The latest? He was complaining to a referee on Tuesday night in the Huskies’ win over Butler and lip-readers think he said this: “Don’t turn your back on me, I’m the best coach in the [expletive]-ing sport.”
LOL! As far as I can tell, that seems right, and it’s so funny. Here’s what he said after, via ESPN, about the outburst that got caught on camera:
“I just wish they put the camera on the other coach more,” he said. “… I just wish they would show these other coaches losing their minds at the officials in other Big East games that I’m coaching where … I’m not talking to officials; I see the other coaches as demonstrative as I am.
“But the camera, obviously … I’ve created this for myself. I’m not the victim.”
This story has been updated to reflect Paige Buecker’s playing status.
UConn star Paige Buckers was injured during a January 5 matchup against Villanova. If you’re here, you might wonder: When will she return to the court?
Here’s the answer. It’s uncertain when she will be back.
On Tuesday, Huskies head coach Geno Auriemma explained that she has a knee sprain. Thankfully, there is no tear and her ankle, which was also thought to be injured, is fine. Bueckers “could return within a week,” but her timeline for return is unclear. If she misses the next several days or so of action, that would likely be matchups against Xavier, Georgetown and St. John’s.
.@UConnWBB coach Geno Auriemma said Paige Bueckers has injury similar to Azzi Fudd’s recent injury. She won’t play tomorrow but it is not a season-ending injury pic.twitter.com/jNeZKmJYod
NEW YORK — Sitting in a suite at the world’s most famous arena is a women’s basketball star of equal acclaim: Paige Bueckers.
In what somehow feels like just yesterday and also a lifetime ago, the UConn women’s basketball point guard had one of the most sensational freshman campaigns we have ever seen from an NCAA basketball player.
After later missing significant time due to a very rare knee injury, she continued playing some of her best basketball yet again once healthy.
Now in what is very likely her final year of college, she is focused on pursuing her first collegiate national championship before she eventually turns pro.
But on Monday night, Bueckers found some time on a well-earned off-day to relax. She wore a grey Eric Emanuel sweatsuit with Swarovski crystals and in New York City, she decided to watch some NBA basketball with all of her teammates.
Despite suffering a minor injury the previous night on Sunday against Villanova, the UConn star caught up with For The Win in the Verizon Club at Madison Square Garden while the Knicks played the Magic on Monday.
This interview has been condensed and edited for clarity.
How has Minnesota produced so many great basketball players recently like you, Chet Holmgren, and Jalen Suggs?
Brad Rempel-USA TODAY Sports
Bueckers: The fact that it is so cold there, people who play basketball are inside the gym all of the time working on their craft and getting better. I think it’s an escape from the cold just to be able to play. I think the “Minnesota Nice” phrase comes to mind. People from Minnesota have a chip on their shoulder just because they’re not expected to be good basketball players. We all have this toughness about us.
It means everything to be able to represent Minnesota. It is known as a hockey state but the basketball production is great as well. I’m close with Jalen and Chet and so many other basketball players who have done so well these past few years. It’s really cool to see the growth and the exposure and Minnesota getting a little bit of credit for basketball.
What are the top storylines everyone should know in women’s basketball right now?
Bueckers: The growth. The amount of talent throughout college, the WNBA, and even high school. The more exposure we get, you see the views going up and the attention going up and the accessibility to watch going up. You see positive results every single time. I think we need to acknowledge that women’s basketball is great to watch. Whenever we get the platform, we perform. There are big names, but when you tune in to watch the big names, you leave as fans of so many others because it is such a beautiful sport we play and it is a team effort.
Bueckers: USC’s JuJu Watkins was a great matchup with me. She gets the attention she deserves. Olivia Miles is another player, and she plays with another great player in Hannah Hidalgo. Those two together are tough. My teammate Sarah Strong is extremely good. She is just a freshman but she has shown everybody how great she is already. We play Tennessee and South Carolina on the road in February and those are going to be great games. Those are great teams. Tennessee and UConn always have a rivalry.
What is something you have picked up from Geno Auriemma if you were to ever coach?
(Photo by Steph Chambers/Getty Images)
Bueckers: I would take his ability to challenge his players. I feel like he has a good spot on his players and how to challenge them and how to support them and when to use which. But that comes with connecting with his players, building relationships with his players, and that is the most important part of what makes him a great coach.
But he is our toughest opponent every single day at practice so we are prepared for the biggest games. When the opponent is shooting 100 percent on 3-pointers or when the crowd is crazy, he is the toughest opponent and he prepares us that way every single day.
Do you feel you have been more aggressive after returning to UConn for one more season?
(Photo by Michael Reaves/Getty Images)
Bueckers: It is going well. It is all a toss up because you don’t want to get outside of yourself and outside of the team and start shot-hunting. But I’m looking to be aggressive first and look for my shot and that leads to distribution to others and getting my teammates open. I think I’ve done a pretty good job. I’m growing every single day.
I can only get better from here as well. It is all part of the new challenges that this year has presented. We are very young and we don’t have a ton of experience. So being a leader and having to use my voice and find that new challenge every single day, I’ve enjoyed growing and learning and embracing the ups and downs of it.
You have the first player edition shoe for an NCAA player. Do you think we will ever see a collegiate signature shoe and what would yours look like?
(Photo by Sarah Stier/Getty Images)
Bueckers: It is very cool to have a player edition shoe. I’m very blessed and grateful. It is an amazing opportunity. I’m extremely grateful to Nike that they saw that in me.
That’s a good question about the signature shoe, though. I think it might be coming down the line. Obviously, with players starting to sign in high school now, it can be in the works sooner. I like low-top shoes. I love Kobe’s. I like Sabrina’s now. I would want it to look different, though. There are so many shoes that are starting to look similar. So I’d have to make mine pretty different, I think.
How big of a role did NIL opportunities play in your decision to return to college?
Bueckers: I don’t think NIL necessarily played a big role in me coming back. But it has done tremendous things for me and players around the country so we can build our brand and our platform and these relationships with different brands and people. You can continue to help grow who you are and grow who your teammates are with this platform. NIL has seen more college players in the media and commercials, so it is great for the growth of the game as well. A lot of these players deserve what they are getting and they work hard for it, so it is such a beautiful thing to see.
How do you choose your NIL deals and what are some things you look for?
Bueckers: I think giving back is huge. I like to have opportunities to give back to my hometown and where I am playing now and where I want to play in the future. I want to give opportunities to people who are less fortunate. I definitely want to run camps in the future. When I leave college, I’ll have more time in the offseason where I invite kids and give back to communities who need it and deserve it. I’ve been very blessed growing up so I just want to give the platform that I have.
So for example, I’m at the Knicks game tonight with Verizon. They have a lot of the same values that I do. We’re working together for the future with that, which is really exciting. They’ve done a tremendous job with me here tonight inviting us to the lounge and suite and they gave me the opportunity to give gifts to my teammates. I think that is huge. I’m not getting these deals by myself. My opportunities play a huge part in that. No success in basketball is an individual thing. It is a team thing. So being able to share that with my teammates is amazing.
UConn’s schedule is about to get much easier, but we’ll learn a lot from its game against Tennessee.
At first glance, there doesn’t seem to be a glaring reason to sound the alarm about UConn women’s basketball.
The Huskies are 11-2 and ranked seventh in the latest AP Top 25 Poll and still look like contenders for the national championship because of two big reasons: Paige Bueckers and Sarah Strong.
Bueckers is in what seemingly looks like a three-horse race for the National Player of the Year award, currently running alongside Notre Dame’s Hannah Hidalgoand USC’s Juju Watkins, with players like LSU’s Aneesah Morrow, TCU’s Hailey Van Lith and Florida State’s Ta’Niya Latson trailing behind the front-running trio. Bueckers ranks second nationally in offensive win shares (2.4) and ninth in field goals made per game (8.2).
Strong, meanwhile, seems to be the best freshman in the country and someone who will contend for a spot on the All-American team, showing everyone why she was the highly coveted No. 1 recruit in the country. She’s ninth nationally in shooting percentage inside the arc (72.3), seventh in PER (42.4) and ninth in defensive win shares (1.0).
But the Huskies do have problems. And if UConn aims to make a return to the Final Four in Tampa, Florida, they must be fixed.
The Huskies are atrocious at 3-point defense and rebounding, two things that teams typically need to be at least decent at to go far in the NCAA Tournament. Pick any metric and look at Dawn Staley’s South Carolina Gamecocks from last season – they were among the best in any stat associated with rebounding and defending the deep ball.
UConn this season grabs a putrid 10.1 offensive rebounds per game, which ranks 254th nationally, while allowing a mediocre defensive rebounding rate of 68.7 percent to its opponents. The Huskies also let their opponents make 32.8 percent of their shots from 3-point land, which ranks 261st nationally. A year ago, when UConn made the Final Four and was one polarizing call away from appearing in the title game, it ranked in the top 40 in both 3-point defense and defensive rebounds allowed. This season, UConn isn’t good at either, much less elite.
In their loss to USC, the Huskies got outrebounded and allowed the Trojans to shoot a season-best 56.3 percent from behind the arc. In its loss to Notre Dame, UConn was again outrebounded and let the Irish shoot their second-best mark from 3-point land this season, 55.6 percent.
Notre Dame and USC – and teams like them – are the ones likely to be in Auriemma’s way as he chases a (what has proven to be elusive) 12th national championship. Without improvement on defense and the boards, the results will probably be the same.
UConn’s Paige Bueckers shoots a 3-pointer against North Carolina on Friday, Nov. 15, 2024, in Greensboro, N.C. (Mitchell Northam / For The Win)
Another concern for the Huskies is the absence of a consistent third scoring option. Azzi Fudd’s status remains erratic and unreliable. Fudd has only played in seven games this season. She has, however, shown the flashes of greatness that made her the No. 1 overall recruit in the 2021 class, like when she poured in 18 points apiece in wins over both Louisville and Ole Miss.
But Fudd didn’t appear in UConn’s three biggest games this season: a win over North Carolina and those losses to Notre Dame and USC. She isn’t totally healthy and, unfortunately, might never be this season. If UConn can get Fudd for 20 minutes per game in the NCAA Tournament, that should be considered as a massive luxury.
In the meantime, the Huskies need someone else to prove their reliability as a scorer. Ashlynn Shade has shown it in spurts, and folks who paid attention to the Ivy League know that Kaitlyn Chen is capable of being an elite scoring option. In three seasons with the Tigers, Chen scored 15 points or more in 43 games, including a 22-point performance in a 2023 NCAA Tournament win over N.C. State. In her short stint at UConn so far, she has yet to top 14 points in a single game.
The good news for the Huskies is that they’re about to have a bunch of get-right games as Big East play begins. The league is, put nicely, not very good this season. ESPN’s Charlie Creme projects that just two Big East teams – UConn and Creighton – will make the NCAA Tournament this season. The only other Big East team aside from the Huskies and Bluejays in the NET top 50 this season is St. John’s.
Smashed into UConn’s Big East slate is a pair of challenges with SEC teams, Tennessee and South Carolina. The Huskies should be riding an 11-game win streak by the time they travel to Knoxville for a Feb. 6 matchup with Kim Caldwell’s new-look Volunteers – a game where UConn’s 3-point defense and rebounding will surely be put to the test. Tennessee leads the nation in 3-pointers made (149) and attempted (452), and they’re also first nationally in offensive rebounds per game (21.7), and second in defensive rebounding rate (53.3). This run-and-gun style of play – with an emphasis on defense and putting up as many 3-pointers as possible – has the Vols undefeated so far in Caldwell’s first season at the helm.
The rekindling of the UConn-Tennessee rivalry this year will either expose the Huskies’ worst flaws or prove that they can overcome them.
And it will tell us whether Auriemma can work his mid-season coaching magic at least one more time as he approaches his 71st birthday.
JuJu Watkins played like a superstar against UConn and was richly rewarded for her performance.
On Saturday night, the USC women’s basketball team earned a statement victory over UConn on the road. Following the performance, accolades and recognition have begun to come in for the Trojans. At the center of it all has been star sophomore guard Juju Watkins.
On Monday, Watkins was named the Big Ten Player of the Week. On Tuesday, she followed that up by earning national player of the week honors from both the AP and USBWA.
It was Watkins’ second time this season earning both honors. It is obviously still very early with the vast majority of conference play yet to be played, but at this point, she is widely considered the favorite to win Big Ten player of the year.
With the victory over UConn, the Trojans also rose to No. 4 in the AP Poll. The three teams ahead of USC are No. 1 UCLA, No. 2 South Carolina, and No. 3 Notre Dame.
With their nonconference slate complete, the Women of Troy will now gear up for the heart of their Big Ten schedule. Up next is a matchup with No. 23 Michigan at Galen Center on Sunday night.
It was a statement victory for Lindsay Gottlieb and the Trojans. Coming off of last season’s Slite Eight run, USC entered 2024-2025 with the program’s highest expectations in decades. However, in their only other game of the season against a top 15 opponent, the Women of Troy were upset at home by Notre Dame.
Heading into Saturday’s matchup, the 2024-2025 USC team had yet to prove that they could beat an elite opponent. Against UConn, the Trojans did just that, putting together a gutsy performance to grind out a victory on the road in a hostile environment.
In addition to earning a major resume boost, USC made a statement by beating UConn. They proved that last season’s run to the Elite Eight was not a one-off.
Last season was obviously an incredible one for the USC women’s basketball program. While the expectation was that the Women of Troy would build off of that success, you can never be certain of such in today’s landscape of college sports. While USC returned superstar Juju Watkins and added several key players in the transfer portal, the Trojans did lose three of five starters from last year’s team.
Saturday night, however, but to bed the notion that the Women of Troy would be a one-hit wonder. By taking down the sport’s premier program of the past two decades, USC proved that this program under Gottlieb is a force to be reckoned with. And if the current trend is any indication, that will be the case for years to come.
UConn freshman Sarah Strong was so good when the Huskies played Iowa State that Cyclones head coach Bill Fennelly couldn’t believe it.
Listen, we tried to tell everyone about Sarah Strong. We even made this handy dandy guide of stellar freshmen you need to know headlined by her. However, we realize that not everyone will pay attention to what we say. Sometimes, they have to see it in person, and that’s precisely what happened to Bill Fennelly.
On Tuesday, Strong went scorched earth on the Cyclones, dropping 17 points in the 3rd quarter alone, as she shot her way to a career-high 29 points. (She also added nine rebounds and four assists, because why not.) Postgame, Fennelly was stunned by what he witnessed. “I don’t know if you can put it into words,” he told the media. “There’s certain people — Geno’s had them over the years — that the game looks really easy and it just pisses you off…She was so much better live than on video.”
Iowa State coach Bill Fennelly on Sarah Strong: "I don't know if you can put it into words. There's certain people – Geno's had them over the years – that the game looks really easy and it just pisses you off (laughs)… She was so much better live than on video."
Somebody might want to check on UConn head coach Dan Hurley. His team just lost a third consecutive game, and he was so stunned by it all that he seemingly couldn’t bear to watch.
The UConn men’s basketball team is GOING THROUGH IT. The back-to-back champs’ time at the Maui Invitational couldn’t have gone worse. The Huskies lost an overtime stunner to Memphis, partly thanks to Dan Hurley’s sideline antics that drew an ill-timed technical foul. Then, they lost to Colorado, and you guessed it — there were more Hurley shenanigans.
But Wednesday’s loss to the Dayton Flyers stunned the UConn coach. As time expired, cameras caught the moment Hurley was on the sidelines, bent down, putting his head into his hands, seemingly trying to wrap his mind around what just happened.
Dan Hurley crying after UConn finishes 8th in an 8 team Maui invitational tournament lmaoo pic.twitter.com/gxmxRHDHT2
On Tuesday against Colorado, he did the same thing but was luckily held back by his coaches before he could get a technical. UConn lost anyway. It might not have been because of their coach, who couldn’t keep his composure. But I’m not not going to say it was because of their coach, who couldn’t keep his composure.
He’s always been an ornery and combative head coach, but come on. As the head coach of a college basketball team, you’re supposed to be the adult in the room. The players are supposed to look to Hurley for guidance, support and direction in tight games.
But there’s a solid chance that if you look over at UConn’s bench during some of these crucial times, you might see a 51-year-old man throwing a tantrum like a six-year-old who didn’t get exactly what he wanted on Christmas Day. It’s a tough look. And certainly one unbecoming of one of the best head coaches in college basketball.
There’s always room for passion and emotion in sports. But there’s a line that shouldn’t be crossed. At least not frequently, anyway. Every once in a while is cool. But Dan Hurley seems to be a habitual line-stepper here.
We’ve already seen it cost his team when the stakes are fairly low. So you can only imagine what things will be like when the games matter most.
So the Dodgers actually can keep getting away with this
Folks. When 2024 Clayton Kershaw might be the afterthought of your rotation, you know the deck is stacked.
The Dodgers are building All-Star teams via deferred money. Snell reportedly has around $62 million of his $182 million, five-year deal coming after the contract expires.
That means they’ve got deferred cash going out to:
Shohei Ohtani ($680 million)
Freddie Freeman ($57 million)
Mookie Betts ($115 million)
Blake Snell ($62 million
Will Smith ($50 million)
Teoscar Hernandez ($8.5 million)
Folks, that’s $972.5 million in deferred cash coming decades after these players finish playing for LA. Nearly a billion dollars! And the offseason is just beginning, so surely, the Dodgers will cross that threshold at some point.
I’m not saying this is something MLB needs to change, but it’s probably worth looking at when the next CBA rolls around.
Mike McCarthy’s life raft
Mandatory Credit: Kevin Jairaj-Imagn Images
It seems it might not be curtains for Mike McCarthy after all? Jerry Jones told reporters on Tuesday that an extension for the Cowboys’ coach is not out of the question.
“If you’re a Cowboys fan, I suggest you look away now because reading this might infuriate you. All Eagles, Commanders and Giants fans, prepare to have a good laugh because what is about to be shared is profoundly unserious behavior. On Tuesday, while speaking on a local radio station, Jerry Jones revealed that giving Mike McCarthy an extension is not something out of the realm of possibility.
“I don’t think that’s crazy at all,” Jones said. “That’s not crazy. Mike McCarthy’s one outstanding coach…This is a Super Bowl-winning coach. Mike McCarthy has been there and done that. He has great ideas…We got a lot of football left.” Sure, Jerry. Let us know how that works out. It’s fine. It’s not like McCarthy isn’t 1-3 in the playoffs with the Cowboys, and his last Super Bowl wasn’t 14 years ago. HOW ‘BOUT DEM COWBOYS.”
Meg has a point. McCarthy is sort of skating by on past glory right now. It also seems pretty clear this team doesn’t believe in him anymore.
This seems like Jones is just trying to give McCarthy a vote of confidence amid a lost season. But you know what a real vote of confidence would be? An actual contract extension.
Until that happens, nobody should believe this.
Quick hits: Oregon stays on top … QB Rankings … and more
Throughout his coaching career, Dan Hurley has never been one to go easy on the officials. And honestly, officials give him plenty of leeway to complain. But every ref has their limit, and on Monday, Hurley crossed that line at the worst moment.
It essentially lost his team the game in the process.
In the opening round of UConn’s Maui Invitational matchup with Memphis, the Huskies overcame a double-digit deficit in the final 2.5 minutes to force overtime. Momentum was clearly on UConn’s side. But when Liam McNeeley was called for an over-the-back foul, Hurley couldn’t help himself.
Rather than let the (correct) call go in a tie game, Hurley berated the officials. And it doesn’t take expert lip-reading skills to see that Hurley got personal with it too.
— NCAA Buzzer Beaters & Game Winners (@NCAABuzzerBters) November 25, 2024
Hurley was called for the technical, which sent P.J. Carter to the line for four three throws. He made all of them.
What would have been a one-possession game, turned into two just like that. And it had nothing to do with the players on the court. UConn was able to get a final look at the end, but those two points were so costly in the 99-97 loss.
