Titans

LeBron James, Stephen Curry and Kevin Durant have become synonymous with the sport of basketball, serving as the gold standard for this generation of players and drawing in fans from all over the world.
Aside from 2021 and 2023, every NBA Finals series since 2011 has featured one of James, Curry or Durant. The trio have a combined 44 All-Star appearances, and at the 2024 NBA All-Star Game in Indianapolis, we got to watch them play together on the same team for the first time ever.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
Steph Curry, LeBron James, and Kevin Durant all on the same team for the first time ever tonight 🔥✊ <a href="https://t.co/uUaAKwxaVr">pic.twitter.com/uUaAKwxaVr</a>
&mdash; Guru (@DrGuru_) <a href="https://twitter.com/DrGuru_/status/1759349903652995079?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">February 18, 2024</a></blockquote>
Seeing the faces of the NBA share the court as teammates was a lot of fun and left fans wanting for more.
Enter Team USA.
The world might witness these three legends team up once again in the coming months &mdash; this time while donning the red, white and blue. in hopes of leading Team USA to a fifth consecutive gold medal at the 2024 Olympic Games in Paris.
While we got a taste of the trio during NBA All-Star Weekend, fans would love to see them in a competitive environment. Curry&rsquo;s otherworldly shooting, James' IQ and playmaking, plus Durant&rsquo;s deadly three-level scoring with extremely high stakes? That would be something to behold.
James, Curry and Durant are all highly intelligent basketball players who complement each other really well, so it would likely be a seamless transition on Team USA.
All three have expressed their interest in playing for the national team and were <a href="https://www.basketballnews.com/stories/usa-basketball-announces-player-pool-for-team-usas-2024-mens-national-team" target="_blank" rel="noopener">recently included in the player pool that Team USA announced</a>.
Although the NBA season is still ongoing and a lot can still happen between now and July, but barring injuries or any unforeseen circumstances, the three global basketball icons will likely lead Team USA&rsquo;s pursuit for the gold medal in this year&rsquo;s Olympic Games. This hunt for the gold will coincide with the 50th anniversary of USA Basketball, making their run even more special.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
Beautiful, isn't it? Breaking down our 50th Anniversary logo 👇<a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/USAB50?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#USAB50</a> 🇺🇸 <a href="https://t.co/O4F7odCkWY">pic.twitter.com/O4F7odCkWY</a>
&mdash; USA Basketball (@usabasketball) <a href="https://twitter.com/usabasketball/status/1749606150721388855?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">January 23, 2024</a></blockquote>
The American trio will aim to replicate the success of their predecessors from the original &ldquo;Dream Team&rdquo; in 1992 when NBA superstars Michael Jordan, Magic Johnson and Larry Bird won the gold medal in Barcelona.
James, 39, has won three Olympic medals for Team USA (one bronze and two golds) with the last one coming 12 years ago when he won gold in London. The NBA&rsquo;s all-time leading scorer has expressed interest in suiting up for Team USA once again, and he has been in contact with several other NBA stars to join him including Curry and Durant. James&rsquo; impressive track record for his national team speaks for itself. After serving Team USA for eight years from 2004 to 2012, he is second all-time in games played (24) for Team USA.&nbsp;
The 35-year-old Curry has yet to play for Team USA in the Olympics. Curry already has two FIBA World Championships in his trophy case, which also includes four NBA championships and two NBA MVPs, but winning an Olympic gold medal might be the cherry on top of what has been an illustrious career. Curry has notably shown interest in playing for Team USA in the Olympic Games, and he is very likely to do so this year. With Warriors head coach Steve Kerr also calling the shots for Team USA, it makes a lot of sense for Curry to make his Olympic debut in Paris.
Finally, Durant is arguably the most accomplished Team USA player of all-time. Winning three Olympic gold medals (2012, 2016 and 2020-21) and a FIBA World Championship (2010), Team USA&rsquo;s &ldquo;Captain America&rdquo; is gunning for his record-setting fourth Olympic Gold medal. (He's currently tied with fellow USA great Carmelo Anthony, who also has three gold medals). Durant winning another gold medal would likely solidify him as the greatest Team USA player of all-time (if he isn't already). A two-time NBA champion and Finals MVP, Durant is one of the most lethal scorers the game has ever seen.
Aside from James, Curry and Durant &ndash; the NBA&rsquo;s most recognizable faces &ndash; who else will don the red, white and blue? The other finalists for the 2024 USA Men&rsquo;s national team are Bam Adebayo, Jarrett Allen, Paolo Banchero, Desmond Bane, Scottie Barnes, Devin Booker, Mikal Bridges, Jaylen Brown, Jalen Brunson, Jimmy Butler, Alex Caruso, Anthony Davis, Anthony Edwards, Joel Embiid, De&rsquo;Aaron Fox, Paul George, Aaron Gordon, Tyrese Haliburton, James Harden, Josh Hart, Tyler Herro, Jrue Holiday, Chet Holmgren, Brandon Ingram, Kyrie Irving, Jaren Jackson Jr., Cam Johnson, Walker Kessler, Kawhi Leonard, Damian Lillard, Donovan Mitchell, Chris Paul, Bobby Portis, Austin Reaves, Duncan Robinson, Jayson Tatum, Derrick White and Trae Young.
With James, Curry and Durant leading the way, Team USA will the favorite in Paris. However, they'll face stiff competition from the rest of the world, particularly world-champion Germany and star-studded squads like Australia and Team Canada. Generational international talents like Giannis Antetokounmpo, Nikola Jokic, Luka Doncic, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and Victor Wembanyama will look to dethrone Team USA.
This iteration of the Olympics is shaping up to be the hardest challenge the Americans will ever face, and hopefully James, Curry and Durant will be at the forefront of it all. In likely their last dance in international competition, James, Curry and Durant will surely want to ride off into the sunset wearing gold medals around their necks.

The next time LeBron James, Kevin Durant and Steph Curry are playing together, it will be with Team USA during the Paris Olympics.

LeBron James, Steph Curry, Kevin Durant set to team up again — this time for USA

This article was originally published on Jan. 16, 2021.
We&rsquo;ve all been here before.&nbsp;
It&rsquo;s a random Wednesday. Full slate of games, hard to keep track of everything. Maybe you&rsquo;re peeping an ESPN matchup. Perhaps you&rsquo;re watching your favorite team on the local channel if you&rsquo;re in the market, or you&rsquo;re streaming it LEGALLY ON NBA LEAGUE PASS BECAUSE THAT IS THE ONLY WAY YOU ARE ALLOWED TO DO IT. WINK.&nbsp;
But anyway, you&rsquo;re watching a game. You&rsquo;re roaming Twitter. And then a tweet catches your eye: PLAYER X HAS DUNKED ON LEBRON JAMES.
Your brow raises. You see a few tweets from your online pals big-upping the play. You&rsquo;re really interested now. You click on the video from a Big Social Media Account. And this is the dunk:
<img src="https://basketballnews-media.s3.us-west-2.amazonaws.com/images/story/body/brr.gif" alt="" width="512" height="AUTO" />
The excitement drops a little bit. That&rsquo;s a nice dunk from Wendell Carter Jr. LeBron James is underneath the basket, and there&rsquo;s a challenge. But something doesn&rsquo;t feel right about it.&nbsp;
Then you see a different angle of the Dunk Heard &lsquo;Round The World.
<img src="https://basketballnews-media.s3.us-west-2.amazonaws.com/images/story/body/wendell-w-lebron-in-the-area.gif" alt="" width="512" height="AUTO" />
You feel betrayed. LeBron didn&rsquo;t get dunked on; LeBron&rsquo;s arm got dunked on as he jumps out of the darn play! This isn&rsquo;t <a href="https://youtu.be/xtOUpybXmzo" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Scottie Pippen on Patrick Ewing</a> or <a href="https://youtu.be/6kBWO82HUa4?t=28" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Vince Carter on Alonzo Mourning</a>! I can yell at these clouds if I want to!
If you&rsquo;re anything like me, you&rsquo;re tired of being misled. If I hear or read that a player got baptized, I want to see some Holy Water coming out of the rim after the aerial duel. And if you are like me, this is the piece for you. This is the guide of all guides, breaking down the different types of dunks. A universal standard of slams, if you will, so we can finally get on the same page about poster dunks.
A brief note before digging in. I am using a tier system so it&rsquo;s easier to separate the types of dunks. Like many things in life, the scale can slide on a case-by-case basis. For example, breakaway dunks are generally uncontested, which makes them the lowest tier of dunk for me. However, a breakaway dunk from 360-enthusiast Zach LaVine is different -- and much cooler -- than the two-handed flushes we see from Jimmy Butler. Each dunk is still its own thing.&nbsp;
Disclaimer: Alley-oops can fall under virtually all of these categories, with the obvious exception of put-backs.
TIER 10: BREAKAWAYS
Break-away dunks are pretty self-explanatory. There&rsquo;s a long rebound after a miss. A player leaks out early, and gets a dunk with no resistance. They&rsquo;re pretty basic with a few exceptions. LaVine, Paul George or Glenn Robinson III may bust out a 360 or windmill on occasion. LeBron has made the one-handed tomahawk a staple of his repertoire.
<img src="https://basketballnews-media.s3.us-west-2.amazonaws.com/images/story/body/lebron-tomahawk.gif" alt="" width="512" height="AUTO" />
It&rsquo;s basic, but it&rsquo;s so darn cool. Power, a little bit of flair, the hang time. All that good stuff.
TIER 9: TIP SLAMS
I like the timing, positioning and coordination it takes to pull off a putback slam. The lower-level ones are uncontested, but can be rated higher depending on the work a player puts in before the ball comes off the rim. Take this multiple-effort possession from Larry Nance Jr. as an example:
<img src="https://basketballnews-media.s3.us-west-2.amazonaws.com/images/story/body/larry-nance-jr-putback.gif" alt="" width="512" height="AUTO" />
TIER 8: BUSINESS DECISIONS
The OG: Shaquille O&rsquo;Neal
Also popularized by: LeBron James, Blake Griffin, Zion Williamson
This is for the power dunkers. Whether it&rsquo;s in transition, flowing off of a broken play or rumbling down the lane after a high-ball screen, it&rsquo;s hilarious to watch players actively decide, &ldquo;Nope, I don&rsquo;t get paid enough for this.&rdquo; Take this play from the 2016-17 season, featuring Blake Griffin:
<img src="https://basketballnews-media.s3.us-west-2.amazonaws.com/images/story/body/willy-hernangomez-business-decision.gif" alt="" width="512" height="AUTO" />
The key actor here is Willy Hernangomez (No. 14). He is watching this snug pick-and-roll all the way through. His man, noted three-point marksman DeAndre Jordan, is chilling above the break. Not only can Hernangomez make the rotation to cut off Griffin at the rim, he should make that rotation because Jordan is not a threat at all. Instead, he begins to load up, quickly realizes that Griffin will put him in the gulag, and decides against challenging the shot.
Hilarious sequence.
TIER 7: FLY-BYS
This is where having a discerning eye is important. When you think about it, this kind of dunk -- and the praise that these types of dunk typically generate -- is about deception.
A defender jumps across a player to make it look like he&rsquo;s legitimately challenging the dunk. There&rsquo;s no real threat of a block or swipe. The dunk happens because, again, there&rsquo;s no real threat to it otherwise. And somehow both players end up looking good. The dunker gets &ldquo;poster&rdquo; equity they don&rsquo;t deserve; the defender gets a slight pat on the back for giving effort instead of making a business decision.
<img src="https://basketballnews-media.s3.us-west-2.amazonaws.com/images/story/body/hhh.gif" alt="" width="512" height="AUTO" />
It&rsquo;s all a darn farce. A cool-looking farce at times, but a farce nonetheless.&nbsp;
TIER 6: SELF-LOBS
We&rsquo;ve reached the coolest of the non-contact dunks. It doesn&rsquo;t get much better than throwing the ball to yourself for a slam, man. Look at Jamal Murray getting himself out of trouble.
<img src="https://basketballnews-media.s3.us-west-2.amazonaws.com/images/story/body/jamal-murray-self-lob.gif" alt="" width="512" height="AUTO" />
TIER 5: &ldquo;IN THE VICINITY&rdquo; SLAMS (Also known as ITVs)
Folks, the rubber is starting to reach the road. The ITVs involve actual attempts at a contest and/or a little contact, a step up from the Fly-bys. This is where I&rsquo;d say the Wendell-on-LeBron dunk falls, though I wouldn&rsquo;t be mad at anyone that would classify it as a Fly-by. A better example would be this slam from Matisse Thybulle last season.
<img src="https://basketballnews-media.s3.us-west-2.amazonaws.com/images/story/body/mfff.gif" alt="" width="512" height="AUTO" />
There&rsquo;s an attempt at a challenge, but Thybulle still gets the better of Mason Plumlee. But Plumlee doesn&rsquo;t get dunked on. There isn&rsquo;t enough contact to call it a poster of the highest order.&nbsp;
This is also where failed chasedown blocks come in. With guys flying in from behind, the dunk-on element just isn&rsquo;t there most of the time. Take the famous Kobe-on-LeBron dunk from the 2011 All-Star game.
<img src="https://basketballnews-media.s3.us-west-2.amazonaws.com/images/story/body/kobe-on-lebron.gif" alt="" width="512" height="AUTO" />
TIER 4: PUTBACK POSTERS
I&rsquo;ve always gone back and forth with myself about where to place these types of dunks. On one hand, the blindsided nature of it makes it a bit unfair to defenders. You can&rsquo;t defend against what you can&rsquo;t see. However, there&rsquo;s enough contact at play, and a player Mossin&rsquo; a dude and flushing it down is generally some high level stuff.
<img src="https://basketballnews-media.s3.us-west-2.amazonaws.com/images/story/body/gerald-green-putback-poster.gif" alt="" width="512" height="AUTO" />
Yes, that is the #BASED and #RARE Gerald Green in a Celtics uni. And yeah that&rsquo;s Mason Plumlee again. Sorry, man.
TIER 3: DUNK-ONS/CHARGE CRUSHERS
We&rsquo;ve reached the portion of the program where dudes are getting legitimately yammed on, but there are a couple of factors that keep it from ranking higher.
First, the level of contest still matters. A lot of these dunks feature dudes sliding over in an attempt to take a charge (hence the alternative name). The higher level posters feature someone trying to actually block the dunk. Sure, a charge and blocked dunk are functionally the same in terms of the result the defense wants -- taking away two points -- but we&rsquo;re talking about highlights here.&nbsp;
Secondly, and I admit we&rsquo;re splitting hairs a bit, size also matters. The first dunk I thought of was Nuggets-era J.R Smith yamming it over Gary Neal:
<img src="https://basketballnews-media.s3.us-west-2.amazonaws.com/images/story/body/jrs.gif" alt="" width="512" height="AUTO" />
Objectively a good dunk, but Gary Neal is ground bound and short. You have to dock some points there. I&rsquo;m sorry. The famous DeAndre Jordan-on-Brandon Knight flush, while iconic, also falls in this category.
The higher end of this would be another classic involving the Spurs: LeBron dunking on Tim Duncan.
<img src="https://basketballnews-media.s3.us-west-2.amazonaws.com/images/story/body/lebron-on-tim-duncan.gif" alt="" width="512" height="AUTO" />
That&rsquo;s more like it.
TIER 2: THE THROW-IN
THE OG: Blake Griffin
ALSO POPULARIZED BY: Derrick Jones Jr.
DUNK TRUTHERS DON&rsquo;T READ THIS!
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Dunk Truthers are stupid poopyheads.&nbsp;
Yes, we&rsquo;re well aware that dunks that involve the rim being grabbed -- or at least touched -- are more pure, whatever the heck that means. But you look at Blake Griffin embarrassing the life out of Timofey Mozgov and tell me it isn&rsquo;t one of greatest athletic feats you&rsquo;ve ever seen.
<img src="https://basketballnews-media.s3.us-west-2.amazonaws.com/images/story/body/blake-over-mozgov.gif" alt="" width="512" height="AUTO" />
Derrick Jones Jr. has some gnarly ones in his bag as well, highlighted by this lob he converted against the Raptors that still doesn&rsquo;t make much sense to me.
<img src="https://basketballnews-media.s3.us-west-2.amazonaws.com/images/story/body/hyyy.gif" alt="" width="512" height="AUTO" />
TIER 1: THE PURE POSTER
Pippen on Ewing. Carter on &lsquo;Zo. <a href="https://youtu.be/tYpwjB0IzoU" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Baron Davis on Andrei Kirilenko</a>. Michael Jordan on, well, name almost any big man you can think of that played in the '90s.&nbsp;
We can go more modern, like Larry Nance Jr. doing this to pre-DPOY-candidate Brook Lopez:
<img src="https://basketballnews-media.s3.us-west-2.amazonaws.com/images/story/body/lrrr.gif" alt="" width="512" height="AUTO" />
Another hidden gem: young DeMar DeRozan throwing the hammer down over Rudy Gobert:
<img src="https://basketballnews-media.s3.us-west-2.amazonaws.com/images/story/body/derozan-on-gobert.gif" alt="" width="512" height="AUTO" />
The constant for these dunks: full-on, body-to-body contact with a legitimate attempt for a contest. You&rsquo;ll know it when you see it.
BONUS TIER: THE VINCE CARTER
Yeah, this is still the best dunk I&rsquo;ve ever seen.
<img src="https://basketballnews-media.s3.us-west-2.amazonaws.com/images/story/body/vince-carter-dunk-of-death.gif" alt="" width="512" height="AUTO" />
You clear a seven footer, you get your own dunk tier. Those are the rules.

Nekias Duncan has put together the guide of all guides, breaking down the different types of dunks and rating them on a tier system.

The Dunk-tionary: The official guide to ranking dunks

<a class="Link AnClick-LinkEnhancement" href="https://apnews.com/article/chris-paul-trade-golden-state-jordan-poole-d26c307001fd0cc6ce5835bdb09b0030" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Chris Paul has already been traded</a>&nbsp;twice this offseason, ending up with Golden State.&nbsp;<a class="Link AnClick-LinkEnhancement" href="https://apnews.com/article/wizards-suns-trade-bradley-beal-55adab5fa31d5dfbc35b83223743d9c6" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Bradley Beal</a>&nbsp;is now with Phoenix,&nbsp;<a class="Link AnClick-LinkEnhancement" href="https://apnews.com/article/hawks-jazz-trade-collins-gay-a6567f15f798ebf9fc99612ad00e4a7f" target="_blank" rel="noopener">John Collins</a>&nbsp;was sent to Utah, and&nbsp;<a class="Link AnClick-LinkEnhancement" href="https://apnews.com/article/celtics-wizards-kristaps-porzingis-marcus-smart-grizzlies-94e7fa907d2523a354665b8c6ce0908c" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Kristaps Porzingis</a>&nbsp;is about to start anew with Boston in a deal that sent Marcus Smart to Memphis.
They have new places to call home. It&rsquo;s time to see if&nbsp;<a class="Link AnClick-LinkEnhancement" href="https://apnews.com/article/mavericks-kyrie-irving-luka-doncic-nico-harrison-9a3d80b6c325195faedde1a6324a4e51" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Kyrie Irving</a>,&nbsp;<a class="Link AnClick-LinkEnhancement" href="https://apnews.com/article/draymond-green-option-nba-482b28f097e3c99a934fff1ea46137b8" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Draymond Green</a>,&nbsp;<a class="Link AnClick-LinkEnhancement" href="https://apnews.com/article/nba-milwaukee-bucks-khris-middleton-197ecec12092f80f9988bf6d6670680e" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Khris Middleton</a>&nbsp;and dozens more will be on the move in the next few days.
As proven by the run of trades in recent weeks, and big news from James Harden on Thursday, NBA teams aren&rsquo;t waiting for free agency to make moves. The window of offseason player movement begins Friday at 6 p.m. EDT, when teams are permitted to start talking to free agents &mdash; with the caveat that most deals cannot become official until July 6.
&ldquo;Obviously, money&rsquo;s a thing. I mean, that&rsquo;s just for anybody,&rdquo; said Miami guard Max Strus, a free agent who&rsquo;s in line for a big payday, going from $1.8 million last season to potentially $12 million a year or more. &ldquo;These are moments that you work for, and these are opportunities that could be life-changing &mdash; so you can&rsquo;t ever take that out of it. But I love playing basketball and that&rsquo;s always going to be the first thing for me.&rdquo;
Money and fit. That&rsquo;s what players like Strus will be seeking, and that&rsquo;s what teams will be weighing over the next few days &mdash; especially with a new&nbsp;<a class="Link AnClick-LinkEnhancement" href="https://apnews.com/article/nba-labor-players-0cf524b13e459eeb5853dad9a455e0e0" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Collective Bargaining Agreement</a>, and new rules designed to at least slightly curb spending by the deeper-pocketed teams, set to go into effect on Saturday.
That&rsquo;s part of the reason some trades have been made in recent days and more are almost certainly coming. The Warriors gave up Jordan Poole to get Paul from Washington in part because Paul&rsquo;s contract expires in a year and Poole is on the books for four years (at more than $30 million annually on average), and Atlanta sent Collins to Utah for Rudy Gay for similar reasons.
Harden could be the next big name on the move. He decided not to enter free agency and exercised his $35.6 million option for the coming season Thursday, with Philadelphia now likely to trade the 10-time All-Star and three-time scoring champion,&nbsp;<a class="Link AnClick-LinkEnhancement" href="https://apnews.com/article/76ers-james-harden-free-agency-d9f9a6fa001d68e58f04cd60251802ab" target="_blank" rel="noopener">a person familiar with the decision told The Associated Press.</a>
&ldquo;I think a lot can be made of all the challenges that are coming our way, whether it be aging roster, the new CBA with some of the limitations there, anything else you can bring up,&rdquo; Warriors general manager Mike Dunleavy Jr. said. &ldquo;We&rsquo;re aware of all those things. But we also feel like we&rsquo;re in a great, great place, because we&rsquo;ve got a competitive owner willing to spend ... so we feel confident we can navigate it.&rdquo;
Another potential trade: Plenty of eyes remain on Portland and whether Damian Lillard will ask to be dealt elsewhere &mdash; to Miami or Brooklyn, specifically &mdash; or remain with the Trail Blazers for a 12th season.
In the interim, there will be some massive deals struck &mdash; some possibly reaching $200 million.
Green turned down a $27.5 million option with Golden State to seek a longer deal. Milwaukee has decisions to make with both Middleton and Brook Lopez, two key members of their championship in 2021.
&ldquo;Both of those guys specifically are core to who we have been,&rdquo; Bucks general manager Jon Horst said. &ldquo;Ultimately, what matters is we&rsquo;re hopeful to have them back. We&rsquo;ve been really good and they&rsquo;re a big part of that and we want to try to keep them.&rdquo;
There&rsquo;s also intrigue in Dallas with regard to Irving&rsquo;s future.
Irving&rsquo;s talent is unquestioned. He averaged 27 points in 20 games with the Mavericks after getting traded there for the stretch run last season. For his career, he&rsquo;s averaged 23.4 points, is an eight-time All-Star and won a title alongside LeBron James in Cleveland in 2016.
He and Luka Doncic could form one of the league&rsquo;s most powerful 1-2 punches. Irving also is coming off a season where he was suspended by Brooklyn for eight games after the team said it was dismayed by his repeated failure to &ldquo;unequivocally say he has no antisemitic beliefs.&rdquo; And that saga came after many others involving Irving, who has raised eyebrows for things ranging from saying the Earth is flat to not getting vaccinated against COVID-19.
Still unclear: How many years, and how much money, Dallas will commit to keep him.
&ldquo;Obviously, he&rsquo;s someone that we&rsquo;ve already told everybody that we want to re-sign and we&rsquo;re excited about,&rdquo; Mavericks general manager Nico Harrison said.
The new champions have a big decision looming as well.
Denver&rsquo;s biggest free agency issue is versatile guard Bruce Brown, who was tremendous off the bench for the Nuggets during their run to the NBA title. All the Nuggets can offer Brown is one year at $7.8 million; other teams, such as the Los Angeles Lakers, may be prepared to offer more. Denver can give Brown a longer, richer deal next summer &mdash; so it&rsquo;s up to Brown to decide whether to bet on himself or get more money now.
At the team&rsquo;s championship parade, Nuggets coach Michael Malone made clear that Denver intends to keep Brown.
&ldquo;Is Brucie B going anywhere? Hell no,&rdquo;&nbsp;<a class="Link AnClick-LinkEnhancement" href="https://youtu.be/oqwc1vg1mCY?t=242" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Malone shouted, as the crowd roared in approval.</a> &ldquo;Hell no. Hell no. We&rsquo;re running this ... back.&rdquo;
The next few days will tell if Malone is right.

It’s time to see if Kyrie Irving, Draymond Green, Khris Middleton and dozens more free agents will be on the move in the next few days.

Busy NBA offseason continues with free agency starting today

Two-time WNBA MVP A&rsquo;ja Wilson of the Las Vegas Aces and 2018 WNBA MVP Breanna Stewart of the New York Liberty lead the list of 10 players &ndash; four guards and six frontcourt players &ndash; selected by fans, current WNBA players and media to start in the 2023 WNBA All-Star Game set to be played on July 15 at the Michelob Ultra Arena in Las Vegas (ABC, 5:30 p.m. PT/8:30 p.m. ET).&nbsp;&nbsp;
The starters were&nbsp;revealed today during ABC&rsquo;s broadcast of a game between the Liberty and Washington Mystics.
Wilson and Stewart, each selected as an All-Star for the fifth time, will serve as official team captains by virtue of being the two All-Star starters who finished with the most fan votes. This marks the second consecutive year that Wilson and Stewart finished No. 1 and No. 2, respectively, in fan voting.
Last year,&nbsp;Team Wilson defeated Team Stewart 134-112 at the 2022 AT&amp;T WNBA All-Star Game in Chicago. Wilson also served as a captain when she led Team Wilson past Team (Elena) Delle Donne 129-126 in the 2019 AT&amp;T WNBA All-Star Game in Las Vegas.
Joining&nbsp;Wilson&nbsp;and&nbsp;Stewart&nbsp;as starters in the frontcourt are&nbsp;2023 No. 1 overall draft pick&nbsp;Aliyah Boston&nbsp;of the Indiana Fever, nine-time All-Star&nbsp;Brittney Griner&nbsp;of the Phoenix Mercury, 2016 Kia WNBA MVP and eight-time All-Star&nbsp;Nneka Ogwumike&nbsp;of the Los Angeles Sparks and two-time All-Star&nbsp;Satou Sabally&nbsp;of the Dallas Wings.
The starting backcourt will feature five-time All-Stars&nbsp;Chelsea Gray&nbsp;of Las Vegas and&nbsp;Jewell Loyd&nbsp;of the Seattle Storm, three-time All-Star&nbsp;Arike Ogunbowale&nbsp;of Dallas and two-time All-Star&nbsp;Jackie Young&nbsp;of Las Vegas.
Voting will now begin for the 12&nbsp;AT&amp;T WNBA All-Star&nbsp;reserves, who&nbsp;will be selected by the league&rsquo;s head coaches. The head coaches will vote for three guards, five frontcourt players and four players at either position regardless of conference. They may not vote for their own players.
The reserves will be announced on Saturday, July 1. If a player is unable to play in AT&amp;T WNBA All-Star, a replacement will be named by WNBA Commissioner Cathy Engelbert.
The captains will draft their rosters by selecting first from the pool of eight remaining starters and then from the pool of 12 reserves. ESPN will broadcast the&nbsp;WNBA All-Star Team Selection Special on July 8 (1 p.m. ET).

The WNBA announced this year's All-Star starters, headlined by team captains A’ja Wilson and Breanna Stewart.

A’ja Wilson, Breanna Stewart headline 2023 WNBA All-Star starters

It&rsquo;s the easiest call of the&nbsp;<a class="paragraph-link" href="https://apnews.com/article/nba-draft-2023-wembanyama-b3449d1a5f7a7de5906bb1979ffb2a26">NBA draft</a>: The San Antonio Spurs won.
That&rsquo;s not to say other teams didn&rsquo;t do very well on Thursday, when 58 players were selected as the league&rsquo;s newest members. But the Spurs being able to take generational French talent Victor Wembanyama puts them at the head of the class.
Some of the teams that also did well: NBA champion Denver, Golden State, Toronto &mdash; even with just one pick &mdash; and Orlando, which might now be closer to returning to the postseason mix.
A breakdown of which teams had Excellent drafts, those that had Good drafts and others that will have to Wait and See:
<h2 class="Component-root-0-2-81 h2 Component-p-0-2-71">EXCELLENT</h2>
<h3 class="Component-root-0-2-81 h3 Component-p-0-2-71">DALLAS MAVERICKS</h3>
Picks: Dereck Lively II (12, via trade); Olivier-Maxence Prosper (24, via trade).
Dallas got the big man it wanted and created opportunity by moving Davis Bertans. Hard to argue that it wasn&rsquo;t a good night. And now free agency awaits. Prosper is another player with big potential and was extremely hard to guard at Marquette.
Picks: Julian Strawther (29), Jalen Pickett (32, will be acquired via trade), Hunter Tyson (37),
Pickett should have gone in the first round. He&rsquo;s that good, and the NBA champions just got another do-it-all guy who will also serve as insurance should Bruce Brown leave in free agency.
<h3 class="Component-root-0-2-81 h3 Component-p-0-2-71">DETROIT PISTONS</h3>
Picks: Ausar Thompson (5), Marcus Sasser (25, via trade), James Nnaji (31)
No matter what, the Pistons were going to get better and deeper on Thursday night. Thompson is incredibly athletic (even by NBA standards) and plays defense with a ton of energy.
<h3 class="Component-root-0-2-81 h3 Component-p-0-2-71">GOLDEN STATE WARRIORS</h3>
Picks: Brandin Podziemski (19), Trayce Jackson-Davis (57, via trade)
Play to your strength, and the Warriors got another shooter to add to the mix with Stephen Curry and Klay Thompson. Podziemski could add something right away, and came to Golden State on the same day that the Warriors swung a deal for Chris Paul by sending Jordan Poole to Washington.
<h3 class="Component-root-0-2-81 h3 Component-p-0-2-71">HOUSTON ROCKETS</h3>
Picks: Amen Thompson (4), Cam Whitmore (20)
Thompson is a great move and gives Detroit another great option as it builds. If Whitmore is healthy, then Houston got an absolute steal by getting the Villanova forward at No. 20.
<h3 class="Component-root-0-2-81 h3 Component-p-0-2-71">OKLAHOMA CITY THUNDER</h3>
Picks: Cason Wallace (10, via trade), Keyontae Johnson (50)
Wallace was great for Kentucky in his lone college season and played perhaps his best game in the Wildcats&rsquo; finale in the NCAA tournament. He can score; he didn&rsquo;t look to score quite often enough at times in college.
<h3 class="Component-root-0-2-81 h3 Component-p-0-2-71">ORLANDO MAGIC</h3>
Picks: Anthony Black (6), Jett Howard (11)
Paolo Banchero got a couple more shooters to help him out, and the young and talented Magic got more young talent. An excellent night again and it&rsquo;s time to start thinking about Orlando as a team that should make a run at the play-in &mdash; at minimum.
<h3 class="Component-root-0-2-81 h3 Component-p-0-2-71">SAN ANTONIO SPURS</h3>
Picks: Victor Wembanyama (1), Sidy Cissoko (44).
Their grade was secured at the very moment that the last ping-pong ball appeared at the lottery last month. Wembanyama was a no-brainer, and now it&rsquo;s up to the Spurs to start the real work &mdash; get him into the gym, see how he fits, and figure out what the plan is going forward.
<h3 class="Component-root-0-2-81 h3 Component-p-0-2-71">TORONTO RAPTORS</h3>
Pick: Gradey Dick (13)
Dick showed up to the draft in a red-and-black jacket &mdash; a nod to Dorothy from &ldquo;The Wizard of Oz&rdquo; and his Kansas roots. The color scheme will work in Toronto as well. Dick is a pure shooter, and no team can have too many of those. The jury&rsquo;s still out on what the Raptors will be this coming season, but this kid will be a rotation piece.
<h3 class="Component-root-0-2-81 h3 Component-p-0-2-71">UTAH JAZZ</h3>
Picks: Taylor Hendricks (9), Keyonte George (16), Brice Sensabaugh (28)
Hendricks is what an NBA big pretty much is now; a power forward who can also defend centers. George was the Big 12 rookie of the year at Baylor and is a proven scorer. He&rsquo;s good from the line, has 3-point potential and can get to the rim. There&rsquo;s some work to do, but he&rsquo;s a serious prospect.
<h2 class="Component-root-0-2-81 h2 Component-p-0-2-71">GOOD</h2>
<h3 class="Component-root-0-2-81 h3 Component-p-0-2-71">BROOKLYN NETS</h3>
Picks: Noah Clowney (21), Dariq Whitehead (22), Jalen Wilson (51)
Clowney is an athletic big from Alabama whose game is still a bit unfinished. Whitehead has enormous potential and was highly recruited by Duke, but foot issues are a concern. Wilson was the Big 12 player of the year at Kansas. The Nets likely didn&rsquo;t choose three elite programs accidentally. Lot to like here.
<h3 class="Component-root-0-2-81 h3 Component-p-0-2-71">CHARLOTTE HORNETS</h3>
Picks: Brandon Miller (2), Nick Smith Jr. (27), Amari Bailey (41).
Miller made sense over Scoot Henderson because the Hornets have a point guard already. But Henderson might be the more NBA-ready player.
<h3 class="Component-root-0-2-81 h3 Component-p-0-2-71">INDIANA PACERS</h3>
Picks: Jarace Walker (8, via trade), Ben Sheppard (26), Julian Strawther (29), Mojave King (47, via trade), Isaiah Wong (55)
Walker plays hard on both ends, and this is rare to say, but he might play harder on defense than he does on offense. And getting Wong &mdash; the ACC player of the year &mdash; so late is a steal.
<h3 class="Component-root-0-2-81 h3 Component-p-0-2-71">LOS ANGELES CLIPPERS</h3>
Picks: Kobe Brown (30), Jordan Miller (48)
Brown is a strong player, addicted to rebounding, and probably needs to improve considerably on the offensive end. Miller did a little of everything for the Miami Hurricanes in their run to the Final Four.
<h3 class="Component-root-0-2-81 h3 Component-p-0-2-71">LOS ANGELES LAKERS</h3>
Picks: Jalen Hood-Schifino (17), Maxwell Lewis (40, via trade).
Hood-Schifino got NBA coaching in college last season; Indiana is coached by Mike Woodson. He&rsquo;s a winner; his high school teams won, his Indiana team went to the NCAA Tournament and he&rsquo;ll obviously benefit from time with LeBron James.
<h3 class="Component-root-0-2-81 h3 Component-p-0-2-71">MIAMI HEAT</h3>
Pick: Jaime Jaquez Jr. (18)
A four-year college player whose game got more complete each year, Jaquez has a notorious work ethic that should fit in quite well with the Eastern Conference champions.
<h3 class="Component-root-0-2-81 h3 Component-p-0-2-71">NEW ORLEANS PELICANS</h3>
Pick: Jordan Hawkins (14)
Hawkins was a big part of UConn&rsquo;s team that won the national title last spring, earning his way onto the All-Tournament team. New Orleans got a winner.
<h3 class="Component-root-0-2-81 h3 Component-p-0-2-71">PORTLAND TRAIL BLAZERS</h3>
Picks: Scoot Henderson (3), Kris Murray (23), Rayan Rupert (43).
Henderson has shown that he&rsquo;s NBA-ready. The Blazers drafted well. But really, the only question now is whether Damian Lillard is happy or not. Murray is the twin brother of Sacramento&rsquo;s Keegan Murray and had a big season for Iowa &mdash; averaging just over 20 points per game.
<h3 class="Component-root-0-2-81 h3 Component-p-0-2-71">WASHINGTON WIZARDS</h3>
Picks: Bilal Coulibaly (7, via trade), Tristan Vukcevic (42)
The Wizards are starting over, and on the day they also agreed to acquire Jordan Poole from Golden State they just happened to get a French player. (No, not that one.) But Coulibaly is highly touted by No. 1 pick Victor Wembanyama, and that&rsquo;s enough of an endorsement for us.
<h2 class="Component-root-0-2-81 h2 Component-p-0-2-71">WAIT AND SEE</h2>
<h3 class="Component-root-0-2-81 h3 Component-p-0-2-71">ATLANTA HAWKS</h3>
Picks: Kobe Bufkin (15), Mouhamed Gueye (39, via trade), Seth Lundy (46)
Bufkin had a great second half of the season at Michigan, and left-handers always provide defenses with an extra challenge. The best way to describe his game is this: He doesn&rsquo;t do much wrong. Very solid, can help the Hawks in a lot of ways.
<h3 class="Component-root-0-2-81 h3 Component-p-0-2-71">BOSTON CELTICS</h3>
Picks: James Njaji (31, via trade), Jordan Walsh (38, via trade)
Still only 18, Njaji started playing the game about seven years ago and is not even close to reaching his potential yet. Big prospect.
<h3 class="Component-root-0-2-81 h3 Component-p-0-2-71">CHICAGO BULLS</h3>
Pick: Julian Phillips (35, via trade)
The Bulls had to forfeit what would have been their pick because of free-agency violations last summer, and swung a deal with Boston to land the Tennessee wing.
<h3 class="Component-root-0-2-81 h3 Component-p-0-2-71">CLEVELAND CAVALIERS</h3>
Pick: Emoni Bates (49)
He was touted as a star since basically middle school, had more than his share of promising moments in college, and now has to really prove himself.
<h3 class="Component-root-0-2-81 h3 Component-p-0-2-71">MEMPHIS GRIZZLIES</h3>
Picks: Gregory Jackson II (45), Tarik Biberovic (56)
Prospects. They&rsquo;re not expected to provide any real help anytime soon.
<h3 class="Component-root-0-2-81 h3 Component-p-0-2-71">MILWAUKEE BUCKS</h3>
Picks: Andre Jackson (36, via trade), Chris Livingston (58)
Jackson was a big part of UConn&rsquo;s national championship. He&rsquo;s only going to benefit from being around Giannis Antetokounmpo every day.
<h3 class="Component-root-0-2-81 h3 Component-p-0-2-71">MINNESOTA TIMBERWOLVES</h3>
Picks: Leonard Miller (33, via trade), Jaylen Clark (53)
Miller had a lot of big moments playing with Scoot Henderson and the G League Ignite this past season. Athleticism is tough to ignore.
<h3 class="Component-root-0-2-81 h3 Component-p-0-2-71">NEW YORK KNICKS</h3>
No picks.
<h3 class="Component-root-0-2-81 h3 Component-p-0-2-71">PHILADELPHIA 76ERS</h3>
No picks.
<h3 class="Component-root-0-2-81 h3 Component-p-0-2-71">PHOENIX SUNS</h3>
Pick: Toumani Camara (52)
Given the trades that they&rsquo;re making, this might be one of their last picks for quite some time. There&rsquo;s nothing wrong with not valuing the draft, but giving up on it entirely is a dangerous game to play too often.
<h3 class="Component-root-0-2-81 h3 Component-p-0-2-71">SACRAMENTO KINGS</h3>
Picks: Colby Jones (34, via trade), Jalen Slawson (54)
Jones has skills the Kings crave; great shooter, great passing and great vision. A young Kevin Huerter-type in those regards.

Which teams came away from the 2023 NBA Draft as big winners? Check out the AP's draft report cards.

NBA draft report cards: Spurs, Rockets among teams that hit it big

Here&rsquo;s a rarity: All five teams from one division are going to the NBA playoffs.
And they pulled that off in a year where a division champion almost didn&rsquo;t get there.
All five teams from the Pacific Division &mdash; Sacramento, Phoenix, the Los Angeles Clippers, Golden State and the Los Angeles Lakers &mdash; have made the playoffs, which start Saturday.
But Miami, the champion of the Southeast Division, almost missed out. The Heat got there Friday night by closing on a 15-1 run to beat Chicago 102-91 in the final Eastern Conference play-in game.
Had the Heat lost, it would have been the first time in NBA history that a division winner wasn&rsquo;t going to the playoffs.
On the other end of the spectrum, the whole-division-goes feat had happened only two other times since the NBA went to the six-division, five-teams-in-each format starting with the 2004-05 season.
The Central Division did it in 2006, and the Southwest Division pulled it off in 2015. It almost happened in the Northwest Division in 2018 when Denver missed the playoffs by a game. And the Atlantic Division had a chance to send all its teams this year if Toronto gotten out of the play-in tournament.
PLAY IN TO PLAY ON
The play-in tournament provided a path for Miami, Minnesota, the Los Angeles Lakers and Atlanta to make the playoffs.
And now, they&rsquo;ll try to go from playing in to playing on.
No team has managed that yet.
Granted, there&rsquo;s only been three previous versions of a play-in tournament, but no team has gone from the extra round in between the regular season and playoffs and gotten an actual postseason series win.
In 2020, Portland (which beat Memphis in a one-game play-in round inside the restart bubble) lost 4-1 to the top-seeded Lakers.
In 2021, the Lakers (4-2 to Phoenix), Memphis (4-1 to Utah), Boston (4-1 to Brooklyn) and Washington (4-1 to Philadelphia) were all ousted in Round 1.
And last year, Minnesota (4-2 to Memphis), New Orleans (4-2 to Phoenix), Atlanta (4-1 to Miami) and Brooklyn (4-0 to Boston) also lost their opening series after qualifying through the play-in.
2 TO 1
Golden State did something unusual last season. It finished second in the Pacific Division &mdash; and first in the NBA.
That&rsquo;s a serious break from the norm.
From 2012 through 2021, every team to make the NBA Finals did so after winning a division championship. The 2011 Dallas Mavericks had been the most recent team not to win its division but make the finals; they won the title that season.
The Warriors did it last season, also winning the title.
This season&rsquo;s division champions: Boston, Milwaukee, Miami, Denver, Sacramento and Memphis. History suggests that two of those six teams would be the wise picks for those forecasting who&rsquo;ll make the finals.
SEASON OF COMEBACKS
Playoffs might not have looked likely for a bunch of teams in the early going of the season.
Philadelphia started 0-3, Sacramento started 0-4, Brooklyn was 1-5, Golden State was 3-7, the Los Angeles Clippers opened 2-4, Minnesota was 5-8, Miami was 7-11 &mdash; and the Los Angeles Lakers were 2-10, a level of bad start that few teams have been able to overcome.
The Lakers are just the 15th team in NBA history to start 0-5 and make the postseason. And only four teams were worse than 2-10 after 12 games and still made the playoffs. Last season&rsquo;s New Orleans Pelicans started 1-11 and got there, as did the 1967-68 Chicago Bulls and 1984-85 Cleveland Cavaliers.
But the undisputed bad-start-and-made-playoffs-anyway kings are the 1996-97 Phoenix Suns. They started 0-13, wound up finishing 40-42, held a 2-1 series lead over top-seeded Seattle in the best-of-five opening round, then fell in five games.
WINS MILESTONE
Golden State teammates Klay Thompson and Draymond Green have both appeared in 102 playoff victories.
That&rsquo;s tied for 25th-best all-time, and they could keep climbing the charts this spring.
They&rsquo;re currently two wins behind Danny Green; three behind Dwyane Wade and Dennis Johnson; five behind Bill Russell, Robert Parish and Warriors teammate Andre Iguodala; and six behind No. 18 John Havlicek.
If the Warriors win another title and Thompson and Green appear in all 16 victories, they&rsquo;d then have 118 apiece &mdash; one fewer than Michael Jordan.
The Los Angeles Lakers&rsquo; LeBron James enters these playoffs as the career leader in postseason wins, with 174. Phoenix&rsquo;s Kevin Durant needs five to get to 100, and Warriors guard Stephen Curry has 93.
ON THE ROAD
Going &ldquo;on the road&rdquo; in these playoffs will be a relative term in some cases.
By driving distance, some of them are pretty close. Only 85 miles or so separates the arenas used by Golden State and Sacramento, and it&rsquo;s about 100 miles between the arenas in Philadelphia and Brooklyn.
Phoenix and the Los Angeles Clippers play 375 miles apart, while New York and Cleveland are separated by 450 miles, which is still no more than about an hour by air. The rest of the matchups are a bit longer &mdash; it&rsquo;s 850 miles or so between Minnesota and Denver, 1,100 between Boston and Atlanta, almost 1,500 between Miami and Milwaukee and just over 1,800 between Memphis and the Los Angeles Lakers&rsquo; home floor.
THE WAIT IS OVER
Sacramento&rsquo;s last playoff game was May 5, 2006. That was 12 Kings coaches ago.
A look at some of the other numbers:
&mdash; The Kings played 1,358 games in that span.
&mdash; They used 184 different players.
&mdash; They scored 142,294 points, with DeMarcus Cousins having the most in that span with 9,894.
&mdash; They went 515-843.
&mdash; There will have been 1,384 playoff games in the league between Sacramento&rsquo;s last playoff game and by the time the Kings and Golden State tip off in Game 1 on Saturday. All 29 other teams played at least 11 playoff games in that span; Boston has the most with 201, and the Celtics and Miami have a league-high 108 playoff wins apiece over that stretch.
INSIDE THE STANDINGS
If the 16 playoff teams had their own league this season, with only the games against one another counting, then the Boston Celtics would be feeling pretty confident right about now.
The Celtics had the best record against fellow playoff qualifiers this season, going 27-15. That just edged out Denver, which went 26-15 against playoff-bound teams during the regular season.
Boston&rsquo;s average point differential against playoff-bound teams per game is also better than any other postseason club. The Celtics outscored playoff teams, on average, by 5.6 points per game.
The rest of the records by playoff qualifiers against one another during the regular season: Milwaukee 26-16, Philadelphia 26-16, Minnesota 22-20, Memphis 21-20, New York 22-21, Miami 21-21, Phoenix 21-23, Sacramento 19-24, Golden State 19-24, Cleveland 18-23, the Los Angeles Clippers 18-24, Brooklyn 18-24, the Los Angeles Lakers 17-25, and Atlanta 16-26.
WARRIORS&rsquo; ROAD WOES
Golden State has won a road game in 27 consecutive playoff series, an NBA record and obviously a major reason why the Warriors have four of the last eight championships.
They&rsquo;ll need to rekindle that road magic.
The Warriors &mdash; who don&rsquo;t have home-court advantage in Round 1 against Sacramento, so they&rsquo;ll need at least one road win to have a chance in the series &mdash; went 3-19 against playoff teams away from home this season.
The last time any playoff team was that bad on the road during the regular season against other eventual playoff qualifiers was 2004. Denver was 2-20 entering those playoffs in road games against fellow postseason clubs that season, and Miami was 3-19.
PLAYOFF POOL
The NBA&rsquo;s postseason playoff pool is up nearly $10 million from last year. This year, the 16 playoff teams will divide up $26,969,000.
Every team is assured of at least $402,493 for making the playoffs. The payouts increase considerably as teams advance, and the teams with the best six records in each conference get more money as well.
Milwaukee has already clinched $1,860,950 from the pool &mdash; $777,777 for having the best record in the NBA and another $680,680 for having the best record in the Eastern Conference. If the Bucks win the title, their share of the pool would soar to $7,907,335.
Last year&rsquo;s pool was $17,317,334.

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The white flag is being waved in Portland.
With the Blazers sitting at 32-43, five games behind the Oklahoma City Thunder for the final play-in spot, it's fair to say the playoffs probably aren't in the cards this season. That reality has reportedly led the Blazers to shut down their superstar, Damian Lillard, for the rest of the year.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
With injury-plagued Portland Trail Blazers out of the playoff picture, superstar guard Damian Lillard will be held out the remainder of the season, league sources tell <a href="https://twitter.com/NBAonTNT?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@NBAonTNT</a>, <a href="https://twitter.com/BleacherReport?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@BleacherReport</a>.
&mdash; Chris Haynes (@ChrisBHaynes) <a href="https://twitter.com/ChrisBHaynes/status/1640819291783323648?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">March 28, 2023</a></blockquote>

<script src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js"></script>

Lillard had already missed the last three games (all losses) with a calf injury. In light of the Blazers' place in the standings &mdash; and the benefit that could be gained by juicing their lottery odds &mdash; it makes sense that the Blazers would take a forward-thinking approach with Lillard.
It's a somber end to what's been, at least statistically, <a href="https://www.basketballnews.com/stories/nba-news-damian-lillard-making-claim-as-nba-most-dangerous-offensive-player-portland-trail-blazers-71-point-game-joel-embiid-luka-doncic-michael-jordan-nikola-jokic-tracy-mcgrady" target="_blank" rel="noopener">the best offensive season in Lillard's career</a>. He posted career-highs in points (32.2), 2PT% (57.4), True Shooting percentage (64.5), three-point rate (.547) and attempts (11.3), free-throw rate (.464) and attempts (9.6), and assist rate (35.1).
The rest of his box score numbers &mdash; 7.3 assists, 4.8 rebounds, a 37.1% clip from three and 91.4% mark from the free throw line &mdash; certainly pass the smell test.&nbsp;
He currently leads the NBA in DunksAndThree's Offensive Estimated Plus-Minus (oEPM) metric (+8.1), narrowly ahead of MVP shortlist candidate Nikola Jokic (+8.0). He ranks fifth in Estimated Wins (EW), the cumulative version of EPM, with 14.0. He only trails Jokic (17.2), Joel Embiid (14.8), Jayson Tatum (14.4) and Luka Doncic (14.3) in that stat.
Lillard was a worthy All-Star and, in the games he appeared in, a no-brainer selection for an All-NBA team. With him only appearing in 58 games (27-31 record), I'm curious to see where the voters land with his case. There's no question Lillard played well enough, but there's room to argue against his candidacy depending on how highly availability and winning rank in a voter's mind.
Bigger picture, the Blazers enter the offseason with the same set of big questions. Can they build a contender around Lillard? How, with their current asset pool, can they do so? And considering what the rest of the conference looks like right now, does it make sense to cash in their chips to build around Lillard, or would it make more sense to use Lillard as&nbsp;the&nbsp;chip to jumpstart a rebuild?
If it's up to Lillard &mdash; and please, please stop asking him, he's been clear about his desires! &mdash; the Blazers will continue trying to build around him. That'll start with landing on an acceptable number with Jerami Grant, then likely move to evaluating the market for upgrades in the frontcourt.
We have plenty of time to dig into potential offseason moves. For now, Lillard deserves his flowers for an incredible year.
He stretched defenses to their limits with long-distance bombs. He parlayed that shooting gravity into his most efficient season as a driver. Those drives allowed him to further lean into the foul-drawing tricks he's developed throughout his career. And the constant attention he drew opened up passing windows for him to access when necessary.&nbsp;
Oh, right: he also dropped the most efficient 70+ point game in NBA history this year. Can't forget that.
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Hopefully Lillard is able to rehab and recharge. I have no idea how you&nbsp;build&nbsp;on a campaign as ridiculous as Lillard's, but he's proven to be someone you can't comfortably bet against.&nbsp;

The Blazers are sitting Damian Lillard for the rest of the season. Nekias Duncan breaks down Lillard's great season and what's next.

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On Wednesday afternoon, Ed Cooley was introduced as the new head coach for the Georgetown Hoyas.&nbsp;
This move follows 12 successful seasons at Providence, including seven NCAA tournament bids in the past nine years it has been held and a Big East regular-season championship in 2021-22.
"I am excited for the opportunity to lead the men's basketball program at Georgetown University," Cooley said in a statement. "I plan on hitting the ground running, getting to work on the court and cultivating relationships in and around the District. Accepting this opportunity with Georgetown is not a decision I took lightly."
In an <a href="https://www.foxsports.com/stories/college-basketball/exclusive-ed-cooley-on-why-he-left-providence-for-georgetown" target="_blank" rel="noopener">exclusive interview with John Fanta of FOX Sports</a>, Cooley described his reasons for leaving Providence.
"When I did a deep dive of what's important &mdash; I always said yes to everybody, and I always said no to Ed. Coach Cooley did everything, but Ed needed a change," Cooley said. "I thought Georgetown was the place for me to make that change. As hard as it was because it's in-conference, and because a lot of people look at that as villainous or betrayal, I hope people give me an opportunity to serve Ed. And it sounds selfish, it sounds real selfish, but sometimes change is need on both sides and I felt for me change was needed...
"The Big East has a lot to do with the change even though it's tough because it's in-conference. I love the Big East. I love basketball-centric places. They're the recruiting fertile ground of the DMV area that expands.&rdquo;&nbsp;
I caught up with two Georgetown Hoya legends in Jerome Williams (a.k.a. Junk Yard Dog) and Michael Sweetney to discuss their thoughts on the changing of the guard at their alma mater and the direction of the program.&nbsp;
Jerome Williams (JYD)&nbsp;
<img style="display: block; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" src="https://cdn.basketballnews.com/images/story/body/280613766_5301049609946020_6743750996342787581_n.jpg" alt="" width="515" height="515" />
Etan: Talk to me about your first thoughts on the new hire Ed Cooley for Georgetown.
JYD: "From first impressions, he hit the ball out the park. He really ushered in the alumni. He even got people like Reggie Williams commenting positivity about him taking over the reins of Georgetown&rsquo;s basketball program, and that&rsquo;s a long-term Hoya alumni who helped bring a national championship to the hilltop. So right now, all of the alumni, myself included, we're very excited.
"We&rsquo;ve always supported every regime that has been at Georgetown since I&rsquo;ve been here, and that includes Coach Patrick (Ewing), Coach JT3 (John Thompson III), Coach (Craig) Esherick. And obviously, I was blessed to have Coach John Thompson. So Ed Cooley is no different in terms of the support that he will receive from me, and the Junk Yard Dog Dogg Pound. I&rsquo;m here to support this alma mater through thick and thin. But like I said, Ed Cooley&rsquo;s first impression has really gone over well with everyone. And add to that &mdash; he has the resume of what he accomplished at Providence that has really energized this entire Georgetown community, with him being a Big East Champion and Coach of the Year, so that all helps. So yeah, we&rsquo;re all definitely excited."
Etan: Yeah, people are really buzzing here in the DMV. This seems like this was the coach that a lot of people wanted. You heard the chatter even during the tournament before Providence lost. But the electricity around the program seems to have been reignited. Would you say that&rsquo;s an accurate description?&nbsp;
JYD: "Definitely, the electricity is back. When he says he wants to sell out the arena which holds 20,000 [people], that&rsquo;s exactly what needs to happen. And that starts with the alumni, it starts with the students and it starts with the overall community. So that&rsquo;s the key."
Etan: Now, of course, programs don&rsquo;t turn around overnight and it&rsquo;s been a tough few years for Georgetown just as far as wins and losses. So what would your advice be to Hoya fans as far as patience?&nbsp;
JYD: "My advice would definitely be that everything is a process and Rome wasn&rsquo;t built in a day. But, with the world the way it is around college sports and the transfer portal, you look at teams like Missouri, who transformed very quickly into a winning program. And that was largely due to the transfer portal."
Etan: Yeah, the <a href="https://www.basketballnews.com/stories/is-the-ncaas-transfer-portal-getting-out-of-control" target="_blank" rel="noopener">transfer portal is definitely a game changer</a>, but it&rsquo;s like musical chairs; you lose four players and then you get four new players. It&rsquo;s an interesting dynamic right now that we&rsquo;re in with college basketball.
JYD: "That's absolutely correct. In some ways it&rsquo;s damaging, and in other ways, it can be transformative."
Etan: Very true. So let&rsquo;s talk about the history of Georgetown and why it&rsquo;s so historically special as a program and what it means to the DMV area and really all of college sports.
<div class="mceNonEditable"><spike>&nbsp;</spike></div>
JYD: "Well, it helps when the Georgetown University basketball program is in a good place. It helps all of college basketball. And Georgetown has meant so much to the Black community from what Coach Thompson has built not only as an individual for himself, not only as a program and a university, but for what he has done for other Black coaches who helped build other programs. The John Chaneys and Nolan Richardsons and countless others who he has helped open doors for, including Ed Cooley. So that&rsquo;s where, when Georgetown is in a good place, they represent a larger piece to the masses."
Etan: That&rsquo;s great. So are we going to see you at some of the games? Can fans expect to see you and the Junk Yard Dog Dogg Pound representing on the sidelines this season?
JYD: "Yes sir, you saw me at many of the games this season supporting Patrick (Ewing) and the program. I was able to move back to the area this year. My son [Jeremiah] goes to St. Albans now and plays for Team Takeover, so I&rsquo;m here ready to continue to support the program. My daughters [Gabby and Giselle] are playing volleyball for Georgetown, so I&rsquo;m here."
Etan: That&rsquo;s great, and what year is your son? I&rsquo;ve seen some of the clips you&rsquo;ve posted on social media. He looks like he&rsquo;s gonna be good&nbsp;
JYD: "Thanks I appreciate that, and your son [Malcolm] as well. But my son is a little younger. He&rsquo;s [in the] 2029 [class] and he is just loving the game, working hard, and getting better and better. And that&rsquo;s all you can ask at this age. But let me say, thank you for writing this and showing some love to your school&rsquo;s biggest rival historically."
Etan: No problem, it&rsquo;s always been nothing but respect for Georgetown.
Michael Sweetney&nbsp;
<img src="https://cdn.basketballnews.com/images/story/body/97028325_3148150111902658_5846889772051595264_n.jpg" alt="" width="517" height="641" />
Etan: Okay, so how do you feel about the new hire of Coach Ed Cooley and the new direction that Georgetown is going in? What were your first initial thoughts?&nbsp;
Sweetney: "Well, first let me say that it was sad for me personally to see how it went for Patrick (Ewing) these last couple of years. Winning trumps everything, and we&rsquo;ve had it tough for his last few years, so I was definitely sad to see Patrick struggle the way that he did. He loves Georgetown so much and had such a special relationship with Coach Thompson, and I know he really wanted to be successful. So that part was definitely sad for me to see."
Etan: Yeah, I grew up a Patrick Ewing fan. I was a Knicks fan. I actually <a href="https://www.basketballnews.com/podcasts/the-rematch/episodes/basketballnews-com-episode-48-nba-hall-of-famer-patrick-ewing-talks-knicks-days,-turning-the-hoyas-around,-charles-oakley,-more" target="_blank" rel="noopener">interviewed him on The Rematch last year.</a> It was just an honor to be able to sit down with him. I mean, Patrick is a legend.&nbsp;
Sweetney: "Exactly, I definitely feel the same way. And he&rsquo;s a great guy all around. But to answer your question about the Ed Cooley hire, I think everyone is excited about what&rsquo;s to come. I personally really respected the way he immediately connected with the alumni and made a concerted effort to make the point clear that he wanted the alumni to be involved, and that&rsquo;s important. It&rsquo;s no secret that, for a long time, a lot of the guys felt distant from the program. So for him to come in and that&rsquo;s one of the first things on his agenda was to reach out to the alumni, it made a lot of ears throughout the Georgetown community perk up. It was a great first impression for all of us, so we&rsquo;re all excited about that aspect for sure."
Etan: Now, I&rsquo;ve heard that from a few guys that over the last decade or so, there has been distance from the program. I don&rsquo;t understand why, but I&rsquo;ve heard quite a few former players mention that.&nbsp;
Sweetney: "Yeah, that&rsquo;s pretty accurate, because a lot of guys have been feeling like that. I don&rsquo;t think it was intentional. It&rsquo;s just a lot of people from the program never reached out and said, 'Hey guys, come to the games,' or, 'We&rsquo;re going to have this special program to bring the alumni back together and back into the fold of the program.' It was really no interaction. It was almost like, 'Hey if you want to come to the game, you have to jump through hoops.'
"Luckily for me, I had direct access. So I would just call Pat Jr. and he would always look out. But it was never anyone from Georgetown who ever contacted me and said, 'Hey, come around. We have this event.' I don&rsquo;t even know if they had anyone assigned to do that &mdash; not really sure why. I don&rsquo;t think it was personal. But yeah, a lot of guys felt they weren&rsquo;t embraced the way alumni who have given so much to the program should be."
Etan: And what did Coach Cooley do differently? You and JYD both mentioned this, so I'm just curious. What exactly did he do?&nbsp;
Sweetney: "Well, for example, he held a Zoom [meeting] just yesterday and JYD was on there. But it was just with a lot of Georgetown former players and he introduced himself to us, told all of us how honored he was to be given this opportunity for a program he has so much respect for. He was knowledgeable of the history of the program, and he specifically told us, 'Hey, I want you all to be involved. This is a family thing and whatever I have to do to make things comfortable for you all, just let me know because I want you to be a part of this entire process.'
"And a few players &mdash; I don&rsquo;t want to say their names because it wasn&rsquo;t a public meeting &mdash; but a few guys specifically said that, for years, they thought the program didn&rsquo;t like them or respect them, so this was a breath of fresh air. So yeah, Coach Cooley definitely started off on the right foot with all of us."
Etan: You know, the DMV is really excited about the direction of the program. Do you get that same feeling?&nbsp;
Sweetney: "Definitely. And a large reason for that is because Cooley is saying all the right things. And what he did at Providence, when he got there, the program was where it was, and he&rsquo;s shown that he can turn programs around. He has the resume to support that, and people in the DMV are hoping that he can do the same thing here. And also, with the DMV being a hotbed as far as recruiting, it&rsquo;s one of the top places in the country for high school players going on to play Division I. So hopefully, he can get in and develop those relationships in the DMV and get some of this local talent."
Etan: So you mentioned that, and that&rsquo;s something else that&rsquo;s always brought up. One of the biggest criticisms you hear around the DMV is that two of the biggest schools in the area &mdash; Georgetown and Maryland &mdash; haven&rsquo;t kept the local DMV talent local. You saw Coach Kevin Willard came in on Day 1 last year and made a concerted effort to recruit guys from the DMV: Jamie Kaiser, Deshawn Harris-Smith and Jahnathan Lamothe. All of them are from the area.
Do you expect that same level of focus from Coach Cooley? People don&rsquo;t understand the level of talent in this area, but for a long time, so many have left to play somewhere else. I just watched Jordin Hawkins for UConn light up Arkansas for 24 points last night. They&rsquo;re headed to the Sweet 16 and he&rsquo;s from right here and went to DeMatha.
Sweetney: "Definitely, that&rsquo;s one of the things Coach Cooley mentioned. He&rsquo;s definitely aware of it and he told us specifically that he wanted to focus on and develop those relationships in the DMV and get some of this local talent to stay home. And I hope that&rsquo;s the case because there is so much talent in this area."
Etan: There definitely is. It&rsquo;s really amazing. KD made that documentary a few years ago &mdash; "Basketball County: In The Water.&rdquo; So I think that really showed the world how special the DMV is.
<div class="mceNonEditable"><spike>&nbsp;</spike></div>
Sweetney: "Now, let me ask you a question if you don&rsquo;t mind?"
Etan: Oh, you&rsquo;re gonna take over the interview? (Laughing) Sure, go ahead.
Sweetney: (Laughing) "No, but seriously. Because we were discussing the DMV talent and I&rsquo;ve seen your son Malcolm play, he is a tremendous talent and can do a lot on the basketball court. But would you be open to him coming to Georgetown? I know we&rsquo;re a rival school and you&rsquo;re Syracuse royalty, but 'What If' you know?"
Etan: Oh, you just gonna put me on the spot huh? (Laughing) Well honestly, and people ask me this all the time, that&rsquo;s one of the reasons <a href="https://www.basketballnews.com/stories/high-school-basketball-malcolm-thomas-qa-dematha-stags-season-acit-championship-recruiting-maryland-dmv-etan-thomas-prospect" target="_blank" rel="noopener">I did an article with Malcolm</a>. We sat down and discussed this because so many people say to me, "So Malcolm is definitely going to Syracuse?" And I always respond with, "He&rsquo;s going to whatever situation is best for him, whether that&rsquo;s Syracuse or somewhere else." Of course, both his parents went there, so yes, there is history there. But I was glad to hear him echo that he wants to go to the best place for him.&nbsp;
Sweetney: "So it wouldn&rsquo;t be weird for you to cheer for Georgetown if he came to us?"
Etan: Not at all. Listen, I bleed Orange, make no mistake, but I genuinely want him to go to the situation that&rsquo;s best for him. My situation at Syracuse worked out for me, but it has to be the right situation for him.&nbsp;
Sweetney: "That makes total sense."
Etan: I mean, Malcolm grew up here. He&rsquo;s a PG County kid. Although he has his love for Syracuse because both his parents went there, he grew up watching Georgetown, Maryland and all the DMV schools and surrounding schools like all of the other kids who grew up here. What do you think with your sons? I know they&rsquo;re a little young now, but when they get older.
Sweetney: "It&rsquo;s funny because people always say that to me too. They say they&rsquo;re future Hoyas and I&rsquo;m like, 'Well I don&rsquo;t know, we&rsquo;ll see.' But like you said, I want them to do whatever is best for them. Whatever fits their needs and their happiness. So I get it. Just had to ask you that, and honestly, that&rsquo;s good to hear because your son can play. So I'm glad to hear that you&rsquo;re open to it.
"But yeah, we&rsquo;re in a good place as a program and going in a good direction, so I think fans can expect an entire wave of local talent coming to Georgetown and exciting times in the near future."

Etan Thomas talks to Jerome "Junk Yard Dog" Williams and Michael Sweetney about their first impressions of Ed Cooley at Georgetown.

Georgetown legends Jerome Williams, Michael Sweetney on Ed Cooley hire

BATON ROUGE, La. (AP) &mdash; Angel Reese dismantled Michigan on both ends of the court with 25 points, 24 rebounds, six blocks and three steals to help third-seeded LSU beat the No. 6 seed Wolverines 66-42 Sunday night in the second round of the women&rsquo;s NCAA Tournament.
Reese, a 6-foot-3 All-America forward, did most of her damage with gauze wedged under her upper lip after a shot to her mouth drew blood in the opening minutes of the game.
Alexis Morris scored 11 and LaDazhia Williams had 10 points and 10 rebounds for LSU (30-2), which never trailed and held Michigan (23-10) to its lowest point total of the season.
In just their second season under coach Kim Mulkey, the Tigers advanced past the second round of the tournament for the first time since 2014 and will meet second seed Utah in the Greenville 2 regional semifinal.
Laila Phelia scored 20 points for Michigan, which opened the second half with a 7-0 run to pull as close as eight points, but quickly went back down by double-digits for good after Reese&rsquo;s layup and Kateri Poole&rsquo;s 3.
Reese played with relentless determination, three times chasing driving Michigan players down the lane to swat their shots away from behind.
She was a menace to Michigan rebounders on both ends of the court. She grabbed 14 offensive rebounds. And after one, Emily Kiser was called for an intentional foul when she knocked Reese to the floor on a putback attempt.
LSU had 18 second-chance points to Michigan&rsquo;s 2, and although both teams shot 35%, LSU got off 68 shots to Michigan&rsquo;s 46.
Leading by only a few points early on, the Tigers took over in the second quarter. Jasmine Carson hit three 3s for LSU, which had missed its first eight from deep. Her third put LSU up 23-9, prompting Michigan coach Kim Barnes Arico to call timeout.
That stunted LSU&rsquo;s momentum only briefly before Reese scored LSU&rsquo;s next seven points on a short jumper, a putback, an explosive drive to the hoop and a free throw to put the Tigers up 30-15 at halftime.
ROUGH START
The first quarter was a defensive struggle in which both teams looked prepared to exert as much physical force as official would permit. Reese took an inadvertent shot to the mouth under the basket. She continued intermittently rubbing her lip and looking at her finger tips to check for blood for much the quarter. Later, she lost one of her eyelash extensions while tangled up inside with Kiser and Leigha Brown.
Reese delivered punishment, too, flattening Kiser on a drive down the lane. Kiser drew the charge, but stayed down for several moments, placing her hand on the part of her upper body that apparently took the blow, before teammates helped her up.
BIG PICTURE
Michigan: After reaching the regional finals last season and and the regional semifinals in 2021, Michigan&rsquo;s tournament ended in the second round for the first time since 2019. The Wolverines&rsquo; previous scoring low this season was 52 in a loss at Indiana on Feb. 16. They finished
LSU: Mulkey is now 3-0 against Barnes Arico in the NCAA Tournament, with each meeting coming since 2018 and two while Mulkey was at Baylor, where she won three national titles. Outrebounded Michigan 46-26.&nbsp;

Angel Reese dismantled Michigan on both ends of the court with 25 points, 24 rebounds, 6 blocks and 3 steals to lead LSU.

Angel Reese posts 25-point, 24-rebound, 6-block night as LSU beats UM

GREENSBORO, N.C. (AP) &mdash; Oscar Tshiebwe kept battling for position, pushing his way to daylight and grabbing seemingly every loose rebound with a rugged relentlessness.
No one was going to stop him, either.
When it was over, the two-time Associated Press All-American had turned in the best rebounding performance in the NCAA Tournament in nearly a half-century &mdash; and Kentucky was free to move past last year&rsquo;s one-and-done showing.
Tshiebwe pulled down 25 rebounds and Antonio Reeves scored 22 points, helping the Wildcats beat Providence 61-53 in Friday night&rsquo;s first round.
Tshiebwe&rsquo;s rebounding output represented the most in any tournament game since 1977. Eleven of his rebounds came on the offensive glass &mdash; a big factor in the sixth-seeded Wildcats (22-11) staying in control as both offenses grinded to a halt after halftime.
&ldquo;I told (my teammates), I said, &lsquo;This year we come in and fight, last year doesn&rsquo;t matter anymore,&rsquo;&rdquo; said Tshiebwe, who entered as the nation&rsquo;s leading rebounder at 13.1 per game.
The &ldquo;last year,&rdquo; of course, was the&nbsp;<a class="paragraph-link" href="https://apnews.com/article/march-madness-saint-peters-upsets-kentucky-b0fdd8fbd0ea432a9b6150f0cd8e6b22" target="_blank" rel="noopener">shocking first-round exit against 15th-seeded Saint Peter&rsquo;s</a> that had hung over the program all season. Now the Wildcats are moving on to face the Montana State-Kansas State winner Sunday in the East Region.
&ldquo;Yeah, it was a big relief obviously,&rdquo; forward Jacob Toppin said.
When the horn sounded, guard Cason Wallace let out a scream before giving a chest bump to Reaves. And Tshiebwe soon emerged from a postgame TV interview by gleefully skipping his way off toward the locker room.
His rebounding total was the most in the tournament since Michigan&rsquo;s Phil Hubbard had 26 boards against Detroit Mercy in 1977.
Behind Tshiebwe, Kentucky finished with a 48-31 rebounding advantage, controlling the offensive glass (plus-10) and dominating in second-chance points for an 18-2 edge.
That was vital considering shots weren&rsquo;t falling; Kentucky shot 36.5% overall but just 7 of 28 (25%) after halftime.
Reeves hit five 3-pointers to lead the offense, while Toppin had his own big game with 18 points. Tshiebwe managed eight points, but he was still an indomitable force that the 11th-seeded Friars (21-12) just couldn&rsquo;t manage.
&ldquo;Sometimes you just have an &lsquo;it,&rsquo; a la Dennis Rodman, Ben Wallace,&rdquo; Providence coach Ed Cooley said. &ldquo;Those guys just have an &lsquo;it&rsquo; for it. Some guys have an &lsquo;it&rsquo; to score. Some people have an &lsquo;it&rsquo; to pass. He has an incredible &lsquo;it,&rsquo; an elite &lsquo;it&rsquo; to rebound.&rdquo;
Ed Croswell scored 16 points for Providence, which shot just 36.2% while making 5 of 24 3-pointers. The Friars matched the Wildcats&rsquo; second-half troubles, making just 8 of 27 shots (29.6%).
&ldquo;You can say you wish you could win this game and all that,&rdquo; Friars guard Jared Bynum said, &ldquo;but you have to embrace the moment at the end of it.&rdquo;
BIG PICTURE
Providence: The Friars have been to the NCAAs seven times in the past nine seasons under Cooley, including last year&rsquo;s Sweet 16 before falling to eventual champion Kansas. But they entered this game just 3-6 in NCAA games under Cooley.
Kentucky: The Wildcats got off to a successful though grinding start to March Madness &mdash; and that was good enough for coach John Calipari.
&ldquo;If in this tournament, winning is a relief, what the heck are you doing here?&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;This is joy.&rdquo;
KEY STRETCH
Tshiebwe came through in a tight game, starting with &mdash; what else? &mdash; his rebounding.
With Kentucky leading 50-46, he leapt to dunk home Wallace&rsquo;s missed drive. Minutes later, he came up with a steal, then an offensive rebound off his own miss before feeding Chris Livingston on the other side of the paint for the layup and a 54-46 lead with 2:43 left.
BUMPY REUNION
<a class="paragraph-link" href="https://apnews.com/article/march-madness-transfers-blake-hinson-bryce-hopkins-5bafaa08f771c7cb8e389f9fbe750213" target="_blank" rel="noopener">The game marked a reunion</a>&nbsp;between Providence star Bryce Hopkins and the Kentucky program he left behind. Hopkins came in averaging 16.1 points, but finished with just seven on 2-for-9 shooting in a tough night while being chased primarily by Toppin.
Hopkins fought back tears as he made his way through the postgame handshake line with Calipari and former teammates.
FULL STOP
The game&rsquo;s oddest moment&nbsp;came at the foul line.
With 8:36 left before halftime, Providence&rsquo;s Clifton Moore launched a free throw that hit the rim on the left side and rolled all the way around the inside of the rim before popping out and sitting on the back of the goal.
And then, it just stopped and stayed there.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-theme="dark">
What are the odds? 😂<a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/MarchMadness?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#MarchMadness</a> <a href="https://t.co/XGCiyy9pVd">pic.twitter.com/XGCiyy9pVd</a>
&mdash; NCAA March Madness (@MarchMadnessMBB) <a href="https://twitter.com/MarchMadnessMBB/status/1636875109322612738?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">March 17, 2023</a></blockquote>

<script src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js"></script>

The 6-foot-9 Toppin stood next to an official under the net looking up at the ball, his hands on his hips, before jumping to tap it loose.
It went down as a miss. Moore made the second.
LOOK-INS
<a class="paragraph-link" href="https://www.basketballnews.com/stories/no-16-fairleigh-dickinson-stuns-no-1-seed-purdue-in-march-madness" target="_blank" rel="noopener">The upset by 16th-seeded Fairleigh Dickinson against No. 1 seed Purdue</a>&nbsp;in Columbus, Ohio, drew a captivated audience in Greensboro Coliseum for live look-ins being shown on the scoreboard.
During one timeout, with Fairleigh Dickinson up five in the final seconds, fans in Greensboro began chanting &ldquo;FDU! FDU!&rdquo; and booing whenever the game was taken off the scoreboard even when Providence-Kentucky had resumed on the court below.

Oscar Tshiebwe pulled down 25 rebounds, helping the Kentucky Wildcats beat Providence 61-53 in Friday night’s first round.

Tshiebwe’s 25 boards helps Kentucky top Providence in NCAA opener

The madness of March: It&rsquo;s as exhilarating as it is exhausting, as mesmerizing as it is memorable. The abrupt ending of an entire career, a legacy defined in two to three seconds. It almost seems unfair, but that&rsquo;s the beauty of the win-or-go-home tournament.&nbsp;
Every game is a Game 7. The unpredictability, the passion, the tears, the celebration. The NCAA Tournament is one of the few sporting events that&rsquo;s more defined by the incomparable upsets than the eventual champion.
Even non-basketball fans get in on the fun each year, with office pools and bracket challenges. While college sports and amateurism are under a drastic transformation, &ldquo;The Tournament&rdquo; still has a nostalgic feel to it. The incredible buzzer-beaters are one of the many reasons why.
Narrowing this list down was a tall task, so before we get started, it&rsquo;s important that we establish the criteria:
<ul>
<li aria-level="1">It has to be a game-winning or game-tying shot in the final seconds.&nbsp;</li>
<li aria-level="1">It has to be in the &ldquo;modern era&rdquo; (i.e. since the three-point line and shot clock).&nbsp;</li>
<li aria-level="1">The later in the tournament, the higher the stakes, the more the shot means.</li>
</ul>
With that being said, here are the 11 most memorable buzzer-beaters in modern men's NCAA Tournament history.
11. Michigan State vs. Maryland, Korie Lucious (2010 Second Round)
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In one of the rare times Tom Izzo didn&rsquo;t call timeout in the waning seconds of a game, it paid off for him big time. You might recognize that big fella bringing the ball up the court; that&rsquo;s a slightly heavier Draymond Green, doing what he&rsquo;s been doing for the last decade in the Bay, pushing the tempo, drawing attention and then getting the ball to a knockdown shooter.&nbsp;
Maryland never properly matched up, and Korie Lucious only needed one rhythm dribble to send the Spartans to the Sweet Sixteen.
10. Wisconsin vs. Xavier, Bronson Koenig (2016 Second Round)
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The Musketeers had the ball in a tie game but turned it over, which led to one of the smoothest walk-off game-winners you will ever see.&nbsp;
Looking like he was in the gym shooting all by himself, All-Big-Ten guard Bronson Koenig caught the ball on the sideline, smartly took an escape dribble and hit the corner three that sent the Badgers to the Sweet Sixteen.
9. Connecticut vs. Washington, Richard Hamilton (1998 Sweet Sixteen)
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This entire sequence was amazing. I love how the refs swallowed their whistle on the first two attempts. Those may have been foul calls earlier in the game, but not with the championship on the line. Washington had a huge frontline that year, but ultimately ended up one rebound short.&nbsp;
Also, this is good coaching by Hall-of-Famer Jim Calhoun. In college, you have to go early because the opposing team cannot advance the ball to halfcourt with a timeout, so there&rsquo;s no point in waiting too long and eliminating the chance of getting an offensive rebound.&nbsp;
Rip Hamilton would go on to win both an NCAA championship and NBA championship with the Detroit Pistons.&nbsp;
&nbsp;8.Valparaiso vs. Ole Miss, Bryce Drew (1998 First Round)
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This is definitely the most schematic of any buzzer-beaters on this list. The son of the coach coming through in the clutch seems perfectly scripted for a Disney movie.
As with most of these incredible shots, it involves missed free throws and an underrated pass. The defense on this play was phenomenal (which can&rsquo;t be said for another historic shot that we&rsquo;ll get to in a bit).
7. Michigan vs. Houston, Jordan Poole (2018 Second Round)
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Long before he was a spark plug off the bench for the world-champion Golden State Warriors, Jordan Poole was hitting big shots in Ann Arbor. He drove Coach John Beilein crazy with his shot selection, but one of the reasons he earned such a long leash was his uncanny ability to hit shots from anywhere and at any angle.&nbsp;
6. UCLA vs. Mizzou, Tyus Edney (1995 Second Round)
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Every national champion has one of &ldquo;those&rdquo; games where despite having the superior roster, they probably should have lost. The Bruins were loaded! This roster featured eight guys who eventually played in the NBA. But the longer the game stays close, the more the pressure shifts to the No. 1 seed.&nbsp;&nbsp;
5. Michigan vs. Kansas, Trey Burke (2013 Sweet Sixteen)
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In 2013, Trey Burke was named the National Player of the Year and he carried the Wolverines all season long. The debate of whether to foul when up three points is for another column, but this was a Damian-Lillard-range three, and no one wants to risk a foul that far from the basket.&nbsp;
4. Kansas vs. Memphis, Mario Chalmers (2008 NCAA Championship Game)
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Mario Chalmers is a legend in Lawrence for as long as he lives. The Memphis Tigers were led by soon-to-be-first-overall-pick Derrick Rose and the silky smooth Chris Douglas-Roberts, and they had the game won until &ndash; and stop me if you have read this before &ndash; crucial free-throw misses opened the door for Kansas. This allowed Chalmers to force overtime, and the rest is history.&nbsp;
Coach Cal has gone on to win a national championship at Kentucky, but I bet if you caught him in a hotel bar on a recruiting trip, he would admit that he should have fouled Kansas before Chalmers even had the opportunity to hoist up this miracle three-point attempt.&nbsp;
3. Gonzaga vs. UCLA, Jalen Suggs (2021 Final Four)
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Gonzaga truly seemed like a team of destiny after Jalen Suggs hit the running bank shot against UCLA to remain undefeated and advance to the national championship game. While they would ultimately fall to Baylor two days later, the shot was ridiculous.&nbsp;
And unlike many of the plays on this list, UCLA didn&rsquo;t really do anything wrong. They didn&rsquo;t miss a free throw or look confused on defense. They lost on a straight-in bank from half-court, which even seemed to cause Gonzaga head coach Mark Few to feel a bit guilty.
2. Duke vs. Kentucky, Christian Laettner (1992 Elite Eight)
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Kentucky fans, look away. Hate him or really hate him, Christian Laettner was one of the greatest college players of all-time.&nbsp;
This game was one for the ages. Duke was the defending national champion. They were led by the aforementioned Laettner, All-American pest/point guard Bobby Hurley and budding superstar/future Hall-of-Famer Grant HIll.&nbsp;
Somewhat lost in the dramatic ending is the fact that Laettner was literally perfect on the night. He shot 10-of-10 from the field and 10-of-10 from the free-throw line, and he finished with a state line of 31 points, 7 rebounds, 3 assists and 2 steals.
1. Villanova vs. UNC, Kris Jenkins (2016 NCAA Championship Game)
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The dream of all dreams. This is the scenario that every boy or girl who has ever played basketball at any level has imagined hundreds of times. A few seconds left. The ball in your hands. A title on the line. Three, two, one&hellip; You drill the game-winner and become a champion.&nbsp;
On April 4, 2016, Kris Jenkins turned this dream into reality. The timing is an underrated aspect of this play. The pass was right on time, and right on target &ndash; soft and chest-high. This let Jenkins shoot in rhythm &ndash; a shot that he had made thousands of times before. You gotta love how Jay Wright showed the emotion of John Wick as he walked to shake Roy Williams&rsquo; hand.&nbsp;
HONORABLE MENTION
Connecticut vs. Clemson, Tate George (1990 Sweet Sixteen)
Duke vs. Connecticut, Christian Laettner (1990 Elite Eight)

With March Madness upon us, Basketball News revisits 11 of the most memorable buzzer-beaters in NCAA Tournament history.

March Madness: Ranking the top-11 men's NCAA Tournament buzzer-beaters

Earlier this week, Georgetown fired head coach Patrick Ewing after six seasons with the program.
The school announced that it has "begun a national search for new leadership," and it's a high-profile opening.
So, who are the top candidates to replace Ewing?&nbsp;
<a href="https://www.sportsbetting.ag/sportsbook/futures-and-props/ncaam-specials" target="_blank" rel="noopener">SportsBetting.ag</a> set odds on who will be the Hoyas' next head coach, and a Hall-of-Famer is currently leading the pack.
Rick Pitino, who is currently the head coach at Iona University, is the odds-on favorite (-200). Pitino is a two-time NCAA champion with a 834-292 record over the course of his coaching career. This season, he led Iona to the NCAA Tournament as a 13th seed. They will face fourth-seeded UConn in the first round.
Pitino's son, Rick Jr., is also on the board (+1600) among the 15 candidates, which features some obvious long shots such as Tubby Smith (+10000), Jay Wright (+50000) and Jim Boeheim (+100000).
Here are the current odds for who will become Georgetown's next coach:
<table style="border-collapse: collapse; width: 38.2662%; height: 396px;" border="1">
<tbody>
<tr style="height: 22px;">
<td style="width: 22.7733%; height: 22px; text-align: center;">Rick Pitino</td>
<td style="width: 11.7068%; height: 22px; text-align: center;">-200</td>
</tr>
<tr style="height: 22px;">
<td style="width: 22.7733%; height: 22px; text-align: center;">Mike Brey</td>
<td style="width: 11.7068%; height: 22px; text-align: center;">+500</td>
</tr>
<tr style="height: 22px;">
<td style="width: 22.7733%; height: 22px; text-align: center;">Micah Shrewsberry</td>
<td style="width: 11.7068%; height: 22px; text-align: center;">+600</td>
</tr>
<tr style="height: 22px;">
<td style="width: 22.7733%; height: 22px; text-align: center;">Ed Cooley</td>
<td style="width: 11.7068%; height: 22px; text-align: center;">+800</td>
</tr>
<tr style="height: 22px;">
<td style="width: 22.7733%; height: 22px; text-align: center;">Kevin Keatts</td>
<td style="width: 11.7068%; height: 22px; text-align: center;">+800</td>
</tr>
<tr style="height: 22px;">
<td style="width: 22.7733%; height: 22px; text-align: center;">Kim English</td>
<td style="width: 11.7068%; height: 22px; text-align: center;">+1400</td>
</tr>
<tr style="height: 22px;">
<td style="width: 22.7733%; height: 22px; text-align: center;">Mike Boynton</td>
<td style="width: 11.7068%; height: 22px; text-align: center;">+1400</td>
</tr>
<tr style="height: 22px;">
<td style="width: 22.7733%; height: 22px; text-align: center;">Rick Pitino Jr.</td>
<td style="width: 11.7068%; height: 22px; text-align: center;">+1600</td>
</tr>
<tr style="height: 22px;">
<td style="width: 22.7733%; height: 22px; text-align: center;">Brad Underwood</td>
<td style="width: 11.7068%; height: 22px; text-align: center;">+1800</td>
</tr>
<tr style="height: 22px;">
<td style="width: 22.7733%; height: 22px; text-align: center;">Grant McCasland</td>
<td style="width: 11.7068%; height: 22px; text-align: center;">+2000</td>
</tr>
<tr style="height: 22px;">
<td style="width: 22.7733%; height: 22px; text-align: center;">Matt Langel</td>
<td style="width: 11.7068%; height: 22px; text-align: center;">+2000</td>
</tr>
<tr style="height: 22px;">
<td style="width: 22.7733%; height: 22px; text-align: center;">Mike Jones</td>
<td style="width: 11.7068%; height: 22px; text-align: center;">+2000</td>
</tr>
<tr style="height: 22px;">
<td style="width: 22.7733%; height: 22px; text-align: center;">Tubby Smith</td>
<td style="width: 11.7068%; height: 22px; text-align: center;">+10000</td>
</tr>
<tr style="height: 22px;">
<td style="width: 22.7733%; height: 22px; text-align: center;">Jay Wright</td>
<td style="width: 11.7068%; height: 22px; text-align: center;">+50000</td>
</tr>
<tr style="height: 22px;">
<td style="width: 22.7733%; height: 22px; text-align: center;">Jim Boeheim</td>
<td style="width: 11.7068%; height: 22px; text-align: center;">+100000</td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
Who do you think Georgetown should hire? <a href="https://twitter.com/basketbllnews" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Tweet us your thoughts here</a>!

Hall-of-Fame coach Rick Pitino is currently the odds-on favorite to replace Patrick Ewing as Georgetown's next head coach.

Oddsmakers think Rick Pitino will replace Patrick Ewing at Georgetown

Longtime pro Jordan Crawford opens up to Spencer Davies about his unpleasant NBA experience, his Detroit connection and more.

Ex-NBA pro Jordan Crawford has a story to tell — and a whole lot more

MEMPHIS, Tenn. (AP) &mdash; Jamal Shead scored 16 points, including the winning basket as time ran out, and top-ranked Houston won its 11th straight game, escaping a second-half rally to beat Memphis 67-65 in the teams&rsquo; regular-season finale.
Shead beat the buzzer with his jumper from just inside the 3-point line. Nine seconds earlier, Memphis&rsquo; Kendric Davis drove to the basket and tied the game at 65. Houston chose not to call timeout, and Shead gave the Cougars (29-2, 17-1 American Athletic Conference) the win.
Tramon Mark matched Shead&rsquo;s 16 points, while Marcus Sasser finished with 13 for Houston.
Davis led Memphis (23-8, 13-5) with 26 points, while Chandler Lawson added 10.
NO. 5 PURDUE 76, ILLINOIS 71
WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. (AP) &mdash; Brandon Newman scored 19 points, Zach Edey added 17 and Purdue held on to beat Illinois and become the first team to win the Big Ten title by three or more games since 2014.
Braden Smith added 15 points for the Boilermakers (26-5, 15-5), who led by 24 early in the second half before the Illini rallied.
Matthew Mayer led the Illini (20-11, 11-9) with 16 points, followed by Terrence Shannon Jr. with 13, Sencire Harris with 11 and Luke Goode with 10.
The Boilermakers shot 62% for a 47-26 lead at halftime, but cooled to 29% in the second half. Mayer tied the game at 67 with 1:17 to go, but Edey&rsquo;s layup gave Purdue a 69-67 edge.
NO. 15 INDIANA 75, MICHIGAN 73, OT
BLOOMINGTON, Ind. (AP) &mdash; Trayce Jackson-Davis had 27 points, nine rebounds and six assists in his final home game, and Indiana forced a steal on Michigan&rsquo;s final possession of overtime.
The Hoosiers (21-10, 12-8) clinched a double bye in Friday&rsquo;s Big Ten Tournament quarterfinals by rebounding from their most lopsided home loss since 2017.
Hunter Dickinson had 24 points and 14 rebounds for Michigan (17-14, 11-9). Kobe Bufkin added 19 points and six rebounds, but the Wolverines wound up getting swept in the season series. It was the second straight overtime loss for Michigan.
Seniors Jackson-Davis, Race Thompson and Miller Kopp scored all six Indiana points in overtime.
PENN STATE 65, NO. 21 MARYLAND 64
STATE COLLEGE, Pa. (AP) &mdash; Camren Wynter made a layup with less than a second remaining to lift Penn State over Maryland.
Jalen Pickett scored 16 points, Andrew Funk had 14 and Myles Dread had 11 for the Nittany Lions (19-12, 10-10 Big Ten), who trailed by as many as 16 late in the first half.
Jahmir Young scored 14 of his 26 points in the second half for the Terps (20-11, 11-9), who entered the afternoon looking to earn the No. 2 seed in the Big Ten tournament. Julian Reese had 12 points for the Terps, while Don Carey and Ian Martinez added 11 each.

A recap of three games in top-25 men's action Sunday includes a game-winner from the top team in the country.

No. 1 Houston nips Memphis 67-65 for 11th straight win

Nekias Duncan checks back in with this year's NBA award races with an in-depth look at who leads the pack through the end of February.

2022-23 NBA award front-runners Vol. 2: MVP, DPOY, ROY, more

LEXINGTON, Ky. (AP) &mdash; Sir&rsquo;Jabari Rice scored 20 of his game-high 24 points in the second half and overtime, and No. 6 Texas held off Oklahoma 85-83 on Saturday.
Rice&rsquo;s fourth 3-pointer of the game gave Texas an 84-77 lead with 2:26 left in overtime.
Oklahoma, however, had a chance to tie or win when Texas&rsquo; Tyrese Hunter missed one of two free throws with 6.8 seconds left. But Sam Godwin missed a shot from near the rim, and Texas extended its winning streak against Oklahoma to five games.
Marcus Carr added 17 points for Texas (21-6, 10-4 Big 12), and Timmy Allen had 15 points, nine rebounds and four assists.
Grant Sherfield led Oklahoma (13-14, 3-11) with 18 points, including a 3-pointer that sent the game to overtime. Milos Uzan scored 15 for the Sooners.
NO. 1 ALABAMA 108, GEORGIA 59
TUSCALOOSA, Ala. (AP) &mdash; Brandon Miller scored 21 points, Nick Pringle had 19 points and 12 rebounds and Mark Sears made five 3-pointers in the first half to lead Alabama.
The Crimson Tide (23-4, 13-1 Southeastern Conference) rebounded from their first SEC loss by racing to a 54-25 halftime lead and a season scoring high. Alabama was coming off a 68-59 loss at No. 10 Tennessee on Wednesday night after rising to No. 1 for only the second time in program history and first in 20 years.&nbsp;
ustin Hill led Georgia (16-11, 6-8) with 17 points. Terry Roberts scored 11 and Braelen Bridges 10.
NO. 4 UCLA 78, CALIFORNIA 43
LOS ANGELES (AP) &mdash; Jaime Jaquez Jr. scored 20 points and UCLA routed last-place California to improve to 15-0 at Pauley Pavilion this season and extend the nation&rsquo;s longest home winning streak to 23 games.
Amari Bailey added 16 points and nine rebounds for the first-place Bruins (23-4, 14-2 Pac-12), who clinched a first-round bye in next month&rsquo;s Pac-12 Tournament with their 11th win in a row over last-place Cal.
Kuany Kuany scored 14 points to lead the Golden Bears (3-24, 2-14), who dropped their 11th in a row. They fell to 0-3 against top-5 teams this season, having also lost a pair against No. 8 Arizona.
NO. 5 KANSAS 87, NO. 9 BAYLOR 71
LAWRENCE, Kan. (AP) &mdash; DaJuan Harris scored all 14 of his points in the second half as Kansas stormed back from a double-digit halftime deficit.
The Jayhawks (22-5, 10-4 Big 12) outscored the Bears 55-26 in the second half. Jalen Wilson led Kansas with 21 points and 13 rebounds. KJ Adams added 17 points and Gradey Dick had 16.
The Jayhawks are tied with Texas for the top spot in the Big 12 Conference.
Baylor (20-7, 9-5) got nearly all of its scoring from its three-guard combo of Adam Flagler (22 points) Keyonte George (20 points) and LJ Cryer (15 points).
NO. 7 VIRGINIA 57, NOTRE DAME 55
CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. (AP) &mdash; Kihei Clark scored 15 points, including a pair of critical free throws with 22.6 seconds left, and became Virginia&rsquo;s career assist leader in the narrow win over Notre Dame.
With Notre Dame closing to 55-54, Clark converted both ends of a one-and-one. Trey Wertz made the front end of a one-and-one with 3.9 seconds left for the Fighting Irish, but missed the second after a timeout. The ball was tipped out to Dane Goodwin for a potential game-winning 3-pointer, but his shot bounced off the rim.
Armaan Franklin added 12 points and Reece Beekman had 11 for Virginia (21-4, 13-3 Atlantic Coast Conference). Nate Laszewski led Notre Dame (10-17, 2-14) with 18 points and Goodwin had 12.
NO. 8 ARIZONA 78, COLORADO 68
TUCSON, Ariz. (AP) &mdash; Oumar Ballo had 18 points and 16 rebounds, Cedric Henderson Jr. added 15 points and Arizona dominated inside to beat Colorado.
The Wildcats (24-4, 13-4 Pac-12) opened with a rash of turnovers, falling into an early 12-point hole. Arizona righted itself quickly with a big run and slogged through a slowed-down second half by shutting down the Buffaloes.
Tristan da Silva had 18 points the Buffaloes (15-13, 7-10), who shot 38%.
KENTUCKY 66, NO. 10 TENNESSEE 54
LEXINGTON, Ky. (AP) &mdash; Cason Wallace and Oscar Tshiebwe each scored 16 points and Kentucky rushed to a big lead and beat Tennessee.
The Volunteers (20-7, 9-5 SEC) trailed by 20 points at halftime and lost in their first game since toppling No. 1 Alabama.
The Wildcats (18-9, 9-5) earned their first regular-season sweep of Tennessee since the 2011-12 season. Kentucky defeated the Volunteers 63-56 on Jan. 14 in Knoxville.
Wallace had totaled nine points in the Wildcats&rsquo; previous two games. Chris Livingston added 12 points and Jacob Toppin had 11.
NO. 12 KANSAS STATE 61, NO. 19 IOWA STATE 55
MANHATTAN, Kan. (AP) &mdash; Markquis Nowell hit a 3-pointer from near midcourt with 2:42 remaining to help Kansas State over Iowa State.
Nowell finished with 20 points. Keyontae Johnson had 15 points for the Wildcats (20-7, 8-6 Big 12).
Aljaž Kunc led Iowa State (17-9, 8-6) with 15 points. Without their 3-point leader Caleb Grill in the lineup, the Cyclones worked inside the paint. They had 24 points inside and relied on a balanced scoring line led by Kunc.
NO. 13 GONZAGA 97, PEPPERDINE 88
MALIBU, Calif. (AP) &mdash; Drew Timme scored 22 of his 34 points in the second half and Julian Strawther added 28 points to help Gonzaga extend its winning streak over the Waves to 45 games.
The Bulldogs (23-5, 12-2 West Coast Conference), who haven&rsquo;t lost to Pepperdine (9-10, 2-12) since Jan. 18, 2002 and have won 20 straight on the road against the Waves.
Timme moved past Bill Cartwright, who scored 2,116 points for San Francisco (1975-79), into eighth on the West Coast Conference&rsquo;s career scoring list with 2,117.
Houston Mallette led the Waves with 22 points. Jevon Porter and Maxwell Lewis added 20 points apiece.
NO. 14 INDIANA 71, ILLINOIS 68
BLOOMINGTON, Ind. (AP) &mdash; Trayce Jackson-Davis finished with 26 points and 12 rebounds, Jalen Hood Schifino made two free throws with 30.7 seconds left, and Indiana rallied from a nine-point second-half deficit to beat Illinois.
Hood-Schifino had 13 points for the Hoosiers (19-8, 10-6 Big Ten), who have won nine of 11 overall and 15 straight on their homecourt.
Matthew Mayer scored 24 to lead the Fighting Illini (17-9, 8-7), who were without injured leading scorer Terrence Shannon.
NO. 15 MIAMI 96, WAKE FOREST 87
CORAL GABLES, Fla. (AP) &mdash; Isaiah Wong scored 27 points and Nijel Pack finished with 24 in Miami&rsquo;s win over Wake Forest.
Norchard Omier had 17 points on 7-of-8 shooting while Jordan Miller added 14 points for the Hurricanes (22-5, 13-4 Atlantic Coast Conference), who won their sixth straight and improved to 15-0 at home.
Tyree Appleby scored 15 points and Damari Monsanto and Cameron Hildreth had 14 each for the Demon Deacons (17-10, 9-7). Andrew Carr and Mathew Marsh finished with 12 points each.
NO. 16 XAVIER 82, DEPAUL 68
CINCINNATI (AP) &mdash; Jack Nunge had 18 points and 10 rebounds as Xavier bounced back from a pair of narrow losses to beat DePaul.
The Musketeers (20-7, 12-4 Big East) reached the 20-win mark for the 34th time in school history, 32 of which have come since the 1982-83 season. It was the 17th career double-double for Nunge, eighth this season. Adam Kunkel scored 16 points and tied a career-high with eight assists for Xavier.
Umoja Gibson had 17 points and De&rsquo;Sean Nelson 16 for DePaul (9-18, 3-13), which lost its eighth in a row.
NO. 17 ST. MARY&rsquo;S 71, BYU 65
MORAGA, Calif. (AP) &mdash; Logan Johnson scored 27 points and Aidan Mahaney delivered once again in the second half to lead Saint Mary&rsquo;s to its 15th win in 16 games.
Mahaney scored 14 of his 16 points in the second half and Mitchell Saxen added 13. The Gaels (24-5, 13-1 West Coast Conference) won their 16th straight conference home game to maintain a one-game lead over Gonzaga in the standings.
Fousseyni Traore scored 16 points to lead the Cougars (16-14, 6-9). BYU has lost four straight and was swept in the season series by the Gaels.
NO. 18 CREIGHTON 77, ST. JOHN&rsquo;S 67
NEW YORK (AP) &mdash; Arthur Kaluma hit three straight 3-pointers down the stretch and Creighton overcame a second-half scoring drought to pull away from St. John&rsquo;s.
Creighton (18-9, 12-4) remained in a three-way tie for second place in the Big East after Providence and Xavier won earlier in the day. Marquette holds a one-game lead in the conference standings.
Ryan Nembhard scored 16 points for the Bluejays. Kaluma finished with 13 points and Ryan Kalkbrenner added 12 as Creighton won for the ninth time in 10 games.
Joel Soriano led St. John&rsquo;s with 15 points and eight rebounds. David Jones added 14 points off the bench but the Red Storm (16-12, 6-11) were unable to get their third straight win.
NO. 20 UCONN 64, SETON HALL 55
STORRS, Conn. (AP) &mdash; Jordan Hawkins scored 20 points and UConn used a big second-half run to beat Seton Hall.
Andre Jackson had a career high 15 points and grabbed 10 rebounds for UConn (20-7, 9-7 Big East).
Al-Amir Dawes and Tyrese Samuel each had 16 points for Seton Hall (16-12, 9-8), which trailed by 16 points with six minutes to play before a late run that fell short.
NO. 22 TCU 100, OKLAHOMA STATE 75
FORT WORTH, Texas (AP) &mdash; Mike Miles Jr. had 15 points in his first game in three weeks, five other TCU players also scored in double figures, and the Horned Frogs snapped a four-game losing streak by beating Oklahoma State.
Emanuel Miller had 18 points to lead TCU (18-9, 7-7 Big 12), which shot a staggering season-high 68.4% (39 of 57) from the field. Damion Baugh had 16 points with 11 assists. Shahada Wells had 15 points, Chuck O&rsquo;Bannon 12 and Micah Peavy 10.
Bryce Thompson had 18 points and John-Michael White 15 for the Cowboys (16-11, 7-7).
NO. 24 PROVIDENCE 85, VILLANOVA 72
PROVIDENCE, R.I. (AP) &mdash; Ed Croswell scored 21 points and grabbed 10 rebounds and Providence earned its 20th victory of the season.
Bryce Hopkins added 19 points and 12 rebounds. Noah Locked finished with 16 points. Croswell connected on two late free throws to notch the 1,000th point of his career.
The Friars (20-7, 12-4 Big East) have recorded 20 or more wins in seven of coach Ed Cooley&rsquo;s 12 seasons. They improved to 15-0 at home, including 8-0 in conference play.
Eric Dixon had 18 points and eight rebounds and Justin Moore added 17 points for the Wildcats (13-14, 7-9)&nbsp;

A recap of Saturday's action in men's college basketball includes a full slate of top-25 teams in heavy competition.

No. 6 Texas needs OT at home to hold off Oklahoma 85-83

A list of 12 of the top talents in modern NBA history to have never appeared in an All-Star Game.

The 12 best modern-history players to never make an NBA All-Star team

NEW YORK (AP) &mdash; Deandre Ayton matched his career high with 35 points, Devin Booker scored 19 in his first game since Christmas and the Phoenix Suns held off Cam Thomas and the Brooklyn Nets 116-112 on Tuesday night.
The 21-year-old Thomas led a late charge and finished with 43 points, becoming the youngest player in NBA history with three straight 40-point games. He had 44 and a career-high 47 points in his previous two games.
Mikal Bridges had 17 of his 21 points in the second half and played a key role in the defensive effort that cooled off Thomas just long enough for the Suns to build a 12-point lead with 2:25 remaining.
Booker missed the previous 21 games with a strained left groin. but had a strong stretch after the Suns led by just three midway through the fourth quarter. He scored six points and set up Ayton for another basket during a 13-4 run that pushed it to 109-97 with 2:25 to go.
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Thomas rallied the Nets mostly from the free-throw line, and his intentional miss with 4.1 seconds remaining left the Suns with a 114-112 lead. He then fouled Ayton, who finished it off with two free throws after going 14 for 18 from the field and grabbing 15 rebounds.
Nic Claxton and T.J. Warren had 17 points each for the Nets, who lost on back-to-back nights after trading Kyrie Irving and fell to 5-9 without the injured Kevin Durant. They opted not to play Spencer Dinwiddie and Dorian Finney-Smith, the players they acquired from Dallas in the trade for Irving.
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TIP-INS
Suns: Chris Paul surpassed 2,500 steals, a mark reached by only John Stockton, Jason Kidd and Michael Jordan. He had nine points and 12 assists.
Nets: Brooklyn was also without Seth Curry (left adductor strain) and Yuta Watanabe (back tightness). ... Coach Jacque Vaughn said Durant continues to progress well in his recovery but still hasn&rsquo;t been involved in the any portions of practice where there is contact. Vaughn said he didn&rsquo;t know when Durant would take that step, and he won&rsquo;t play before he does. The Nets only have four games remaining before the All-Star break.
DINWIDDIE AND DORIAN
Dinwiddie spent five seasons with the Nets and recalled when he signed a multiyear deal in December 2016 after coming into the league as a second-round pick who battled to prove he was more than a G League player.
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&ldquo;My career&rsquo;s been hard, and that right there kind of solidified knowing, like, my family&rsquo;s going to be fine,&rdquo; Dinwiddie said.
He said there was nostalgia being back in Brooklyn, where he averaged a career-best 20.6 points in 2019-20, and praised Finney-Smith&rsquo;s ability to be an important contributor to the team.
&ldquo;Understanding that we may not be the best trade package, but we are the best-looking and the Nets needed some help in that department,&rdquo; he joked.
ANOTHER TRADE
The Nets dealt forward Kessler Edwards to Sacramento for the rights to 2016 second-round pick David Michineau and cash. Edwards began last season on a two-way deal before playing well enough to earn a standard NBA contract, but had appeared in just 14 games this season.
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Deandre Ayton scored 35 points, Devin Booker added 19 in his return and the Phoenix Suns beat the Brooklyn Nets 116-112.