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From The GIST College Sports (hi@thegistsports.com)
Happy AAPI Heritage Month!
Is *NSYNC stuck in your head this morning? Tell ’em bye, bye, bye by scrolling through the latest in college sports. If there’s one source you can trust to sort through the hurricane of NCAA news, it’s gonna be us.
— LSU women’s gymnast and reigning NCAA all-around champion Haleigh Bryant, announcing her return for her fifth and final season next year. With the perfect 10 princess back on the roster, LSU’s shot at a natty repeat just went through the roof.
Women’s lacrosse
🥍 Don’t stop ’em now
The GIST: Hear that roar? It’s the women’s lacrosse postseason. Teams are feverishly trying to lock down conference tournament trophies — and the automatic berths to the national tournament that come with them — ahead of Sunday’s selection show.
- The ACC, arguably the most head-to-head competitive conference, has already awarded their hardware (congrats, No. 2 Boston College!), but for the rest, the party’s just beginning. Here’s where the national tourney favorites are duking it out.
Big Ten: With more ranked squads than any other conference, the Big Ten championship is a BFD — especially as it overlaps with their ultra-competitive men’s tournament. No. 6–seed Rutgers already pulled off a massive upset in Saturday’s quarter-finals, so expect some semifinal spice tomorrow when they face No. 2 Penn State at 3:30 p.m. ET on BTN.
- But first, check out No. 1 Northwestern vs. No. 5 Johns Hopkins as Northwestern sixth-year Izzy Scane chases history: With seven more goals, she’ll break the all-time Division I scoring record, women’s or men’s. “Izzy Watch” begins at 1 p.m. ET.
Patriot League: It’s easy to see why top-seeded Loyola Maryland is the highest-ranked team not from the Big Ten or ACC: They blazed through conference play undefeated and seem primed to reach their 10th consecutive conference tourney final. In their way? No. 6–seed Lehigh, who hopes the momentum from their big quarter-final upset will carry them through tomorrow’s 3 p.m. ET semi.
AAC: No. 1–seed Florida, another national Top-10 team who went undefeated in conference play, has been running the AAC for years. But this season, No. 2 James Madison is stronger than ever and could challenge the Gators…assuming both survive tomorrow’s semifinals, which start at 5:30 p.m. ET.
Transfer portal
🏀🏈 Big money moves
The GIST: Unlimited trips to the transfer portal mean basketball and football players always keep us on our toes, even in the offseason. Spring transfer windows (when athletes are permitted to enter the portal) for football and basketball closed yesterday and today, respectively. Here’s who shook up rosters and made headlines.
🏀 Women’s basketball: Every Power Five program except Duke, Indiana, and Iowa has had at least one player hit the portal, but Oregon State has suffered a mass exodus as the Beavers prepare to lose Power Five status. Their top stars made big money moves this week, starting when rising junior forward Raegan Beers chose up-and-comer Oklahoma over powerhouse UConn on Monday.
- But later that day, rising senior guard Talia von Oelhoffen caught even more buzz when she announced her transfer to USC — just two days after former Stanford standout Kiki Iriafen also joined the Trojans. Add in rising sophomore JuJu Watkins, and call it a dream team.
🏈 Football: The Colorado Buffaloes, led by head coach (HC) Deion Sanders, are once again milking the portal to remake their roster. Before the window closed yesterday, defensive lineman Bishop Thomas became the 42nd (!!!) Buff to seek a Colorado exit since the season ended. Sanders’ approach to the portal had mixed results last year — will they nail it this time?
🏀 Men’s basketball: Men’s hoops hasn’t seen as many blockbuster commitments, but there’s still a ton of transfer talent left. The highlights? FAU guard Johnell Davis and Seton Hall guard Kadary Richmond, who are both being pursued by blue-blood Kentucky, and USC guard Bronny James…unless the NBA’s LA Lakers need extra leverage to keep his dad on next year’s court.
🏆 Championship brackets, set
Eighty-one teams and 35 individuals will make the NCAA men’s golf regional cut at today’s 2 p.m. ET selection show on the Golf Channel. With those selections, the golf guys will join women’s water polo and women’s and men’s tennis as the latest spring sports to set their national championship fields. Trophy season? Best season.
💸 Athlete compensation movement
Word on the street is that the SEC and Big Ten are cooking up a plan to share revenue with student-athletes as a potential settlement to House v. NCAA, an antitrust class action lawsuit directly aiming at the NCAA’s current business model. The proposed solution would spread some wealth to players while notably not requiring that athletes become school employees.
🏐 Men’s volleyball
Last night’s first round of the men’s volleyball national tournament went as expected, with all four higher seeds sweeping their quarter-finals — setting up a thrilling semifinal round tomorrow: No. 1–seed UCLA will take on No. 4 UC Irvine at 6:30 p.m. ET, and No. 3 Grand Canyon will face host No. 2 Long Beach State at 9:30 p.m. ET.
Here’s what has GIST HQ buzzing:
📚 What to read
Pipeline to the Pros. Did you know that NBA coaches like Frank Vogel (Phoenix Suns) and Tom Thibodeau (NY Knicks) started their playing careers at Division III colleges? Order your copy today to learn how they dreamed big and rose through the ranks.
🍿 What to watch
Aces vs. Everybody. The documentary chronicles the Las Vegas Aces’ journey to becoming the first back-to-back WNBA Champions in more than two decades.
🏀 What to relive
The WNBA Draft. Go behind the scenes with Caitlin Clark in this episode of Fever All-Access. This season can’t come soon enough.
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