games Friday night. It will be a bit quicker for Miami, which got off the floor at 11:28 p.m. local time after quieting a large Tigers crowd in Enterprise Center.
The Hurricanes (26-8) have defied expectations all season, though. First-year coach Jai Lucas inherited a bare cupboard, but he recruited a blend of veterans and freshmen that have played with poise and set a school record for wins by a new coach.
Friday night might have been its most impressive exhibition of poise. Missouri led 54-52 with less than eight minutes left when Lucas called a timeout. One 11-0 run later – highlighted by five straight points from Reneau and four from freshman Shelton Henderson — Miami was ahead for good.
“Just stay the course and continue to just keep pushing and pushing,” Donaldson said. “Don’t change nothing. Attack it the same way we have been all year.”
While the Hurricanes might be playing with house money, the Boilermakers (28-8) have been playing with high expectations for years. The 2024 national finalists were picked No. 1 in multiple preseason national polls. After a late-season lull knocked them down to the No. 7 seed in the Big Ten tournament, they’ve found that championship form.
Purdue won four games in four days to win the conference tourney and carried that standard of play into Friday night’s 104-71 rout of Queens in the first round. Smith scored 26 points and dished out eight assists to break Bobby Hurley’s 33-year old NCAA mark for most assists in a career. Smith goes into Sunday’s game with 1,083 helpers in four seasons.
Boilermakers coach Matt Painter said Friday’s performance was another display of Smith’s judgment in terms of hunting his shot versus feeding his teammates.
“We let his instincts take over and if they’re going to play deeper, he has to look for his pullup,” Painter said. “It just depends on what we’re running, the angles we’re running … he took the shots that were there.”
The winner advances to a Thursday night semifinal against either third-seeded Gonzaga or 11th-seeded Texas.
–Bucky Dent, Field Level Media
Sports
Ian Poulter plays on torn meniscus, surgery set for September
Ian Poulter tees off on the ninth hole Friday, Aug. 15, 2025, during day one of the LIV Golf Indianapolis tournament held at The Club at Chatham Hills in Westfield, Indiana. Ian Poulter said he needs surgery after tearing his meniscus while hopping up two steps at LIV Golf Virginia earlier this month.
Poulter didn’t let the injury impede him on the golf course on Thursday, as he shot a 4-under 66 in the first round of LIV Golf Korea at Asiad Country Club. The co-captain of Majesticks GC followed with a 2-over 72 on Friday to reside in a tie for 13th place, six strokes in back of leader Talor Gooch.
“I tore my meniscus Thursday of Virginia just hopping up two steps, so went for an MRI when I got back from Virginia, and yeah, I’m going to have to have surgery in September,” Poulter said Thursday.
Poulter, 50, admitted that he wasn’t sure he’d be able to compete in Korea.
“Bizarrely I have no sensation throughout the golf swing that there’s anything wrong with it,” he said. “I sense it when I’m walking downhill, steep downhills. I’m just edging it a little bit. But look, I’m going to have to strengthen that leg. It’s not affecting my golf in any way, shape or form.
“I just have to be reminding myself that I can’t go and play paddle tennis or do anything stupid or hop up steps like I did a couple of weeks ago. Walking in straight lines and being super sensible is not something I’m used to doing.
“Look, I feel good. I feel great. The body feels good. We’ll deal with that at some stage.”
Poulter has yet to win an individual LIV Golf event since joining the upstart league in 2022. He has 17 professional wins, including three on the PGA Tour.
–Field Level Media
Sports
MLB Betting Picks for Friday, May 29: Phillies and Marlins Featured
May 23, 2026; Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA; Philadelphia Phillies first baseman Bryce Harper (L) and third baseman Alec Bohm (R) slap hands after scoring during the fourth inning against the Cleveland Guardians at Citizens Bank Park. Mandatory Credit: Bill Streicher-Imagn Images A light MLB slate two consecutive days sets the stage for the full Friday night menu in baseball.
There are several key series to keep an eye on, including a pair in the National League. The Chicago Cubs (31-26) seek their third consecutive win, facing the St. Louis Cardinals (29-25) in an NL Central battle.
Out west, the Philadelphia Phillies (29-27) square off with the Los Angeles Dodgers (36-20) in a playoff rematch at Dodger Stadium.
We’ll break down two plays for the Friday action. Remember to monitor the odds throughout the day, as the sides and totals market is constantly changing.
Here are the free MLB picks for Friday, May 29. Odds Courtesy of DraftKings.
Best MLB plays today
- Marlins F5 (-104) at Mets
- Phillies (+100) at Dodgers
Marlins F5 (-104) at Mets – 7:10 p.m. ET
The Marlins (26-31) swept the Mets at home last week as the two NL East rivals meet tonight at Citi Field. Miami P Max Meyer owns a tremendous 10-1 record in the first five innings, which includes leading New York, 4-0 last Saturday through five frames in a 4-1 win.
Freddy Peralta has led through five innings in three of 11 starts this season for the Mets, including a 1-3-2 mark in his last six home outings. New York is 2-6-1 in the first five innings of the past nine games.
Meyer has tossed at least five innings in nine consecutive games and has not allowed a run in the opening five frames in this stretch. Let’s go with the Marlins to continue their domination of the Mets and back them in the first five innings.
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Phillies (+100) at Dodgers – 10:15 p.m. ET
Philadelphia (29-27) faces Los Angeles (36-20) for the first time since getting knocked out in the NLDS last season. The Phillies started their west coast swing with a three-game sweep of the Padres, highlighted by a pair of shutouts. Tonight, Zack Wheeler heads to the mound as the Phillies are 6-0 in the right-hander’s six starts, while owning an ERA of 1.67.
The Dodgers cruised past the Rockies for a three-game sweep, extending their winning streak to five games. Left-hander Justin Wrobleski hasn’t lost consecutive starts this season after allowing five runs in five innings against Milwaukee. Wrobleski owns a 13.7% strikeout rate, which sits in the fifth percentile in MLB.
The Phillies are 11-2 in their last 13 road games since May 1, after starting 4-8 in their first 12 outings away from Citizens Bank Park. Wheeler didn’t face the Dodgers last season, but I expect a strong showing from him to continue his dominance and the Phillies to get revenge for their playoff loss.
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Sports
The NCAA May Be Losing Control of College Football as SEC Frustrations Boil Over
For all of you who appreciate college football as deeply as I do, I would strongly advise you to make the most of your enjoyment of the sport for as long as you can.
Because it’s getting hard to see the sport staying as it is now for very much longer.
Georgia president Jere Morehead and head coach Kirby Smart were the first people to say what has been boiling under the surface for years at this point: The way things are trending, it seems less and less likely that the future of the Big Ten and Southeastern Conference are in the NCAA.
As the NCAA pushes Congress to institute laws that would govern the sport and these attempts, like the SCORE Act, which stalled out this week, fail, college sports continue to be Wild West of sorts.
While the NCAA has instituted a cap for how much of its revenue it can share with players ($20.5 million across all sports for the 2025-26 academic year) and instituted a clearing house to approve all NIL transactions, things aren’t being forced on that front.
Tampering continues to be rampant — just ask Dabo Swinney — but we’re still waiting on the first punishment for anything of the sort. That leaves coaches at power programs, like Georgia, open to what they view as a better, NCAA-less future.
“I’ve been a huge advocate that if we can’t find rules that everybody plays by, then we should play on our own,” Smart told reporters this week at the SEC’s spring meetings in Miramar Beach, Fla. “I’m not afraid of that. I’m not afraid to break away and say that our conference is strong enough to go out and play.
“If we could actually function financially, it would make our programs more stable. We could support things financially — I’m talking about all the sports — and do our own rules. I’d be all for that.”
There have been discussions for years about if the college sports landscape, especially college football, is heading for a super league. Could a subset of the SEC and Big Ten break off and go independent, with a few ACC/Big 12 schools potentially replacing those conference’s lower tiers?
It’s always been a possibility this is where things were heading. This new league, which would likely contain an even greater percentage of the best players than these conferences already do, would have no trouble getting a TV contract to televise its games.
If these basketball programs also left the NCAA’s purview, that would seriously hinder the organization’s main cash cow in March Madness and drastically change its finances.
The NCAA is left with no real choice. It needs to bring actionable rules and real governance to college sports or it feels like just a matter of time until it becomes a college sports afterthought.
Even if it does those things, it’s still possible that there’s no keeping the band together at this point. But the NCAA has to try.
Ian Poulter plays on torn meniscus, surgery set for September
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