Sports
Big size? Yes. Bigger role? That remains to be seen for UCLA's 7-foot-3 Aday Mara
If you have a player blessed with rare traits who can take over a game on both ends of the court, you use him as much as possible, right?
Right?
Maybe not.
Two days after UCLA’s Aday Mara put every inch of his 7-foot-3 frame to excellent use against Wisconsin — making all seven shots in scoring a career-high 22 points, playing lockdown defense, grabbing rebounds and repeatedly getting hacked by overmatched counterparts who had no choice but to foul him — his coach said the sophomore center’s usage would continue to be situational.
“It would be great if Aday would average 22 the rest of the year,” coach Mick Cronin deadpanned Thursday of Mara’s breakthrough after being used sparingly over the first half of the season, “but I also think — you know, look, that just happens.”
Cronin pointed out that forward William Kyle III, also fighting for a larger role, enjoyed a similar breakout during UCLA’s recent victory over Iowa, making six of seven shots, only to cede playing time to Mara against the Badgers because Cronin figured the latter game was a better matchup for Mara.
So, no, Mara’s big showing was not an aha! moment for his coach, automatically leading to a larger role for the tallest player on the team, despite Mara making every shot and eight of 11 free throws while grabbing five rebounds and blocking two shots in a season-high 21 minutes.
“It just gives you more options,” Cronin said. “What it does is, be able to reinforce to Aday what you’re capable of — we won two games, we got production from two [big] guys, and I was saying that we’ve got to coach them better and get them to play up to their capability.”
Based on his recent pattern, expect Cronin to give Kyle more minutes against smaller, faster teams while featuring Mara more against bigger teams that don’t feature as much athleticism.
Cronin sounded like he still was committed to starting Tyler Bilodeau at the five spot instead of pairing Mara or Kyle with Bilodeau, who has struggled defensively. Wisconsin coach Greg Gard took the unusual step of mentioning Bilodeau by name, alluding to his problems defending ball screens, while discussing the Badgers’ offensive success.
“We were able to knock down some threes early,” Gard said, “with Bilodeau.”
Cronin said going with more size instead of a front line that includes the 6-9 Bilodeau and 6-8 forward Eric Dailey Jr. has its drawbacks.
“Some teams play four guards, which makes it really hard,” Cronin said. “But what we have been working on since Will’s been back [from an unspecified medical procedure] that you saw in the Iowa game was Will guarding the perimeter and Tyler guarding the bigger guy because Will’s faster on the perimeter, so we can do that. Tough to do with Tyler and Aday except that we were able to do it against Wisconsin because of their lineup.
“But there’s other ways to try to do some things to be able to play if you want to play those two guys together and the other team’s smaller. There’s some things that we’re working on.”
Neither Bilodeau nor Dailey hesitated when asked how much they liked playing alongside Mara.
Said Bilodeau: “It’s great to have him out there. He’s so dominant in the post. We see it every day in practice. We know we can always go to him and then too defensively, he’s such a big presence down in the paint.”
Said Dailey: “I love playing with Aday. I mean, it’s easy to play with a 7-3 player. Easy to throw him lobs. I’ve been doing that all year, just throwing him passes that, you know, he can finish. And it’s been helping us just, you know, it gives a different dynamic to our offense and our defense, as well, just having him be the protector. We just gotta keep him going.”
Kyle staying ready
With Mara dominating, Kyle did not play in the second half against Wisconsin until Cronin inserted him for defensive purposes with 30 seconds left.
Trailing by two points, the Badgers had a chance to tie the score or take the lead. Kyle made sure neither happened.
Measuring Wisconsin guard John Blackwell’s every move, Kyle had the tricky task of defending against both a shot and a lob to 7-footer Steven Crowl.
“He was kind of focused on the rim a little bit,” Kyle said of Blackwell, “so I was kind of waiting for him to jump into the air because, like, when you jump into the air it’s kind of tough to make that pass. … So, once I kind of saw him going into the air, into his shot, I kind of committed to it — and I didn’t expect to block it, I just tried to contest it and then, luckily, blocked the shot and it was just a big play.”
Trap game?
Washington has lost five consecutive games and is 1-7 in the Big Ten. However, the Huskies (10-9) may be poised for a big performance, particularly on their home court, in their game against the Bruins (13-6, 4-4) on Friday night in Seattle.
Alaska Airlines Arena is where Washington defeated Maryland and lost to Illinois only after faltering in the final minute. Cronin said he expected Huskies guard D.J. Davis to be fully recovered from a recent ankle injury and center Franck Kepnang to play after missing the last 17 games following a knee procedure.
“They’ve gotten much better,” Cronin said of the Huskies, who lost by 11 points to the Bruins in December at Pauley Pavilion. “If they make some shots, they’re dangerous.”
NEWYou can now listen to Fox News articles!
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.
COMPLETE PRO WRESTLING COVERAGE ON FOX NEWS DIGITAL
Oba Femi looks on during Monday Night RAW at Allstate Arena on July 6, 2026, in Chicago, Illinois. (Melina Pizano/WWE via Getty Images)
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)
“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)
CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD THE FOX NEWS APP
SummerSlam will take place on Aug. 1 and 2 at U.S. Bank Stadium in Minneapolis.
Sports
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.
“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.
“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.
“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.
“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.
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.
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.
“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.
Sports
London descends into disorder as Morocco fans flood streets after World Cup elimination by France
NEWYou can now listen to Fox News articles!
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.
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.
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.
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)
CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD THE FOX NEWS APP
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.
Follow Fox News Digital’s sports coverage on X and subscribe to the Fox News Sports Huddle newsletter.
-
Austin, TX4 minutes agoTexas Has One Trait Almost Every National Champion Shares
-
Alabama11 minutes agoFinal 2026 MLB mock draft projections for Alabama’s Justin Lebron
-
Alaska13 minutes agoWatch My Buddy Matt Not Get Eaten by Bears in Alaska
-
Arizona19 minutes agoRoller derby still has a home in Arizona despite myriad obstacles
-
Arkansas26 minutes agoFreshman OL Tucker Young never wavered through Arkansas football coaching changes | Whole Hog Sports
-
California28 minutes agoNorthern California high school graduation shooting suspect arrested in Texas
-
Colorado34 minutes agoColorado to weigh daily hunting limits, ban on fur sales for wildlife hunted for fur
-
Connecticut41 minutes agoWoman arrested, accused of murdering man in Farmington in March
