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Auburn forward Chuma Okeke's left knee was in so much pain that he planned to watch the Tigers' NCAA tournament regional final Sunday against Kentucky from his hotel and await the return flight to Alabama.
It was late in the first half that Okeke realized he needed to be at Sprint Center.
The sophomore told a member of the Auburn staff that he'd changed his mind, and Okeke was soon being wheeled into the building in downtown Kansas City, Missouri. He finally made it to the floor at the under-16-minutes media timeout, and watched the rest of the Tigers' 77-71 overtime victory from behind the Auburn bench.
It was a surprise to his Tigers teammates. Horace Spencer told ESPN's Michele Steele that Okeke said in a text before the game that he was in pain and would watch the game offsite with his family.
"I just think he had to be there,'' Auburn coach Bruce Pearl said.
Anfernee McLemore said "it was just a big courage booster inspiration to see him out there and just supporting us."
"Our goal out there today was just do it for Chuma. That was our only focus. I feel like we did and made him proud," Bryce Brown said.
Okeke took part in the celebration as he placed a stamp with Auburn's name in the Final Four slot on a bracket on the court and was handed the Midwest Regional trophy.
Okeke is scheduled to have surgery on his torn ACL, which he hurt in the team's Sweet 16 victory over North Carolina, on Tuesday. It's unclear whether he plans to accompany the Tigers to Minneapolis for the Final Four next weekend.
Auburn lost twice to Kentucky during the regular season with Okeke, its top rebounder and third-leading scorer, in the lineup.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Duke phenom Zion Williamson likely played his final college game Sunday, in a 68-67 loss to Michigan State in the Elite Eight of the NCAA tournament. So what's next?
We've never seen a prospect quite like Williamson, whose combination of productivity, athleticism, competitiveness, skill and feel for the game makes him the runaway favorite for the No. 1 pick in the 2019 NBA draft. Combine that with his sheer star power and it's easy to see why no other prospect is currently under consideration at the top -- regardless of which team wins the Zion lottery May 14.
Williamson can sit tight until draft night after his freshman season, as he'll be under no obligation to prove anything before he hears his name called by NBA commissioner Adam Silver shortly after 7:30 p.m. ET on June 20. Picking an agent will be his camp's first line of business, though there's a chance someone close to the family gains certification and negotiates his sneaker deal.
It's highly unlikely Williamson will do more than a photo shoot at the facility of whatever team ends up with the No. 1 pick, as it's his call if he wants to submit to a medical examination for NBA teams. It's also up in the air if we'll see anything more than a token appearance from Williamson at the NBA combine in May, outside of perhaps some media obligations.
Basically, since Williamson is such a clear top pick, fans can forget about seeing him with a basketball in his hand until NBA summer league in Las Vegas in early July. -- Jonathan Givony
More: Mock draft | Top 100 prospects | Traded picks
Short answer: The New York Knicks, Phoenix Suns and Cleveland Cavaliers.
Longer answer: Plenty of teams can convince themselves they have some shot.
This is the first year with the new lottery rules, making it much less likely that a league-worst team such as the Knicks lands the No. 1 pick -- and much more likely that a team in the middle jumps up.
Here are the new odds for the 14 lottery slots compared to the old ones:
And with a little more than five games to go for each team, here are the projected lottery odds, via ESPN's Basketball Power Index.
The Chicago Bulls still have a small chance of jumping into that group of three sharing an equal 14 percent chance to land Williamson. But even if they don't, under the new system they'll hold a 12.5 percent chance to snag No. 1.
The Dallas Mavericks (top five) and Memphis Grizzlies (top eight) both owe protected picks, but if they jump up to No. 1, that won't be a concern. The protected picks will roll over to next season.
The Boston Celtics should enter the lottery with one of the worst odds to select Williamson, as they own the Sacramento Kings' pick unprotected. What once looked like one of the best trade assets in the league, the Sacramento pick will have a less than 2.0 percent chance of moving up to No. 1 after the Kings' surprising playoff push.
These new odds are a big reason why you don't see teams freaking out about every win down the stretch costing them a chance at such a talented prospect. This is going to be a massive toss-up.
The first step for Williamson's emerging marketing profile will be landing a massive sneaker endorsement deal. His star power and explosive game are expected to place him among the highest annual earnings for rookies ever, right alongside the seven-year Nike deals that LeBron James signed for $87 million and Kevin Durant signed for $60 million.
As many as six brands will look to sign him, including Nike, Adidas, Under Armour, New Balance, Puma and Anta. The expectation is that Williamson will sign his deal before the May 14 draft lottery, when the draft order will be set.
"In my lifetime, I think it's going to be the biggest bidding war ever done," former sneaker executive Sonny Vaccaro said. "I would put them all on go."
Vaccaro signed Michael Jordan at Nike in 1984 and later looked to offer James a $100 million contract at Adidas. Sources at multiple brands across the industry expect Williamson's deal to potentially reach that astronomical tier. -- Nick DePaula
In February, I posed the question of who was the most recent college prospect we'd seen as promising statistically as Williamson. According to my consensus NBA draft projections, which utilized both the player's statistics translated to their NBA equivalent and where the player ranks in Givony's top 100, I found only Anthony Davis in 2012 ahead of Williamson in my database, which includes most top college prospects going back as far as 2003.
At that point, I speculated that Williamson might be able to pass Davis if he were able to play at the same level over all of Duke's remaining games. His knee injury prevented that possibility, and because Williamson's numbers were down a small amount -- most notably on defense, where he averaged just 1.8 steals and 1.0 blocks after returning as compared to 2.2 and 1.8 before his injury -- his projection slipped a small amount.
Nonetheless, Williamson will still enter the draft as the best collegiate prospect since Davis by my projections. -- Kevin Pelton
KANSAS CITY, Mo. -- No. 5 seed Auburn became the third program to punch its ticket to the 2019 Final Four, joining Virginia and Texas Tech after defeating No. 2 seed Kentucky 77-71 in a thrilling overtime win Sunday.
It is the first ever Final Four appearance for Auburn, a program that's busting down doors under charismatic coach Bruce Pearl, and for Pearl himself. Pearl, in his fifth season at the helm of the Tigers program, will be the third first-time coach in college basketball's final weekend this season along with Virginia coach Tony Bennett and Texas Tech coach Chris Beard.
The Tigers' upset vs. the Wildcats in the Midwest Regional final capped a three-game stretch of victories over the three winningest programs in college basketball history after Auburn defeated Kansas in the second round and North Carolina in the Sweet 16.
"It's an honor to even be on the floor with those programs, and then when you play -- your kids play hard and play unselfishly and play together, obviously they're the Cinderellas of this tournament," Pearl said. "And that's what makes March so special, which team is it going to be?"
The Tigers (30-9) will face the Cavaliers, the No. 1 seed out of the South Regional on Saturday in Minneapolis in a national semifinal game.
Auburn ran away in the overtime to outscore Kentucky 17-11, but that was not the case in the waning minutes of the second half. Neither team could muster much offense. The Tigers scored only one field goal over the final four-and-a-half minutes, which came on a game-tying layup from Jared Harper with 37 seconds remaining.
Harper's role in giving Auburn extra time to win the game was vital. The 5-foot-11 guard played like a giant down the stretch. He finished with 26 points and five assists, and scored or assisted in 14 of the Tigers' 17 overtime points. Fellow teammate Bryce Brown's chipped in 24, and logged two steals in the extra frame.
"I feel like our team played well the whole second half, the whole overtime," Harper said. "I can't do what I did without having the support of my teammates and coaches."
Kentucky's PJ Washington, who began the NCAA Tournament on the bench due to a foot injury, scored 28 in the loss. Like Harper, he put his team on his back. Washington was 10 of 18 from the floor, 2 of 4 from 3-point range and pulled down a game-high 13 rebounds. For as hobbled as he was a week ago, the load he carried was admirable.
"They played aggressive and tough, they bumped, and it was a grinding kind of game," Kentucky coach John Calipari said. "Two of their guys had 50 points. Think about that. They deserved to win the game. We got outplayed, got outcoached, and still had a chance to win the game. I thought we were going to win the game the whole way until the one or two plays in overtime. Never entered my mind we weren't going to win the game."
The Tigers were playing without forward Chuma Okeke, who injured his knee vs. the Tar Heels and will miss the rest of the NCAA Tournament. Auburn received an emotional lift when Okeke joined the team on the bench in the second half.
But Auburn's relentless and punishing attack inside and out was too much for even Washington to overcome. With each response, Auburn had a counterpunch waiting. And now the Tigers have in their hands a welcome punched ticket to their first-ever Final Four.
CBS Sports was with you for complete coverage of Sunday's game from Kansas City, Missouri, with our live blog below. If you are having trouble viewing the blog, please click here.
Thanks for stopping by.
With Duke's Zion Williamson playing against Michigan State basketball in the Elite Eight on Sunday, many might have predicted that he would provide the highlight-reel dunk that would show up on SportsCenter.
Enter Matt McQuaid.
The MSU senior made his presence known with a one-handed slam in the first half.
Twitter was loving it and a few even wondered, "Zion who?"
We all are.
[ Big Ten fanatics, check out our free Best of the Big Ten newsletter! Subscribe here. ]
WASHINGTON -- Cam Reddish was not in the starting lineup for Duke's Elite Eight showdown with Michigan State on Sunday, but he was the Blue Devils' first player off the bench at the 17:59 mark in the first half, entering to a massive ovation from the crowd.
Reddish was a late scratch for Friday's win over Virginia Tech because of a left knee injury, but he practiced with the team Saturday and looked comfortable going through warm-ups before Sunday's tip.
Mike Krzyzewski said Reddish has been dealing with knee soreness similar to tendinitis, but has no structural damage to the joint. He wore a protective sleeve Sunday, but didn't appear to be favoring the injured knee.
Reddish is Duke's leading long-range shooter (87 3-pointers) and third-leading scorer overall (13.8 points per game). He's one of three Duke freshmen expected to be lottery picks in the upcoming NBA draft.
Two college basketball blue-bloods collide Sunday when 1-seed Duke and 2-seed Michigan State meet in a highly-anticipated 2019 NCAA Tournament Elite 8 matchup. Tip-off from the Capital One Arena in Washington, D.C., is set for 5:05 p.m. ET. This star-studded showdown features two Hall of Fame coaches, as Duke's Mike Krzyzewski holds a distinct advantage over Michigan State's Tom Izzo. In fact, Krzyzewski boasts a remarkable 11-1 record against Izzo, including a 3-1 mark in the NCAA Tournament. However, in those 12 meetings, each team covered six times. Now, the pair will meet with a trip to the 2019 Final Four on the line. Coach K's Blue Devils are favored by two in the latest Duke vs. Michigan State odds, while the over-under for total points scored is 150.5, down three from the opener. Before making any Duke vs. Michigan State picks of your own, see what the SportsLine Projection Model has to say.
This model, which simulates every game 10,000 times, has raked in the winnings for those following its picks. Over the past two years, the SportsLine Projection Model has returned over $4,000 to $100 players on its top-rated college basketball picks. It's also on fire in the 2019 NCAA Tournament, calling 14 of the Sweet 16 teams straight-up. Anyone who has followed it is way up.
Now the model has dialed in on Duke vs. Michigan State. We can tell you it is leaning under, and it also says one side of the spread cashes in more than 50 percent of simulations. That one is only available at SportsLine.
The model has taken into account that Duke has won its past two games by a combined three points. The Blue Devils survived a second-half surge from UCF in the second round and then came from behind to beat Virginia Tech by two in the Sweet 16.
The Blue Devils have had plenty of success against Michigan State in recent years, winning five consecutive games against the Spartans. The Blue Devils will need another clutch performance from their freshmen phenoms if they want to advance to the Final Four. Zion Williamson has scored 80 total points in three tournament games, while R.J. Barrett dropped 18 points and 11 assists against Virginia Tech. However, it was Tre Jones who led the charge for Duke against the Hokies. Jones went 5-of-7 from behind the arc for a career-high 22 points, and he'll need to be a main facilitator again on Sunday for the Blue Devils to have success.
But just because the Blue Devils have plenty of firepower does not guarantee they cover the Duke vs. Michigan State spread in the Elite Eight on Sunday.
Michigan State, making its 22nd straight NCAA Tournament appearance and 33rd overall, has reached nine Final Fours and won two national championships. Michigan State also has the edge over the Blue Devils in field goal and 3-point percentage. The Spartans are 14th nationally in field goal percentage (48.6) compared to Duke, which is 28th at 47.7.
Their biggest edge is in 3-point shooting, where the Spartans are 24th overall (38.1 percent), while Duke is 331st at 30.7. Michigan State is led by Big Ten Player of the Year Cassius Winston, who had 26 points in the first-round win over Bradley and is the only player in the country averaging at least 18 points per game, seven assists and shooting 40 percent from 3-point range.
And Duke may be without star forward Cam Reddish, who is a game-time decision with a knee injury. Reddish sat out Duke's extremely tight victory against Virginia Tech on Friday.
So who wins Michigan State vs. Duke? And which side of the spread cashes in more than 50 percent of simulations? Visit SportsLine now to see which side of the Michigan State vs. Duke spread to jump on, all from the advanced model that is up more than $4,000 on its college basketball picks, and find out.
KANSAS CITY, Mo. -- Another game, another thrilling finish in the Elite Eight.
After two Saturday night gems that saw Virginia and Texas Tech advance to the Final Four in close shaves, Sunday afternoon picked up right where the late night festivities ended on Sunday. No. 5 seed Auburn became the third program to punch its ticket to the 2019 Final Four, joining UVA and Texas Tech, after defeating No. 2 seed Kentucky 77-71 in a thrilling overtime win.
It is the first ever Final Four appearance for Auburn, a program that's busting down doors under charismatic coach Bruce Pearl, and for Pearl himself. Pearl, in his fifth season at the helm of the Tigers program, will be the third and final first-time coach to be among college basketball's final grouping this season along with Virginia coach Tony Bennett and Texas Tech coach Chris Beard. Duke and Michigan State play Sunday, and coaches from both programs have both made appearances in the Final Four.
Auburn was led by Jared Harper's 26 points and Bryce Brown's 24. Kentucky star PJ Washington, who began the NCAA Tournament on the bench due to injury, scored 28.
CBS Sports was with you for complete coverage of Sunday's game from Kansas City, Missouri, with our live blog below. If you are having trouble viewing the blog, please click here.
Thanks for stopping by.
Charles Leclerc was left ruing what might have been after missing out on what had seemed certain to be his first ever Formula 1 Grand Prix race victory on Sunday in Bahrain.
Despite losing the lead at the start of the race, the 21-year-old from Monaco regrouped and fought his way back to the front in just four laps.
After that he appeared out of touch of his Ferrari team mate Sebastian Vettel, and the two Mercedes cars of Lewis Hamilton and Valtteri Bottas.
But with over ten seconds in hand on lap 47, Leclerc told the pit wall that there was “something was seriously wrong with the engine”.
It left him limping the rest of the way to the line, during which time he was passed by both Hamilton and Bottas before the chequered flag.
“It happens. It’s part of motorsport,” Leclerc said after the race, admitting that of course he was "extremely disappointed" to miss out on the victory.
“I didn’t do a very good start, but then we were very strong all race long.
“Unfortunately today was not our day," he continued. “Very hard to take, but thank you to the team for the amazing car all weekend long.
"I’m pretty sure we’ll come back stronger," he insisted. "I’m confident that the team has done an amazing job to recover from the lack of pace in Australia."
Although he missed out on victory, Leclerc did end up with his first ever Formula 1 podium position after a late safety car prevented Red Bull's Max Verstappen from passing him in the final seconds.
"We’ve been very lucky in an unlucky situation," Leclerc acknowledged. "We had the safety car at the end, otherwise we would’ve finished even more rearward
"Also I don’t think we would’ve been okay with the fuel," he revealed.
"It’s a shame to only finish third. It’s part of racing, but we’ll come back stronger," he added. "Today, third wasn’t our place, but I’m happy anyway.
“As I have said a lot in the past, I am never looking at the result, I am looking at the potential to do better."
One of the first people to console Leclerc after the race finished was the man who had inherited the race win.
"I’m sure it was a devastating result for him," Hamilton commented. "He did such a great job, he had done the job to win race. He deserved to win."
Gallery: The beautiful wives and girlfriends of F1 drivers
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Former Knicks star Kristaps Porzingis allegedly called a black woman a “slave” and a “b—h” as he beat and raped her, according to a report.
The 7-foot-3 athlete, who is white, is accused of referring to the woman as “my b—h” and “my slave,” adding that he owned her, during the alleged Feb. 7, 2018, sex assault in Porzingis’s Manhattan penthouse, according to TMZ.
The woman made the claim to cops, the Web site said.
Law-enforcement sources told The Post — which broke the story Saturday that the NYPD is investigating the rape allegation against the hoops star — that they could not immediately confirm that he used the vile language.
Hours after suffering a gruesome knee injury during a game, Porzingis, 23, allegedly punched and raped the 29-year-old woman inside the Midtown skyscraper where they both lived, sources told The Post.
Porzingis, who now plays for the Dallas Mavericks, has denied the allegations and said through his lawyer that the accuser tried to extort him.
Dodger Stadium on the eve of the 2017 Major League Baseball World Series. (iStock)
A Dodgers fan was hospitalized with serious injuries after a fight in a parking lot at Dodger Stadium following Friday’s six-hour game, according to police and the victim's family.
The assault stemmed from a "verbal dispute" between two men outside of the stadium following the Dodgers game against the Arizona Diamondbacks, Lt. Silvia Sanchez with the Los Angeles Police Department told Fox News.
Police said shortly after midnight Saturday, "one of the men was seriously injured when he fell to the ground after being punched once."
"He was hit and his head hit the ground and caused a skull fracture, and now his brain is swelling. He's bleeding on the brain," the victim's wife, Christel Reyna, told KABC.
She identified the victim to the media outlet as her husband, 47-year-old Rafael Reyna, a father of four.
BRYCE HARPER WILL SAVE MILLIONS IN TAXES BY SIGNING WITH PHILLIES INSTEAD OF DODGERS, GIANTS: REPORT
“A witness immediately reported the incident to stadium personnel and the LAPD. Emergency medical technicians were promptly dispatched to provide medical assistance at the scene,” the LAPD said in a statement. The victim was then transported to the hospital.
On a fundraising page Christel Reyna created to help cover medical costs, she wrote her husband was assaulted in Lot 3 just after midnight Saturday following the Dodgers game.
“I heard the entire attack because I was on the phone with him at the time," she wrote on the page. "We are asking anyone with information to share what they know so we can catch whoever did this to my husband.”
“I anticipate some tough roads ahead of us, but we believe in the power of our Lord to heal him and carry our family through,” Christel wrote. “Please continue to send your prayers for my husband. We can sure use a lot of them right now.’
She also made a public plea on her Facebook page, writing: “Help us find who assaulted my husband at Dodger stadium last night! Someone saw something! Lot 2/3 at midnight last night (Friday night). I heard the entire assault on the phone and know someone was there to witness it!”
The LAPD told Fox News they are working with the Dodgers on the investigation.
No arrests have been made and the cause of the fight is still under investigation, police told Fox News.
Police described the suspect as a male Hispanic in his 20s, saying he may have left the area in a white SUV, possibly a Toyota 4Runner.
An official update on Reyna’s condition was not available Sunday.
Meanwhile, a video taken inside the stadium showing a different fight which took place during the game was posted on social media, including Twitter. It shows several fans hitting and yelling at each other. It was not clear what caused that brawl.
2 MEN PLEAD GUILTY IN DODGER STADIUM ATTACK ON BRYAN STOW, GET SENTENCED
There have been other violent confrontations at Dodgers Stadium, including a 2011 beating which left San Francisco Giants fan Bryan Stow brain damaged and disabled.
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The beating prompted public outrage and led to increased security at Dodgers' games.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
What mattered most at UFC on ESPN 2 in Philadelphia on Saturday? Here’s a thing or five …
To borrow a line from Sheriff Teasle: Whatever possessed God in heaven to make a man like Justin Gaethje? This guy, he fights like he owes a debt that can only be repaid in pain and blood – yours or his, it doesn’t matter. He’s just going to keep walking forward until a sufficient amount of human damage has been done. And he’s actually going to enjoy it, in his own way.
You’d think maybe Edson Barboza would be equipped to deal with that. He’s a veteran fighter. He can win a technical striking battle but he can also go all blood-and-guts when he has to. But then Gaethje baited him into a slugfest and Barboza couldn’t say no. He was also so busy trying to get free of that Gaethje pressure that he forgot to keep his hands up on the way out. Next stop: the land of wind and ghosts.
Now Gaethje has two straight wins after suffering those two straight losses and we find ourselves once again wondering what to make of him. Is he legit championship material, or is he just a Rock ’Em Sock ’Em Robot come to life? In a perfect world, maybe he could even be both.
1 2 3 4 …5
A rocky first half for Virginia in their 80-75 OT win over Purdue appeared to get even worse with a couple minutes to go and the team down by four. On a Boilermaker possession, a defending Kyle Guy got tangled up with Purdue’s Eric Hunter. The UVA junior guard went down with what looked like a painful right ankle injury, and limped off to the bench. At the time, one of college basketball’s most dangerous marksmen was shooting just 1-of-6 from the field, with four points.
Nothing Guy had done, in any NCAA Tournament game this year, had been working for him up to the point of the injury. He had scored 22 points, total, across UVA’s previous three games, and he had hit a remarkably putrid 3-of-26 from three. In a first half where the Cavaliers were mostly on their back heels, down by as many as 10 early on, they urgently needed someone who could match the scoring of the red-hot Carsen Edwards. Guy wasn’t that guy in the beginning, but after he returned from his brief injury scare, he lit up the second-half scoreboard and helped keep his team alive.
Guy came out of the locker room with newfound accuracy and intensity. He hit the first two shots of the period—both threes—to put his team up five, and then he drained another one before the first TV timeout to give UVA a seven-point lead. And then he stayed focused, serving as the counterpoint to Edwards that Virginia had to have. Purdue’s flamethrowing guard was 8-for-13 from the field in the second, with six treys. Guy was 7-for-12, with five treys, to finish with 25 points.
Given their low scores and their ugly history in this tournament, Virginia can be a tough team to take seriously as a contender. But by cutting down the nets in Louisville on Saturday, this team was able to shake off a lot of bad years of underachieving squads, and make it to the Final Four for the first time since long before any of these players were born. For Guy, who’s suffered through both the infamous loss to UMBC and an demoralizing second-round defeat to Florida in 2017, where Virginia only scored 39 points, this emotional win clearly felt like a huge weight off his shoulders.
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Said Guy after the game, “If I’d known all I needed to do was sprain my ankle to hit a couple of shots, I would have done it a lot earlier.”
Los Angeles police said two men got involved in an argument before one of them got punched once and fell to the ground. A witness immediately reported the incident to stadium personnel and the LAPD, authorities said.
"He was hit and his head hit the ground and caused a skull fracture, and now his brain is swelling. He's bleeding on the brain," wife Christel Reyna said.
Christel Reyna said she was on the phone with her husband as he was leaving the stadium and in the parking lot. She then heard a woman and a man arguing with him.
"I was hearing the arguing happening and then I heard like a smack, a crack. It sounded like a baseball bat, and then I heard him start moaning," she said.
Christel Reyna's 22-year-old son and other family members have gathered at LAC+USC Medical Center. She hasn't yet told her younger children -- ranging in age from 11 to 15 -- about their father's condition.
Dodger security and the LAPD are working together to identify the suspect. He may have driven off in a white SUV, possibly a Toyota 4Runner, police said. If you have any information about the incident, you're urged to call the LAPD.
Christel Reyna is also urging anyone who witnessed the altercation or knows the people involved to come forward.
"It hurts my heart," she cried. "This isn't supposed to happen. This isn't how you're supposed to live your life."
"I saw some people got a little excited, some people got angry. There's no need for that, it's supposed to be a family function, like we're all gathered together to celebrate a game," said fan Janelle Harrison.
Security was increased at Dodger Stadium after a series of violent incidents, including the beating of Giants fan Bryan Stow several years ago. Stow suffered severe brain damage.
Fans at Saturday's game against the Arizona Diamondbacks said they value the family atmosphere at the stadium and hope for no more violence.
A GoFundMe page has been set up to help Rafael Reyna and his family. To donate, click here.
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