Providence is basically out of time to make a push for an NCAA Tournament at-large bid, but at least the Friars can say they’re healthy and remembering how to win again.

Providence chased a four-game losing streak with back-to-back home wins and heads to Newark, N.J., to challenge plummeting Seton Hall on Wednesday.

The Friars (11-13, 4-9 Big East) vanquished Butler 97-87 in double overtime last Wednesday before turning back DePaul 90-72 on Saturday. They know they can be competitive in any Big East game, as seven of Providence’s nine conference losses have come by six points or fewer.

It helps to have their star scorer back in the lineup. Jason Edwards (plantar fasciitis) had missed seven games before returning against DePaul and picking up where he left off. He scored 25 points and shot 5 of 8 from 3-point range in 24 minutes.

“It was eating me alive watching them play and I wasn’t there,” Edwards told reporters. “I wanted to be out there, I wanted to help the guys, I wanted to help Coach Kim. It was a tough time, but I put in a lot of work to get back healthy in terms of my recovery.”

Jaylin Sellers added 21 points and Oswin Erhunmwunse provided 10 points, 13 rebounds and four blocks to the cause. Sellers, Corey Floyd Jr. and freshman standout Stefan Vaaks all played after being banged up.

Edwards leads Providence at 17.1 points per game. But on Dec. 19, he was held to 10 points and 1-of-6 shooting from deep when Seton Hall prevailed 72-67 at Providence.

The Pirates (16-8, 6-7) have dropped six of eight, most recently last week’s critical Quad 1 opportunities at Villanova and Creighton. They frittered away a 63-53 lead with 3:30 to go at Creighton and Nik Graves hit a 30-footer in the final seconds in the Bluejays’ 69-68 stunner.

“Is this disappointing? Yes. Does this mean our season is over? No,” Seton Hall assistant coach Corey Lowery said in a postgame radio interview. “We’re going to battle. Does this hurt? Yes, it’s supposed to hurt.”

Though considered one of the best defensive teams in the country — 12th-best in defensive efficiency according to KenPom.com — Seton Hall has been getting exploited from outside. The Pirates held Providence to 5 of 23 from the arc in December, but in their past three games opponents have made 33 of 78 from deep (42.3%). Meanwhile, the Pirates made just 11 3-pointers in the same span.

Adam “Budd” Clark scored 20 against Creighton to lead Seton Hall for the third straight game. He has a team-high 11.9 points per game average as seven players average at least 6.3.

–Field Level Media

Fresh off a 30-year low in television ratings, the Winter Olympics is seeing much better early returns in 2026, reports The Hollywood Reporter.

The Beijing Games in 2022 had low ratings across the board, including a 15.9 million viewer count for the opening ceremony, marking a three-decade low. Overall, it was the least viewed Winter Olympics NBC had ever broadcast. That performance lowered expectations for Milan and Cortina, Italy, this year.

Instead, the first two days of the Games have resulted in significant gains for NBCUniversal. Preliminary Nielsen ratings, combined with Adobe Analytics streaming data, indicate that viewership has increased by more than 60% compared to four years ago during the same two-day period, when the company averaged 11.4 million viewers in primetime.

The broadcasting networks — NBC, Peacock, CNBC, and USA — reached a peak of 28.5 million viewers on Day 2, marking the largest audience for any day of Winter Olympics coverage since 2014.

The star-studded event on Friday night attracted over 5 million more viewers, totaling 21.4 million, bringing the numbers closer to those of previous Olympics. For example, during the last Winter Olympics in Italy in 2006, NBC drew 22.2 million viewers for the opening ceremony.

Peacock saw an average of 4.1 million viewers on the first Saturday, with over 1.3 billion minutes streamed. That puts the streaming platform on track to surpass 2022’s record of 4.3 billion minutes for the entire Games.

The rebound aligns with NBC’s performance at the 2024 Summer Games in Paris, which also experienced a significant ratings increase. The broadcast plan this year is nearly the same, with Peacock providing live streams for every event, the Gold Zone whip-around show airing daily on the same platform, and NBC, CNBC and USA offering live daytime coverage, with NBC rebroadcasting key moments during primetime.

–Field Level Media

Trading for Jaren Jackson Jr. already appears to be a brilliant long-term move for the Utah Jazz.

Jackson has played in two games with Utah so far, before Wednesday’s matchup against the Sacramento Kings in Salt Lake City. The two-time NBA all-star is averaging 22.0 points, 4.5 rebounds, and 3.0 assists in 25.0 minutes per game.

His 6-foot-10 frame adds another big presence to the Jazz alongside 7-foot-1 Lauri Markkanen. It makes Utah more difficult to defend at the rim and also helps improve the NBA’s worst defensive team by making them less vulnerable on that end of the court.

“I think having two guys that are that size who can both shoot on the perimeter and put pressure on the rim… teams are going to have some hard choices to make in terms of what the matchups are,” Jazz coach Will Hardy told the Deseret News.

This frontcourt pairing is creating new options for the Jazz on how to attack opposing defenses as Jackson and Markkanen become more familiar and comfortable with each other’s games.

“They’ll show us things that maybe we haven’t thought of as much in terms of ways that their skill sets can play off of each other,” Hardy said. “We also are going to learn more as we continue to go about how those two guys are guarded when they’re in the same space.”

The Jazz have looked like a team poised to take a step from rebuilding mode to contending mode next season when Jackson and Markkanen have been on the court together. They are 1-1 since acquiring Jackson, suffering a 120-117 loss to Orlando on Saturday and then beating Miami 115-111 on Monday.

Jackson saw action in the first three quarters in both games. He played a key role in helping Utah build leads entering the fourth quarter, then sat for the final 12 minutes and watched his younger teammates finish out the game.

The Jazz have drawn criticism on social media for sitting stars like Jackson and Markkanen in the fourth quarters while letting bench players finish games.

Like Utah, Sacramento is focused on future development more than present victories.

The Kings have lost 13 straight games since reeling off a four-game winning streak in mid-January. It is the most consecutive losses for the franchise since moving from Kansas City before the 1985-86 season.

Monday’s 120-94 loss to New Orleans had some bright spots. Maxime Raynaud achieved his eighth double-double of the season after recording 21 points and a career-high 19 rebounds. Russell Westbrook scored 17 points to reach 27,001 career points, placing him 14th on the all-time NBA scoring list. Elvin Hayes is ahead in 13th with 27,313 points.

Still, frustration is mounting for the Kings amid their continued futility. DeMar DeRozan slammed a water bottle to the floor during a third-quarter timeout against the Pelicans, visibly showing his anger at his team’s mediocre play.

“A lot of stuff we do is self-inflicted,” DeRozan told the Sacramento Bee. “Us not being in the right spots, make it a chain reaction, them getting back in transition, getting easy shots, easy buckets, so (the water bottle incident) was just me wanting us to play the right way, win, lose or draw.”

–Field Level Media