West Virginia survives final frantic seconds to beat Cincinnati 62-59
MORGANTOWN, W.Va. — Amani Hansberry scored 17 points and grabbed 13 rebounds and West Virginia pulled out a 62-59 win over Cincinnati on Wednesday night after nearly blowing a nine-point lead in the final seconds.
Trailing by six midway through the second half, the Mountaineers (16-10, 7-8 Big 12) went on a 21-6 run led by seven points from Hansberry to lead 62-53 with 7.9 seconds left. Cincinnati's Dan Skillings Jr. banked in a long 3-pointer then grabbed a tipped inbounds pass and threw in another 3. Jizzle James forced a turnover on the next inbounds pass and Tyler Betsey got loose for an open look from straightaway, but his shot bounced off the front of the rim.
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Associated Press
26 minutes ago
- Associated Press
Trey Hendrickson skips Bengals minicamp seeking new contract
CINCINNATI (AP) — Defensive lineman Trey Hendrickson was not at the opening day of the Cincinnati Bengals minicamp on Tuesday as he seeks a new contract. Hendrickson is expected to be fined for his absence, as coach Zac Taylor warned him about last month. Quarterback Joe Burrow agreed with a question that asked if Hendrickson's absence was a distraction. 'Last year we had two (with wide receivers Ja'Marr Chase and Tee Higgins working through contract issues), this year we have one. We do have less. Love to have none but that's life in the NFL. We're all supporting Trey and would love for him to be back,' he said. 'The young guys get more reps in training camp, and that's big for them. Nobody is worried about Trey working hard and doing what he needs to do to be ready if we happen to have him this year.' Burrow acknowledged that it's a possibility that the Bengals might not have Hendrickson in 2025. He said that wouldn't make the Bengals a better team, but he doesn't know what's going to happen. Hendrickson was an All-Pro selection last season after he led the league with 17 1/2 sacks. He did make an appearance during an offseason workout last month specifically to speak to reporters and vent his frustrations. Hendrickson is looking for a long-term contract with a significant chunk of guaranteed money, and he said the Bengals were just offering a short-term deal. 'I can't control the narratives,' Hendrickson said at the time. 'That is one thing I found through this whole process. The way I feel is not being conveyed. I definitely am disappointed, I love Cincinnati. It's this weird dilemma. Players go through it a lot more often. I am just not going to let fear overtake me to do something and also give me a platform to glorify God in the good and in the bad. I am very blessed. The perspectives I can't control. I'm a football player. I'm itching to play football.' First-round pick Shemar Stewart, also expected to start at defensive end, hasn't signed his rookie deal yet and did not practice. Stewart has been in attendance for workouts and practices, but he still hasn't done a single drill. He has made a point to sit out for the past two months. Stewart said that he won't practice until he signs. 'I'm 100 percent right,' Stewart said. 'I'm not asking for nothing y'all have never done before. But in y'all case, y'all just want to win arguments (more) than winning more games.' While Burrow did answer some questions about Hendrickson, most of his availability was on his offseason practices. Burrow, who is going into his sixth season, feels as if he is closer to playing at the level he was before suffering a right wrist injury in 2023. Even with Burrow playing at a level he felt like was less than 100%, he led the league in passing yards (4,918) and touchdowns (43) last season. Burrow underwent surgery on his right wrist in November 2023, to repair a torn ligament. The surgery was deemed successful. He missed the last seven games of the 2023 season because of the injury. 'Getting there. Learning new things every single day and refining my motion and what I'm doing out there. It's exciting to feel that improvement,' he said. 'We'll get three good days together before we go off and grind on our own.' ___ AP NFL:
Yahoo
2 hours ago
- Yahoo
Who benefits from College Football Playoff expansion to 16 teams?
When Oregon State went 9-3 during the 2022 regular season – its best season in 16 years – the Beavers earned a trip to the Las Vegas Bowl. If a 16-team College Football Playoff had been in place that season, the Beavers would have qualified. Conference commissioners are debating the playoff's future format for 2026 and beyond, and momentum swells behind growing the playoff from 12 to 16 teams. Advertisement If the playoff indeed expands by four teams, it will become a more attainable destination for three-loss teams from coast to coast. No two-loss team ever qualified for the playoff until the playoff grew from four to 12 teams. No three-loss team has ever qualified, but my analysis of the 11-year playoff era shows that at least two three-loss teams would have made the playoff each year if a 5+11 playoff format had been in place during those seasons. That 5+11 model is the favored format by the Big 12 and ACC, and it's gaining support within the SEC, too. In that model, the top five conference champions would gain automatic bids, and the remaining 11 spots would be filled via at-large selection. The Big Ten favors a different 16-team model in which most qualifiers would gain entry via an auto-bid process. For the purposes of my analysis, I used the 5+11 framework. South Carolina linebacker Bam Martin-Scott (22) pursues Alabama wide receiver Germie Bernard (5) as he carries the ball during the first quarter at Bryant-Denny Stadium. The analysis became tricky, because so many teams changed conferences in the past 11 years. I counted teams in the conferences that they'll call home in 2026. So, a bid for Texas counted toward the SEC, a bid for Oregon counted for the Big Ten, and so on. In some years when Texas or Oklahoma, now in the SEC, won the Big 12, I awarded an automatic bid to the Big 12's runner-up. Other years, I assigned the Big 12's auto bid to Central Florida or Cincinnati – those schools are now in the Big 12 – when those schools were highly ranked and won conference championships. Assigning the Group of Six's automatic qualifier became a chore in certain years, too, because of conference realignment. Advertisement You could conduct this analysis in slightly different ways, but it wouldn't change the upshot that a 16-team playoff would have been a boon for three-loss teams these past 11 years. FALL FROM GRACE: SEC explanations shows its no longer top playoff dog NO CUPCAKES: If SEC wants playoff respect, it needs tougher games Last season, a trio of three-loss SEC teams – Alabama, Mississippi and South Carolina – would have qualified. The SEC and Big Ten would have benefited most from the four extra at-large spots, as compared to a 12-team playoff, but teams from the Big 12, ACC, the reconstructed Pac-12 and Notre Dame also would have grabbed last-four-in spots in some years. Advertisement In 2014, a whopping seven teams with three losses scattered across each of the Power Four conferences would have qualified for a 16-team playoff using the 5+11 format. Oh, and how about this: The playoff would have featured its first four-loss teams. Auburn (2016), Stanford (2017) and Texas (2018) were four-loss teams ranked high enough to crack a 16-team playoff. In other words, once the playoff hits 16 teams, it's no longer a destination reserved for the elite. Kentucky, Northwestern could have made 16-team playoff Based off past results during the playoff era, the four extra at-large bids would have helped teams ranging from Northwestern, Kentucky, UCLA, Washington State and Georgia Tech to blue bloods like Alabama and Michigan. Advertisement 'Sixteen teams, you'd get more people excited about it, more people in play,' said Mississippi coach Lane Kiffin, a proponent of a 16-team playoff. Beyond the 16 teams that qualify would be many more remaining in playoff contention into November. The 12-team playoff "created a lot of interest," Big 12 commissioner Brett Yormark said during a call with reporters. "Going to 16 teams, I think, there's more of that.' The four-team playoff became an exclusive party reserved for top-perch programs like Alabama, Ohio State, Oklahoma and Clemson. A 16-team playoff would broaden avenues of access to the middle class and even traditionally lower-tier teams within power conferences that could align the stars and crack the bracket with a 9-3 record. Advertisement Blue-blooded Alabama twice would have been among the last-four-in in a 5+11 playoff format. That's also true of fellow blue bloods like Michigan and Notre Dame. Also, though, Northwestern twice would have qualified in the last-four-in. Three times in the past 11 years, Ole Miss would have been in the last-four-in of a 5+11 playoff, ranking the Rebels as the biggest beneficiary of the playoff expanding by four teams. Is it any wonder Kiffin wants 16 teams? Expanded College Football Playoff would help blue bloods, too Here are some other findings from my analysis applying the 5+11 format to the past 11 seasons: Advertisement ∎ Alabama and Ohio State never would have missed the playoff. Georgia would have qualified in nine of 11 seasons, and Clemson would have qualified eight times. ∎ Notre Dame is among the programs that would have qualified seven times. ∎ The Big Ten would have led with 53 bids, followed by the SEC's 51, meaning each conference would have averaged more than four bids per year. The Big 12 and ACC would have averaged more than two bids per year. ∎ Fourteen of the SEC's 16 programs would have qualified at least once, with Arkansas and Vanderbilt as the only exceptions. ∎ Twelve of the Big Ten's 18 programs would have qualified at least once. The non-qualifiers would have been Illinois, Maryland, Minnesota, Nebraska, Purdue and Rutgers. Advertisement ∎ The Big Ten would have peaked at six bids but never qualified fewer than four teams. ∎ The SEC's bid total would have bottomed out at three bids but peaked with seven bids in 2018 and again in 2023. ∎ Thirty-one programs would have qualified as a last-four-in team at least once throughout the 11 years. No wonder the 16-team playoff concept gains steam. The four extra spots would help a wide range of programs gain playoff access. College football accelerates away from an era that demanded an undefeated or one-loss record to make an elitist playoff, and toward a terrain in which 9-3 equals a playoff berth instead of a mid-tier bowl bid. Advertisement Blake Toppmeyer is the USA TODAY Network's national college football columnist. Email him at BToppmeyer@ and follow him on X @btoppmeyer. This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: College Football Playoff expansion to 16 teams. Who benefits most?
New York Times
2 hours ago
- New York Times
Home run park factors to watch for fantasy baseball ahead of 2025 MLB trade deadline
With the trade deadline the big story in baseball for the next six weeks, let's look at the best and worst destinations for long balls depending on the handedness of the batter. There's a theory that the humidor effect has mitigated park factors where we care about it the most — home runs. Since all the balls are neutralized and stored in a way where the dryness of the air has little impact on the weight of their cores, the balls all travel basically the same distance depending on how they're struck — at least that's how the thinking goes. Advertisement But the evidence doesn't support this. Parks still have an extreme impact on home runs when you look at each batter and pitcher in a given park versus in other parks, and adjust for the handedness of the batter. Everything is scaled to 100, so 100 means the park is perfectly average. A number above 100 essentially equates to the percentage of increase in homers for batters from that side. A number lower than 100 is the decline, so a park with an HR factor of 86 means 86% of batted balls that would be a home run in an average park are homers in that park. The data in the table is from Statcast and includes all parks except Sutter Health Park (home to the A's temporarily) and George M. Steinbrenner Field (home to the Rays temporarily). The best parks for lefty power from 2023-25 are Great American Ball Park (Reds, 135), Oriole Park at Camden Yards (130), Yankee Stadium (123), Citizens Bank Park (Phillies, 122), Dodger Stadium (119) and Angel Stadium (111). Of those parks, the only one that's bad for righty power is Oriole Park at Camden Yards (83). The top righty power-hitting parks are Dodger Stadium (132 — Remember when this was a pitcher's park?), Great American Ball Park (124), Yankee Stadium (121), Petco Park (Padres, 118), Angel Stadium (115), Globe Life Stadium (Rangers, 111), Citi Field (Mets, 111) and Target Field (Twins, 110). Of those parks, the only one that is legitimately bad for lefty power is Petco Park (90), though Citi Field is slightly below average (95). Sorry, Jac Caglianone managers, but Kauffman Stadium (Royals) is the pits for lefty power at 69 — it's no picnic for righties either (92). You also do not want lefty power in Arizona (77), San Francisco (78) or anywhere in Chicago — Wrigley Field (86) and Rate Field (89). Advertisement PNC Park (Pirates, 68) is the worst park for righty power, though conversely good for lefty pitching — don't forget that component. Progressive Field (Guardians, 75), Oracle Park (Giants, 81, also terrible for lefty power), the previously mentioned Oriole Park at Camden Yards, LoanDepot Park (Marlins, 84), Busch Stadium (Cardinals, 86), T-Mobile Park (Mariners, 88) and Comerica Park (Tigers, 89) also significantly depress righty power. According to analysis from multiple sources, including The Athletic's power rankings, the likely buyers at the deadline will be: Ryan McMahon to the Yankees would boost his value. Coors Field has been an average (ish) home run park over the past three seasons. Jazz Chisholm Jr. would have to move back to second in this case. Luis Robert Jr. to the Mets would give the CF a power boost, but you'd also need him to revert to his prior home-run form. His expected ISO power is now .160, which is slightly below average, and that's with a barrel rate of 11.4%, which is good. Even his 6.4% per plate appearance is above average. He's mystifying. The most likely destination for Taylor Ward is probably San Diego, which would actually improve his already good home HR environment — root for that. Ryan O'Hearn is a trade candidate for the Orioles, but as a lefty, he has twice as many homers at home as on the road and will almost certainly move to much less friendly confines, so consult this data before acting on any O'Hearn trade. Of course, also consult these park factors in perusing the waiver wire in your 12-team mixed or head-to-head leagues. There is no three-year data for Tampa's George M. Steinbrenner Field and the Athletics' Sutter Health Park. Those home run park factors are 125 for righties and 101 for lefties playing in Sacramento, and 136 for righties and 97 for lefties playing in Tampa. Of course, a 40% sample of a single season is far from bettable. (Top photo of Ryan O'Hearn: Greg Fiume / Getty Images)
