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Women’s college basketball debate: Which teams have a shot at winning the NCAA Tournament?

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Women’s college basketball debate: Which teams have a shot at winning the NCAA Tournament?

The Athletic’s debate series features two writers breaking down a topic. In this edition, Sabreena Merchant and Ben Pickman debate which teams are capable of winning the national championship.

Ben Pickman: We’re less than two weeks away from Selection Sunday and the whole world caring about seed lines, bracket draws and Cinderellas. Before March Madness begins, let’s undergo an exercise to predict the teams we think have a shot at winning this year’s national title before seeing the matchups. We’ve been talking about the parity across the women’s basketball landscape throughout the season. Four teams have been No. 1 in the AP poll, tying the record most recently set in 2021.

Champions often have commonalities. Over the last 10 NCAA Tournaments, only one winner (Notre Dame in 2017-18) has been outside the top-10 NET rating. Only two champions, that Fighting Irish team and 2016-17 South Carolina, have been outside the top-10 in defensive rating.

So, Sabreena, how many teams do you think have a legitimate chance at cutting down the nets come the evening of April 7?

Sabreena Merchant: There are five teams I can envision holding that trophy — as in, I don’t have to stretch my imagination to see any of these teams winning six games in the NCAA Tournament.

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UConn is the betting favorite, and it’s the team with the most additional upside in the tournament because the Huskies don’t play their stars a ton during the regular season. Texas is the AP No. 1 team and elite on both ends of the floor. USC has the best player in the country, plus an outstanding defense. Notre Dame has a dominant backcourt and beat each of the previous three teams during the regular season.

My shakiest inner-circle national title choice is probably South Carolina.

Pickman: Oooh! Why do you say that?

Merchant: The Gamecocks’ frontcourt still concerns me. Without Ashlyn Watkins, they’re a little thin in the post and a little small. Taller centers have given them difficulty, including the Taylor Jones/Kyla Oldacre duo from Texas, Kentucky’s Clara Strack, and even UConn’s Jana El Alfy in spurts. That’s a more significant weakness than the other four title contenders have. Plus, Raven Johnson and Bree Hall haven’t been as consistent as last season.

Pickman: That may be true, but South Carolina is still No. 1 in defensive rating, according to Her Hoop Stats. The Gamecocks feature an experienced backcourt and coach, and they’re efficient on offense. Though their frontcourt might not be as good as last year (or previous years), it’s also notable that South Carolina is in the nation’s top 15 in turnovers per game (averaging just 12), and is sixth, per HHS, in foul rate. Avoiding turnovers and fouls makes a recipe for success in March.

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Merchant: All those elements push South Carolina into Tier 1, but if I had to pick a Final Four without looking at the bracket, the Gamecocks would be on the outside looking in.

Do you think I’m being too restrictive? Does anyone else warrant title consideration for you?

Pickman: I have another school on my title shortlist. UCLA spent the most weeks (12) at No. 1 this season. They’re in the top five in offensive and defensive rating; they have arguably the most dominant post player in the country in Lauren Betts; and they boast experience in the backcourt. I picked the Bruins to win the title last year for similar reasons. On paper, yet again, they have the résumé of a national title contender.

Merchant: On paper, I agree with you about UCLA, but the Bruins don’t come through in big games. Beating South Carolina earlier in the year suggested they had turned a corner, but they finished the season in less than inspiring fashion and were essentially noncompetitive in their regular-season finale against USC — which doubled as the Big Ten title game.

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Familiar demons haunt UCLA in another loss to USC

Pickman: All fair. Perhaps I’m holding on to their victory over South Carolina too much. Plus, after the loss to USC, coach Cori Close seemed to acknowledge the need for some kind of shakeup in critical games. Maybe I’m betting on them doing some soul-searching in the leadup to the NCAA Tournament. I could, yet again, look foolish in a month.

LSU was on my short title contender list as of two weeks ago, but losses to Alabama and Ole Miss (albeit the latter without Flau’jae Johnson) have dampened my expectations. Johnson is out through the SEC tournament, which gives me pause. And though LSU is No. 2 nationally in free throw attempts, its backcourt — apart from Johnson — is inexperienced and has been inconsistent throughout the year.

Merchant: I’d be surprised if the Tigers even made the Final Four because they rely so much on their top three players. Kim Mulkey’s track record in the NCAA Tournament is impressive, but I don’t think this is the year she adds another banner to her collection.

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Pickman: Even without LSU, there might be more than 10 teams that could make the Final Four. History says that unlike national champions, Final Four participants can be elite at either offense or defense and struggle on the other end of the floor. (Think Iowa of the past two seasons and Oregon in 2018-19.) TCU falls into that bucket for me, as the Horned Frogs are No. 2 in offensive rating and No. 35 in defensive rating. They’re the oldest team in the country, top 10 in blocks and turnovers per game and No. 1 in 3-pointers made. It’s hard to imagine the Horned Frogs going from winning their first Big 12 title to winning a national title — TCU has never even made a Sweet 16, let alone Final Four — but this has been a historic year for the program.

Merchant: As long as we’re on the subject of long shots, another Big 12 team interests me by being elite on one end of the floor. That’s West Virginia. “Press” Virginia has the nation’s best defense thanks to the Mountaineers’ full-court pressure. With the short turnaround of the NCAA Tournament, this team could produce upsets. We saw West Virginia nearly take down Caitlin Clark’s Hawkeyes in Iowa City during the 2024 second round, and the defense has only gotten stouter in the interim. Depending on the draw — because big centers generally wreck them — the Mountaineers could make some noise.

Pickman: We agree that Mountaineers could pull off some upsets early in the bracket. However, of the teams that have made the last five Final Fours and had a significant offense-defense disparity, only Arizona in 2020-21 has made it as a defense-first team.

Merchant: Maybe the teams we should keep an eye on are Florida State and Vanderbilt. We’ve already seen Ta’Niya Latson obliterate the defense of one of our top-tier teams (Notre Dame) within the last week, and Mikayla Blakes put up 50-plus points twice on SEC opponents. The Seminoles are more experienced in the NCAA Tournament, so this could be the year they break through and win a game or more.

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Pickman: For FSU, and almost everyone else, the draw is critical. Nobody is as dominant as South Carolina was a season ago. That’s what will make this year’s tournament so exciting.

(Photo: Joe Buglewicz / Getty Images)

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Oba Femi vs Brock Lesnar at SummerSlam is a ‘generational matchup,’ WWE legend JBL says

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Oba Femi vs Brock Lesnar at SummerSlam is a ‘generational matchup,’ WWE legend JBL says

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Oba Femi and Brock Lesnar’s feud will come to a head at SummerSlam in August, and the showdown has the potential to be WWE’s match of the year.

Femi beat Lesnar at WrestleMania 42 and led to “The Beast Incarnate” deciding to retire – at least for a moment – at Allegiant Stadium in Las Vegas. Lesnar made a dramatic return a few weeks later, challenging and beating Femi at Clash in Italy.

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Oba Femi looks on during Monday Night RAW at Allstate Arena on July 6, 2026, in Chicago, Illinois. (Melina Pizano/WWE via Getty Images)

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At SummerSlam, Femi and Lesnar will do battle inside a Hell in a Cell.

WWE Hall of Famer John Bradshaw Layfield called the next meeting between Femi and Lesnar a “generational matchup.”

“I’ve never seen anything like Oba – well, I have. I’ve seen Brock,” he told Fox News Digital. “It’s very much the carbon copy of Brock coming in. Brock coming in was like, oh my God, who is this guy? The guy can even talk, and he’s gonna be one of the biggest stars in wrestling. Not only could he talk, he’s a really smart guy. Brock became one of the biggest draws in professional wrestling. He came one of the biggest draws in UFC. It’s an unbelievable story, and now you got somebody who can rival that character.

Brock Lesnar in action against Oba Femi during “Monday Night Raw” at TD Garden on March 23, 2026, in Boston, Massachusetts. (Michael Owens/WWE via Getty Images)

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“This Oba Femi comes out with the silly little walk he does. Everyone kinda does it, it’s like The Bushwackers. But the whole arena does it. I was in Vegas and I didn’t want to go to the matches and deal with the traffic and deal with the backstage area, and so I kinda just watched it in a sports bar. I stood in the back where nobody could recognize me, and as soon as Oba came out, the entire sports bar was sitting there doing that Oba Femi dance. The guy is just unbelievably over.

“I really think that somewhere in the NFL this year, you’re going to see an entire NFL arena doing this dance. You’re gonna have somebody like Saquon Barkley or ‘King’ (Derrick Henry) or some of these guys do this dance, and it’s infectious. Once one of them does, one of these great running backs or wide receivers, or somebody scores a touchdown, that’s when I think you’re gonna see entire arenas doing it. I just think Oba Femi is lightning in a bottle and Brock has always been that way. This is, to me, a generational matchup.”

Brock Lesnar and Oba Femi face off during WrestleMania 42: Night 2 at Allegiant Stadium on April 19, 2026, in Las Vegas, Nevada. (Georgiana Dallas/WWE via Getty Images)

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SummerSlam will take place on Aug. 1 and 2 at U.S. Bank Stadium in Minneapolis.

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Commentary: ‘I don’t want any handouts.’ Amid the Angels’ drought, a starry homecoming for Mike Trout

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Commentary: ‘I don’t want any handouts.’ Amid the Angels’ drought, a starry homecoming for Mike Trout

Mike Trout last played in an All-Star Game seven years ago. It’s crazy, really. The best player of the previous decade, the link that ties Barry Bonds and Albert Pujols to Aaron Judge and Shohei Ohtani, has not taken an All-Star at-bat this decade.

Injuries, mostly. And he turns 35 next month.

Next week’s All-Star Game takes place in Philadelphia, about 40 miles north of Trout’s hometown of Millville, N.J. Major League Baseball reserves a potential All-Star roster spot or two each summer for distinguished players: Bryce Harper and Justin Verlander this year, Clayton Kershaw last year, Pujols and Miguel Cabrera in past years.

That could have been Trout’s spot this summer: a worthy honor for a three-time most valuable player, a local hero feted on the national stage the Angels have failed to provide him.

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“I wouldn’t have done it,” Trout said.

Not even at home?

“It’s an honor to get voted in and represent the American League,” he said. “For me, I don’t want any handouts.”

Trout is an All-Star for the 12th time, the old-fashioned way: He earned it.

Fans voted him into the starting lineup, with the most final-round votes of any AL outfielder. His peers voted him as one of the top three outfielders in the AL.

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“It means a lot,” he said. “I’ve been through a lot of hurdles, a lot of adversity. I put some hard work in, and I did not let up. I could have easily got down on myself and not pushed through it and not come back.

“I know what I am capable of. I know I have the confidence to get back to the player I used to be.”

His .874 OPS entering play Thursday ranks second among AL outfielders, a career season for many players. In 11 of his 14 full seasons — all but the previous three — he has posted a higher OPS.

In April, in a four-game series against the New York Yankees, Trout hit five home runs and drove in nine runs.

“Everything was clicking,” he said. “When I first came up, that’s how I felt the whole season.

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“Just to be able to get that feeling back, that little spark, to know it’s still in there, it makes you feel pretty good.”

For him, so does playing in Philadelphia. The first time he played there with the Angels, Millville basically closed down for the night, and just about everyone in town boarded a bus to the game. Then Trout had an exceptionally rare experience, a visiting player cheered at the home of the boo.

Mark Gubicza can testify to that. Gubicza, the two-time All-Star pitcher and now the Angels’ television analyst, grew up in Philadelphia.

“I don’t care if you were God himself, if you were wearing a different color uniform, I was still booing you,” Gubicza said. “But he was cheered.”

Still is. Trout is a diehard Philadelphia Eagles fan, with his season tickets not in some climate-controlled luxury suite but along the sideline.

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“The players all walk by him and say ‘Trouty!’ ” Gubicza said. “Before they all go out to get their heads beat in, they’re all saying hi.

“He’s not one of those guys that comes there to be seen. He’s going there to root. That’s why they love him: He’s one of us.”

Said Trout: “I know how passionate I am about the Eagles. From my experience as an Eagles fan, it’s just different.

“It’s like win or die.”

It’s not like that in Southern California, where almost no one listens to sports-talk radio, and where a nice day is always a day away.

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No one would begrudge Trout for living year-round along the Orange County coast. (OK, maybe Philadelphia fans would.)

Roy Hallenbeck, Trout’s high school coach, remembered visiting years ago on what he called “a perfect day” and asking Trout how he could ever get tired of all that sunshine.

“Yeah, coach, I couldn’t live here,” Trout told him. “‘I need my seasons.”

Trout built a family home near his boyhood home. He built his Trout National golf resort, with a course designed by Tiger Woods, in Millville.

He is as loyal to the Angels as he is to Millville. He appreciates the team that “took a chance on a kid from a little town in southern New Jersey” and signed him to two nine-figure contract extensions.

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Trout was the last Angels player to take a postseason at-bat, in 2014. Even amid baseball’s longest playoff drought, he still considers Anaheim a special place, and always will.

“It’s where it all began,” Trout said. “I think the fuel of people doubting us kind of makes it more of a fire for me to try to get back to the playoffs. I think that’s the biggest key for me.

“Could I take the easy way out and just leave? Yeah. But I think — I said this last year around this time, but it’s the same feeling I’ve been having — I really haven’t sat down and talked to anybody about it specifically, but I know there’s a time where, if things change, who knows? I don’t know. But, for me, right now, my focus is on trying to get this club back in the playoffs.”

At the All-Star Game, Trout might well hear Phillies fans beseech him to come play for the home team. However, Hallenbeck said, the hometown folks no longer are as strident in that long-held wish.

“I think the overriding sentiment of most people I talk with, even Phillies fans, is we would all — as people that know him, love him and care for him — love to watch him play relevant baseball in August and September,” Hallenbeck said. “It doesn’t matter where. It doesn’t matter who. Just being relevant late in the season would be something we would all love to see.

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“Hopefully, it’s with the Angels. They’ve been so good to him. We’d love to see it there.”

So would we. In the meantime, in the absence of a World Series, Trout deserves to enjoy his homecoming game.

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London descends into disorder as Morocco fans flood streets after World Cup elimination by France

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London descends into disorder as Morocco fans flood streets after World Cup elimination by France

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Public unrest began in parts of London late Thursday night, and it appears Morocco’s exit from the 2026 FIFA World Cup at the hands of France is the reason.

France took down Morocco 2-0, eliminating the African country for the second consecutive tournament, this time in a quarterfinal match.

As a result, many feared Paris would erupt into riots, especially after the chaos that followed Paris Saint-Germain’s UEFA Champions League victory over Arsenal in May. 

Instead, images and videos from Edgware Road in northwest London showed police clashing with large crowds as smoke billowed through the streets and debris littered the roadway.

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A police vehicle is parked in a road as people from pro-Palestinian activist groups gather near the Edgware United Synagogue during a demonstration against the “Great Israeli Real Estate Event” organized by real-estate agency My Home in Israel, which markets property in Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank, in London, Britain, June 14, 2026. (Toby Shepheard)

Riot police, equipped with shields and body armor, tried to contain the crowds as they clashed with people launching fireworks and throwing debris. One video also appeared to show an officer down.

KYLIAN MBAPPÉ, OUSMANE DEMBÉLÉ FIRE FRANCE INTO WORLD CUP SEMIFINALS WITH WIN OVER MOROCCO

It’s unknown what happened to the officer who was down on the asphalt or how he was injured.

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Fans waved Moroccan flags in the middle of the streets, which held up traffic. Some even jumped on top of vehicles trying to get through the area.

Moroccan fans in the stands before a FIFA World Cup 2026 quarterfinal match between France and Morocco at Boston Stadium July 9, 2026, in Foxborough, Mass. (Richard Sellers/SportsphotoAllstar)

Similar scenes unfolded after Egypt’s World Cup exit, when Argentina rallied for a controversial 3-2 victory that featured several disputed officiating decisions.

Paris, on the other hand, looked more like a city celebrating than one on the brink of a riot. Supporters of both France and Morocco flooded the streets, slowing traffic in several parts of the city.

One video showed horns blasting from cars with French and Moroccan flags out the windows on the L’avenue des Champs-Élysées in Paris. Supporters on the side of the road, waving their own flags, joined in on the celebration.

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France’s Kylian Mbappé scored his eighth goal of this World Cup, which ties him for the most with Argentina’s Lionel Messi. Ousmane Dembélé also scored in the second half for France in the 2-0 win over Morocco.

It’s the third straight semifinal appearance for France, while Morocco still made World Cup history despite the loss. After becoming the first African country to reach the quarterfinals and semifinals in World Cup history in 2022, Morocco added to that by becoming the first-ever African nation to reach more than one quarterfinal.

Moroccan fans react while attending a watch party for the World Cup round of 8 match between France and Morocco in Boston, Massachusetts, on July 9, 2026. (Joseph Prezioso/AFP)

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Morocco’s exit means there are no more African nations alive in the World Cup. France will be taking on the winner of Spain and Belgium, while England and Norway and Argentina and Switzerland face off in the quarterfinals.

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