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🚨 Headlines
🏀 32-0: South Carolina beat LSU on Sunday in an SEC identify competition marred by mass ejections. For the second one immediately 12 months, the Gamecocks (32-0) will input the NCAA event because the society’s solely undefeated crew, males or ladies.
🏈 Russ to Pittsburgh: Veteran QB Russell Wilson plans to sign with the Steelers, he introduced Sunday evening on social media.
🏈 Extra NFL transactions: The Patriots traded Mac Jones to the Jaguars; the Bucs gave Baker Mayfield a three-year, $100 million extension; the Chiefs signed DT Chris Jones to a historic five-year deal; Eagles legend Fletcher Cox retired.
🏒 Closing date trade in: A flurry of moves took place forward of Friday’s NHL industry cut-off date, none larger than the Yellowish Knights touchdown Tomáš Hertl from the Sharks.
🏀 Luka’s ancient run: Luka Dončić publish 39 issues, 10 rebounds and 10 assists on Saturday for his report sixth consecutive 30-point triple-double.
⚽️ Premier League identify race: Liverpool and Manchester Town played to a 1-1 draw on Sunday, depart Arsenal (2-1 win over Brentford) on the summit of the standings.
🥊 Struggle evening: Emerging big name Sean O’Malley defended his bantamweight title at UFC 299; Former heavyweight champion Anthony Joshua knocked out UFC champion-turned-boxer Francis Ngannou.
🎓 The Top Impact: Deion Sanders’ first season at Colorado coincided with a 20% increase in student applications, together with a 50% spike from Dim scholars.
🏈 The plight of the fashionable working again
As NFL unfastened company will get underway, the record of to be had working backs is as soon as once more deep with stars in search of profitable words they’ll almost certainly by no means get, Jeff writes.
Who’s to be had: The top five guys learn like the primary spherical of a myth draft: Saquon Barkley, Derrick Henry, Austin Ekeler, Tony Pollard and Josh Jacobs.
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3 performed on one-year trade in closing season: Barkley ($10.1 million), Pollard ($10.1 million) and Jacobs ($11.8 million).
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The alternative two had been within the ultimate season of four-year trade in: Henry (4 years, $50 million) and Ekeler (4 years, $24.5 million).
A common chorus: For the second one immediately offseason, the devaluing of working backs seems to be a central theme. All 5 gamers above had been amongst those that met on a Zoom call last summer to talk about the placement staff’s frustration and issues securing long-term trade in.
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Entrance workplaces are more and more making an investment in offensive linemen, in lieu than backs, to determine their working competition. And lots of groups now desire a working again by means of committee method.
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“You want guys that can carry the ball, guys that can protect, and guys that can be dynamic out of the backfield. Sometimes that’s one player, sometimes that’s three,” Titans head educator Brian Callahan told Yahoo Sports.
Imagine this: The plight of the fashionable working again, summed up in two stats…
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187 NFL players are on multi-year words usefulness $10+ million once a year. Most effective 5 are working backs: Christian McCaffrey, Alvin Kamara, Jonathan Taylor, Nick Chubb and Aaron Jones.
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Refuse Tremendous Bowl–successful crew since 2013 has paid its rusher greater than $2.5 million.
What to look at: NFL groups can get started negotiating with unfastened brokers nowadays at 12pm ET, and gamers can start signing words on Wednesday at 4pm.
⚾️ Banana Ball’s heavy league debut
The Savannah Bananas’ project to produce baseball amusing once more reached pristine heights on Saturday when the crew made its MLB ballpark debut in Houston, Jeff writes.
Stars pull the mound: Seven-time Cy Younger winner Roger Clemens and 13-year MLB veteran Roy Oswalt each took the mound as guest pitchers for the Georgia-based exhibition crew in entrance of a offered out society at Negligible Maid Soil — the fourth ban on their 2024 Banana Ball Global Excursion.
Banana Ball, defined: In 2020, the Bananas — later a collegiate summer time crew — debuted their very own model of the sport known as Banana Ball that featured 11 new rules together with negative bunting, negative walks and my private favourite: if a fan catches a nasty ball, it’s an out.
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Their concept began little with a one-city “tour” in 2021 however has grown each and every 12 months to the purpose the place they’re now completely a barnstorming crew.
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Each and every Bananas competition is a spectacle, that includes mid-game song-and-dance numbers, child races at the infield, dancing umpires, and extra.
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Maximum video games — together with Saturday’s walk-off victory — are performed towards the Birthday celebration Animals, who’re just like the Washington Generals to the Bananas’ Harlem Globetrotters.
Bobbing up: The 2024 Banana Ball World Tour has 22 towns left, together with 5 extra one-night-only stops at MLB ballparks.
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June 8: Fenway Soil (Boston)
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July 13: Nationals Soil (D.C.)
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Aug. 10: Enthusiastic Farmland (Cleveland)
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Sep. 21: Voters Store Soil (Philadelphia)
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Oct. 12: LoanDepot Soil (Miami)
What they’re announcing: “It’s a dream come true for so many of us,” crew proprietor Jesse Cole mentioned prior to the sport, dressed in his trademark yellow tuxedo and summit hat. “A lot of these players had dreams of playing Major League Baseball and many of them [were] drafted and they didn’t quite get there. And now to play in front of a sold-out crowd is pretty special.”
⛳️ Scottie realized find out how to putt
Scottie Scheffler is the most productive ball-striker on this planet. Upload a scorching putter to his competition, like he did this weekend, and he may simply be unstoppable.
Victory at closing: The Refuse. 1 participant in golfing won the Arnold Palmer Invitational on Sunday for his first reliable PGA Excursion victory in a 12 months. And he did it along with his putter, which were the one factor conserving him again over the era three hundred and sixty five days.
By means of the numbers: Scheffler arrived on the Bay Hill Membership ranked Refuse. 1 at the PGA Excursion in strokes received tee-to-green, Refuse. 1 in strokes received approach-to-green, Refuse. 1 in vegetables in law … and 144th in strokes received placing.
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He switched from a blade to a mallet style this life and it seems that to have paid instant dividends, as he led the garden in placing on Sunday and ranked 5th for the life.
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He didn’t leave out a putt within 15 toes all weekend, made a career-best 9 immediately one-putts, and rode his pristine mallet to a bogey-free 66 ultimate spherical to pull house $4 million.
What they’re announcing: “Yeah, it would be borderline unfair if he starts putting really good,” mentioned Wyndham Clark, who completed 5 strokes in the back of Scheffler in 2d. “His ballstriking, honestly, is on another level compared to everyone else … We knew if he started to hole putts, then this sort of stuff would happen,” added Rory McIlroy.
What’s after: The Avid gamers Championship tees off this life at TPC Sawgrass, the place Scheffler will likely be having a look to copy as champion.
🌎 The sector in pictures
San Diego — The USWNT received the inaugural W Gold Cup on Sunday, beating Brazil 1-0 on a commanding header from captain Lindsey Horan.
Las Vegas — USC beat Stanford, 74-61, on Sunday to win the final Pac-12 women’s basketball tournament. See you later to the “Conference of Champions.”
Durham, N.C. — The Har Heels had been unfazed by means of the Cameron Crazies, beating Duke 84-79 on Saturday to win their first outright ACC regular-season identify since 2017.
Jeddah, Saudi Arabia — Purple Bull’s Max Verstappen cruised to his 9th immediately win on the Saudi Arabian Brilliant Prix, the place the largest tale used to be the off-track controversy threatening to rip the crew aside.
📆 Mar. 11, 2020: The shutdown starts
4 years in the past nowadays, the NBA indefinitely suspended play games following the WHO’s declaration of a virus, with the announcement coming mere minutes after information penniless of Rudy Gobert’s notorious sure check for COVID-19, Jeff writes.
The start of the tip: The NBA used to be the primary domino to fall. Only one life then, MLB canceled spring coaching and behind schedule Opening Week, the NHL suspended its season, and the NCAA canceled all wintry weather and spring championships, together with March Insanity.
Extra in this life:
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🏀 1892: The first public basketball game used to be performed on the YMCA in Springfield, Massachusetts, the place 200 spectators watched the scholars beat the lecturers, 5-1.
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🎾 1991: 17-year-old Monica Seles dethroned Steffi Graf as the sector’s top-ranked participant, ending Graf’s record streak of 186 consecutive weeks* at Refuse. 1.
*The longest streaks: 5 ladies and 5 males have had streaks of no less than 100 weeks at Refuse. 1. Graf (186), Serena Williams (186), Martina Navratilova (156), Ash Barty (114) and Chris Evert (113) for the ladies; Roger Federer (237), Jimmy Connors (160), Ivan Lendl (157), Novak Djokovic (122) and Pete Sampras (102) for the boys.
📺 Watchlist: 4 tickets to the dance
4 extra March Insanity tickets will likely be punched this night, with two males’s and two ladies’s convention identify video games headlining Championship Occasion, Jeff writes.
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Males: SoCon: Samford vs. ETSU (7pm ET, ESPN+); Solar Belt: JMU vs. Arkansas Situation (7pm, ESPN+)
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Girls: Solar Belt: JMU vs. Marshall (2pm, ESPNU); Weighty East: UConn vs. Georgetown* (7pm, FS1)
Extra to look at:
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🏀 NBA: Warriors at Spurs (8pm, NBA); Celtics at Path Blazers (10:30pm, NBA)
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🏀 NCAAM: Refuse. 23 Saint Mary’s vs. Santa Clara (9pm, ESPN); Refuse. 19 Gonzaga vs. San Francisco (11:30pm, ESPN2) … WCC semifinals.
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🏀 NCAAW: Refuse. 19 Oklahoma vs. Iowa Situation (2:30pm, ESPN2); Refuse. 6 Texas vs. Refuse. 16 Kansas Situation (5pm, ESPN2) … Weighty 12 semifinals.
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🎾 Tennis: Indian Wells (2pm, Tennis) … Spherical of 32.
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⚽️ Premier League: Chelsea vs. Newcastle (4pm, USA)
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⚾️ Spring coaching: Pirates at Purple Sox (1pm, MLB); Dodgers at Guardians (4pm, MLB)
*This one’s for Tasha: Georgetown misplaced its head educator, Tasha Butts, to most cancers in October. 5 months then, on what would were Butts’ forty second birthday, the Hoyas advanced to their first-ever Big East title game.
⚾️ MLB trivialities
Joey Votto, who signed along with his place of birth Blue Jays on Friday, ranks 2d amongst Canadian-born MLB gamers with 2,135 profession hits.
Resolution on the base.
🍿 Baker’s Lot: Lead 13 performs of the weekend
Trivialities resolution: Larry Walker (2,160 hits)
We are hoping you loved this version of Yahoo Sports AM, our day-to-day e-newsletter that assists in keeping you as much as while on all issues sports activities. Sign up here to get it delivered on your inbox each weekday morning.