Cat(s) Gilwee Propells UVM to Final
BURLINGTON, VT – The Vermont women's basketball team is off to the America East final after getting a dominating semifinal win over Bryant.
Catherine Gilwee would score 11 of the team's first 13 points, to get UVM off to a fast start, that would see them have the lead from start to finish.
Vermont's win has them going to the league's championship game for the third straight year. They will now play the title game at Albany on Friday night.
Highlights and reaction from the Catamounts in the video above.
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New York Times
9 hours ago
- New York Times
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'At first, no, I didn't want to do it. Absolutely, I did not want to,' Scott said. 'The not-knowing (of) going to Mexico was big. I've been to Mexico a couple times, but sitting on the beach drinking beer is a whole lot different than driving 14 hours across there.' Before long, though, a different attitude took hold — confidence that NASCAR knew the scope of the massive undertaking and had an effective plan in place. '(The meetings) made you feel really comfortable,' Scott said. 'It put (aside) all the anxiousness that I had — and I know I've talked to a few of the other (hauler drivers) too. Yeah, I feel a lot better now.' The Cup haulers went from Brooklyn to Laredo, a 24-hour drive without stops, where they met the tractor-trailers for the second-tier Xfinity Series teams also racing in Mexico but departing from North Carolina. Each hauler then crossed through customs before making the 700-mile trek to Mexico City. Letting our hauler drivers play admin on their trip to Mexico City.@GarnerTrucking | @NASCARMexico_ — Spire Motorsports (@SpireMotorsport) June 10, 2025 The task of pulling all that off fell to Tom Bryant, NASCAR's vice president of racing operations, who oversees the logistics of putting on a race weekend, from membership and credentialing to overall operations and safety. But for a task of this magnitude, Bryant's previous experience is just as important — he served for 21 years in the U.S. Army and helped manage the relocation of troops in Afghanistan and the Middle East. Advertisement 'Every one of those deployments was with different units, and every one of those appointments had a kind of slightly different mission set,' Bryant said. '… We had to move from place to place over the course of the months that we were there, so you get pretty good at understanding how to plan for and resource and execute a large movement of people and equipment through a denied area safely and effectively. 'Just in general, you have to be comfortable when you approach something like this knowing that you don't know everything you need to know. You have to be comfortable with ambiguity.' We are driving nearly 12 laps around the earth at the equator to get to #NASCARMexico! 🤯 — NASCAR (@NASCAR) June 11, 2025 Last summer, when NASCAR moved toward finalizing a deal to race in Mexico City, Bryant was effectively named the point person. It was his team's job to figure out how to get every piece of equipment needed to Mexico City and coordinate the transportation of drivers, team members, NASCAR officials, and essential staff. 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From 2005 to 2008, the Xfinity Series raced in Mexico City, and some of the plans from that venture were also implemented this time. Some aspects, though, needed an overhaul. For instance, this time, NASCAR arranged all the travel for its Cup and Xfinity teams, whereas last time, each team was responsible for handling its own travel. 'Super, super easy. Different from what we normally do, but well organized. Super well organized,' Front Row Motorsports crew chief Drew Blickensderfer, who served as crew chief in three Xfinity races in Mexico City, said of NASCAR's previous stint in Mexico. 'You knew what was going on. And once you got into the garage area, it felt like any other race weekend. It felt like you were at a race, and the only difference was a lot more people. There were a ton of people there.' Ready or not here we come Mexico City — Stoney Greene (@StoneySGreene) June 10, 2025 To help manage everything, NASCAR partnered with Private Jet Services, which has worked with various leagues that have held games outside the U.S., and Rock-It Cargo, a global logistics company whose credits include several major events, such as when it moved 200 18-wheeler haulers to Mexico City as part of the Taylor Swift Eras Tour. Team personnel began making their way to Mexico City midweek. With Xfinity off this past weekend, teams from that series had a relatively straightforward path to get their haulers to Laredo — they left directly from their respective shops. For the Cup teams, the process was more complex. On Sunday morning at Michigan International Speedway, the garage was a hive of activity — and nothing related to the race later that afternoon. Part of the Mexico City plan called for every team to have a backup hauler carrying its Mexico City racecars arrive at the track from North Carolina. Those cars were then loaded onto the teams' primary haulers. The U.S. Border Patrol supervised the operation. Once the race finished, the haulers left for Laredo, each with two drivers. They arrived late Monday, and the hauler drivers then went to a nearby hotel to sleep. The next morning, the border crossing procedure began. Before being permitted into Mexico, every hauler had to drive through an X-ray machine — essentially, the truck equivalent of security screening at an airport. Advertisement After crossing, the haulers were divided into 12 packs that left in 20-minute intervals to begin the drive to Mexico City. Accompanying each convoy was a heavy security detail that included the Mexican National Guard. And in case a tractor-trailer suffered a breakdown, the final pack included a tow vehicle. 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Yahoo
a day ago
- Yahoo
"You 20-something years old and thinking you're gonna go to jail for the rest of your life" - Gary Payton recalls Kobe Bryant fearing his career was over amid off court troubles in 2003
"You 20-something years old and thinking you're gonna go to jail for the rest of your life" - Gary Payton recalls Kobe Bryant fearing his career was over amid off court troubles in 2003 originally appeared on Basketball Network. By the summer of 2003, the Los Angeles Lakers were preparing for a season unlike any other. They had just completed a blockbuster offseason, adding future Hall of Famers Gary Payton and Karl Malone to an already loaded roster. Advertisement On paper, it looked like a championship coronation was inevitable. But behind the scenes, a storm had begun to form — and its center was Kobe Bryant. At just 24 years old, he was facing something far bigger than basketball. In July of that year, he was charged with sexual assault in Eagle, Colorado — an allegation that would engulf his life, career and reputation for months to come. Bryant's tough battle While the case would eventually be dropped in 2004 after the accuser declined to testify, the weight of the accusation was immediate and paralyzing. In the middle of one of the most anticipated Lakers seasons ever, "Mamba" found himself under a microscope that no arena spotlight could compete with. Advertisement "Now you have to get extra, extra cautious and that's what he did," Payton said, reflecting on that tough period for Bryant. "Guys don't understand, you've never been in that situation and you 20-something years old and thinking you're gonna go to jail for the rest of your life and you're one of the greatest basketball players that is playing right now." "The Glove" wasn't just another veteran guard joining a superteam; he was placed in the eye of Kobe's storm and handpicked by Lakers management to act as a stabilizing force. The organization saw in Gary a unique combination of toughness, leadership and relatability that could anchor their young star through the turbulence. And GP understood the weight of that assignment from day one. Payton's arrival in Los Angeles came with heavy expectations. A nine-time NBA All-Star and former Defensive Player of the Year, he brought grit and fire to every court he stepped on. But what he found in Los Angeles that season wasn't the glamorous Hollywood ride he had imagined. The locker room was splintered. Bryant and Shaquille O'Neal, once the league's most dominant duo, had become embroiled in a public feud that often played out through veiled jabs and passive-aggressive media quotes. Advertisement Now, with the added layer of "Mamba's" legal troubles dominating headlines, the team dynamics became more fragile than ever. Practices were uneven. Trust within the team felt conditional. And the media presence turned suffocating. Every city they played in became a new arena for public scrutiny. Related: "I told Jordan he was overrated, I rooted against him his whole career" - Jalen Rose opens up about hating Michael Jordan and the Bulls Facing the fire The burden on Kob' was as deeply internal as it was external. As Payton noted, the psychological toll of facing serious criminal charges at such a young age, while also carrying the weight of being a franchise cornerstone, was staggering. Advertisement "It was looking all bad because all the stuff that was coming out, it was like he was one of these guys who was just disrespecting her and treating her like trash," the gritty point guard recalled. The perception of Bryant was shifting fast in the public eye and the Lakers needed to act quickly to preserve not just their season, but the emotional well-being of their young star. Behind the scenes, GP took an important role seriously. He stayed close. He watched over. And even when he couldn't change the situation, he made sure Bryant didn't spiral out of it completely. That mentorship may not have delivered a championship — despite the Lakers reaching the 2004 NBA Finals, they fell in five games to the Detroit Pistons, but its legacy ran deeper than rings. Kobe would go on to reshape his narrative, evolve his leadership and build one of the most disciplined second acts in sports history. The man who once feared his career might vanish overnight would finish it as a five-time champion, an MVP and a global icon. Payton, who eventually won his lone NBA title with the Miami Heat in 2006, never downplayed the chaos of that 2003-04 Lakers campaign. Advertisement Related: Shaq threatened Gary Payton's agent to join the Purple and Gold in 2003: "He told me he'd break my neck if I don't get Gary to the Lakers" This story was originally reported by Basketball Network on Jun 8, 2025, where it first appeared.
Yahoo
2 days ago
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Texas Offers No. 1 QB Recruit in 2027 Class
Texas Offers No. 1 QB Recruit in 2027 Class originally appeared on Athlon Sports. Texas head coach Steve Sarkisian is known as one of the best offensive minds in football. Many know Sarkisian as an excellent play caller, but he's also one of the top quarterback developers at the college level. Advertisement The Longhorns landed the nation's No. 1 overall recruit in quarterback Arch Manning from the 2023 recruiting class in large part due to Sarkisian's ability to develop. Quinn Ewers, Texas' starting quarterback for the last three seasons, also chose to attend Texas for the same reason. Since the hiring of Sarkisian, Texas has now become a popular destination for the top quarterback recruits in the country. That doesn't appear to be slowing down any time soon as Sarkisian has offered and/or hosted some of the top signal-callers in the 2026 and 2027 classes recently. On Thursday, five-star quarterback Kavian Bryant announced via social media that he received an offer from Texas. Bryant is ranked the No. 1 quarterback in the nation for the 2027 recruiting class, according to On3. Bryant threw for 2,718 yards, 34 touchdowns, and three interceptions as a sophomore for Westwood High School (Palestine, TX) last season. He also recorded 856 rushing yards and 14 touchdowns on the ground. Advertisement His father, Kadrian Bryant, was a former Division 1 basketball player at Mississippi Valley State. Bryant is a multi-sport athlete that also excels on the basketball court and is receiving significant offers for each sport. The 6-foot-1 dual-threat quarterback has already racked up offers from Florida, Michigan, Tennessee, Texas A&M, Oregon, Florida State and Auburn among others. Texas will hope to get Bryant on campus for several visits over the next year. Related: ESPN FPI Reveals Which SEC Teams Are Locks to Make College Football Playoff This story was originally reported by Athlon Sports on Jun 6, 2025, where it first appeared.
