Month: March 2023

Texas A&M Womens golf wins the ICON Invitational in record setting fashion

The Aggie Women’s Golf team dominates the ICON Invitational

The No. 10 ranked Aggie Women’s golf team entered the ICON Invitational Tournament as the top-ranked team after Tuesday there was no doubt why. Two rounds in they wiped the 36-hole program record of 12-under, 564 with a 25-under, 551. Team records weren’t the only records broken on the first day, Junior Zoe Slaughter’s strong start and consistency produced -14 through 36 holes setting her own program record, which helped maintain a slight lead over Iowa State after the first day.

The final round was another day of record-setting. Once again Zoe would lead the team shooting a 68 in the final round and helping secure a dominant win with the Aggies coming in at -34 and North Texas in second place at -24. Slaughter’s -18 through 54 holes and the team -34 through 54 holes are both program records foreshadowing great things to come. Head coach Gerrod Chadwell gave his thoughts after the historic win

“Anytime you break a record it is amazing,” head coach Gerrod Chadwell said. “We didn’t play well the first time out this spring, but our team answered the challenge to get better these past two weeks. I got to walk 54 holes with Zoe (Slaughter) this tournament and it was great to see her be comfortable. She could have gotten rattled, but she stuck to the gameplan. Her performance was incredible, and she helped our team so much.”

Check out the social media reaction from the office Texas A&M Women’s Golf Twitter account:

Rutgers football extends an offer to Elijah King

Ohio defensive end Elijah King offered by Rutgers football this week.

It has been a busy few weeks for Elijah King as the three-star defensive end from Ohio is racking up multiple Power Five offers. The latest Power Five offer came on Monday night from Rutgers football.

King, a 6-foot-6, 230-pound defensive end from Gahanna Lincoln (Columbus, OH), has seen offers come in from Minnesota, Kentucky, West Virginia and Indiana over the past month. The class of 2024 recruit also holds Power Five offers from Cincinnati and Iowa State.

He is ranked a three-star recruit by 247Sports. He is the No. 65 recruit in Ohio and the No. 75 edge in the nation.

Gahanna is a powerhouse program in Ohio, finishing last season 13-2.

Rutgers has pulled in a couple of players from Ohio over the past few seasons. Kwabena Asamoah, an interior offensive lineman from Ohio, earned several starts for Rutgers in 2022 as a true freshman.

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Part of the 2023 recruiting class, Dom Rivera is a 6-foot-8, 315-pound offensive tackle from Olmstead Falls (Olmstead, OH). He picked Rutgers over offers that included Boston College, Iowa State and Syracuse.

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Big changes for Steelers in new 7-round mock draft update

here is our latest Steelers seven-round mock draft.

The NFL Scouting Combine is about to begin so we decided to offer up a pre-combine seven-round mock draft update for the Pittsburgh Steelers. You will see some familiar faces along with some new names. This mock draft is focused on building the Steelers offensive and defensive fronts and adding speed on both sides of the ball as well.

49ers RB Christian McCaffrey: I thought I’d be a Panther forever

On Tuesday’s episode of Bussin’ With The Boys, 49ers RB Christian McCaffrey said he truly believed he’d be a Panther for life.

Although we heard some rumblings before it actually happened, the Carolina Panthers’ trade of Christian McCaffrey came as a shock—including to Christian McCaffrey himself.

On Tuesday’s episode of Bussin’ With the Boys, the star running back told hosts Taylor Lewan and Will Compton how the surprising deal—which was made official close to midnight on Oct. 20—went down.

“For me, I never thought I’d get traded. I thought I was a Panther forever,” McCaffrey said. “I’m like, ‘I bought a house there, this is home.’ And I’d heard the rumors in the offseason. So, obviously, I called the GM [Scott Fitterer] I’m like, ‘Hey, man, I just need to hear it from you. Any truth?’ And he was super honest. He’s like, ‘Look, absolutely not. We don’t wanna do this. But, we’ll listen to everything.”

Fitterer and the Panthers listened to the San Francisco 49ers, who sent over a pretty hefty package of draft capital for the All-Pro rusher. In return for McCaffrey, Carolina received second-, third- and fourth-round picks in 2023 and a fifth-rounder in 2024.

McCaffrey then added how he felt about the trade.

“It’s so weird,” he said. “It’s a weird deal because there’s so many emotions, and the first emotion is probably anger. Like, ‘Man, you guys don’t want me anymore.’ Like, that’s really what it is. You can call it what it is. ‘Well, they got a lot for you.’ It’s like, nah—you think you’re better off without me. That’s what it is.”

Well, that is what it was. In fact, both sides were better off without one another.

San Francisco went 10-1 after acquiring McCaffrey, who earned his second career Pro Bowl nod and a second-place finish in the AP Comeback Player of the Year voting. Carolina would proceed to find an identity on offense sans their do-it-all back, as interim head coach Steve Wilks got the Panthers within one game of an NFC South title.

So while the deal may have stung a bit for the Panthers and McCaffrey when it went down, it ended up being an all-around win by season’s end.

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Texas A&M bats come alive to drive HCU out of College Station early

Aggies win their second in a row blanking the HCU Huskies 23-0

The 15th-ranked Aggies (5-3) came out blazing at Bell Blue Park Tuesday evening to run rule the HCU Huskies (0-7) after the top of the 7th inning. They scored early to go up 6-0 after the 1st inning and never looked back, scoring in every inning except the fifth to blank the Huskies with a football score of 23-0.

The pitching had a rough start but twice worked themselves out of based loaded jams within the first three innings, then went on to have a solid outing across multiple pitchers. The story of the game was the 17 hits and superb base running. Also, for the first time this season, the Aggies were able to put points on the scoreboard in the first inning and it came off the bat of Jack Moss. With Hunter Hass on first base, Moss blasted a ball to right center field prompting Haas to get his horse to round the bases and score from first.

Austin Bost wanting to get in on scoring action got his own RBI double with a rocket to left field, letting Moss and Werner cross the plate to go up 3-0. After a few more hits and the Huskies outfielders miss playing a fly ball the inning is over with the Aggies holding a 6-0 lead.

That was pretty much the story of each inning, HCU failing to score while the Aggies put up points. Werner started off the bottom of the second with a home run to left center. Later in the same inning, Kaden Kent would get a base hit to score Bost to go up 8-0. The 3rd inning was littered with walks giving the Aggies a few easy scoring opportunities and adding another 3 runs to the total now sitting at 11-0.

The 9th inning saw the largest run output in an inning this season. After a leadoff walk, Jack Moss would get his second RBI double of the night, with a hit in left-center field, scoring Haas. Warner gets walked then Jace Laviolette reaches base on a dropped ball in right field. With the bases loaded Bost enters the batter’s box and proceeds to hit a 390′ homer over the left field fence for a grand slam.

The home run party didn’t end there, Hank Bard would put his stamp on the inning by hitting his own home run to left field bringing two more across home plate. A fielding error late in the inning would close out the scoring that inning pushing the score to 20-0.

After a scoreless 5th inning for both teams, the Aggies would rack up another three runs in the 6th and Will Johnston got the three strikeouts to put the game away.

This was the perfect confidence booster leading into the Shriners Children’s College Classic at Minute Maid Park where they will face the No.14-ranked Louisville Cardinals, Rice, and No. 24 Texas Tech over three days starting on Friday, March 3rd.

Contact/Follow us @AggiesWire on Twitter, and like our page on Facebook to follow ongoing coverage of Texas A&M news, notes, and opinions. Follow Jarrett Johnson on Twitter: @whosnextsports1

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Player grades: Thunder swept by Kings in season series with 123-117 loss

Player grades for the Thunder’s 123-117 loss to the Kings.

OKLAHOMA CITY — Much like their last meeting two days prior, the Oklahoma City Thunder, who were without Shai Gilgeous-Alexander for a third consecutive game, struggled against the Sacramento Kings in a 123-117 loss.

Outside of the two opening points, the Thunder never led against the Kings. The Thunder concluded their season series against the Kings with an 0-3 record.

Outside of Dario Saric and Jalen Williams, it was a tough night for the Thunder, especially Josh Giddey and Lu Dort. The duo were a minu-32 and minus-28, respectively, when on the court in limited time.

The duo averaged 20 minutes in the loss but according to Thunder head coach Mark Daigneault, their below-average playing time was more about other players on the roster.

“It’s never an indictment on the guy that’s not playing. It’s always usually a reward for the guys that are,” Daigneault said. “First of all, Josh and Lu are important players for us. They’ve been important players for us. They’re going to be important players for us.

“I think when you’ve got 82 games — and we’re building on a timeline much longer than 82 games — I think guys on the team feeling like they can touch the outcome of the games and add value and add impact to the team is important and part of that is us rewarding opportunity when they do that.”

After trailing by as many as 17 points, the Thunder reserves tied the game at 98. Unfortunately, the Kings outscored the Thunder, 25-19, during the remaining 8:50.

“(The bench) turned the tone of the game. I thought they gave good resistance,” Daigneault said. “They were physical. Moved the ball on offense. I thought a lot of good things happened once they were out there.”

Without De’Aaron Fox, the Kings starters stepped up in their All-Star guard’s absence as all five scored at least 13 points.

Harrison Barnes scored a quiet 29 points on 8-of-13 shooting and grabbed nine rebounds. Domantas Sabonis finished with another near triple double of 22 points on 8-of-10 shooting, 13 rebounds and nine assists. Kevin Huerter scored 20 points on 8-of-14 shooting and had nine assists.

The Kings continue to show why they’re ranked first in offensive rating as they went 43-of-82 (52.4%) from the field and 15-of-42 (35.7%) from 3.

Despite the Thunder taking 16 more shot attempts than the Kings, the extra attempts never translated to the scoreboard due to high-efficiency scoring from the latter.

The Thunder are winless since the All-Star break and have their first four-game losing streak since mid-December. With losses piling up, the Thunder are 1.5 games out of 10th place in the Western Conference.

If the Thunder want to cling onto their playoff hopes, they need Gilgeous-Alexander to return sooner rather than later.

Let’s take a look at Thunder player grades.

WATCH: Tom Izzo hilariously tells BTN what he told Michigan State basketball at halftime of Nebraska game

Tom Izzo had a simple, hilarious message for his team at halftime of the Nebraska game:

Michigan State basketball may have ended up beating Nebraska, 80-67, on the road on Tuesday night for a much-needed win, but it started pretty ugly in Lincoln. The Spartans trailed 38-26 at the break.

That changed pretty fast in the second half. MSU held the Cornhuskers to 29 points while scoring 54.

After the game, Tom Izzo told the Big Ten Network what he told his team at halftime, and it was hilarious:

“WOULD SOMEBODY PLEASE GUARD SOMEBODY!!!”

-Vintage Tom Izzo

Here’s the video:

Contact/Follow us @The SpartansWire on Twitter, and like our page on Facebook to follow ongoing coverage of Michigan state news, notes, and opinion. You can also follow Andrew Brewster on Twitter @IAmBrewster.

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2023 NFL draft: Chattanooga OL McClendon Curtis confirms interest from Chargers

Chattanooga offensive lineman McClendon Curtis revealed that the Chargers “always” sent scouts his way.

Draft season brings with it countless reports that player X has met with team Y, stirring up a frenzy of discourse about how that player-team fit must now be considered a lock. In reality, most prospects meet with every team during the pre-draft process, and gleaning information from the simple report that a team has met with a player tends to be a losing proposition.

But sometimes, there’s more information than that. Sometimes, it comes out that a team is consistently meeting with a player, or has been monitoring him all season, or even longer. That’s been the case with prospects in this draft already as it pertains to the Chargers: UCLA guard Atonio Mafi said Los Angeles has been watching him since his freshman season in 2018.

Now, we have confirmation about another trip LA has been taking all season. In an interview with The Draft Network’s Justin Melo, Chattanooga offensive lineman McClendon Curtis revealed that the Chargers have “always” sent scouts his way and that in Mobile, AL for the Senior Bowl, Curtis was catching up with scouts he already knew.

Curtis mentioned a few other teams to who this applied as well: the Saints, Cardinals, and Jaguars. What makes LA’s interest in him well, interesting, is that Curtis has the versatility to play tackle or guard. The Chargers currently have some shuffling to do on their line, with an impending cap decision on guard Matt Feiler and free agency negotiations with tackle Trey Pipkins. 2022 sixth-rounder Jamaree Salyer will take one of those starting spots, but depth will be a huge concern. Adding a player like Curtis who can play four of five spots on the line allays those concerns to a large degree.

Curtis is currently projected to be a Day 3 pick by most major outlets.

Nets’ Mikal Bridges reacts to disappointing second half against the Bucks

Mikal Bridges reacts to the poor third quarter that the Nets had against the Bucks on Tuesday.

Brooklyn Nets forward Mikal Bridges has already had some big games for the team during his brief tenure. He’s had to adapt to a different role with this team as he’s needed to essentially be the best player on the team on both ends of the floor in order for the Nets to have a chance to win.

In Tuesday’s 118-104 loss to the Milwaukee Bucks, Bridges had 31 points and five assists while playing good defense on Bucks stars Giannis Antetokounmpo and Khris Middleton. Bridges was able to make shots from all over the court and was one of the driving forces for Brooklyn to build a 15-point lead in the first half.

However, things changed in the second half as Milwaukee’s supporting players started to wake up. Even with Antetokounmpo leaving the game with 5:04 left in the third quarter because he picked up his fourth foul, Milwaukee finished the period on a 18-7 run. Bridges spoke postgame about what went wrong in the third quarter that appeared to cost the Nets the game:

“We weren’t there. We weren’t in our shifts and transition, not getting back as hard and then, Giannis (Antetokounmpo) got going, got to the line, got the and-ones and dunking and got them going. So, we just had to get back, had that mindset coming out. But, hey (the Bucks) dominated the second half, but it started with us in that third.”

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Doug Pederson praises Panthers HC Frank Reich’s work with QBs

Jaguars HC Doug Pederson thinks the Panthers, and their future at the QB position, are in good hands with his buddy Frank Reich.

Few people in this league know how Frank Reich functions like Doug Pederson does. And on Tuesday, he told us why the Carolina Panthers are lucky to have him.

During his media availability at the 2023 Scouting Combine, the Jacksonville Jaguars head coach spoke a little bit about the new Panthers head coach—who, in addition to being his good friend, was his first-ever NFL offensive coordinator.

“I’m just happy and thrilled for Frank and his family,” Pederson said. “He means a lot to me. Obviously, he helped me win a championship in Philadelphia. And I knew it wouldn’t be long. He’s a great coach, he’s a great mentor, he’s a great teacher. He played this game for a long time. So, just excited to get him outta our division and get him in Carolina.”

Before getting into that AFC South division, Reich served as the Eagles offensive coordinator from 2016 to 2017—a successful two-year stint capped off by a Super Bowl LII victory over the New England Patriots. Reich would then be hired as the Indianapolis Colts head coach—where he’d eventually battle against Pederson’s Jaguars twice in 2022.

Pederson, also a (very brief) member of Carolina’s inaugural squad in 1995, was then asked why Reich is so good at working with the quarterback position.

“He played it,” he replied. “He understands the mentality, he understands the mindset of a quarterback. And sometimes, that’s what it takes. He played this game, he played it as a backup—like I did for so many years. I think there’s a mentality there that you can really pass on to quarterbacks, and he’s got a really good feel for that.”

Hopefully for the Panthers, Reich will have a really good feel for an answer under center—one they may end up actually finding this week in Indy.

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