Bryant transfer wing Timofei Rudovskii has committed to Pitt.

ESPN reported the news Friday morning, and Rudovskii confirmed it in his Instagram bio.

Rudovskii averaged a team-best 12.9 points to go along with 4.7 rebounds in 31 games (all starts) last season en route to being named to the America East All-Rookie team.

The 6-foot-9 Russian shot 41.0% from the floor and 36.2% from 3-point range during his lone campaign with the Bulldogs.

–Field Level Media

Japan left injured midfielder Kaoru Mitoma off the 26-man World Cup roster announced by coach Hajime Moriyasu on Friday.

Mitoma suffered a hamstring injury during Brighton’s Premier League match against Leeds on Saturday, leaving his World Cup status in serious doubt. That was confirmed with Friday’s reveal of Japan’s roster.

“The medical team assessed that it would be difficult for him to get back to fitness during the tournament,” Moriyasu told reporters Friday.

Monaco forward Takumi Minamino also will miss out on the World Cup after the 31-year-old suffered a torn anterior cruciate ligament in his left knee in December.

Moriyasu did take a chance on some other players dealing with injury issues, with Wataru Endo, Ko Itakura and Takehiro Tomiyasu included on the roster. Ajax defender Tomiyasu has dealt with multiple injuries that have led to him not appearing for Japan for nearly two years, while Liverpool midfielder Endo has only played in eight Premier League matches this season due to an ankle injury.

Sporting CP defensive midfielder Hidemasa Morita did not make the roster after totaling seven appearances in World Cup qualifiers.

Meanwhile, defender Yuto Nagatomo will make his fifth World Cup appearance.

“I was able to select only 26 players, but I feel sorry that I couldn’t select many other players,” Moriyasu told reporters Friday. “However, I selected these 26 based on their past performances and through conversations with the coaching staff, believing that this is our best squad right now. I think I have chosen the best 26 players in order for Japan to win on the world stage at this moment.”

Mitoma, 28, has nine goals in 31 appearances for Japan.

Japan has won five consecutive matches ahead of its final pre-World Cup friendly against Iceland in Tokyo on May 31. The Japanese will then travel to the team’s base camp in Nashville, Tenn., where they will train at the Nashville SC Training Center.

They begin their Group F play against the Netherlands in Arlington, Texas on June 14, followed by matches against Tunisia in Monterrey, Mexico on June 20 and Sweden back in Arlington on June 25.

JAPAN WORLD CUP ROSTER

Goalkeepers: Tomoki Hayakawa, Keisuke Osako, Zion Suzuki

Defenders: Ko Itakura, Hiroki Ito, Yuto Nagatomo, Ayumu Seko, Yukinari Sugawara, Junnosuke Suzuki, Shogo Taniguchi, Takehiro Tomiyasu, Tsuyoshi Watanabe

Midfielders: Ritsu Doan, Wataru Endo, Junya Ito, Daichi Kamada, Takefusa Kubo, Keito Nakamura, Kaishu Sano, Ao Tanaka

Forwards: Keisuke Goto, Daizen Maeda, Koki Ogawa, Kento Shiogai, Yuito Suzuki, Ayase Ueda

–Field Level Media

Watkins Glen’s incredible closing run Sunday by Shane van Gisbergen and the NASCAR All-Star Race this weekend at Dover Motor Speedway represent the complete opposite ends of certainty in the Cup Series.

After winning for the sixth time in seven road races, van Gisbergen has established himself as perhaps the greatest road-course driver in NASCAR history, though Fox Sports announcer Mike Joy mentioned Dan Gurney — a five-time winner in the 1960s.

That’s good company for van Gisbergen to keep, though the New Zealander has won seven of his 14 starts (50%) compared to Gurney’s five of 16 (31.3%).

If van Gisbergen shows up in adequate equipment at the next two road courses, he will be the prohibitive favorite at San Diego and Sonoma in consecutive weekends to end June.

Folks may have thought his Chicago Street Race win in 2023 was a one-off fluke, but the masterful pedal work and curvy asphalt ownership by the veteran driver has been obvious from Race 1.

The 37-year-old No. 97 pilot just has a driving style that is a cut above — far better, really — anyone else’s when it comes to his heel-toe technique.

“I just don’t see anyone coming up the ranks who are volunteering to learn that style and stick with it,” Denny Hamlin said on his podcast, adding that there’s a “large likelihood” that van Gisbergen wins the remaining two road events.

A successful future isn’t as guaranteed on Sunday in Delaware at the Monster Mile, which is hosting its first All-Star Race in a 350-lapper — a race length as out of sorts and odd as the concrete track’s situation.

What lies ahead for the one-mile track, a high-banked, Bristol-on-steroids oval that challenges drivers from the first green flag, is completely up in the air for now.

Dover’s future grew cloudy when NASCAR put a refurbished North Wilkesboro Speedway back on the schedule in 2023 for the past three All-Star Races.

The joy in Wilkes County, N.C., multiplied when it received its first points race since 1996 with the scheduled 450-lapper on July 19 — another odd distance.

The feeling around NASCAR is that North Wilkesboro is heading up the elevator toward the penthouse.

However, that’s not the popular opinion regarding Dover, as NASCAR removed a points race for an exhibition one in the daytime.

Unlike North Wilkesboro, has Dover taken the elevator to the ground floor, awaiting a ding, a door opening and an exit from the building?

Track president and general manager Mike Tatoian doesn’t think so and is excited about Sunday’s first All-Star Race in the Northeast.

“The reason why we like it is because we’ve never had it before,” he told the Delaware News Journal. “Any time you get a new product, I think it’s good for the fans. … We’ll get a points race back.

“But as it relates to what happens in 2027 and 2028 and beyond, I really don’t know what is in store. I know we’ll have a race. I don’t know if it’ll be a points race or an All-Star Race.”

The drivers want one major change: a bigger All-Star champion’s check than $1 million, the same amount of the winning purse since 2003.

“I would like to see the prize money go up, to match the inflation for the past two years,” RFK Racing’s Brad Keselowski said. “I know the TV money (for NASCAR) has.”

It may not go as far it did, but a seven-figure payday is still worth it.

Dover is certainly banking on it.

–Field Level Media