The Buffalo Sabres are back in the NHL playoffs, ending a league-record postseason drought of 14 seasons.

All they had to do was change the messenger.

The Sabres clinched their first playoff berth since 2010-11 with the Detroit Red Wings’ loss in the afternoon on Saturday, April 4.

It was looking like the streak could hit 15 when Buffalo sat in last place in the Eastern Conference on Dec. 8. The Sabres won three in a row to get back to .500, then fired general manager Kevyn Adams on Dec. 15 and promoted Jarmo Kekalainen to the position.

The team took off, extending its winning streak to 10 games. Entering Saturday, Buffalo has gone 32-8-4 under the former Columbus Blue Jackets GM. The Sabres have their first 100-point season since 2009-10 and are looking for their first division title since that season.

Kevyn Adams’ tenure

Adams, the general manager since 2020-21, brought in some of the players on this team, such as Alex Tuch, Josh Norris, Jason Zucker, Bowen Byram, Ryan McLeod and Josh Doan. He also traded away Jack Eichel (after a dispute over what type of neck surgery he should have), Sam Reinhart, Dylan Cozens and J.J. Peterka. Eichel and Reinhart won Stanley Cup titles after their trades.

Adams drew some criticism last season when he explained the difficulty of drawing free agents to Buffalo and why players often include the city on their no-trade lists.

“We don’t have palm trees,” he told reporters. “We have taxes in New York.”

Adams last season brought back coach Lindy Ruff, who had been coach of the 2010-11 playoff team. But the Sabres continued their pattern of early-season swoons — 0-10-3 this time — and finished 12 points out of a playoff spot.

Buffalo traded No. 2 scorer Peterka to Utah in the offseason and opened the season 0-3. Fans began chanting for Adams’ firing and it finally happened in December.

Jarmo Kekalainen’s tenure

Teams often get a bump from a coaching change, but a front office change can also have an impact because a general manager can decide a player’s future.

Kekalainen noted that his focus was going to be on work ethic, saying the team had lost some games by being outworked.

“You’ve got to work, you’ve got to compete and you’ve got to be relentless,” he said after being named general manager. “That’s what I want the identity of the Buffalo Sabres to be.”

He added that he “firmly” believed that Sabres could be a playoff team.

Kekalainen had been hired as a senior adviser in May. He had been aggressive in Columbus, hanging on to pending free agents Sergei Bobrovsky and Artemi Panarin and adding to a team that shockingly swept the No. 1 overall Tampa Bay Lightning in the first round in 2019.

After he was promoted in Buffalo, he revamped the front office and held on to Ruff. He gave a contract extension to Doan, who was acquired in the Peterka trade. But with the team surging, there was little need to change the players.

The general manager made moves at the deadline to beef up the team’s depth. He traded for Colton Parayko, but it fell through when the defenseman declined to waive his no-trade clause. He pivoted to add big, rugged defensemen Logan Stanley and Luke Schenn. He also added Sam Carrick, who’s strong on faceoffs, and depth forward Tanner Pearson.

A sign that the Sabres were for real was when they defeated the Lightning 8-7 in a game that featured tons of goals and penalty minutes.

What’s next for the Sabres?

They will try to win the Atlantic Division title and still have a chance to be the top seed in the Eastern Conference.

There isn’t a lot of playoff experience in this core because of the long drought. However, Schenn and Pearson are former Stanley Cup winners and McLeod has been to the Final. Tuch has played 66 postseason games and Zucker has played 52.

And Ruff has coached 101 playoff games, winning 57. He took the Sabres to the 1999 Final.

Who has the longest playoff drought?

The Detroit Red Wings are at nine seasons, the Anaheim Ducks are at seven and the San Jose Sharks are at six. But heading into Saturday’s game, the Ducks are second in the Pacific Division, the Sharks hold the second wild-card spot in the West and the Red Wings sit one spot below the playoff line in the East.

The Chicago Blackhawks have been eliminated, and their playoff drought is at six seasons.

Dawn Staley will coach South Carolina this Friday in its sixth consecutive Final Four appearance when the Gamecocks take on No. 1 overall seed UConn in the national semifinals.

It’s been nearly two decades since Staley left Temple to take the reins at South Carolina, a program that had no history of sustained success in women’s basketball prior to her arrival in 2008. Over her tenure, Staley has transformed the Gamecocks into one of the iconic brands in the sport and put herself in the conversation on a hypothetical Mount Rushmore of women’s basketball coaches.

Under the direction of Staley, South Carolina has won three national championships, appeared in eight Final Fours and has captured 10 SEC titles. WNBA stars like A’ja Wilson and Aliyah Boston have come through her program and she’s made Columbia, South Carolina, a destination for the top high school recruits, transfer portal talent and women’s basketball fans.

“I was here when Dawn got the job. One concession stand, no line for the restroom. Certainly nobody lined up outside the building to come in, right? No parking jams,” ESPN’s Debbie Antonelli told USA TODAY Sports. “Now, it’s unbelievable. I wish I could take a lot of pictures while driving, because people are outside lined up to come in. Dawn is the perfect example. She cares about the product. She built this.”

But there’s an alternate universe in which Staley never gets the South Carolina job. After Susan Walvius resigned in 2008 when her 11-year tenure fizzled out, Eric Hyman – then the director of athletics for the Gamecocks – initially had his sights set on a different candidate: North Carolina’s Sylvia Hatchell.

“I was offered the job,” Hatchell said in 2024 during an interview with this reporter for a book project. “But I just stayed (at North Carolina). Dawn has done a great job. I was offered the (South Carolina) job twice.”

Entering the 2007-08 season, UNC was considered one of the top programs in women’s basketball. Between 2004 and 2008, the Tar Heels were ranked as high as No. 1 in the AP poll, and never lower than No. 12. Ivory Latta and Erlana Larkins powered the Tar Heels to back-to-back Final Four appearances in 2006 and 2007. In 2008, UNC won its fourth consecutive ACC Tournament crown – Hatchell’s eighth.

And that success made Hatchell a hot commodity for schools aiming to push their women’s basketball program to the next level.

Surprisingly, she was attainable.

At that time, salaries for women’s college basketball coaches paled in comparison to what coaches in the men’s game were being paid, even for ones that had a long history of winning like Hatchell, who was inducted into the Women’s Basketball Hall of Fame in 2004 and led the Tar Heels to a national championship in 1994.

Hatchell began to think she was a bit undervalued. She was making a base salary of $260,000 per year, which was lower than Maryland’s Brenda Frese and Duke’s Joanne P. McCallie. And, it lagged far behind the reported $1.3 million that her close friend Pat Summitt was making annually at Tennessee. Hatchell wasn’t among the 20 highest paid coaches in the sport.

So, when South Carolina called, she listened.

As the 2007-08 season ended, the SEC was a women’s basketball league dominated by Summitt’s Lady Vols. Behind the play of Candace Parker, Tennessee won its eighth national title in Tampa, Florida. But other SEC programs had strong programs too.

Despite a revolving door of head coaches, LSU was excelling, making five straight Final Fours. Vanderbilt, coached by Jim Foster and then Melanie Balcomb, had a solid program, winning five SEC Tournament titles from 1995 to 2009 and making three trips to the Elite Eight. And Andy Landers’ Georgia Bulldogs had a losing record in SEC play just once between 1994 and 2013, and went to the Final Four three times.

And then, there were the South Carolina Gamecocks, which at that point had zero SEC championships and had made the Sweet 16 three times. The peak of Walvius’ tenure was an Elite Eight appearance in 2002, in which the Gamecocks lost to Duke by nine points. After a second-round NCAA Tournament exit the next season, things went south quickly for Walvius’ Gamecocks.

Over the next five seasons, South Carolina went a combined 20-50 in SEC play. Three weeks after a second-round WNIT loss to N.C. State, Walvius resigned. Ron Morris, a columnist at the State newspaper in Columbia, wrote that the program was “on life support,” then added, “Now, perhaps more than ever, the opportunity exists for USC to build a national power in women’s basketball.”

South Carolina aimed to get real about this growing sport. The Gamecocks were ready to invest in women’s basketball and they were going to take a big swing at finding their next head coach. A search got underway, and within about 10 days, candidates began to emerge.

Hyman ultimately narrowed his search to four candidates: Chattanooga head coach Wes Moore, longtime Tennessee assistant Holly Warlick, Staley and Hatchell. On April 25, 2008, the Durham Herald-Sun reported that Hatchell had met with South Carolina’s brass at her vacation home in Myrtle Beach. While Hatchell was the oldest among the candidates, she was also the most proven as the only one to win a national championship as a head coach. She was also beloved and respected in the South Carolina basketball community from her long and successful tenure at Division II Francis Marion, where she won national titles at the AIAW and NAIA levels in the 1980s. And she had won in Chapel Hill by recruiting players from the Carolinas, from Charlotte Smith to Latta.

In the days after the report about the meeting between Hatchell and the Gamecocks in Myrtle Beach, UNC athletic director Dick Baddour put on the full-court press to keep his national championship-winning coach. A contingency of UNC leadership visited Hatchell at her vacation home across the state border, and by May 2 she had publicly withdrawn her name from consideration to lead the Gamecocks.

Years later, Hyman said Hatchell used South Carolina to leverage a contract extension from UNC. According to the State, she later sent him $50 worth of McDonald’s gift cards as a thank you. On May 2, 2008, the State ran a story with the headline: “With UNC deal in works for Hatchell, focus shifts to Staley.”

Hatchell indeed got her raise, signing a four-year extension with a base annual salary of $330,000. Sure, it was a pay bump, but it still lagged far behind what other top-level coaches were making and was just about half of the cash South Carolina ultimately gave to Staley – signing her to a five-year deal making $650,000 annually.

“We talked to some high-caliber people,” Hyman said at Staley’s introductory news conference. “But when it was all said and done, (Staley) was the best person. There’s a price for excellence.”

Staley – who was a star at the University of Virginia, won three gold medals leading the U.S. national team, and made six WNBA All-Star appearances – had built Temple into a solid mid-major program, going to the NCAA Tournament six times, but wanted to coach at a high level where she could get better players. She wasn’t initially on Hyman’s radar until Staley’s agent called shortly after Walvius resigned.

“I really wanted to advance further in the NCAA Tournament. I just didn’t think we could do it. I thought we got Temple to a place where we topped off, and it comes down to who you’re able to recruit,” Staley told the State years later. “And I just really got tired of losing in the first and second round.”

This event, Hatchell turning down an offer from South Carolina and then Staley grabbing it with both hands, should be regarded as one of the seismic and crucial sliding-doors moments in the history of women’s college basketball. Because over the next decade, Staley built the Gamecocks into one of the sport’s Death Stars – a powerful force of inevitable – while Hatchell’s Tar Heels began a slow spiral downward, never recapturing the highs it experienced in previous eras.

As Staley and the Gamecocks rose, the best players in the Carolinas – like Tiffany Mitchell, Alaina Coates and A’ja Wilson – wanted to play for her in Columbia, not for Hatchell in Chapel Hill. Wilson even admitted on a podcast recently she considered signing with the Tar Heels, but ultimately chose the Gamecocks. Now, there’s a statue of the four-time WNBA MVP outside of Colonial Life Arena in Columbia.

As Staley built a championship caliber program, the Tar Heels relevance faded. As Staley began to make a significant impact in recruiting the mid-Atlantic and South, and as strong programs like Notre Dame and Louisville later entered the ACC, Hatchell never won another conference championship after 2008 and advanced past the Sweet 16 just one more time.

“When I had John Swofford and Dick Baddour as my athletic directors, they were really, really good,” Hatchell said. “I could go to them and say, ‘Look, I need this,’ and most of the time they would come through for me… I had a really good situation with John Swofford and Dick Baddour. It was a little bit different after that. We struggled.”

In 2019, Hatchell’s career at UNC came to a shocking halt. She had endured the academic fraud scandal at UNC that had engulfed the athletic department in the 2010s, but Hatchell was forced to resign after an investigation of the program by the Charlotte-based law firm Parker Poe Adams & Bernstein confirmed that she had made “racially insensitive” remarks and pressured her players to play through injuries.

UNC lured Courtney Banghart away from Princeton to restore the Tar Heels’ image as a women’s basketball. This season, Banghart’s seventh, UNC made the Sweet 16 for the third time under her direction and hosted NCAA Tournament games during the opening weekend of March Madness in Chapel Hill for the second consecutive season.

Staley’s Gamecocks are 5-4 against the Tar Heels since she took over in Columbia. South Carolina has won four straight meetings against UNC, and took a 47-point victory in their last matchup in the second round of the 2024 NCAA Tournament, en route to Staley’s third championship.

This weekend, she’ll try to guide South Carolina to a fourth.

PHOENIX — USC guard JuJu Watkins said she’s “getting closer to the finish line” in her recovery.

Watkins tore the anterior cruciate ligament in her right knee during the second round of the 2025 Women’s NCAA Tournament last March, cutting short her National Player of the Year season and sidelining her for the entire 2025-26 season. Watkins didn’t provide an exact timeline for her return, but 20-year-old said she’s only “couple more months” removed from returning to full on-court activities.

“I’ll be ready for next season, so that’s all I matters,” Watkins said Friday at Team USA basketball camp in Phoenix, where she’s one of two college players on the camp roster, alongside Vanderbilt’s Mikayla Blakes.

Watkins was limited to shooting drills during Team USA’s training camp. She put up some shots with Blakes and observed from the sidelines as players practiced plays and rotations. Although she would “love to be out there participating with everyone else to the best of (her) ability,” Watkins said she’s just thankful to be included.

“I’m really fortunate because this is a big goal of mine, so to still be able to be in the conversation, be in the rooms with so many great players… it’s very rewarding,” Watkins said. “To be here and be in this space … reminded me to continue to stick with it.”

Sue Bird, who serves as the Managing Director of the USA Women’s National Team, said Watkins has looked “great” from what she’s seen during camp. Bird said the end of the recovery process is normally the hardest for a player because “you’re ready but you still have to kind of take your time with it.”

“Obviously tearing your ACL as a young player is not fun, but I can speak firsthand,” said Bird, who suffered an ACL tear eight games into her freshman season at UConn in 1998. “You do learn a lot from the (recovery) experience and just in talking to her you can see she’s in a really settled place, a really calm place. I think (she’s) ready to get back on the court. I’m sure she’s itching to do that … I know she’ll have a great summer and then hopefully we see back on the court next year.”

Watkins said the recovery process has been filled with “many ups and downs,” but she said she’s walked away with a new perspective and greater patience, which will only benefit her game eons he returns to the court.

“So many things I want to do, so many games I’m excited for, so I’m just grateful to have the opportunity to come back and play,” Watkins said. “I learned a lot of things, a lot of ways we can improve, a lot of things (USC) does well. … Just being able to see things from a different perspective has definitely helped.”

Watkins also attended Team USA’s training camp in December in Durham, North Carolina.  

“Everybody’s been really great. They’ve made me feel very welcome and I’m very grateful for that,” Watkins said. “And yeah, I’m just really having fun, enjoying my time here.”

Reach USA TODAY National Women’s Sports Reporter Cydney Henderson at chenderson@gannett.com and follow her on X at@CydHenderson.

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USA TODAY Sports is providing live coverage of the Women’s Final Four match between the No. 1 UConn Huskies and No. 1 South Carolina Gamecocks at the Mortgage Matchup Center. Follow along here.

Rock and Roll Hall of Fame artist Flavor Flav is sitting courtside at the Mortgage Matchup Center for the Final Four matchup in the Women’s NCAA Tournament between South Carolina and UConn on Friday night.

The 67-year-old rapper was wearing his signature clock around his neck along with two other chains, and also rocking a New York Yankees hat and Air Jordans that featured UCLA blue. The No. 1 Bruins play against No. 1 Texas Longhorns in the second semifinal game on Friday.

It’s easy to assume who Flavor Flav was rooting for in the first game as he was seated next to former South Carolina All-American star Aliyah Boston. Before becoming a three-time WNBA All-Star with the Indiana Fever, Boston was the college National Player of the Year in 2022 and powered Dawn Staley’s Gamecocks to its second national title. Boston and Flavor Flav posed for a photo for USA TODAY Sports, but declined an interview request.

Boston isn’t the only South Carolina and UConn alumni in the building. UConn champions Diana Taurasi, Paige Bueckers and Kaitlyn Chen sat together during the matchup. Bueckers participated in the Team USA training camp in Phoenix earlier Friday.

Here are the other celebrities who were spotted in Phoenix on Friday:

Diana Taurasi, Paige Bueckers

Maya Moore

Lisa Leslie

Ilona Maher

Deebo Samuels

Studbudz

Courtney Williams and Natisha Hiedeman are hosting a Final Four alt-at on ESPN2.

The USA TODAY app gets you to the heart of the news — fast. Download for award-winning coverage, crosswords, audio storytelling, the eNewspaper and more.

INDIANAPOLIS – Rodney Tention couldn’t help but notice the similarities.

The former Arizona assistant returned to Tucson in February to celebrate the 25th anniversary of the program’s last Final Four team, and during the trip, coach Tommy Lloyd invited the group to practice.

“It reminded us of the group that we had,” Tention told USA TODAY Sports.

That sentiment continued to resonate the more they were around the 2025-26 team. The alumni watched them play, talked to them and importantly, got to see how they interact in a locker room. Everything was so similar to the 2000-01 team, they couldn’t help but let Lloyd know.

“We all said it,” Tention said. “I think this is the group that can break through.”

How right they were. This year’s group was, in fact, the one to break through. 

Arizona is back to the Final Four for the first time since that 2001 team. It ended decades of heartbreak for a program that had proven its relevancy, but couldn’t punctuate it with the most sought destination in the sport. 

It felt like there was a hex over the Wildcats. Despite having loaded teams capable of reaching the Final Four, they just didn’t. NBA All-Stars and champions like Andre Iguodala, Aaron Gordon and Channing Frye. High draft picks like Deandre Ayton and Derrick Williams to name a few. They all contributed to Arizona having the sixth-most wins since 2003.

So, what was wrong? Those that have witnessed all those teams try to get back to the Final Four said they just got unlucky.

“It’s hard,” Tention said. “At some point you’ve got to have a little bit of luck on your way. That’s all to it. Balls just got to bounce your way on that one certain day.”

The Wildcats surely had some things go wrong. A 15-point blown lead against Illinois in 2005, running into scorching Kemba Walker in 2011 and tough battles against Wisconsin in 2014 and 2015 are just some of those moments.

All of those games are some March Madness classics, just on the wrong side of history.

“You have shots and moments that happened that you’re just a part of basketball history,” said 2001 starter Richard Jefferson. “There was never any, ‘Oh, there’s some sort of issue.’ It was just like, ‘Yo, we just had a stretch where certain things haven’t gone our way.’”

When asked how the 2001 team made the Final Four, members all had the same message: It was a deep rotation that didn’t try to play hero ball, but emphasized defense. A well-rounded, oiled machine.

It’s easy to forget how stacked that 2001 team was. Jefferson, Gilbert Arenas, Jason Gardner, Michael Wright and Loren Woods were starters while Luke Walton came off the bench. A loaded team that very much resembles the current iteration. 

Both teams were in the top 15 in scoring, defensive field goal percentage and rebound margin. Being high percentage shooters helped each unit be in the top five in scoring margin.

The similarities don’t end there. That team had six players who averaged 20 minutes per game, this one has seven. Five guys who averaged double figure scoring, so does this season’s. 

“I don’t really think they really care who gets the points in the game,” Tention said. “That’s what makes them so dangerous. You don’t know who you gameplan against.”

No one may know that better than Jason Gardner, a sophomore guard on the 2001 team and now director of player relations for the Wildcats. He said the mixture of upperclassman leadership and talented freshmen create the special sauce, and they brought the intensity that was needed.

“I definitely think we’re a little bit more physical than maybe we have been in the past and I think it’s kind of really helped us kind of carry over this year,” Gardner said.

Jefferson notices comparisons in some of the guys he played with, notably with Jaden Bradley, who reminds him of standout Jason Terry from the 1997 national title team.

He also loves Koa Peat, an Arizona kid that knows what the program means to the state and decided to stay home.

It’s not lost on this year’s team the road was paved by those successful squads in the late 20th century, built on the legacy of Lute Olson. Former players and coaches said Lloyd has made an effort to involve them in the program, allowing them to watch and interact with the team so they can truly understand what it means to “Bear Down.”

“It’s really important that we include those guys in everything and they feel like owners of our program because they are owners. They’re 100% owners and they’re great dudes,” Lloyd said. “It’s been one of the coolest things for me to experience: developing relationships with them and having them tell me their stories because their stories are Arizona basketball stories.”

That’s why after Arizona defeated Purdue in the Elite Eight to punch their ticket to Indianapolis, Lloyd shouted out Olson to the large fan presence in San Jose, and why he mentioned postgame how his job was set up to succeed because of those building blocks.

“It’s really pretty gratifying, to be honest,” said Jim Rosborough, Olson’s right-hand man who spent 27 seasons with him, including 18 at Arizona. “(Lloyd’s) been one to recognize what went on before him, that he’s not the inventor of the wheel, but he’s kind of kept the wheel turning.”

All of it makes for one of the most highly anticipated weekends in recent memory. For as large of a brand as Arizona is, Tucson prides itself on a small-town vibe that rallies around its program.

“People live and die with Wildcat sports,” Tention said. Look at how the reception when the team arrived back home in the wee hours after winning the West Region, taking over the local airport. It actually goes beyond Pima County, as Rosborough mentioned, “it’s hard to be in the state of Arizona and not know about this team,” and it doesn’t get much bigger than this.

“To bring this back to the city of something that we were so close numerous times, I think is awesome,” Gardner added.

However, Jefferson sees the 2026 Final Four as more than just for the community and state. Not only did Arizona break the 25-year drought and is going for its second national championship in program history, but it’s also trying to break a drought out West. The 1997 title team is the last from the West Coast to win it all.

“We are in a position where we’re carrying an entire Mid-West-West Coast,” Jefferson said. “They really have half of the country that wants to prove that UCLA, Arizona, Oregon, all of these schools that have been dominant over years, can still win a national championship.”

You’d be a fool to think Arizona is satisfied with just making the Final Four again. This team has its eyes set on cutting down those nets inside Lucas Oil Stadium.

“It’s not like where it feels like we’re back on the mountaintop. It just feels like we have performed up to our standard in the biggest moment,” Jefferson said. “Arizona is not one of those schools that’s like, ‘Hey, we made it to the Final Four. We’re lucky. We’re happy.’ No, we’re one of those schools that say, ‘Hey, we’re proud of you, we’re proud of ourselves, we’re proud of what you guys have done. Now go finish the job.’”

If that happens, you can bet all of Tucson will be shut down, all the way from Flowing Wells to Saguaro National Park, with fans crazed like the javelinas that roam the desert. If it doesn’t happen, it will still be a celebrated squad that will live in Wildcat lore as the ones that finally got Arizona back where it belongs.

Like the teams before them laid the blueprint, the Wildcats hope this one remodels for another reign in the Sonoran Desert.

“Arizona is one of the strongest brands in all of collegiate sports,” Jefferson said. “At the same point in time, they’re awake right now.”

PHOENIX — When Raven Johnson went to the bench with 8:30 to play in the second quarter after picking up her second foul while tightly guarding UConn’s Azzi Fudd, there was a sense of frustration and despair among the South Carolina fans sitting in the Mortgage Matchup Center Friday, April 3 at the Final Four.

Former Gamecocks forward Aaliyah Boston rose from her courtside seat – where she was watching the game with rapper Flavor Flav – to yell at the referees. South Carolina was about to have to endure a long stretch against the undefeated Huskies, the top overall seed in the women’s NCAA Tournament, without their starting point guard and emotional leader.

And indeed, the Gamecocks got through it. They trailed UConn by just two points at halftime, and then started the third quarter on a 16-4 run to take a 10-point lead – which was at that point the largest deficit the Huskies had faced all season.

Johnson returned to the game and provided a steady hand and stellar defense in the second half as one Goliath defeated another with South Carolina taking a 62-48 win over UConn, snapping the Huskies’ 54-game win streak, ending their undefeated season and sending Geno Auriemma into a postgame tailspin.

“It started on the defensive end. We had to get stops,” South Carolina guard Ta’Niya Latson said. “We knew Raven wasn’t out there. She couldn’t really run the show, but we had to have her back. I think we just stayed closer during those times. We stayed together and we fought until Raven got back.”

Latson was a big reason why the Gamecocks were able to pull off the on-paper upset of the Huskies. The senior guard grabbed a career-high-tying 11 rebounds – marking just the fourth time in her collegiate tenure that she’s grabbed double-digit boards – and also scored 16 points, leading South Carolina in both scoring and rebounding.

The 5-foot-8 transfer from Florida State said earlier this week that she was “a little starstruck” to be playing in her first Final Four, but she thrived under the bright lights when South Carolina needed her most.

“I knew I had to impact the game in any way I could. I wanted this win. Whether that was rebounding, scoring, assisting, I was going to do what I had to do,” Latson said. “The balls were coming my way, so I had to grab ’em and snag ’em.”

South Carolina exposed one of UConn’s few weak spots by crashing the glass. The Huskies ranked 136th nationally in total rebounds per game this season, while the Gamecocks entered this game ranking in the top 15 of seven different rebounding statistics this year.

The Gamecocks won the rebounding battle 47-32, grabbed 14 offensive boards and flipped them into nine second-chance points and hammered UConn inside, outscoring the Huskies 34-20 in the paint. UConn also shot a season-worst 31.1% from the floor.

“That was the emphasis for our bigs, we had to crash the boards,” said South Carolina freshman Agot Makeer, who finished with 14 points. “Ta’Niya wanted to join the party, too. That was cool. She’s always going to impact the game. She’s a winner. So she can get it done.”

Latson kept hearing Staley’s halftime message in her head: “Meet the moment.”

As the game unfolded in the second half, and as moments kept coming Latson’s way, she continued to meet them head-on. She shot a perfect 10-of-10 from the free throw line and also came up with a crucial steal after Johnson left the game in the second quarter that led to an easy fast-break layup to ease some of the anxiety the Gamecocks’ fans were feeling.

When the game was in hand with 30.8 seconds to play in the fourth quarter, Boston rose from her seat again, raised her fist and let out a declarative “Hell yeah!”

On Sunday, the Gamecocks will face UCLA and try to win their fourth national championship in program history. Staley won’t be concerned about whether Latson will be capable of meeting the moment.

“You see players, they just have a different look. When they have it, it gives you confidence to know that they’re ready. Like, you know some players that you got question marks about whether they’re ready. I didn’t have any of that with Ta’Niya,” Staley said. “I think that Ta’Niya just made huge sacrifices, individual sacrifices. She wasn’t an All-American this year. I want her – if she’s not going to get the individual awards – to be part of a national championship team.”

Latson had all those accolades at Florida State. She was the National Freshman of the Year, a three-time All-ACC selection, an All-American and the nation’s leading scorer. But she never advanced to the second weekend of the NCAA Tournament with the Seminoles.

Now, she has one game left in her college career, and one last chance to win it all.

PHOENIX — Ok, maybe the entire town of Kingman, Arizona, wasn’t on hand Wednesday afternoon to see their hometown hero, but that lower section down right field, toward the concourse at Chase Field, certainly made their presence known loud and clear.

They watched their famous Kingman native mow down the Arizona Diamondbacks, but only this time, the two-time Cy Young winner Tarik Skubal didn’t get his Detroit Tigers teammates to cooperate.

Skubal, despite giving up just one run and six hits in seven dominant innings, lost 1-0 to the Diamondbacks. It was the first time he lost a 1-0 game since May 31 last season against the Kansas City Royals when he also gave up one run in seven innings.

Skubal gave up a home run to Corbin Carroll on his ninth pitch of the game, and allowed only one runner to reach second base after the third inning on shortstop Javier Baez’s error. He threw 60 of his 87 pitches for strikes, but took no solace in his latest dominant performance, with the Tigers having scored in just four of their last 49 innings.

“Obviously, it doesn’t really matter,’’ said Skubal, 1-1 with a 0.69 ERA, vying to join Hall of Famers Greg Maddux and Randy Johnson to win three consecutive Cy Young awards. “We lost. The goal of every game that I’m pitching, I want to win. It doesn’t really matter how it happens.

“Individually, fine, but it’s a team game. And we need to win. So it doesn’t really matter how I felt because it comes in a loss.’’

Skubal struck out just three batters, but he induced nine ground ball outs, including three double-play balls. His only real mistake was throwing a 97-mph fastball at the top of the strike zone on an 0-and-2 pitch to Carroll in the first inning, which he hit 406 feet over the center-field fence. He gave up only one 0-2 pitch for a home run all last season.

Then again, you ask Skubal, and he didn’t consider it a mistake at all.

The pitch was exactly right where he wanted. He gave all of the credit to Carroll, who became just the sixth left-handed hitter to ever homer off Skubal, and just the third since he began his Cy Young run in 2024.

“Great pitch, great pitch,’’ Skubal said. “I thought I executed it great. If you told me an 0-2 heater, that I’m going to execute it there 10 more times, I would do it 10 more times. It’s just one of those things. He’s a really good hitter, too, and he put a good swing on it.

“So, sometimes you got to tip your cap, and that was one of those times. That’s obviously a difference-maker in the game, but I don’t take that pitch back by any means.’’

Carroll, who’s hitting .333 with two homers, a double and triple despite breaking his hamate bone this spring, certainly appreciated the compliment. It’s not as if he was about to ask Skubal to autograph the baseball for him, but to join Freddie Freeman and Edouard Julien as the only left-handed batters to homer off Skubal since 2024 season, he realizes it’s pretty select company.

“Obviously, he’s one of the best in the game, if not the best,’’ Carroll said. “It’s really fun to go to battle against guys like that.’’

Carroll’s homer might have dampened the enthusiasm from the folks who drove three hours down from Kingman, with Skubal leaving 50 tickets, but it hardly ruined the performance. Skubal, making only his second start at Chase Field, showed the kids at home that you can be born with a club foot, go completely ignored by the three major universities in the state, and still work to become the greatest pitcher in baseball.

“No doubt, I like to enjoy the environment and to show that I care about the people that support me,’’ Skubal said. “So, it’s really cool whenever I get to back here and make a start. … I get to perform in front of my family, and understanding that I’m not around a ton, so I want to put on a good performance in front of them.’’

Skubal, who was able to sleep in his own bed in Scottsdale, Arizona, during the Tiger’s four-day stay, enjoyed seeing friends and family. He teased them that since the Tigers have only one more trip within driving distance of Kingman — a three-game series July 17-19 against the Los Angeles Angels — that “now they’re all going to have to get their ass on a plane to Detroit if they want to see me.’’

Skubal laughed. Who knows, considering the Los Angeles Dodgers can sign whoever they want with their unlimited resources, they could be seeing a lot of him in the future since he will be the most prized free agent on the market this winter. He’s expected to sign the richest contract for a pitcher in baseball history, exceeding $400 million.

Diamondbacks starter Zac Gallen, who outdueled Skubal by giving up just four hits in six shutout innings, knows he’ll be in the same free-agent marketplace, and heartily laughed when it was suggested he’d gladly take $1 million less than whatever Skubal receives.

“I’m all in,’’ he said.

Skubal isn’t going to sit around and worry about his future now. He knows he’ll be handsomely paid, setting up his family for generations. For now, he’s got a World Series championship to win.

And a small town of 35,000 in northern Arizona to impress, just like he did when he stopped in Kingman before heading off to Lakeland, Florida, for spring training.

“I go talk to the elementary schools and just go get in front of them,” Skubal says. “I think it’s important to give back to kids. A lot of those kids kind of idolize me, so it’s good to get in front of them and just talk to them. Let them know I’m a human and that I played basketball in the same gym that they did. I think that stuff’s pretty cool. …

“Being in my position is a privilege, and it’s something that I don’t take lightly. Getting in front of kids in my hometown, kids in Detroit, or anywhere, and just kind of [letting] them understand that whatever your dream is as a kid, whatever your passion is, just go do it and pursue it. Enjoy it. Life’s too short not to.

“I think that that’s the message I try to portray to kids.”

And, yes, as he reminded them one last time Wednesday, he was one of them not too long ago, driving down to catch Diamondbacks games during the season, or spring training games in March, dreaming that one day he’d be standing on the same mound.

“I got some special memories of this place,’’ he said. “I remember coming to games here. The tickets I would get would be three seats up from the roof. I remember being terrified up there, just how high up it was.’’

Now, the only ones being terrified are the opposing lineups he faces, with one team being the fortunate ones to sign him.

“Someone,’’ Carroll said, “is going to be paying that guy a lot of money after this year.’’

The Diamondbacks can only hope it’s not to their hated rivals to the West.

They saw enough of him Wednesday to last a season.

Follow Bob Nightengale on X @Bnightengale.

Big 12 commissioner Brett Yormark snapped back at Cody Campbell, saying the chairman of the Texas Tech University System Board of Regents “does not run the Big 12” after Campbell complained publicly about the conference and its television partners possibly moving this year’s Texas Tech football game against Houston to a Friday night.

Texas Tech was one of only three Big 12 teams that didn’t play a regular-season game on a Friday night last year. Campbell says that’s going to happen this coming season, and he doesn’t like it.

Campbell posted this week on social media the Big 12 and Fox Sports are looking to move the Texas Tech home game against Houston from Sept. 19, the Saturday on which it’s currently slotted, to Sept. 18. He began his objection by writing that “Friday Night Lights are sacred in the Great State of Texas!”

He also took Yormark to task.

“I heard about it through the (Tech football) staff up here and our administration that it was being discussed,” Campbell told the Avalanche-Journal on Tuesday, March 31. “They (TV partners) have the draft or whatever, and the conference doesn’t want to really acknowledge it, but they do have an ability to influence those decisions. They just chose not to because they were chasing ratings — which I do understand on one hand, but on the other hand, high school football is important in the state of Texas.

“We’ve got a road game the week before. It’s not an ideal situation for us, and … I think our conference should protect us more than they did.”

Campbell is a former Texas Tech offensive lineman, one of six founding members of The Matador Club, a collective that’s supported Tech athletics, and an increasingly prominent voice nationally on college-sports issues.

The Big 12 released the 2026 schedule on Jan. 21 with the usual caveats that TV partners ESPN, Fox Sports and TNT Sports would make their selections for the first three weeks of the season at a later date and that some Saturday games could be moved to Friday or other special dates.

Though there’s been no announcement from the Big 12, Campbell said he thinks the Tech-Houston game moving to Friday is a fait accompli.

“I think it’s done,” he said, “unless they come back and they figure something else out. I think Yormark could have gone to bat for us and didn’t, because, again, he wanted the ratings. I think Fox is not concerned about any individual team. I think, again, they also want ratings, so they picked the game that’s going to give them the most viewership for that weekend.”

Last season, Tech went 12-2, won the Big 12 championship, and was a College Football Playoff quarterfinalist. Houston capped a 10-3 season by beating LSU in the Texas Bowl.

Brett Yormark says Big 12 presidents, ADs approved 12 non-Saturday games a year

Asked on Wednesday, April 1, for a response to Campbell’s comments on social media and to the Avalanche-Journal, the Big 12 issued a statement from Yormark to the A-J.

“Cody Campbell does not run the Big 12,” Yormark said. “Our Board and our ADs approved playing 12 games a year off of Saturdays in an effort to raise the profile, narrative, and viewership of Big 12 Football. Texas Tech hosting a primetime game on Friday night delivers that.

“Friday night Big 12 football games outperformed the Conference’s average rating by 64% in 2025. All of our schools are treated equally during the TV scheduling process and this game fits within our scheduling parameters. I am thankful that our TV partners provide us with these opportunities.”

There were seven FBS regular-season games, including two involving Big 12 teams, played on Friday nights in Texas last season: Auburn-Baylor and UNLV-Sam Houston State on Aug. 29, Colorado-Houston on Sept. 12, South Florida-North Texas on Oct. 10, Memphis-Rice on Oct. 31 and Texas A&M-Texas and Temple-North Texas on Nov. 28.

Texas Tech football would face short week after West Coast trip

Texas Tech plays Oregon State on Sept. 12 in Corvallis, Oregon, so the prospect of Tech-Houston six days later puts the Red Raiders on a short week coming out of a trip to the Pacific time zone.

“We’ll deal with it,” Campbell said. “We’ll play on Monday night if we have to, but I don’t think it’s in the best interest of the kids or our program or even the Big 12 for us to be playing that [Houston] game that night.

“We’ll get back [from Corvallis, Oregon] at 4 o’clock in the morning on Sunday, you know? I mean, they’ll probably have to prepare [for Houston] the week before.”

Kirby Hocutt tells local ADs of potential conflict with Houston at Texas Tech football game

Tech athletics director Kirby Hocutt has advised ADs from Lubbock ISD, Lubbock-Cooper, and Frenship schools that the Red Raiders might play on Friday, Sept. 18, a Tech athletics spokesman said, in case they want to adjust their own games in response.

Yormark’s desire to have a supply of non-Saturday Big 12 games has put him at odds with high school coaches since the beginning of his tenure. He expressed it at the 2023 Big 12 media days when he was starting his second year on the job.

“It’s very hot during the summer months, especially in the (early) fall,” Yormark said in July 2023. “So playing on a Friday night versus Saturday morning does have its benefits. And when you think about the tonnage of college football on air on a Saturday provides a lot of opportunity for us to kind of build our profile on a Friday night.”

At the Texas High School Coaches Association annual convention in July 2024, THSCA executive director Joe Martin said the THSCA objected to Friday night college games, specifically mentioning a Houston-TCU game that fall.

Dave Campbell’s Texas Football quoted Martin as saying, “We are asking all conference commissioners to refrain from scheduling Friday night games during the 11-week Texas high school football regular season. We feel Friday nights should be about the communities involved with Texas high school football.”

The Big 12 conference schedule starts Sept. 12 with Arizona at Brigham Young. Houston-Texas Tech and Arizona State-Kansas are the two Big 12 openers on Sept. 19. Attractive nonconference games that day include two Big 12 opponents playing teams that finished 11-3 last year — West Virginia-Virginia and Kansas State-Tulane — and a Power Four Conference matchup, Colorado-Northwestern.

Last year, Texas Tech and Iowa State were the only two Big 12 teams that played all their regular-season games on Saturdays.

Of the other Big 12 schools, Houston played three Friday games, and Kansas, Colorado, Arizona and Arizona State had two apiece. Four teams played one Thursday game apiece: Central Florida, Oklahoma State, Houston and Cincinnati. TCU opened on a Monday night at North Carolina.

Regarding his social-media post, Campbell said, “I meant what I said. I told Brett Yormark I meant what I said. I’m not going to back down from it. I don’t think, especially in the state of Texas, two Texas teams should be playing on Friday night. It’s different than it is in other parts of the country.”

The NBA postseason is rapidly approaching, with less than two weeks remaining in the 2025-26 regular season.

While all postseason berths have been clinched, teams are furiously jockeying for playoff positioning, especially those seeking to remain above the fray of the Play-In Tournament. That’s especially true in the Eastern Conference, where only four games separate the current No. 5 seed, the Atlanta Hawks, and the Miami Heat, currently No. 10.

In the Western Conference, all three divisions have been clinched, with the Oklahoma City Thunder claiming the Northwest, the San Antonio Spurs the Southwest and the Los Angeles Lakers the Pacific. But perhaps the most intriguing story as the regular season winds down is whether the Spurs can catch the Thunder for the top seed in the West.

Heading into the slate of April 2 games, the Cleveland Cavaliers, currently the No. 4 team in the East, can clinch a playoff spot with a win, while the Houston Rockets, currently the No. 5 team in the West, can clinch a playoff berth if the Phoenix Suns lose.

Here are the current brackets for the playoffs and the Play-In Tournament, the NBA standings and the schedule for Thursday, April 2:

NBA schedule for Thursday, April 2

(All times Eastern)

• Phoenix Suns at Charlotte Hornets, 7 p.m.
• Minnesota Timberwolves at Detroit Pistons, 7 p.m.
• Los Angeles Lakers at Oklahoma City Thunder, 9:30 p.m. ET
• Cleveland Cavaliers at Golden State Warriors, 10 p.m.
• New Orleans Pelicans at Portland Trail Blazers, 10 p.m.
• San Antonio Spurs at Los Angeles Clippers, 10:30 p.m.

NBA standings

All 20 teams – 10 in each conference – that will participate in the postseason have been determined. Here are their records through April 1, and what each of those teams have clinched so far (x-clinched playoff berth; d-clinched division):

Eastern Conference

• (1) d-Detroit Pistons: 55-21
• (2) x-Boston Celtics: 51-25 (4 GB)
• (3) x-New York Knicks: 49-28 (6.5 GB)
• (4) Cleveland Cavaliers: 47-29 (8 GB)
• (5) Atlanta Hawks: 44-33 (11.5 GB)
• (6) Philadelphia 76ers: 42-34 (13 GB)
• (7) Toronto Raptors: 42-34 (13 GB)
• (8) Charlotte Hornets: 40-36 (15 GB)
• (9) Orlando Magic: 40-36 (15 GB)
• (10) Miami Heat: 40-37(15.5 GB)

Western Conference

• (1) d-Oklahoma City Thunder: 60-16
• (2) d-San Antonio Spurs: 58-18 (2 GB)
• (3) d-Los Angeles Lakers: 50-26 (10 GB)
• (4) x-Denver Nuggets: 49-28 (11.5 GB)
• (5) Houston Rockets: 47-29 (13 GB)
• (6) Minnesota Timberwolves: 46-29 (13.5 GB)
• (7) Phoenix Suns: 42-34 (18 GB)
• (8) Los Angeles Clippers: 39-37 (21 GB)
• (9) Portland Trail Blazers: 39-38 (21.5 GB)
• (10) Golden State Warriors: 36-40 (24 GB)

NBA playoffs bracket

(After games played on April 1)

Eastern Conference

• (1) Detroit Pistons vs. (8) Play-In Winner
• (4) Cleveland Cavaliers vs. (5) Atlanta Hawks
• (3) New York Knicks vs. (6) Philadelphia 76ers
• (2) Boston Celtics vs. (7) Play-In Winner

Western Conference

• (1) Oklahoma City Thunder vs. (8) Play-In Winner
• (4) Denver Nuggets vs. (5) Houston Rockets
• (3) Los Angeles Lakers vs. (6) Minnesota Timberwolves
• (2) San Antonio Spurs vs. (7) Play-In Winner

NBA Play-In Tournament

(After games played on April 1)

Western Conference

• (7) Phoenix Suns vs. (8) LA Clippers
• (9) Portland Trail Blazers vs. (10) Golden State Warriors

Eastern Conference

• (7) Toronto Raptors vs. (8) Charlotte Hornets
• (9) Orlando Magic vs. (10) Miami Heat

When do the NBA playoffs begin?

• The NBA Play-In Tournament begins on Tuesday, April 14 and runs through Friday, April 17.
• The NBA playoffs start Saturday, April 18 and feature eight teams in each conference after teams are eliminated in the Play-In Tournament.
• Game 1 of the NBA Finals scheduled for Wednesday, June 3.

Which NBA teams have been eliminated from the playoffs?

Eastern Conference

• Brooklyn Nets
• Chicago Bulls
• Indiana Pacers
• Milwaukee Bucks
• Washington Wizards

Western Conference

• Dallas Mavericks
• Memphis Grizzlies
• New Orleans Pelicans
• Sacramento Kings
• Utah Jazz

PHOENIX — UConn Huskies head coach Geno Auriemma had dinner with Diana Taurasi Wednesday night in Phoenix ahead of the Huskies’ Final Four matchup against the South Carolina Gamecocks.

“In typical D fashion, she’s the story,” Auriemma said with a smile, referring to his former player.

The Huskies are staying on Taurasi Way in downtown Phoenix during the Final Four, a street named after the Phoenix Mercury legend who spent her entire 20-year WNBA career in the desert. UConn practiced at Phoenix’s Mountain America Performance Center, where Taurasi’s name and logo graces the basketball courts.

“Being able to practice at her facility, staying on her road, being in her city, it is incredible,” senior guard Azzi Fudd said. “Having someone that you went from looking up to, then meeting them, playing at UConn and knowing that you’re a part of this sisterhood. She’s a resource and she’s someone that we can reach out to and talk to and just look up to and go to for advice that we ever need.”

All the parallels are extra meaningful to the Huskies, but Auriemma said it’s even more special for Taurasi.

“To be here, I know that means a lot to her. I know it means a lot to our players,” Auriemma said. “In my mind, (she’s) the greatest basketball player to ever play college basketball, and maybe the greatest WNBA player of all time. … You don’t often get a chance to do that, you know?”

Fudd joked that she’s “not at that level yet” to receive an invitation to dinner with Auriemma and Taurasi, but she hopes Taurasi comes to watch the Huskies go for their 13th national championship.

 “Obviously, it would mean a lot to have success in her city,” Fudd added. “To see her pave the way and make all this possible now for us, yeah, it would be incredible.”

Taurasi isn’t the only UConn alum that Auriemma’s dined with during the Huskies’ 25th Final Four run. He said the team shared a meal with Paige Bueckers, who led the Huskies to a national championship last season.

“We had dinner with Paige (Bueckers) last night and listened to her speak. It reminded me of how much those five years took off of my life, listening to the things that she says,” Auriemma said on Thursday, March 27 ahead of their 63-42 Sweet 16 win over No. 4 North Carolina. “The interesting thing is I lived through it with Diana (Taurasi) and they’re the only two that put me through that.”

Fudd joked that Auriemma is “definitely more mellow since Nika (Mühl) and Paige (Bueckes) left.”

“I think (they) caused him a lot of headaches, I’m sure,” Fudd joked.

As for if she gives Auriemma trouble, she said, “Never.”

Reach USA TODAY National Women’s Sports Reporter Cydney Henderson at chenderson@gannett.com and follow her on X at@CydHenderson.

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