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🏀 Good morning to all, but especially to …
JUJU WATKINS AND THE NO. 6 USC TROJANS
There are great performances and great wins. Then there are all-time performances and all-time wins, like the one JuJu Watkins and No. 6 USC delivered Thursday night, toppling previously unbeaten No. 1 UCLA, 71-60.
This was a marvelous team effort, but Watkins’ performance is among the best individual efforts in the history of the sport: 38 points, 11 rebounds, eight blocks, five assists, six 3-pointers. You name it, she did it. And she dominated.
- Watkins is the only Division I player — men’s or women’s — in at least the past 20 seasons with 35 points, 10 rebounds, eight blocks & five 3-pointers in a game.
- No one in the NBA has ever posted such a stat line.
- The 38 points are the second-most by a Division I women’s player against a No. 1 team in at least the past 20 seasons. Caitlin Clark had 41 against South Carolina in the 2023 Final Four.
- USC had been 1-10 all-time vs. No. 1, with its only such win coming over Louisiana Tech in the 1983 national championship. Cheryl Miller, the star of that team, sat courtside Thursday night.
This is iconic stuff, like build-a-statue stuff. And it came from a player who had been struggling entering the game. But all those struggles became a thing of the past early in the game. The win, though, had to wait until late: USC outscored UCLA 24-8 in the fourth quarter, a stunning turnaround fueled by smothering defense and an insatiable appetite for the ball: The Trojans nabbed five offensive rebounds, forced five turnovers and had five blocks in the final stanza alone.
March Madness may be a few weeks away, but college basketball can go mad — in the very best sense of the word — any given night.
👍 Honorable mentions
👎 Not so honorable mentions
🏈 Jets, Aaron Rodgers go separate ways: Where will he land?
What’s long been expected is now official: The Jets are moving on from Aaron Rodgers, ending a highly anticipated but ultimately brutally disappointing two-year partnership.
His first season in the Big Apple ended abruptly due to a torn Achilles suffered in the first quarter of his debut. And then last season Rodgers (and the rest of the team) struggled for much of it, finishing 5-12 with the NFL’s 24th-ranked offense in both points and yards. New coach Aaron Glenn is electing for a new direction behind center.
We’ll likely need some time to know what direction that is. But other teams can talk to Rodgers immediately because New York announced it’s moving on from him, and he is a vested veteran. It’s somewhat similar to the Russell Wilson situation last year. He decided to join the Steelers days before free agency officially started.
Might Pittsburgh double-dip and add Rodgers this year? That’s one of Garrett Podell’s potential landing spots for Rodgers, as well as …
- Podell: “The Tennessee Titans could eschew taking a quarterback first overall in the 2025 NFL Draft, or they could trade the pick to accumulate a treasure trove of draft choices to rebuild their roster. Rodgers could be a massive improvement over Will Levis … Rodgers’ presence could help make good on the offseason spending spree the Titans went on a year ago in which they brought in wide receiver Calvin Ridley, running back Tony Pollard, center Lloyd Cushenberry and cornerback L’Jarius Sneed.”
I don’t hate this idea, especially if Tennessee agrees with the general sentiment that this is an underwhelming quarterback class and finds a team desperate to move up. Cody Benjamin has pros and cons for Rodgers’ potential suitors.
🏀 No. 1 Auburn-No. 2 Alabama headlines huge college basketball weekend
The Iron Bowl is as good a college football rivalry as there is, one that’s produced some of the greatest moments in the sport’s history. But Auburn and Alabama football have never done what the men’s basketball teams will do tomorrow: meet as the top two teams in the country. In fact, it’s the first 1-vs.-2 men’s basketball game in SEC history.
Matt Norlander talked to both coaches for an awesome preview of an awesome matchup.
- Norlander: “Bruce Pearl told me his team has prepared extremely well the past few days. Accountability can be found all over the facility, while finger-pointing cannot. His guys realize the stakes. They will arrive ready on Saturday — boasting arguably the national player of the year as of today, Johni Broome — for what could turn into a cinematic masterpiece of scoring. Auburn ranks No. 1 in offensive efficiency, Alabama sidled up next to it at No. 2. The Tide are No. 1 in points (90.5 per game) and lead the country with seven outings of 100-plus.”
As Matt notes, it’s perfect timing, too, with the NFL season over and the NBA on All-Star weekend. With March nearing, there’s an absolutely loaded slate, perfect for bracket prep. I say it every year, but remember this: Guards win in March. Lucky for you, fellow future bracket picker, our experts discussed the best point guards in college basketball. The most popular pick is Purdue‘s Braden Smith, who “has taken a leap to stardom this season,” Kyle Boone writes.
Purdue has a big one this weekend, one of four ranked-vs.-ranked games Saturday alone:
- No. 16 Wisconsin at No. 7 Purdue (1 p.m. on CBS/Paramount+)
- No. 6 Houston at No. 13 Arizona
- No. 1 Auburn at No. 2 Alabama
- No. 22 Mississippi State at No. 19 Ole Miss
Make sure to tune in before that Badgers-Boilermakers game, as CBS/Paramount+ has the NCAA March Madness Men’s Bracket Preview (top 16 seeds) at 12:30 p.m. Meanwhile, Jerry Palm’s latest Bracketology is here.
And make sure to save some hoops appetite for Sunday, too: On the women’s side, No. 7 UConn visiting No. 4 South Carolina and No. 5 LSU visiting No. 3 Texas headline a big day.
⚾ Alex Bregman to Red Sox: What’s next for Boston, Houston?
Alex Bregman signing with the Red Sox comes with plenty of excitement but also plenty of questions for Boston. Obviously there are the production questions — was last year just an outlier? — but also fit questions. Where will he play? Where will he be in the batting order? Keep calm, Red Sox fans. These are good questions to have. The big one, though, is “Is this enough to get them to the playoffs?” R.J. Anderson answered all of those questions (and more) right here.
It also leaves Bregman’s former team, the Astros, with questions, R.J. notes, including …
- Anderson: “What to do with payroll flexibility — What is known is that their payroll projection falls around $218 million. That puts them $26 million below where they ended last season, and $23 million beneath the first luxury tax line … Teams tend to keep about $10 million in reserve for in-season additions. If we make two assumptions — that the Astros are keeping $10 million tucked away for July, and that they don’t want to spend into the tax zone — then they have around $10-12 million left to spend before Opening Day.”
📺 What we’re watching this weekend
Friday
🏀 NBA All-Star Celebrity Game, 7 p.m. on ESPN
🏀 Unrivaled 1-on-1 Tournament, 7:30 p.m. on TNT/truTV
🏀 NBA Rising Stars Challenge, 9 p.m. on TNT/truTV
Saturday
🏀 Arkansas at No. 8 Texas A&M (M), noon on ESPN
🏀 NCAA March Madness Men’s Bracket Preview, 12:30 p.m. on CBS/Paramount+
🏀 Vanderbilt at No. 5 Tennessee (M), 1 p.m. on SEC Network
🏀 No. 16 Wisconsin at No. 7 Purdue (M), 1 p.m. on CBS
🏒 Finland vs. Sweden, 1 p.m. on ABC
🏀 No. 6 Houston at No. 13 Arizona (M), 2 p.m. on ESPN
🏀 No. 1 Auburn at No. 2 Alabama (M), 4 p.m. on ESPN
🏀 Stanford at No. 3 Duke (M), 4 p.m. on ABC
🏀 No. 22 Mississippi State at No. 19 Ole Miss (M), 6 p.m. on ESPN2
🏒 USA vs. Canada, 8 p.m. on ABC
🏀 No. 11 Michigan State at Illinois (M), 8 p.m. on Fox
🏀 No. 15 Kentucky at Texas (M), 8 p.m. on ESPN
🏀 NBA All-Star Saturday Night, 8 p.m. on TNT/truTV
🏀 South Carolina at No. 3 Florida (M), 8:30 p.m. on SEC Network
Sunday
🏀 Ole Miss at No. 15 Tennessee (W), noon on SEC Network
🏀 No. 20 Michigan at Ohio State (M), 1 p.m. on CBS
🏀 No. 7 UConn at No. 4 South Carolina (W), 1 p.m. on ABC
🏀 No. 10 NC State at No. 12 North Carolina (W), 2 p.m. on ESPN
🏎 Daytona 500, 2:30 p.m. on Fox
🏀 No. 24 Creighton at No. 9 St. John’s (M), 3 p.m. on FS1
🏀 No. 5 LSU at No. 3 Texas (W), 3 p.m. on ABC
🏀 NBA All-Star Game, 8 p.m. on TNT/truTV
🏀 No. 22 Michigan State at No. 1 UCLA (W), 9 p.m. on BTN
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Author: Zachary Pereles
February 14, 2025 | 10:15 am
