How do you feel about the SEC Tournament coin toss? Plus: Biggest risers at the NFL combine

New York Times

03-03-2025

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South Carolina women's basketball will have the No. 1 overall seed in the SEC Tournament thanks to a coin toss victory over No. 6 Texas after the teams ended the regular season in a tie.
The coin toss was only third on the list of tiebreak criteria. Thus, we were treated to a riveting 27 seconds of television during halftime of yesterday's LSU-Ole Miss game.
Gamecocks win the coin toss!@GamecockWBB will be the No. 1 seed in the SEC women's tournament 🤙 pic.twitter.com/ouJD6hkmVP
— SEC Network (@SECNetwork) March 2, 2025
SEC commissioner Greg Sankey's custom coin was a nice touch.
Other sports use a coin toss to determine seeding, but it's further down the list of criteria. In the NFL, for example, it's the 12th option in the procedure for divisional ties ahead of the playoffs; the NBA and WNBA also have several other criteria. So this brings us to our next Pulse Poll: Should sports be quicker to put seeding to a coin toss?
Make your thoughts known.
Jacob Robinson was on the ground at the NFL Scouting Combine in Indianapolis all of last week gathering insights for Scoop City. In his newsletter later this morning, he'll have an extensive look at risers and fallers after testing — and whether they really matter — but The Pulse got a sneak preview:
📈 QB Brady Cook. No quarterback improved their prospects more than Cook, a projected Day 3 pick/UDFA from Mizzou who struggled with accuracy in college but impressed at the combine. His lower-body explosiveness was on display with a broad jump mark (128 inches) that rivaled Anthony Richardson's record (129 inches) in one of the most predictive metrics for future NFL production.
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📈 QB Tyler Shough. While Cook's ceiling is limited, Shough showed well and could be an early-round pick. He's the prospect who might fall due to narratives like 'too old' (turns 26 in the fall) and 'injury history' (three major injuries in seven college seasons). Given the recent success of older quarterbacks like Bo Nix, Shough's strong broad jump score and impressive touch could make him the first quarterback taken after Shedeur Sanders.
📈 WR Matthew Golden. After Xavier Worthy's record-setting 2024, a Texas Longhorn again led receivers in the 40-yard dash. Golden's 4.29-second dash suggests the current No. 30 prospect on The Athletic's Big Board will go earlier in the first round.
📈 OL Armand Membou, a 6-foot-3, 332-pound Goliath of an offensive lineman hit a top speed of 20.28 miles per hour during his 40-yard dash, where he set the best mark among all tackles (4.91 seconds) while letting out a primal scream. The speed (and maybe the passion?) vaulted yet another Mizzou kid into the conversation for first offensive lineman drafted.
📈 S Nick Emmanwori. An unparalleled combine performance saw the 6-foot-3, 220-pound product of South Carolina (pictured above) post the best-ever Relative Athletic Score for a safety, ranking first among every safety to test since 1987. He went to the Bills at No. 30 in our pre-combine mock, but after leading the combine in broad jump (11 feet, 6 inches) and vertical (43 inches) while running a 4.38 40-yard dash, he should go higher in the first round.
Subscribe to Scoop City for plenty more. Onward:
Turner's perfect troll
New Blue Jays starter Max Scherzer is very vocally not a fan of the ABS (robo-ump) system that's being tested in MLB spring training, and Phillies shortstop Trea Turner — Scherzer's former teammate — took note. Leading off their game yesterday, Turner challenged the first pitch he saw from Scherzer, a clear strike, just 'to see his eyes roll.' Even the coaching staff and plate umpire were in on the bit. Five Pulse stars for Trea.
Messi hopefuls get ticket credit
The Houston Dynamo are offering ticket holders who planned to attend yesterday's matchup against Inter Miami a complimentary ticket to a future game, as Lionel Messi did not make the trip with his team. As of Friday, the 'get-in' price for the contest was more than $200 on the resale market. It's not the first time a host team has offered a credit to make up for Messi sitting out, but it remains so odd.
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The Oscars were last night, and Pulse pop culture correspondent Hannah Vanbiber noted a few sports crossover moments for us:
In case you missed it: The big winner of the night was 'Anora,' an independent film made for just $6 million. That's kind of like if the 'Moneyball' A's won the World Series?
Thank you, Hannah!
📺 NCAAM: Wake Forest at No. 2 Duke
7 p.m. ET on ESPN
The Blue Devils need a win to keep up their pursuit of the outright ACC regular-season title in their final home game of the season, while the Demon Deacons are on the bubble. Plus, Duke freshman Cooper Flagg's college days are numbered — might as well catch him now.
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📺 NBA: Rockets at Thunder
8 p.m. ET on NBA TV
Just a solid matchup between two good, young Western Conference teams here. Should be fun.
Get tickets to games like these here.
🎙️ Will the Luis Rubiales trial have a lasting impact on women's sports. The Full Time crew discusses here. On Apple and Spotify.
You know those pre-snap QB soundbites you can so often hear on a broadcast, like 'Blue 42'? Those phrases are called 'cadences,' and Jayson Jenks and Rustin Dodd have a brief history of them out today.
Steph Curry dunked in a game for the first time in six years Saturday. He says he will not be doing it again — ever.
Charlotte Carroll and Zack Rosenblatt went deep on the Giants' interest in Aaron Rodgers and if there's any reason to think things could work out better for the Giants than they did for the Jets.
That viral Victor Wembanyama jersey swap in December has taken an unfortunate, litigious turn in recent weeks. Brooks Peck has a helpful explainer.
After our NHL staff got nearly 500 reader-submitted trade proposals, James Mirtle waded through the answers for a game of 'Who says no?'
Philip Buckingham has an in-depth story today on the Wigan Warriors' trip to Las Vegas for rugby's first Super League game in the United States.
Most-clicked in the newsletter yesterday: Bruce Feldman's story on South Carolina safety Nick Emmanwori's all-time showing at the NFL combine.
Most-read on the website yesterday: For the second straight day, Dianna Russini's intel column from the combine.