Sports briefs
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No. 15 Gamecocks play with an AP Top 25 ranking
Josh Gray admitted he spent a few weeks wondering about whether his surging South Carolina team might pop in the next edition of The Associated Press men’s college basketball poll.
The 15th-ranked Gamecocks are there now, playing with confidence and a number by their name for the first time in nearly seven years.
South Carolina hosts Mississippi on Tuesday and then Vanderbilt on Saturday as part of the AP Top 25 national schedule. It comes with the Gamecocks (19-3, 7-2 Southeastern Conference) just a game out of first place in the league standings to start the week and owning the program’s first ranking since February 2017.
“Wherever they put us is where they put us,” freshman forward Collin Murray-Boyles said during the postgame news conference after a weekend win at Georgia. “We ain’t going to play no differently.”
That sounds just fine to second-year coach Lamont Paris, too.
South Carolina has won five straight, including a home win against then-No. 6 Kentucky on Jan. 23 and then last week’s win at then-No. 5 Tennessee — marking the program’s first road win against a top-5 opponent since March 1997.
The schedule still includes matchups with the now-No. 6 Volunteers and No. 12 Auburn, but the Gamecocks are within reach of the program’s first NCAA Tournament bid since that unexpected Final Four run of 2017 — which stands as the program’s lone NCAA bid in two decades.
That was also the last time South Carolina reached 20 wins.
“There’s all these other milestones and things we want to accomplish in terms of developing a program, establishing things,” Paris said after the Georgia win. “That’s my job. For these guys, it’s about this year only. They want to play in the NCAA Tournament and I want to play whatever role I can to help them experience that.”
RANKED RIVALS
Staying in the SEC, the Alabama-Auburn instate rivalry grabs part of the national spotlight this week with Wednesday’s matchup in Tuscaloosa.
The No. 16 Crimson Tide (16-6, 8-1), who made the biggest jump of eight spots in Monday’s latest poll, took the first matchup by winning on the road exactly two weeks earlier. Alabama has lost just once since Dec. 20.
As for the Tigers (18-4, 7-2), the Round 1 loss was part of a two-game blip that included falling at Mississippi State.
BIG 12 TUSSLES
No. 13 Baylor has a tough week ahead.
The Bears (16-5, 5-3 Big 12) start on Tuesday by hosting No. 23 Texas Tech, which took the biggest tumble in Monday’s poll by falling eight spots after losses to TCU and Cincinnati. Then comes Saturday’s trip to fourth-ranked Kansas, which is coming off a home win against Houston.
The Big 12 has a national-best six ranked teams.
THE TOP TIER
Reigning national champion Connecticut, Purdue and North Carolina have been sitting 1-2-3 atop the AP Top 25 for three straight weeks.
The top-ranked Huskies (20-2, 10-1 Big East) enter the week with 10 straight wins. They host Butler on Tuesday then visit Georgetown on Saturday.
The No. 2 Boilermakers (21-2, 10-2 Big Ten) bring KenPom’s No. 1-ranked offense (126.2 points per 100 possessions) into home games against Indiana and Minnesota.
Then there’s the No. 3 Tar Heels (18-4, 10-1 Atlantic Coast Conference) looking to follow their rivalry win against No. 9 Duke. They host Clemson on Tuesday before making Saturday’s trip to Miami, which peaked at No. 8 in the AP Top 25 in late November.
WATCH LIST
Saint Mary’s (18-6, 9-0 West Coast Conference) was the top vote-getter among unranked teams. The Gaels are coming off a win at Gonzaga to put them in firm control of the league lead, and have road trips to Pacific (Tuesday) and Portland (Saturday).
Also keep an eye on Indiana State, which is within reach of the program’s first ranking since Larry Bird’s final season in Terre Haute in 1979. The Sycamores (20-3, 11-1 Missouri Valley Conference) host Valparaiso on Wednesday then visit Missouri State on Saturday.
Iowa’s Caitlin Clark continues her push for women’s scoring record
All eyes will be on Caitlin Clark this week as she try to break the NCAA women’s basketball scoring record.
Iowa’s star guard needs 66 points to break the record of 3,527 held by Kelsey Plum. The No. 2 Hawkeyes play at home on Thursday against Penn State before visiting Nebraska on Sunday. Clark is averaging 32.4 points per game this season but has surpassed that in her last five games, putting up more than 37 a contest.
Whenever Clark breaks the mark, Plum said she’ll be happy for her.
“I’m actually very grateful to pass that baton. I’m very happy for her,” Plum said at a USA Basketball camp in New York during the weekend.
Plum, who played collegiately at Washington, recalls chasing the NCAA scoring mark that was held by Missouri State’s Jackie Stiles.
“I remember it was very much a low point in my life,” Plum said. “It felt like a lot of pressure, and my identity was kind of caught up in that record. I hope everyone in the media takes time to understand that (Clark) is not just a basketball player but a young woman that has feelings and emotions. She carries it with grace, but there’s a lot to handle there.”
Plum hoped that people are checking on Clark’s mental health.
“That’s someone you know who has good days and bad days, too,” Plum said. “Make sure she’s checked in on and see how she’s doing. That’s to me what I care about most and I wish I had someone that stood up and cared about that when I was going through it.”
Clark also is approaching 1,000 assists in her career. She has 980 and sits in eighth place all-time.
LOADED ACC
Louisville and No. 3 North Carolina State tipped off busy weeks Monday night with a win by the Wolfpack. The 15th-ranked Cardinals host No. 12 Notre Dame on Thursday before traveling to face No. 23 Syracuse on Sunday.
N.C. State hosts No. 16 Virginia Tech on Thursday.
“This was a stretch here where you have an opportunity to make a statement,” Wolfpack coach Wes Moore said. “This stretch is kind of like what you would see in an NCAA Tournament, trying to go to a Final Four. You’re going to have to go through at least three really, really good teams to get there.”
There are five Atlantic Coast Conference teams ranked this week, with North Carolina right outside the AP Top 25.
APPROACHING 1,200
UConn coach Geno Auriemma is one victory away from joining Tara VanDerveer (1,206) and Mike Krzyzewski (1,202) as the only Division I coaches with 1,200 victories. Auriemma’s first chance to reach that milestone is Wednesday when the Huskies host Seton Hall.
The 49ers will remain at original Super Bowl practice field
The San Francisco 49ers will practice for the Super Bowl at UNLV’s campus as scheduled despite having initial worries about the condition of the field.
The Niners had expressed concern to the league that the field on UNLV’s campus is too soft even though NFL inspectors cleared it for safety. Sod was recently placed over the turf field on UNLV’s campus for the 49ers to use this week.
Coach Kyle Shanahan told reporters at media night Monday in Las Vegas that the field had been improving every day since the team initially looked at it last week. The 49ers held a walkthrough on the field Monday and will practice there starting Wednesday as scheduled.
“We’re not worried about it at all,” Shanahan said. “It is what it is. We’re here and we won’t change anything.”
NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell said earlier in the day that league and independent inspectors found the practice field safe to use during Super Bowl week.
“We’ve had 23 experts out there. We had the union out there. All of them think it’s a very playable surface,” Goodell said at his Super Bowl news conference on Monday. “It’s softer than what they practiced on, but that happens. It’s well within all of our testing standards. It’s something we think all of our experts, as well as neutral field inspectors, have all said unanimously that it’s a playable field.”
The Kansas City Chiefs, as the designated home team for the game, get to practice at the Las Vegas Raiders facility in nearby Henderson.
Freshman JuJu Watkins
of USC leads Trojans
to two big wins
The Associated Press national player of the week in women’s basketball for Week 13 of the season:
Juju Watkins, USC
The 6-foot-2 freshman wing from Los Angeles scored 51 of her team’s 67 points in an upset victory over then-No. 4 Stanford. She added 11 rebounds and four steals in that game. Her point total was the highest by a freshman since Elena Delle Donne had 54 in 2010 for Delaware. Watkins followed up her historic night with a 29-point effort in a win over Cal. It’s the second time that Watkins has been honored as the AP Player of the Week.
Runner-up
Caitlin Clark, Iowa. The senior guard moved into second on the NCAA all-time scoring list and now only needs 66 points to pass Kelsey Plum. Clark averaged 36.5 points in wins over Northwestern and Maryland. She also had a season-high 12 assists in the victory over the Terrapins.
HONORABLE MENTION
Aaliyah Edwards ( UConn ), Taiyanna Jackson ( Kansas ), Jewel Spear ( Tennessee ).
KEEP AN EYE ON
Katie Dinnebier, Drake. Had the second triple-double in school history with a 19-point, 11-rebound, 10-assist effort against Northern Iowa. She leads the Missouri Valley Conference in scoring at 19.1 points and assists at 6.3. Her triple-double was the 14th in conference history.
Ben McAdoo working out deal to join Patriots’ coaching staff
Former New York Giants coach Ben McAdoo is working out a deal to join the New England Patriots as a senior offensive assistant, a person familiar with the situation tells The Associated Press.
The person spoke to the AP on the condition of anonymity Tuesday because it had yet to be finalized.
The 46-year-old McAdoo was the Carolina Panthers offensive coordinator under Matt Rhule in 2022.
Joining the staff of new Patriots coach Jerod Mayo will reunite McAdoo with Alex Van Pelt, who was recently hired as New England’s offensive coordinator. McAdoo was the quarterbacks coach for the Green Bay Packers in 2012 and 2013 when Van Pelt was the running backs coach.
McAdoo was the Giants offensive coordinator under Tom Coughlin from 2014-15 before being promoted to head coach in 2016. He went 11-6 in his first season, ending a four-year playoff drought.
But it fell apart the following season after a 2-10 start that included the mismanagement of the benching of two-time Super Bowl MVP Eli Manning.
McAdoo spent 2020 as Jacksonville Jaguars quarterbacks coach and was a consultant with the Dallas Cowboys in 2021.
In New England, McAdoo will likely be called on to provide another veteran assistant around Van Pelt. He also could potentially help tutor a new quarterback should the Patriots move on from Mac Jones and draft a new one this spring.
—From AP reports
