NFL Fans Think Packers GM Took Thinly Veiled Shot At Rival Lions

NFL Fans Think Packers GM Took Thinly Veiled Shot At Rival Lions

The Detroit Lions won their division for the first time since 1993 last season, taking over a position the Green Bay Packers held for many of those years in between.

But despite the new division champ, Packers general manager Brian Gutekunst didn’t sound too worried about falling short to the Lions this past year. In fact, he even seemed to subtly troll their NFC North rivals when speaking to media on Tuesday.

“Around here, we’ve never hung banners for division championships, so it’s never been about that," Gutekunst said, via The Athletic’s Matt Schneidman. “It’s a nice starting point, but I think we’re always looking for bigger things.”

Fans guessed this comment was in reference to the Lions’ only two banners hanging in Ford Field for the four times the team has won the division. The Lions have never won a Super Bowl or appeared in the Big Game. The Packers have won four Super Bowl titles.

Lions fans came back with some shots as well toward Gutekunst, specifically referring to the fact that the Packers have hung zero banners since he’s been there. Take a look at some of the social media responses.

Vikings GM Bluntly Shuts Down Justin Jefferson Trade Suggestion

Vikings GM Bluntly Shuts Down Justin Jefferson Trade Suggestion

In four years with the Minnesota Vikings, wide receiver Justin Jefferson has checked virtually every box necessary for NFL success.

The Pro Bowl? He’s been there three times—every season but this past season, when injuries cost him seven games.

Rookie of the Year? He won that in 2020. AP Offensive Player of the Year? He won that in 2022.

Even in 2023, his ailments disguised a year in which he averaged 107.4 receiving yards per game—a career high.

For Vikings general manager Kwesi Adofo-Mensah, the choice of whether to keep Jefferson going forward is easy.

“[Trading him] is not something that has once crossed my mind,” Adofo-Mensah told reporters Tuesday at the NFL scouting combine.

Minnesota picked up Jefferson’s fifth-year option in April, and he will make $19.7 million in 2024. Adofo-Mensah then implied that the Vikings may not be done paying the LSU product.

“We think he’s the best wide receiver in the league, and he should be compensated as such,” Adofo-Mensah said.

Miami Dolphins wide receiver Tyreek Hill, who signed a four-year, $120 million extension in 2022, is currently the league’s highest-paid wideout. Time will tell whether Jefferson joins him—in the Twin Cities or elsewhere.

Chargers’ Justin Herbert Shared What Excites Him Most About Playing for Jim Harbaugh

Chargers’ Justin Herbert Shared What Excites Him Most About Playing for Jim Harbaugh

Los Angeles Chargers quarterback Justin Herbert admitted he was “fired up” when he learned Jim Harbaugh would be the team’s new head coach.

Herbert said he appreciates the winning mentality of Harbaugh, who is coming off a College Football Playoff national championship with Michigan. Conversely, the Chargers went 5–12 last season, the team’s worst record in Herbert’s four pro seasons. This resulted in coach Brandon Staley and general manager Tom Telesco being fired before the season ended.

“He’s done such a great job at the NFL level, college level, he’s had success wherever he goes,” Herbert said in a clip from the Chasin’ It podcast posted Tuesday. “He’s a competitor. He wants to win. I’m really excited to play for him.”

Herbert missed the final four games of the ’23 season after undergoing season-ending surgery to repair his fractured right index finger. The Chargers lost all four games with backup Easton Stick starting in place of Herbert.

ESPN Analyst Bashes Duke’s Kyle Filipowski for How He Handled Court-Storming Situation

ESPN Analyst Bashes Duke’s Kyle Filipowski for How He Handled Court-Storming Situation

ESPN NFL analyst Chris Canty added his voice to the debate around court-storming in college basketball in the aftermath of Duke’s loss to Wake Forest over the weekend.

While fans stormed the court at the LJVM Coliseum, Blue Devils star Kyle Filipowski suffered an ankle injury when a Wake Forest fan ran into him, renewing calls for the ban of on-court celebrations in the wake of upsets across the sport.

“Let’s also pretend like the players don’t have to have some more awareness in those moments as well,” Canty said Tuesday on ESPN’s Get Up. “What we saw from Kyle Filipowski, he looks like he’s going on a walk through the quad on campus, where you see that there are fans that are storming the court. He has to have more awareness of the situation and have urgency about getting the hell off the court.”

Although Canty believes Filipowski could have picked up the pace to exit the floor, he didn’t absolve the fans of blame.

“Now, I think that they have to do a better job of creating a plan and having that in place,” Canty said. “And I get that we don’t want to put the onus on the visiting team. But that has to happen.”

Get Up host Mike Greenberg was taken aback by Canty’s comments, but the former NFL star didn’t back down.

“As a player, you’ve got to have awareness. And I know we always talk about with in-game situations,” Canty added. “But you also have to have awareness of the environments that you’re in. And with that situation over the weekend, I don’t think Kyle Filipowski showed that level of awareness.”

Despite the controversy, court storming remains in the game for now, with the only ramification being fines administered to the home school.

That won’t be enough to keep rabid fans from celebrating a monumental upset on the hardwood, especially considering most of the fans in question are students.

However, it’s likely that something will be done to ensure that an incident like the one fans saw Saturday in Winston-Salem doesn’t happen again.

Damian Lillard on His Partnership With Giannis Antetokounmpo and Whether the Bucks Are a True Title Contender

Damian Lillard on His Partnership With Giannis Antetokounmpo and Whether the Bucks Are a True Title Contender

On Friday, in the closing seconds of the Milwaukee Bucks’ game against the Minnesota Timberwolves, Damian Lillard stepped back, rose up and reminded everyone why the Bucks made the trade to get him. Lillard wasn’t having a particularly efficient game against the Timberwolves—he finished 8 of 23 from the floor and 2 of 8 from three-point range—but for scorers like Lillard, it didn’t matter. With 10 seconds to play and Milwaukee clinging to a three-point lead, Lillard drove down the right side, shed Mike Conley and knocked down a 21-footer to ice the game.

Milwaukee won again Sunday, giving the team two straight since the All-Star break. The offense continues to be strong. The defense—10th in the NBA in efficiency over Doc Rivers’s first 10 games in Milwaukee, per NBA.com, and sixth over the last two—continues to make improvements. With roughly a quarter of the season to play, the Bucks—who have battled through injuries, a coaching change and the chemistry issues that come with incorporating a new star—believe there is enough time to coalesce into a true title contender.

“I think sometimes that the toughest way is the way to go,” Lillard said. “You know, when you want to turn things around, play against the best team in the West on the road coming out of this break. This is how you want it to happen to get over that bump and get going in the right direction. We need it.”

Just before the All-Star break, Lillard sat down with Sports Illustrated to talk about the trade, the coaching change and why he’s still optimistic about this team’s future. Some of the interview will be in a piece on the Bucks that will appear in next month’s magazine. But Lillard, one of the NBA’s most honest, insightful interviews, had a lot more to share.

This interview has been lightly edited for clarity

Sports Illustrated: So how would you sum up the last five months?

Damian Lillard: It’s been a real transition. Being in the same situation for 11 years, deciding to move on from that, wanting a chance to win. And then coming here playing for a first-time coach [Adrian Griffin] and him being new to the team. So it isn’t like I came to Milwaukee and everything was already established. It was a completely new staff.

Obviously, trying to figure out me pairing with Giannis [Antetokounmpo] and being a part of this team. It’s a process and I think that’s been an adjustment for both of us. He’s used to playing a certain way. I’m used to playing a certain way, and I think we’ve had moments. I just think it’s still a work in progress.

Milwaukee Bucks point guard Damian Lillard

Lillard and Giannis Antetokounmpo are both optimistic that the Bucks can be title contenders this season. 

Greg Nelson/Sports Illustrated

SI: How about personally?

DL: Being away from my kids is tough. In Portland, my life was set up. My mom was down the street; my brother was the other way down the street. My sister was down the street. My kids in school. Just my whole life was set up perfectly right there. It was a great situation. So just leaving that behind alone is a lot. And then you add the basketball side to it and that is what it is.

SI: I don’t want to overstate it—but it sounds kind of lonely.

DL: It’s definitely lonely because I’m such a family guy. My life is my family. After games, I would come out and my whole family would be back there. My kids coming out of the playroom. My mom, my brother, my cousins lived there, you know what I mean? My best friends live in Portland. So I would come out, we would go to dinner. They might come to my house. After practice, I might go to my mom’s house and just chill. That’s how my life was. So, I mean, I’m fine because I’m grown. But it’s definitely lonely. I’m filled up by those people.

SI: So what’s your life like in Milwaukee?

DL: Bro, go to practice, go home, watch boxing, play video games. Man, I type in [boxing website] FightHype on YouTube 100 times and be praying for something new to be on there. Seriously, I don’t have much of a life. But that’s what comes with making a big boy decision. You got to be down for that and figure it out.

SI: I saw you back in October, after your preseason debut against the [Los Angeles] Lakers. And you were really excited. Did you think this team was going to hit the ground running?

DL: I thought we was going to be how Boston is right now. But I think what I’ve learned is that some things take time, especially stuff that has reward in the end. You can’t come into it and think that it’s just going to be all peaches and cream. We’ve had our ups and downs. We’ve had a coaching change. I haven’t completely settled in to finding who am I on this team. And that’s kind of a tough thing.

I think any star who’s been traded deals with it. Now that I look back on it, I would imagine LeBron [James] probably felt how I feel when he went to Miami. Not with who he is. I’m sure he knew who he was, but who am I within this team and how does it look? What does my best look like on this team? And that’s draining to be constantly trying to figure it out.

But I think the most encouraging thing is that we’ve been able to win a lot of games and it’s a long season. So we’ve had adversity hit our team two or three different times and we’ve managed to still be a top-three team in the East with a lot of games to go and still being far away from reaching what we could be and what we should be. And since Doc has gotten here, we’ve kind of shuffled some things around and set kind of a new foundation of things that’s really encouraging. And I think my job is to just stay in the process.

I think it’s going to come with some criticism, the ‘Why is Dame not doing this? What’s going on? He’s not shooting well.’ And that’s part of the reason why I think it happened at the perfect stage of my career or at the age that I’m at, because I can handle that and I know the process part of it, so I’m just sticking with it. I think the beauty of it is adversity hits everybody and when you get toward the end, it’s who’s tested, who’s tried and who’s really true.

Bucks point guard Damian Lillard

The Bucks are going through a coaching change and hope to get on track now that the All-Star break is over.

Greg Nelson/Sports Illustrated

SI: Terry Stotts’s exit in the preseason shocked everybody. You played nine years for him in Portland. How did that affect you?

DL: It was comforting for me knowing that he was there and that it was somebody that I knew and had a significant role on the staff. I think early on, there was a lot of things happening that was familiar. He would be breaking down stuff and I already was on top of it. And as a point guard and as a scorer and somebody who plays a significant role on the team, your comfort with what you’re doing as a team, so you can be able to direct traffic and kind of manage a game is important.

And I think when Terry left, that part of it, the familiarity of what we were doing, it kind of left with him. Now I’m like, O.K., what’s this play?’ I was kind of in the figuring out stage. So when you don’t really know stuff like the back of your hand, it is hard to direct traffic and be telling people, ‘I want you right here or there.’ Point guards, especially veteran point guards, man, we play the game differently than a young talented point guard. We are just manipulating everything. And that’s hard to do for the team and for yourself when you’re just trying to learn.

I was literally trying to learn for a long time, ‘Why is this play called this?’ I’m associating the name of this play with what we’re doing in the play and what it means for the defense and how they going to move. So a lot of time I spent trying to make sense of it and learn the offense so I can call the game.

SI: You played with LaMarcus Aldridge your first few years in Portland. Did that in any way prepare you for playing with Giannis?

DL: I think it compares as far as I’ve been in a situation where I was the second guy and I was playing with an All-Star and somebody that had a high usage rate. They played with the ball a lot. I think the difference is L.A. wasn’t a ballhandler. Giannis is a ballhandler. He gets it. He’s going. He’s attacking. He’s dominant at playing in open floor and transition. With L.A., it was like we played the pick-and-roll together a lot because he saw that ‘O.K., he’s quick. He can get to the rim. He can make threes. He’s going to draw some attention in the pick-and-roll and I’m going to get shots out of this.’ And when I post up, his man is going to play and give space because he can shoot. So L.A. being a vet and an All-Star when I got there, he kind of played off of me.

Obviously, he couldn’t dribble the ball for himself. He could get it on the block whenever he wanted, but he was a jump shooter. So he was cool getting those pick-and-pop jumpers all night. Sometimes go to the post. But if he needed a break or if he wanted to play off of somebody so he didn’t have to carry us, he was like, ‘I’m going to go set a screen and play with Dame.’ So our bread and butter was a wedge. He set a screen, somebody come up or they set a screen for him to come screen for me. We just played off of each other. But I think because he wasn’t a ballhandler, it was more simple.

Bucks point guard Damian Lillard

Lillard says his relationship with Antetokounmpo is good and they are working through the process in his first season in Milwaukee.

Greg Nelson/Sports Illustrated

SI: How’s your relationship with Giannis?

DL: We have a good relationship. We talk all the time. [Relationships] take time. You have to go through the process of having a relationship. David Vanterpool, he was our assistant in Portland for a long time. The same went for [Jusuf] Nurk [Nurkić], the same went for CJ [McCollum], it was progressive.

We just kind of eventually grew into that and I think the same goes with [Giannis]. But because we are stars and we have to be able to work together and we have to continue to get better at it, everybody’s like, ‘We want y’all to be best friends right now.’ But I think the truth of it is you’re not going to become my best friend in three weeks. It’s going to take some time. Because I want to know who you really are. And when I do something you don’t like, how are you going to respect me and respond to me? And when I’m struggling, how are you going to act? And when I’m blossoming? That’s what friends are, like when you struggling, I know what you really are and what you really capable of and I believe it. That’s how you really develop that type of stuff.

And I just think we still in that process. But we do talk. We are cool. And we both want to make it work. And in this situation, I’m the new guy. I think if he came to Portland, he would be in the same process. I would be comfortable and I would know what’s going on and he would be the one trying to figure it out and it would be the same process.

SI: And on the court?

DL: I always use [Nikola] Jokić and Jamal Murray as an example, but they played together for six or seven years. They don’t even think about it no more. But in the beginning, they struggled. Jokić would have his moments and then Jamal Murray would struggle and then he would have his moments and then it would take away from him. And then once they figured it out, they went out there and won it.

For us, I think we have a good relationship. But I think both of us, what it comes down to is we just got to keep putting time into it and just keep getting to know each other. And then we both got to be willing to go to war for each other. And we’re going to have to give something up for each other at times. He’s had a 60-point game and I’m like, ‘It ain’t my night tonight.’ It ain’t my night. Or this team doesn’t have anything for him, I’m going to play to that. And then when they try to go to that, then I’m going to make them pay for trying to take that away. We got to have that type of relationship where we see it and we just do it.

SI: Do you believe that relationship can come together well enough for this team to win at a high level this season?

DL: Absolutely. Because we’ve had moments of it. I think this year more than anything I’ve learned that people don’t watch games. They look at a box score, they look at the highlights or they look at what’s being said about games. But we’ve had moments where we’ve had great stretches of pick-and-rolls, great stretches of playing off of each other. It is just not enough. People want it all the time, every time, and we have to do it more. But we’ve had stretches and we’ve had moments of doing it. It’s just, that has to be more bread and butter than, ‘Oh, they just did it.’

I’d be the first to tell you it’s been a challenging year, but the kind of person I am, when stuff like this start happening, I start thinking there’s a reward coming. That’s how I think because I do s--- the right way. I don’t change. I don’t mistreat people. I don’t cheat my process. I still go to the gym at night. I do my stuff, my body, I do everything. I did think we’d be rolling a lot sooner than this. But I know we can get there.

Royals Lobbied MLB, Nike for Special Exception to New Uniform Standard

Royals Lobbied MLB, Nike for Special Exception to New Uniform Standard

The MLB's new uniforms, designed by Nike and manufactured by Fanatics, have been a source of frustration among players for differences in the lettering and numbering, as well as the see-through nature of the pants

But one MLB team found a way to remedy one of the issues with the new threads. 

The Kansas City Royals worked with the MLB and Nike, which changed the lettering on the jerseys to a smaller size, to maintain the full-size lettering on their team jerseys, according to Paul Lukas of UniWatch

As Lukas notes, other MLB teams were not granted this exemption from the smaller letters—the Royals were because they had "lobbied hard" for it.

Royals players Diego Hernández and third baseman Maikel García pose during Kansas City spring training.

Royals players Diego Hernández and third baseman Maikel García pose during Kansas City spring training.

Jayne Kamin-Oncea/USA TODAY Sports

Nike created the new jerseys with a lighter fabric, which has made larger numbering and lettering more difficult, leading some players to call the smaller numbers and letters “amateurish.”  

In a statement that denied any alterations to the pants, MLB confirmed the changes to the jersey's fabric. 

Representatives from MLB, Nike and Fanatics have been tweaking the jersey size, waist, in-seam, thigh fit and the bottom of the pants based on feedback from players during spring training.

However, it seems there is little that can be done to alter the numbering and lettering size to players’ liking.  

It begs the question: Why didn't more teams lobby for changes like the Royals did? 

Raheem Morris Offers Brutally Honest Appraisal of Falcons’ QB Situation

Raheem Morris Offers Brutally Honest Appraisal of Falcons’ QB Situation

Raheem Morris took a shot at the Atlanta Falcons’ current quarterback situation, without much subtlety, when he spoke at the NFL scouting combine Tuesday in Indianapolis.

“If we had better quarterback play, I’m probably not standing here at this podium,” Morris said.

Morris, who takes over as head coach from Arthur Smith, who was fired Jan. 8, didn’t name names. But he clearly implied that Atlanta intends to bring in new blood at the quarterback position. The Falcons used both Taylor Heinicke and Desmond Ridder as starting quarterbacks in compiling a 7–10 record last season. 

“I won’t bring up names,” Morris continued, via Pro Football Talk. “But when you’re going through the process, you have everything open. We’ve got so many avenues right now, because we have free agency money, we have the ability to trade, whether it be trade for a player with a team, or be it trade up or back in the draft. It’s just really about the different scenarios you want to have at the quarterback position.”

Ridder threw for 2,836 yards with 12 touchdown passes and 12 interceptions and an 83.4 passer rating in 15 games last season (going 6–7 in 13 starts). Heinicke recorded 890 passing yards and five touchdown passes to four interceptions and a 74.7 passer rating in five appearances (going 1–3 in four starts).

The Falcons hold the No. 8 pick in the 2024 NFL draft.

Blue Jays’ Erik Swanson Leaves Spring Training After 4-Year-Old Son Is Hit by Car

Blue Jays’ Erik Swanson Leaves Spring Training After 4-Year-Old Son Is Hit by Car

Toronto Blue Jays relief pitcher Erik Swanson has left spring training and will be away from the team for the foreseeable future after his 4-year-old son, Toby, was hit by a car on Sunday in Clearwater, Fla., and airlifted to a nearby hospital.

Toronto manager John Schneider thanked first responders who were quick to assist the injured boy. 

“Thanks to the incredible work from the Clearwater first responders, Toby is on the road to recovery and is surrounded by his family,” Schneider said Tuesday. “Family comes first. Our love, support and prayers are with Erik, Madison, Toby and the entire Swanson family.”

Sep 17, 2023; Toronto, Ontario, CAN; Toronto Blue Jays pitcher Erik Swanson (50) pitches to the Boston Red Sox during the ninth inning at Rogers Centre.

Toronto Blue Jays pitcher Erik Swanson will be away from the team while his son, Toby, recovers after being hit by a car.

John E. Sokolowski/USA TODAY Sports

Swanson was traded to the Blue Jays by the Seattle Mariners in November 2022, and is set to begin his second full season with the franchise. In 69 games last season, Swanson went 4-2 with a 2.97 ERA and 1.095 WHIP with 75 strikeouts in 66 2/3 innings pitched.

Men’s Bracket Watch: Washington State Locks in, Wake Forest Breaks Through

Men’s Bracket Watch: Washington State Locks in, Wake Forest Breaks Through

Fewer than three weeks remain before we’ll have a bracket in hand for the 2024 men’s NCAA tournament. In that time, much will change: Huge late-season clashes and conference tournament action will play a part in who ends up dancing on Selection Sunday. However, each week brings us more and more clarity on how the field of 68 will look. For instance, the Washington State Cougars locked themselves into the field last week by winning at the Arizona Wildcats, while other teams like the Butler Bulldogs and Utah Utes continued recent swoons to knock themselves out of the picture.

Here’s a look at where things stand in Sports Illustrated’s latest projection.

On the Bubble

Last Four Byes:

Nevada Wolf Pack
Michigan State Spartans
Seton Hall Pirates
Providence Friars

Last Four In:

Virginia Cavaliers
Wake Forest Demon Deacons
New Mexico Lobos
Gonzaga Bulldogs

First Four Out:

Villanova Wildcats
Utah Utes
Ole Miss Rebels
Butler Bulldogs

Next Four Out:

Texas A&M Aggies
Colorado Buffaloes
James Madison Dukes
St. John’s Red Storm

Wake Forest Demon Deacons guard Kevin Miller (0) drives the ball against Duke Blue Devils guard Jared McCain (0) during the first half at Lawrence Joel Veterans Memorial Coliseum in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, on Feb. 24, 2024.

Wake Forest guard Kevin Miller drives the ball against Duke guard Jared McCain during their game on Saturday.

Cory Knowlton/USA TODAY Sports

Welcome to the projected field, Wake Forest. The Demon Deacons finally got the breakthrough win they needed to back up their lofty performance metrics, beating the Duke Blue Devils on Saturday afternoon in a win that pushed them into the Big Dance field, at least for now. A 3–1 finish to the regular season should have Steve Forbes’s team sitting pretty, though 2–2 wouldn’t be catastrophic.

In a bad weekend overall for bubble teams, no team had a worse go than New Mexico, which lost a ghastly Quad 4 home game to the Air Force Falcons to seriously jeopardize the Lobos’ NCAA tournament hopes. It doesn’t knock them out just yet, but the margin of error is now incredibly slim, especially given New Mexico’s entire résumé has been built on the work it has done in league play. The Lobos would be advised to win at either the Boise State Broncos or Utah State Aggies down the stretch to secure a bid.

* indicates a projected automatic qualifier

Midwest Region

No. 1 Purdue Boilermakers* vs. No. 16 Grambling State Tigers*/Merrimack Warriors*
No. 8 Oklahoma Sooners vs. No. 9 Boise State Broncos
No. 5 Kentucky Wildcats vs. No. 12 Princeton Tigers*
No. 4 San Diego State Aztecs vs. No. 13 Akron Zips*
No. 6 Texas Tech Red Raiders vs. No. 11 Indiana State Sycamores*
No. 3 Duke Blue Devils vs. No. 14 Charleston Cougars*
No. 7 South Carolina Gamecocks vs. No. 10 Nevada Wolf Pack
No. 2 Kansas Jayhawks vs. No. 15 Eastern Washington Eagles*

The UConn Huskies’ stay at No. 1 overall is short-lived, with Purdue reasserting itself in the top spot following the Huskies’ loss to the Creighton Bluejays. The Boilermakers could add some distance between themselves and the field with a strong finish against a schedule that features games against Michigan State, the Wisconsin Badgers and Illinois Fighting Illini before conference tournament time.

Meanwhile, it’s worth zooming in on Kansas’s potential case for a No. 1 seed after the Jayhawks dominated the Texas Longhorns over the weekend. Kansas has an elite win over UConn and 12 total wins against the top two quadrants. The Jayhawks may have the best chance of anyone to usurp Arizona for the fourth and final No. 1 seed.


East Region

No. 1 UConn Huskies* vs. No. 16 Eastern Kentucky Colonels*/Norfolk State Spartans*
No. 8 Northwestern Wildcats vs. No. 9 Florida Atlantic Owls
No. 5 Clemson Tigers vs. No. 12 Appalachian State Mountaineers*
No. 4 Illinois Fighting Illini vs. No. 13 McNeese State Cowboys*
No. 6 Florida Gators vs. No. 11 Grand Canyon Antelopes*
No. 3 Iowa State Cyclones vs. No. 14 High Point Panthers*
No. 7 TCU Horned Frogs vs. No. 10 Seton Hall Pirates
No. 2 Tennessee Volunteers* vs. No. 15 Sam Houston State BearKats*

Predictive metrics love Illinois, but the Illini haven’t been quite consistent enough to surge up the seed list. Last week’s road loss at the Penn State Nittany Lions wasn’t disastrous, but it did serve as a fairly effective momentum-killer for any sustained climb toward a No. 2 or 3 seed. The Illini play three Quad 1 games in their final four Big Ten games though, so the chances are there if they can take advantage.

Is Florida Atlantic safe? For now, yes. The Owls have slowly trickled down to a No. 9 seed after losing at Memphis and have a bit of a strange résumé overall, with a monster neutral court win over Arizona but two horrific losses and a few Quad 2 losses more recently have made things somewhat dicey. Winning two out of three down the stretch would do the trick, but 1–2 could see the Owls in somewhat precarious shape heading into conference tournament time.


Washington State Cougars forward Andrej Jakimovski (23) shoots a basket against the Arizona Wildcats during the first half at McKale Center in Tucson, Arizona, on Feb. 22, 2024.

Washington State forward Andrej Jakimovski shoots against Arizona during their game last week.

Zachary BonDurant/USA TODAY Sports

South Region

No. 1 Houston Cougars* vs. No. 16 Fairfield Stags*
No. 8 Mississippi State Bulldogs vs. No. 9 Nebraska Cornhuskers
No. 5 Wisconsin Badgers vs. No. 12 Richmond Spiders*
No. 4 Auburn Tigers vs. No. 13 Samford Bulldogs*
No. 6 Washington State Cougars vs. No. 11 Virginia Cavaliers/New Mexico Lobos
No. 3 Alabama Crimson Tide vs. No. 14 Oakland Golden Grizzlies*
No. 7 Colorado State Rams vs. No. 10 Michigan State Spartans
No. 2 Marquette Golden Eagles vs. No. 15 Morehead State Eagles*

Houston took over the No. 1 spot in the AP poll this week. For now, the Cougars stay as our third overall seed, but the gap is narrowing as the Cougars rack up wins in Big 12 play. The Cougars are a ridiculous 13–3 against the top two quadrants and own five Q1A wins, the best possible wins on the NCAA’s team sheets. Like with UConn vs. Purdue, for geographic purposes Houston is happy to land in the South and should end up there regardless of where on the overall seed list they land. Still, it would be quite the achievement to land as No. 1 overall in the program’s first year in the Big 12.

Michigan State is officially back into the danger zone after consecutive home losses to the Iowa Hawkeyes and Ohio State Buckeyes. At 17–11, the Spartans’ record is generally underwhelming, and they’ve beaten just two surefire NCAA tournament teams. Tom Izzo’s NCAA tournament streak is in some jeopardy, though it would take a rough finish to land outside the field altogether.


West Region

No. 1 Arizona Wildcats* vs. No. 16 South Dakota State Jackrabbits*
No. 8 Utah State Aggies* vs. No. 9 Texas Longhorns
No. 5 Saint Mary’s Gaels* vs. No. 12 South Florida Bulls*
No. 4 Baylor Bears vs. No. 13 UC Irvine Anteaters*
No. 6 Dayton Flyers vs. No. 11 Wake Forest Demon Deacons/Gonzaga Bulldogs
No. 3 Creighton Bluejays vs. No. 14 Vermont Catamounts*
No. 7 BYU Cougars vs. No. 10 Providence Friars
No. 2 North Carolina Tar Heels* vs. No. 15 Colgate Raiders*

Creighton may have lost Sunday at St. John’s, but the Bluejays are up to a No. 3 seed after landing a top-tier win over UConn last week. There’s a lot to like here: strong metrics across the board, 12 Quad 1 and 2 wins and now a win over a likely No. 1 seed. The ceiling here is probably the No. 3 line, but either way, Creighton now looks well-positioned for a protected seed.

Texas stayed just above our true “bubble” but hasn’t quite locked up a bid just yet. The Longhorns have a pretty 17–10 overall record, but are just 6–8 in league play and accomplished nothing of substance in the nonconference. A 1–3 finish in league play could make things very interesting in Rodney Terry’s first season on the job. 

Lynette Woodard Asks NCAA to ‘Respect the History’ as Caitlin Clark Approaches Scoring Mark

Lynette Woodard Asks NCAA to ‘Respect the History’ as Caitlin Clark Approaches Scoring Mark

Before there was Iowa guard Caitlin Clark, before there was Washington guard Kelsey Plum. Before there was even an NCAA-sanctioned women’s basketball tournament, there was Kansas guard Lynette Woodard.

Woodard, one of the best female players of her era, scored 3,649 points in a four-year career for the Jayhawks from 1978-81. That is the most in major women’s college basketball history, but it is not recognized as such by the NCAA because it took place under a previous governing body, the Association for Intercollegiate Athletics for Women (AIAW).

With Clark 32 points away from breaking Woodard’s mark—having taken the NCAA crown from Plum on Feb. 15 in a 106–89 win over Michigan—Woodard urged the governing body for college sports to respect her and her contemporaries’ achievements.

“I want the NCAA governing body to know that they should respect the (AIAW) players, respect the history. Include us and our accomplishments,” Woodard said during Kansas’s 58-55 upset of then-No. 10 Kansas State on ESPN2 Sunday. “This is the era of diversity, equity and inclusion. They should include us. We deserve it.”

With interest in the history of women’s college basketball at an all-time high as the sport explodes in popularity, the celebration of AIAW greats by the NCAA as a whole seems like a potential layup.