Latest news with #TheBigDance
Courier-Mail
12-05-2025
- Business
- Courier-Mail
Trainer Sara Ryan to leave Domeland to launch private venture
Don't miss out on the headlines from Horse Racing. Followed categories will be added to My News. Big Dance-winning trainer Sara Ryan will step down as head trainer for Central Coast operation Domeland later this year as she prepares to set up as a public trainer. Ryan – who has been with Domeland for more than six years, the past two-and-a-half as head trainer – has prepared more than 50 winners for Domeland including Attractable in the $3 million The Big Dance and Matcha Latte in the $1 million Provincial-Midway Championships Final. • PUNT LIKE A PRO: Become a Racenet iQ member and get expert tips – with fully transparent return on investment statistics – from Racenet's team of professional punters at our Pro Tips section. SUBSCRIBE NOW! 'Sara has been instrumental to Domeland's success on the racetrack over the past few seasons and I am grateful for the dedication she brought to the role,' Domeland's managing director King Cheng said. 'Sara's work has laid a strong foundation for the future. We're proud of what she's accomplished and excited about what's ahead for both her and Domeland. 'We remain fully committed to our private training model and will continue to have the same number of horses in training, operating from our dual locations (Kulnura and Wyong) on the Central Coast.' • Boom colt Beadman spelled as The Everest looms large Ryan, who will continue to lead Domeland through the stable's Queensland winter campaign, said Domeland had been wonderful for her career. 'The support and trust they've shown me gave me the confidence to train the way I do, and I'll always be grateful for that,' she said. 'I will continue to train the horses to the best of my abilities until my final day, before embarking on a new venture as a public trainer.' Domeland aims to appoint Ryan's successor at the beginning of the 2025-2026 racing season, prior to the end of Ryan's current contract. Originally published as Sara Ryan to leave Domeland to launch private training venture
Yahoo
29-03-2025
- Sport
- Yahoo
FDU women's historic basketball season ends with loss to TCU in NCAA Tournament opener
The best season in Fairleigh Dickinson women's basketball history came to an end Friday, and with it went the nation's third longest win streak. FDU closed out its historic campaign with a 73-51 loss to No. 2-seeded TCU in the opening round of the NCAA Tournament at the Birmingham 3 Regional at Schollmaier Arena in Fort Worth, Texas. Advertisement FDU, the Northeast Conference champions, finished with a 29-4 record, the most wins in program history. TCU (32-3) won its 11th straight game and will advance to the second round, where it will face the winner of Friday's No. 7 Louisville vs. No. 10 Nebraska opening-round matchup. The win was the Horned Frogs' first NCAA Tournament victory in 19 years. The No. 15-seeded Knights, playing in their first NCAA Tournament in program history, got off to a promising start Friday when they closed out the first period with a 17-14 lead. Despite shooting 2-of-9 to open the game, FDU went 6-of-7 the rest of the quarter with Teneisia Brown (18 points, four rebounds) shooting 4-of-5 from the field for eight points. But the Horned Frogs picked up the pace in the second, outscoring the Knights, 21-10, in the period. Madison Conner had 13 points in the first half, while FDU missed 7-of-8 shots in the quarter. Conner finished with a game-high 23 points and teammate Sedona Prince netted 13 points. Advertisement The host team kept up the pressure to start the second half, building a double-digit lead early in the third quarter. TCU went on a 9-2 run over the last four minutes of the quarter to take a commanding 52-35 lead. FDU saw its school-record 22-game win streak come to a halt since dropping an 83-58 contest to Rutgers on Dec. 11 in Piscataway. Earlier this month FDU clinched the NEC regular-season title, finishing 16-0 in conference play. They're the first NEC team to finish with a perfect record since Quinnipiac went undefeated in 2012-13. Coach Stephanie Gaitley, who took over in Teaneck prior to the 2023-24 season, guided her fourth team to "The Big Dance." Previously, she led Richmond, Saint Joseph's and Fordham, to the NCAA Tournament. This article originally appeared on FDU women's basketball team loses to TCU in NCAA Tournament first round
CNN
28-03-2025
- Sport
- CNN
The soul of college basketball – and the madness of March – is alive and well in the mid-majors
The NCAA tournament might be college basketball's most high-profile showcase of the desperate, win-or-go-home style of basketball that makes March one of the most special times of the year. But before those games, before millions of people fill out their brackets and start putting their faith in schools they've never heard of, potential Cinderella stories battle for their basketball lives. In front of loud crowds in small gyms, the madness is already spreading – and the soul of college basketball is wonderfully, mercifully, alive. Take, for instance, the Coastal Athletic Association (CAA) tournament, contested over the last few days in Washington, DC's CareFirst Arena – the 4,200-seat arena in southeast Washington that is sort of the little cousin to Capital One Arena in Chinatown where the NBA's Wizards and NHL's Capitals play. The CAA is expected to send just one men's team to The Big Dance that tips off next week, the champion of the conference tournament that earns an automatic bid to the NCAA tournament. That means after all these games, after all these months of ball, a tournament berth came down to how a team played on one long weekend in the nation's capital. What that led to is some of the most frenzied basketball in the college game, the kind of hoops that can only come from players who aren't sure they'll ever get to dribble a ball competitively ever again if they lose. Each foul is so hard it makes you cringe. Every loose ball is met by three or four bodies spilling onto the hardwood to try and capture it. The big fear about college sports these days is that the amount of money pouring into major conference sports is going to rob the game of the passion that makes it special, especially at these smaller schools. There are concerns that the best players from these teams will just go to bigger schools, chasing Name, Image and Likeness (NIL) dollars – and when they leave, those smaller schools' fans will go with them. Here, in front of a crowd of diehards that made a couple thousand people sound like a jet engine, those larger worries couldn't feel further away. The team that was expected to be the CAA representative in the NCAA men's basketball tournament next week was Towson. The Tigers finished their regular season 16-2 in the conference, two games ahead of the University of North Carolina-Wilmington. They brought the conference's player of the year, Tyler Tejada – as well as its sixth man of the year and coach of the year, plus another all-conference player – into this tournament. A semifinal matchup against the conference basement dwelling University of Delaware on Monday evening seemed like a recipe for an easy path to Tuesday night's final – even if the Blue Hens had absolutely decimated William & Mary on Sunday to keep their season alive. Delaware finished third-from-last in the CAA, winning just five conference games. They lost their last regular season game to UNC-Wilmington by 30 points. Maybe that's why, as the Blue Hens jumped out to a 13-point lead early in the second half, the noise coming from the Towson end of the arena was tinged with disbelieving screams. The momentum swung wildly. First, it was Towson, making a little run to get back into the contest and injecting their fans with life. But the pesky Blue Hens wouldn't let the Towson crowd relax – a few big threes, some defensive stops and suddenly the lead was back to 11 with seven-and-a-half minutes to play. The diminutive Delaware contingent couldn't possibly muster the kind of noise the Towson fans were putting out. But when each shot went down and the Delaware lead stayed improbably solid, they hollered all the same. They threw their hands in the air when senior John Camden, the second team all-conference forward fresh off scoring 36 points in the game of his life against William & Mary, kept hitting shots and staring daggers at his bench with intensity etched into his face. They screamed in bewilderment when Niels Lane, the University of Florida transfer, soared high above the basket to slam home an alley-oop on the stroke of halftime. And, as Towson went into a full court press after hitting a three to cut the lead to 10 points with less than three minutes to go, they moved to the edge of their seats to see if their school – the lowest-seeded team to ever get this far in the CAA tournament – could really pull this off. With just under two minutes left, Towson's pressing defense got them within eight, forcing Delaware into turnovers. A Tejada layup with 58 seconds left got them within six. Then the Tigers made it a five-point game with 38 seconds to go. But that's as close as they'd get. Two more free throws for the Blue Hens and a missed Tejada long-range three-pointer gave Blue Hens' guard Erik Timko a chance to ice it with two free throws – and he didn't disappoint, making it a nine-point game. Last-gasp threes by the Tigers went awry and reality set in. The Blue Hens' bench looked ready to explode; Towson looked stunned. 'Each game's different. We were the best team in the league for four months, we needed to be the best team in the league for three days and we weren't,' said Towson coach Pat Skerry in a somber postgame press conference. The dichotomy of March on full display. These tournaments are the places where basketball dreams either end or go into the stratosphere. They're also the kind of place where, in between games, the school-aged ballboy for the College of Charleston can get up some shots, alone on the court in front of bunch of paying customers who are waiting for the game between the Cougars and the UNC-Wilmington Seahawks to get started. Unlike the Blue Hens, both these teams came into this tournament with expectations. They're the second and third seeds, and Delaware's win made their path to the NCAA tournament a lot clearer. Both groups of fans could feel it – the arena was split almost perfectly in half between teal-clad UNCW fans and maroon-wearing Charlestonians. It was as if CareFirst Arena had a noise pendulum going back and forth. When the Seahawks made a run in the final minutes for the first half, it seemed like their fans might lift the roof off the arena; each rebound, each bucket, each steal was greeted by a giant roar. A tight game that saw eight lead changes and five ties in just the first 17 minutes suddenly broke open as the Seahawks ran to a 10-point lead at halftime, though a three-pointer at the buzzer from Charleston guard CJ Fulton gave the Cougars some hope going into the break. A rollicking start to the second half had both teams' fans standing, living and dying with every whistle and bucket. It took five minutes for Charleston to shrink the 10-point halftime lead to two, bringing Cougars fans to their feet. UNCW's Donovan Newby answered that rally with another three, restoring the two-possession lead and sending the Seahawks faithful out of their seats too. UNCW couldn't quite pull away and the Cougars stayed within striking distance through a cold stretch, eventually clawing all the way back to a 52-52 tie with a little more than seven minutes left on a huge three from guard Deywilk Tavarez. Suddenly, all the noise was being made by the maroon-and-black side of the arena and the rowdy North Carolinians had lost their voice. A three from senior guard Derrin Boyd – punctuated by a scream of 'NO!' from a UNCW fan – put the Cougars in the lead for the first time in what felt like ages. The Seahawks answered quickly to tie the game yet again, and the lead ping-ponged back and forth as the noise inside the arena reached a fever pitch. A missed layup by Charleston's Boyd with 90 seconds left with the Cougars up by a point gave UNCW a chance – and Newby took it with a massive shot from downtown that made it 66-64 Seahawks with 1:10 to play. The clock continued to run and the score stayed the same as both teams missed crunch-time shots. As the seconds wound down, Charleston had what seemed like one last chance. A quick foul stopped the clock with 10 seconds to play and put Fulton on the line with a chance to tie the game with two free throws – but the senior guard missed them both. However, in a stroke of luck for him, teammate Lazar Djokovic grabbed the offensive rebound and called timeout, giving the Cougars one more crack at it. The ball was inbounded to Boyd, who dribbled toward the top of the arc and tried to cross his defender over, but he lost the ball in the process. It rolled toward half-court and the Seahawks jumped on it, holding on as Charleston fouled. Montgomery stepped to the free throw line and, with 3.9 seconds to go, made both shots, giving UNCW a four-point lead and a berth in the final. Tavarez hit a three as the clock expired for the Cougars, but it didn't matter – the Seahawks had pulled out a 68-67 win to face the Blue Hens. 'It's hard when you ask your guys to compete and give the intensity and the effort and the energy and the togetherness at the highest level they possibly can and it doesn't work out for them,' said Charleston coach Chris Mack after the game. 'I thought they matched our toughness, I thought they matched our physicality,' said Seahawks head coach Takayo Siddle, 'and it came down to us being resilient.' The resilience of Delaware and UNC-Wilmington wasn't done being tested just yet. Yes, after all that emotionally draining, back-and-forth basketball, the Blue Hens and Seahawks still had to play one more game. March is mad, but it's also relentlessly demanding. At some point in the 20 hours or so between the win over Towson and the final on Tuesday, the word got out among the Delaware faithful: 'You gotta get to DC.' The one-man student representation suddenly blew up into a mostly full section of bucket-hat clad fans. The pep band expanded too, taking over most of section 101 after needing about three rows the night before. Cinderella had a strong wall of noise behind them for the first time in this underdog run. The teal end of the arena matched the newly arrived Blue Hens' energy, and CareFirst Arena was a cauldron of noise before tip-off. In the opening stages, it looked like it was almost midnight for Delaware. The Seahawks were making all the hustle plays, forced four turnovers and held the Blue Hens to just 21% from the field in the first 10 minutes. The Seahawks' lead grew to 10 and the Delaware contingent – arms crossed, eyes staring blankly at the court – looked shell-shocked. When the lead grew to 15 with five minutes to play in the first half, Seahawks fans all came to their feet. The game felt like it was teetering on the edge of the blowout before it even got to halftime. But contests in this of all months can turn on a dime. Two layups and a three-pointer later, the Blue Hens shrunk the lead to eight. Electricity surged through the blue half of the arena. The Seahawks blunted the run somewhat, but it took only five minutes of the second half for Delaware to come all the way back. With 15 minutes to go, John Camden hit yet another huge three-pointer that brought the Blue Hens – improbably, again – all the way back into the lead, 41-40. The shots were starting to fall in a way they just hadn't in the first half. Still, amid the onslaught, the Seahawks wouldn't fold. The teams traded small leads over and over, the game feeling like it might come down to the last possession. Over the next 10 minutes, it was a classic tournament basketball game. Neither team could hold on to the lead for more than a few minutes, and it was rare that more than three points separated them. The back-and-forth contest eventually settled into UNC-Wilmington gripping a small lead, nearing a championship and playing spoiler. The Blue Hens were going to need one last miracle. For a second, it seemed like they were about to get it. Once again, it was Delaware's Camden hitting the shot that the Blue Hens needed. Taking the ball from freshman standout Izaiah Pasha in the corner just in front of his bench, he tossed up a three that found nothing but the net as he flew out of bounds. But the hope didn't last long. A defensive breakdown on the next possession cost the Blue Hens. Somehow, Newby snuck away from two Delaware defenders and got himself wide open amid the scramble. The senior guard had ended Charleston's season the night before with a dagger three and, in the biggest game of his life so far, he did it again with a long two, turning Delaware's carriage back into a pumpkin. There were 34 seconds to play and UNCW was up by five. The Blue Hens tried to claw back into it, but Newby would not be denied. He hit two free throws off a quick Delaware layup and then did it again a few seconds later to send his team dancing. The final free throws came after Newby had to stand at the free-throw line, waiting for both coaches to finish drawing up a play for the final seconds. He stared at the rim and never wavered. 'I was just telling myself, 'You're built for this,' and then I just talked to myself through my free throw routine,' Newby said after the game. One more missed Blue Hens shot, and it was all over. The Seahawks rushed the floor in joy, tears streaming down some of their faces as Delaware fled the scene. It was the first time UNCW booked a place in the dance since they won the CAA tournament in 2017. As his team celebrated at center court, Newby found his parents. His mom reached over the rope line separating them and he sank into her arms, crying as the emotions finally let loose. A few minutes later, he was named tournament MVP. 'It just meant so much,' Newby said of that moment with his family, 'because my parents put so much work and so much dedication – so much money traveling – into this craft of mine that I fell in love with. They just did it all for me. So, to be able to feel like I'm paying them back for that by winning this, it just felt really good.' The Seahawks ended the night cutting down the net and holding an oversized ticket to the NCAA men's basketball tournament, grins plastered on their faces. Maybe, they'd get stuck in a play-in game next week. Maybe, they'd get run out of the building by one of college basketball's blue bloods in an opening round game. But maybe – just maybe – they'd bust some brackets. Maybe, they're next week's David to some top-seeded Goliath. Maybe, they'd be the real deal Cinderella. That, beyond anything, is the promise of March.
Yahoo
20-03-2025
- Sport
- Yahoo
Jays wrap up NCAA Tournament preparation in Lexington ahead of first round matchup with Louisville
LEXINGTON, Ky. (KCAU) – For a program-record tying fifth consecutive season, Creighton has on its dancing shoes for the NCAA Tournament. After the Bluejays touched down in Lexington on Tuesday evening, Creighton hit the court for open practice ahead of Thursday's game. The Bluejays earned the #9 seed in the South Region, boasting a 24-10 record after finishing second in the BIG EAST Conference regular season standings and runner-up in the conference tournament. Led by four-time BIG EAST Defensive Player of the Year Ryan Kalkbrenner, Creighton aims to win a postseason game for the 14th time in the last 16 seasons. The Bluejays center is only one of three players in NCAA Division I history with 2,300 points and 375 blocks. A feeling that not only never gets old for the Creighton veterans, but one that brings excitement for players that have yet to experience The Big Dance. 'It's pretty exciting. It brings me back to the days when I was younger playing the European Championship with my national team. So I'm pretty excited about that,' Crieghton guard Fedor Zugic said. 'It's the infamous March Madness. The European kids can only dream about it, and I get to play it. So I'm pretty happy about being here.' 'It feels really good. We were obviously here last year and it was a lot of fun, and I was looking forward to hopefully repeating what we did last year and just getting a couple of wins,' Creighton guard Jasen Green added. Creighton will take on #8 Louisville out of the ACC in the Round of 64 on Thursday. Louisville features Omaha native Chucky Hepburn on their roster, who joined the Cardinals after transferring from Wisconsin. Creighton is 2-1 all-time against Louisville with a 2-0 record in NCAA Tournament play, defeating the Cardinals in the 1974 and 1999 tournaments. Tip-off at Rupp Arena is slated for 11 a.m. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Yahoo
20-03-2025
- Sport
- Yahoo
Let the madness begin
Kolby KickingWoman ICT Bust out your boogie shoes because The Big Dance is finally here. More colloquially known as March Madness, the NCAA Tournament features 68 teams from across the nation, lacing up their sneakers all with the dream of outlasting the field and winning the championship. The mantra is simple – survive and advance. Each team is six wins away from being immortalized in college basketball history. On the men's side, three players and one coach will be representing their respective tribes along with their schools, according to Jason Amador, Navajo and Mohave, is a senior guard for 13-seed Grand Canyon University; Lance Waddles, Standing Rock Sioux, is a junior guard for the 15-seed Omaha Mavericks; and Dayton Forsythe, Chickasaw Nation, is a freshman guard for 9-seed University of Oklahoma. On the sidelines, University of Houston Head Coach Kelvin Sampson, Lumbee, led his Cougars squad to Big 12 regular season and conference championships this year and the team's third consecutive season as a 1-seed in the the four, Sampson has the best opportunity to make the Final Four but this humble writer and sports enthusiast has them losing to the Duke Blue Devils in the semifinals the first weekend of April. As sports fans, these are among the best of the year. This first weekend, with games running essentially all day, is purely bliss. A survey of 3,000 fans from the Action Network found that 40 percent admitted to calling in sick to watch games on the first Thursday and Friday of the tournament. Additionally, the survey found 'March Madness could cost the U.S. economy approximately $20.89 billion in lost productivity.' Talk about a serious case of basketball fever. Admittedly, I am prone to keep an eye on my bracket throughout the day, sorry boss! There's still time to fill out your bracket, Just make sure you get that bracket turned in before the first game tips off at 12:15 p.m. ET Thursday. Here's a little nugget for you – only once has all four No. 1 seeds made it to the Final Four; that was in 2008. Ironically, that Final Four was held in San Antonio, the locale for this year. Upon filling out my initial bracket, I had this occur and it gave me pause. However, the four No. 1 seeds have been among the best in the country all year. Naturally, if I stick to the course, none will make it and my bracket will likely be busted before the end of the weekend. But that's the awesomeness of March Madness. Unexpected turns and surprises are bound to happen. Plus, it's fun to get behind and root for a Cinderella. For what it's worth, I have Duke beating Florida in the National Championship 77-71. So here's to buzzer beaters, broken brackets and Cinderellas. Let the craziness of March Madness begin. Like this story? Support our work with a $5 or $10 contribution today. Contribute to the nonprofit ICT. Sign up for ICT's free newsletter.
