Sports
Creighton's Isaac Traudt monitors his glucose on the court to play college basketball with diabetes
When Creighton basketball player Isaac Traudt’s teammates take a break at practice, they might grab a drink of water, chat it up or go over assignments.
Traudt does that, too, but not before he checks a device attached to his body that tells him his blood glucose level. Depending on what it says, he might need to grab some energy chews for a sugar bump. The routine is the same at halftime of games.
“I don’t think I’ve ever seen anybody put down a packet of chews faster than Isaac,” athletic trainer Ben McNair said. “He can probably put a pack of those down in 10 to 15 seconds.”
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Traudt was diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes 16 years ago, at age 4, and he’s never let it stop him from pursuing the sport he loves. He will be with the Bluejays on Thursday when they open the NCAA Tournament against Akron in Pittsburgh.
The 6-foot-10, 235-pound forward grew up in Grand Island, 130 miles west of Omaha, and was a two-time all-state player and Nebraska high school player of the year in 2022. He spent his first college season at Virginia, sitting out as a redshirt, and announced his transfer to Creighton last March.
Traudt has appeared in 28 of the Bluejays’ 32 games, averaging just under 10 minutes per game and shooting 43.6% on 3-pointers. He started two games early in the season, and made five 3s and scored a season-high 18 points off the bench against Central Michigan.
Former NBA players Chris Dudley, Adam Morrison and Gary Forbes and former WNBA player Lauren Cox are among the high-level basketball players who have had to manage diabetes.
Traudt said he has had a number of parents of recently diagnosed children ask him to give their kids encouragement.
“It’s just important for them to know their dreams can still be accomplished,” Traudt said. “They can still compete in their sports. I think that’s what a lot of them worry about. I just want to inspire them and show you can play at the highest level.
“It doesn’t really matter if you have diabetes or not. It just takes more responsibility. It’s more demanding, but at the end of the day it’s possible.”
Dr. Lori Laffel, an endocrinologist and clinical investigator who works with children and young adults at the Harvard Medical School’s Joslin Diabetes Center, said technological advances have made it easier for athletes to manage their diabetes.
In the 1950s, she said, people diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes were discouraged from engaging in strenuous physical activity because of the dangers of low blood glucose. Later research showed positive effects from exercise, but athletes had to go through the inconvenience of pricking their fingers in practices and games to check their glucose.
In recent years, athletes have used continuous glucose monitors that communicate with insulin pumps to maintain glucose levels in their target ranges. The CGM sends readings to an app on the athlete’s phone showing glucose levels at five-minute intervals and also whether it is trending higher or lower.
Traudt said he had daily insulin injections until he switched at age 7 to an insulin pump. The modern insulin pump that he now uses can automatically adjust insulin, for example, delivering more insulin if his glucose goes too high and reducing insulin delivery when it goes too low. The pump and Dexcom CGM, which he has used since he was 13, are attached to his body under his uniform.
“Obviously, in my short lifetime it’s come a really long way,” he said. “Compared to 40 years ago, I couldn’t even imagine going through this without the technology. It would be really difficult.”
He doesn’t really need the CGM to know when his body is out of whack. When his blood sugar is low, he gets dizzy and fatigued. When it’s high, he gets thirsty and has body aches.
McNair said Traudt does a good job anticipating when he needs to up his blood glucose during practices and games.
“As soon as he feels like he’s going downhill a little bit, we do the chews for the most part and not too long after that he’s pretty much back on the floor,” McNair said.
Laffel, who has not treated Traudt and does not know him, said she can tell from hearing his story he has had strong support from his family and the medical and coaching staffs at Creighton.
“It’s always a thrill,” Laffel said, “when I know people are playing to their potential, working to their potential and thriving while living with Type 1 diabetes.”
Sports
Timberwolves overcome 20-point deficit to stun defending-champion Nuggets in Game 7
The NBA Conference Finals are set after the second Game 7 on Sunday saw the Minnesota Timberwolves take down the Denver Nuggets, 98-90.
Unlike the league’s earlier Game 7, when the Indiana Pacers made history with their fantastic shooting in a dominant win over the New York Knicks, this one was a dogfight in which Minnesota didn’t pull away until late in the fourth quarter.
The Nuggets, the reigning NBA champions playing at home in this matchup, had all the momentum going for them on Sunday – to where they had a 20-point, 58-38, lead early in the third quarter.
Then, Minnesota’s Anthony Edwards finally got shots to fall, and good offense led to great defense on the other end of the floor.
The Timberwolves won the third quarter, 28-14, and they just kept it going into the fourth quarter. Minnesota would have a 30-point swing, which was capped by an Edwards three-pointer that made it 92-82 with 3:07 remaining in the game.
Nuggets fans at Ball Arena were screaming to keep their team in it, but the Timberwolves’ hustle proved to be too much in the end.
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Nikola Jokic, who was gassed at the end of this game after sitting just one minute, made his final bucket with 1:02 left to cut the T-Wolves’ lead to five points. There was still a fleeting chance they could come back, but Karl-Anthony Towns – Minnesota’s co-leading scorer – put an exclamation mark on the victory with a putback dunk on a Mike Conley missed layup.
Towns finished with 23 points on 8-of-14 shooting with 12 rebounds, two steals, two assists and one block to help his squad reach the Conference Finals. Teammate Jaden McDaniels also poured in 23 points on 7-of-10 from the field, including three three-pointers with six rebounds.
The performance by McDaniels was needed because Edwards, who has been Minnesota’s go-to scorer, didn’t have the best day with the rock in his hand. He finished with 16 points on 6-of-24 shooting, including 2-of-10 from beyond the arc.
However, his hustle never quit, as he had eight rebounds, seven assists and two steals for the T-Wolves.
Minnesota also saw quality minutes from the NBA’s Sixth Man of the Year, Naz Reid, who racked up a couple of clutch buckets in the fourth quarter, including a putback dunk like Towns. He had 11 points and four rebounds.
For the Nuggets, they failed to hit their shots from three, finishing 24.2% as a team. Jokic, who went 2-of-10 from there, ended with 34 points and 19 rebounds during his marathon of a Game 7.
Jamal Murray had a game-high 35 points, but he also struggled from three with only four of his 12 attempts falling. He went 13-of-27 in the field overall with three rebounds and three assists.
After the stunning come-from-behind victory, Minnesota will now play host to Dallas on Wednesday to kick off the series that will determine who represents the West in the NBA Finals.
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Sports
Balanced UCLA softball beats Grand Canyon, advances to super regional
Maya Brady had to wait a little bit, but the Pac-12 Conference player of the year entered the top 10 on UCLA’s all-time hits list in the fifth inning on a single up the middle to give the Bruins a decisive 9-1 run-rule win over Grand Canyon University to win the NCAA softball Los Angeles Regional.
It was UCLA’s second win against Grand Canyon this weekend, with the Bruins also run-ruling the Lopes 9-0 on Friday in the tournament’s opening game.
“We knew that the run-rule on Friday didn’t mean anything, we were just ready to play,” UCLA coach Kelly Inouye-Perez said. “If we wanted to extend our season, we had to take it today no matter who was in the other dugout. It’s about us.”
The Bruins set the tone in the first inning Sunday when senior catcher Sharlize Palacios hit her third home run of the weekend, a moonshot over the left-center- field fence to bring in Brady and Jadelyn Allchin, giving UCLA an early 3-0 lead.
“We were just focused on coming out, it was kind of like a killer mentality. We wanted to go out and make a statement,” Palacios said of her team’s first inning. “We just showed them we were ready to play.”
Allchin, who went three for three with a walk Sunday, led the charge offensively for UCLA with a solo home run to open the top of the third inning and extend the Bruins lead to 4-0. She hit a single in the following inning to load the bases with no outs. The Bruins scored three runs in the fourth to balloon their lead by another four runs.
“I was wanting to come into the game with more patience,” Allchin said of her first home run since April 6. “So just being able to trust the process and just being able to trust all the work that we’ve been putting in, I was able to just kind of set myself up in the position to make contact and put a good swing on it.”
The Lopes got a home run from Tinley Lucas in the bottom of the third inning, but their bats had no answer for UCLA pitcher Taylor Tinsley, who struck out six of the 20 batters she faced through five innings while giving up two hits.
“We wouldn’t be sitting in this room if it wasn’t for Taylor Tinsley and what she’s done throughout this entire season. She’s put the team on her back,” Inouye-Perez said. “Her presence has just locked on and the growth that she’s had from last year to this year is just truly amazing.”
Grand Canyon, on the other hand, went through four pitchers , which head coach Shannon Hays attributed largely to a nagging hip flexor injury to senior Hailey Hudson.
“She’s been a mainstay for us and to not have her innings, how we’ve had them all year, really stretched us,” Hays said of his pitching strategy. “But you know, [we were] probably not trying to get [UCLA’s] lineup too comfortable and see one pitcher over and over. It’s what we attempted to do, obviously it didn’t work out how we wanted it to.”
UCLA will now host Georgia in a super regional next weekend, with the Bruins’ eyes set on Oklahoma City and the Women’s College World Series.
“It’s what we call the ‘success phase’ and it’s the best time of the season,” Inouye-Perez said. “Right now, we just want to keep on playing … and right now, we’re really enjoying playing softball.”
Stanford knocks out Cal State Fullerton
Aly Kaneshiro doubled in two runs during a four-run third inning to lift the Cardinal to a 4-2 victory in a winner-take-all game and eliminate the Titans.
Fullerton took a 2-0 lead in the second inning on a triple to right by Jessi Alcala and later an error on a ground ball that allowed Alcala to score.
Earlier Sunday, Fullerton forced a decisive game against Stanford with an 8-1 win, getting two RBIs from Peyton Toto in a 12-hit attack.
Sports
Xander Schauffele walks it off with 18th-hole birdie to win PGA Championship
Xander Schauffele walked it off at Valhalla Golf Club on Sunday, birdying the 18th hole to finish 21-under for the PGA Championship victory.
Schauffele’s 263 strokes over his four rounds is the lowest scoring total in major championship history.
Schauffele was tied with Bryson DeChambeau, who shot a 64, at 20-under entering the final hole. Schauffele, after going up and down to save par on the 17th hole, walked into the 18th tee knowing a birdie would give him the Wanamaker Trophy.
He did just that and Schauffele can forever say he’s a major champion.
This is a developing story. Check back for more updates.
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