Tag: women’s basketball

Week 3 of Athletes Unlimited basketball ended with surprise guests in attendance

The Athletes Unlimited hoops season runs through March 25 in Dallas.

Athletes Unlimited basketball, a professional women’s basketball league, ended its third week of play on March 11. It had a few surprise guests in the building, including University of Oregon’s Sedona Prince and Los Angeles Sparks and WNBPA president Nneka Ogwumike. Prince made headlines in 2021 when she highlighted the inequities between the men’s and women’s NCAA tournaments.

Prince gave a behind-the-scenes glimpse at Athletes Unlimited hoops and ran down a bit of the scoring system and how captains are picked each week. While the rules for the game are the same as the WNBA, the individual points players can earn, the ranking system and the weekly drafts are different than other basketball leagues.

The night was dedicated to the Special Olympics. Debbie Antonelli, a women’s college basketball analyst and founder of 24 Hours of Nothing But Net, was in attendance to help with the 24-hour shoot-a-thon.

The shoot-a-thon was successful: 2,400 free throws were made in 24 hours. Las Vegas Aces’ Theresa Plaisance chose the Special Olympics as her Athlete Cause this season. This program, powered by Give Lively, provides players of Athletes Unlimited a fundraising platform that allows them “to donate funds equal to 100% of their season win bonus to support the causes they love.”

The halftime free-throw contest wasn’t as successful in terms of buckets made, but the participants and audience had fun, which was all that mattered.

The Athletes Unlimited hoops season runs through March 25. Dallas is the home for Season 2 of Athletes Unlimited Basketball and one ticket allows entry to two games.

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Athletes Unlimited: First women’s sports league to be named among ‘World’s Most Innovative Companies’ by Fast Company

Athletes Unlimited, a professional sports league, is the first women’s sports league to earn this Fast Company honor.

Fast Company put out its list of 10 most innovative companies in sports of 2023. Athletes Unlimited, a professional sports league focusing on elite women athletes, is the first women’s sports league to earn this Fast Company honor. In addition, Athletes Unlimited is the first professional sports league to be organized as a Public Benefit Corporation and the first U.S.-based pro sports league to be committed to carbon neutrality.

The league was founded by Jon Patricof and Jonathan Soros on March 3, 2020, and has four women’s professional sports under its umbrella: softball, volleyball, basketball and lacrosse. In 2021, it added volleyball and in 2022, it added basketball. The power is in the hands of the players and there are no owners for the teams. Players make decisions both on and off their field of play, which gives the entire league a player-centric ethos. Each league has a player executive committee that meets weekly with Athletes Unlimited staff to work on all aspects of the league, from adding players to the roster to establishing the rules and scoring system.

Players in all sports, including basketball, compete under a point system where players and teams are rewarded for individual and team performance. Each week the four highest-ranked players are appointed as captains and redraft teams for the following week’s competition. This not only allows fans to see different matchups each week, but it also allows the players to get a feel for different schemes and teammates. The league has big-name sponsors including Nike, Gatorade, Topps, Caesars, Sportradar and GEICO.

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Prominent international and WNBA players play in the league, which does not conflict with their seasons. WNBA stars such as Las Vegas Aces guard Sydney Colson, Los Angeles Sparks guard Lexie Brown and Washington Mystics guard Natasha Cloud bring the heat each week on the court. The WNBA only has 144 roster spots, so leagues such as Athletes Unlimited allow athletes to play domestically and not have to pursue opportunities overseas.

WNBA players playing abroad were put in the international spotlight when WNBA champion and Olympic medalist Brittney Griner was detained in  Russia while she was playing overseas. But things are changing for the better and women’s college basketball fans are able to follow the careers of their favorite players past college with easier access thanks to leagues like Athletes Unlimited.

The games are fan and athlete-focused, including free autograph signings at the end of each game along with free swag and custom posters for each week. Dallas is the home for Season 2 of Athletes Unlimited Basketball and one ticket allows entry to two games.

Tickets start at $15 for the games.

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Florida State upset No. 11 N.C. State thanks to freshman Ta’Niya Latson’s ridiculously awesome performance

We should be paying more attention to Ta’Niya Latson, and Florida State.

Florida State’s women’s basketball team didn’t just squeak past visiting North Carolina State on Thursday night. No, FSU dominated and beat down the 11th ranked team in the country for a 91-72 victory.

Which begs the question: Did we overrate N.C. State, or did we underrate Florida State?

It’s probably a bit of both. But most folks weren’t expecting freshman guard Ta’Niya Latson to be this good – at least not this soon – for Brooke Wyckoff’s FSU team.

Latson had another absolutely stellar game Thursday, tallying her sixth game of the season in which she scored 30 points or more. That’s a program record, by the way, at a school that’s been to 20 NCAA Tournaments.

In all, Latson finished with 31 points on a near pristine 13-of-16 shooting. She swished a pair of 3-pointers, grabbed four rebounds, dished out two assists, and coughed up just a single turnover in 30 minutes of action against the three-time reigning ACC champs.

And according to HerHoopStats, Latson is just the 13th freshman since 2009 to shoot at least 81.2% in a single game while taking a minimum of 15 shots. The company she joins in that group includes the likes of Jessica Shepard, Maddy Siegrist and Elizabeth Kitley – which is to simply say, its pretty good club to be part of.

ESPN tabbed Latson as the 14th best recruit in the 2022 class, several spots behind the likes of UCLA’s Kiki Rice and Stanford’s Lauren Betts. But so far, Latson has just a good of a case as anyone to win the Tamika Catchings Award, given to the nation’s top freshman by the U.S. Basketball Writers Association.

With 25 points per game, Latson is fifth in the nation in scoring and leads all freshmen. She also leads all of Division I women’s basketball in free throws made per game with 6.7. The advanced numbers like her too, as she’s 10th in PER (40.5), third in offensive win shares (6.1) and first in points per-40 minutes (33.7).

Latson has also been named ACC Rookie of the Week eight times this season. Eight!

Perhaps more impressive than the raw numbers is that Latson has FSU saddled with a 16-3 overall record and a 5-1 mark in ACC play. A lot of folks expected FSU to take a step back this year with longtime coach Sue Semrau retiring and some of its top players, like Morgan Jones, entering the transfer portal. Florida State was picked to finish ninth in the ACC Preseason Poll.

But with Latson, all FSU has done is win. Two of FSU’s three losses were on neutral courts – to Oklahoma State and UConn – and the other was on the road in overtime to Boston College.

Notre Dame might be the ACC team with the best national championship odds, but as the women’s basketball season continues, we have to pay more attention to Florida State. And Latson is a big reason why, but they also have players like Sara Bejedi, who can do things like this:

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Notre Dame opens ACC play with top-10 showdown at Virginia Tech

Should be a good one this afternoon!

Three weeks ago Notre Dame (8-1, 0-0) played a complete game in dominating UConn in a top-10 matchup at Purcell Pavilion.  Today the Irish are on the road for another top-10 showdown, this one to open ACC play for the year.

The fifth-ranked Irish return to the hardwood for the first time in eight days they open ACC play at No. 6 Virginia Tech (10-0, 1-0).  This game will be the first-ever top-10 matchup played at Tech’s Cassell Coliseum.

Due to finals week, Notre Dame hasn’t played in eight days.  Their last time out was a dominating win over Merrimack as Olivia Miles helped guide the Irish to an easy victory. The sophomore’s triple-double in the contest was the third of her career already which is now a program record.

Virginia Tech is led by the reigning ACC Player of the Year and the most recent ACC Player of the Week Elizabeth Kitley.  Kitley averaged 20 points and 11 rebounds in Tech’s two most recent victories which included a conference win over Boston College.

The showdown is set to tip-off at 4:00 p.m. EST and can be seen on ACC Network.

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Notre Dame football: 5 things to know for Dec. 2, 2022

An unexpectedly busy day in case you need to catch up

Well we’ve made it through our first work week of the postseason and Notre Dame will find out its bowl destination on Sunday. As we discussed earlier in the week, chances seem pretty strong that it will end up in Jacksonville for the Gator Bowl. One outlet still had it heading to the Holiday Bowl, so perhaps there will be a surprise.

Thursday wound up being a fairly busy day in the Notre Dame athletic land as expected College Football Playoff news was finally made official, perhaps the most intriguing quarterback to date entered the portal and the Irish landed their 26th commitment. All of that, a heartbreaking loss for the Irish women’s basketball team, and Paul Finebaum’s latest thoughts on Notre Dame’s independence are in your Five Things to Know for Friday, Dec. 2, 2022.

ACC/SEC challenge coming to college hoops in 2023-24

The ACC-SEC Challenge is coming in 2023-24, and Florida could see some interesting matchups because of the new agreement.

For the past eight college basketball season, the Florida Gators have faced a Big 12 opponent as part of the Big 12/SEC Challenge, but that will change next year as ACC and SEC are grouping up with ESPN to bring a new series to the college hoops world: The ACC/SEC Challenge.

Both the men’s and women’s teams will get to participate and the challenge will run from 2023-24 until at least 2025-26 when Texas and Oklahoma join the Southeastern Conference. The ACC, SEC and ESPN announced the series on Monday, and SEC commissioner Greg Sankey provided a comment on the agreement.

“We are excited women’s and men’s basketball student-athletes will have the opportunity to compete with their colleagues from the ACC as we initiate a new Basketball Challenge experience,” Sankey said. “I appreciate the collaboration of Jim Phillips and the ACC members, along with our broadcast partner ESPN, to make possible the SEC/ACC Basketball Challenge which will provide our fans with exciting basketball early in the 2023-24 season. I also thank the Big 12 for the many great challenge games we experienced together in past years.”

Each of the 28 games will be aired on ESPN’s platform, but there aren’t too many details on the specifics of things just yet. The agreement does bring the ACC/Big Ten Challenge to an end, meaning the series taking place this week will be the last. the final SEC/Big 12 Challenge takes place in January.

Of course, Florida has its own yearly matchup with Florida State, which is in the ACC, so this won’t be entirely new to the Gators. It opens up the door for matchups with national powerhouses such as Duke and North Carolina, and sets up a potential in-state rivalry matchup with Miami.

All in all, the ACC presents better matchup opportunities for UF down the road, which means more national attention for Todd Golden’s team.

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Auburn Morning Rush: Tigers offer cousin of NFL star, Women’s basketball cruise to victory

Start your Monday morning with the Auburn Morning Rush.

Good morning Auburn fans, another weekend has come and gone and there is no better way to start your Monday than with the Auburn Morning Rush.

It was a busy weekend on the Plains with Auburn picking up a big win over Western Kentucky in their final home game of the season.

The football team wasn’t the only program to pick up a win over the weekend though, the women’s basketball team cruised to a win over Alabama State Sunday night. The women’s swim and dive team took the top spot and the men finished second at the UGA Invite.

The football team also took advantage of the excitement ahead of the game to extend an offer to Tevis Metcalf, who is cousins with NFL star DK Metcalf.

Catch up on all of this news in today’s Auburn Morning Rush.

Auburn Morning Rush: Tigers miss out on in-state recruit, Bruce Pearl recognizes center

Recruiting has its ups and downs in this edition of the Auburn Morning Rush.

Happy Wednesday, Auburn fans.

This Morning Rush kicks off on a bit of a sour note for fans of the Tigers, as Auburn has missed out on a recruit from its own backyard (almost literally). The baseball team has made up for this, however, by securing an Alabama pitcher for its 2023 recruiting class from the state of Alabama. In other news, coach Bruce Pearl has named his “Heart of the Tiger” for the team’s first victory against George Mason and the women’s basketball team got a first-win of its own on Wednesday.

Here are some stories you may have missed for the Auburn Morning Rush:

WNBA star and Notre Dame great Skylar Diggins-Smith announces pregnancy

Congratulations!

Congratulations are in order for legendary Notre Dame basketball star [autotag]Skylar Diggins-Smith[/autotag] who announced on Monday that she’s pregnant with her second child.  Diggins-Smith currently stars for the WNBA’s Phoenix Mercury and received All-WNBA First Team honors for the fourth time in her career last season and was also named to the All-Star team.

Diggins-Smith missed the 2019 WNBA season after giving birth to her first son.

The former Fighting Irish star who helped guide Notre Dame to three Final Four appearances and two national championship game appearances in her four years on campus.

Diggins-Smith is married to former Notre Dame football player Daniel Smith who played in all 13 games of the memorable 2012 season for the Irish.

Congratulations to the couple on the announcement!

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Duke scores commitment from No. 3 overall recruit Jadyn Donovan

A big get for the Duke women’s basketball team

Duke is building up its recruiting class for 2023 in women’s basketball. On Monday, it was announced that the country’s No. 3 overall recruit in the ESPNW 100 and five-star guard Jadyn Donovan has committed to Duke.

Donovan was also considering offers from North Carolina, Arizona, UCLA, Tennessee and Notre Dame. In the end, she says she chose Duke for academics, according to the Washington Post.

“The basketball program is super serious, but the school and the environment, people are there to get a great education… Duke is just a place for me to honestly just learn literally anything I can.”

It probably didn’t hurt that Donovan’s new coach Kara Lawson also played at Sidwell Friends in the 90s.

Donovan helped lead her school to a perfect 30-0 record last season. She averaged over 15 points, eight rebounds, three steals and nearly two blocks per game. This summer, she helped Team USA win a gold medal in Hungary.