Sports
UConn’s Paige Bueckers has 40 minutes of college basketball left. Will it end in a title?
TAMPA, Fla. — They don’t talk about legacy at UConn. There’s no point. Why acknowledge the obvious? Because at UConn, talking about the importance of national championships isn’t pointing out the elephant in the room; the room is the elephant. It is the standard bearer, whether or not you say it out loud. And anyone who walks through those doors at UConn goes there for that exact reason.
In Storrs, the minimal expectation is excellence, perfection is the goal. There is no shortage of reminders. The gym is bordered in chairs from each of the Huskies’ Final Fours (they’ll soon add their 24th chair, a brightly adorned teal and yellow one from Tampa). When visitors enter the gym, they can choose the chair from the 1995 Minneapolis Final Four or the 2009 St. Louis Final Four or the 2016 Indianapolis version. It’s like the most subtle flex of a musical chairs game for a basketball fan. Higher on the walls hang the banners for All-Americans and national championships. The names that look down on players from those banners aren’t just well-known, they’re some of the most decorated and famous basketball players of all time at any level.
And this is the practice gym.
There’s an intention to that. These relics and honors aren’t saved for Gampel Pavilion, where the Huskies play their home games, or for a museum on campus. Instead, these reminders are housed in the same place where UConn players toil for endless hours during their careers, where they sweat, where they’re screamed at by Geno Auriemma for mistakes.
Somewhere, along the far sideline, Auriemma has etched a rut far into the hardwood from his pacing as he cursed the turnovers and bad passes and every other mistake that has ever stood between the Huskies and their next win.
Because he knows that it was not actually in Minneapolis or St. Louis or Indianapolis where the Huskies won their national championships, even if that’s where they lifted the trophies. It was here, in this practice gym, surrounded by those expectations, where they fixed mistakes and earned those titles.
This is why Paige Bueckers came to UConn. To add her name to that wall with Maya Moore and Diana Taurasi and Breanna Stewart, to bring more national championships to Storrs. As a three-time All-American and 2021 national player of the year, her banners will be added once she leaves campus this spring. She’ll be part of the group that retrieves a chair from Tampa.
But she has not won a national title. She has come close. In her three previous trips to the Final Four, Bueckers has advanced once to the title game. The Huskies lost to South Carolina.
On Sunday, in what will be Bueckers’ final 40 minutes of her college career, she gets a final go at the Gamecocks and one last opportunity to bring home a national championship to UConn.
“Anything less than a national championship is really a disappointment…the pressure is a privilege”
Paige Bueckers with her thoughts on playing for UConn: pic.twitter.com/tzLMEHOfZV
— UConn on SNY (@SNYUConn) April 3, 2025
But she and Auriemma don’t talk about that. They haven’t since she set foot on campus back in 2020 as the nation’s top recruit and the player who many assumed would be the first to lead the Huskies back to the promised land, considering their national title “drought” that had existed since 2016. Now, nine years since the Huskies’ last title, they’ve essentially been in the Sahara as Auriemma has tinkered with lineups that were never quite deep enough to win a championship, even though they were nearly all still good enough to get within striking distance.
The only time Auriemma brings up Bueckers’ championships (or lack thereof) is from his rut on the sideline in the practice gym, when he’s too fed up with her mistakes and stubborn decisions.
“That’s why you’ve never won a national championship, and you never will!” he’ll scream.
“Every day in practice when she does the dumb things she did as a freshman, that’s the only time I bring it up,” Auriemma said. “As a reminder that each and every day and year, you need to put away the things you did as a freshman and sophomore.”
Auriemma has won 11 national titles, but Bueckers has won none. His next national title?
“I don’t know that it has any impact on my life whatsoever other than it makes me feel that I’m still able to have an impact at my age and for how long I’ve been doing it,” Auriemma said. “But it certainly impacts her life and what she wants and what she’s been dreaming about since she picked up a basketball.”
This fall before the season, Auriemma sat in his office detailing the problems in Bueckers’ game. For him, it’s both therapeutic and productive to go through these because, in his own way, it’s the only way forward.
The best way to get to No. 1 for Bueckers is not to talk about it, but instead, to talk about what’s holding her back and let her work through those issues under the shadows of the banners in their practice gym.
“I think it scares her to leave here and be the best player ever to play UConn without winning a national championship,” Auriemma said from his office this fall, looking out over the practice gym. “That it affects your legacy a little bit. I’ve never said that, and I don’t believe that, but I’ve gotta believe she thinks that. That she needs that to validate who she is. … But I don’t believe that that’s the ultimate identifier of what true success is.”
Bueckers played in her fourth straight Final Four. Can she bring a trophy back to Storrs?
For Auriemma, Bueckers’ legacy is cemented regardless of what happens Sunday — in how she has shouldered responsibility for her team and its growth, for becoming one of the faces of the sport at a time of constant flux and change, for who she has become and been for her teammates, both on and off the court.
Even as one of the most recognizable basketball players in the country, Bueckers has risen before dawn to make breakfast for her teammate Jana El Alfy during Ramadan. While the Huskies were in Spokane last week for regionals, she celebrated with El Alfy by bringing her an iced vanilla latte and scone on Eid Al-Fitr, as El Alfy broke her month-long fast. Auriemma saw how Bueckers went out of her way this fall to write out a list of five priorities for sophomore Qadence Samuels, who plays less than six minutes a game, to improve. He saw how, after the Big East tournament, Bueckers pulled Ice Brady aside to breathe confidence into her as the Huskies prepared for their postseason run. When Brady’s confidence was low, Bueckers texted her and offered support, and then showed up at Brady’s apartment to make sure she understood how instrumental she was for the team’s success.
In their own ways, even away from the practice gym, these are all the signs that the years of Auriemma’s frustrations and shouts (“That’s why you’ve never won a national championship, and you never will!”) are working. Slowly, even Bueckers — who Auriemma will cite as one of his most stubborn people he has coached (ahem, takes one to know one) — has understood why they don’t talk about championships and legacies.
“Every single day you walk into the gym, you’re trying to live up to the standard of playing UConn basketball, but you’re not comparing yourself to other teams, to players before,” Bueckers said. “We are trying to be the best team, we are in the present on any given night.”
On Friday night, in a vintage UConn performance as the Huskies beat UCLA 85-51 in the Final Four, Bueckers had a quiet night by her recent standards: 16 points, five rebounds, two assists, zero turnovers. After putting up the largest win margin in Final Four history (UConn holds the next top three, too), Auriemma said, “I don’t think we made a mistake the entire evening, especially on the defensive end.”
As Friday night crept into Saturday morning and the Huskies got further from the UCLA win and closer to the South Carolina game, Auriemma reflected on a conversation he had with Svetlana Abrosimova. Her name hangs on the wall as an All-American and her impact on the 2000 national championship — the Huskies’ second — is obvious. Back then, Auriemma used to talk about national championships to his best players every week.
“Finally, she said to me,” Auriemma said, “as only a Russian can, ‘Why do we talk about championships? Everybody knows why we were here. Stop it.’ ”
So, he did. Then they went on to win another 10. On Sunday against South Carolina, the Huskies will have a chance to add one more.
Bueckers will have 40 final minutes to stamp her legacy and lift a trophy in Tampa that, for her, will have ultimately been won over the last five years in a practice gym in Storrs.
(Photos of Paige Bueckers: C. Morgan Engel / NCAA Photos via Getty Images)
Sports
Law firm fighting for women’s sports in SCOTUS battle comments on ruling possibly impacting SJSU trans lawsuit
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A law firm leading the charge in the ongoing Supreme Court case over trans athletes in women’s sports has responded after a federal judge suggested the case’s ruling could impact a separate case involving a similar issue.
Colorado District Judge Kato Crews deferred ruling in motions to dismiss former San Jose State volleyball co-captain Brooke Slusser’s lawsuit against the California State University (CSU) system until after a ruling in the B.P.J. v. West Virginia Supreme Court case, which is expected to come in June.
Slusser filed the lawsuit against representatives of her school and the Mountain West Conference in fall 2024 after she allegedly was made to share bedrooms and changing spaces with trans teammate Blaire Fleming for a whole season without being informed that Fleming is a biological male.
Meanwhile, the B.P.J. case went to the Supreme Court after a trans teen sued West Virginia to block the state’s law that prevents males from competing in girls’ high school sports.
The Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF) is the primary law firm defending West Virginia in that case at the Supreme Court, and has now responded to news that Slusser’s lawsuit could be affected by the SCOTUS ruling.
“We hope the ruling from the Supreme Court will affirm that Title IX was designed to guarantee equal opportunity for women, not to let male athletes displace women and girl in competition. It is crucial that sports be separated by sex for not only the equal opportunity of women but for safety and privacy. Title IX should protect women’s right to compete in their own sports. Allowing men to compete in the female category reverses 50 years of advancement for women,” ADF Vice President of Litigation Strategies Jonathan Scruggs said.
Slusser’s attorney, Bill Bock of the Independent Council on Women’s Sports, expects a Supreme Court ruling in favor of the legal defense representing West Virginia, thus helping his case.
(Left) Brooke Slusser (10) of the San Jose State Spartans serves the ball during the first set against the Air Force Falcons at Falcon Court at East Gym in Colorado Springs, Colorado, on Oct. 19, 2024. (Right) Blaire Fleming #3 of the San Jose State Spartans looks on during the third set against the Air Force Falcons at Falcon Court at East Gym on October 19, 2024 in Colorado Springs, Colorado. ( Andrew Wevers/Getty Images; Andrew Wevers/Getty Images)
“We’re looking forward to the case going forward,” Bock told Fox News Digital.
“I believe that the court is going to find that Title IX operates on the basis of biological sex, without regard to an assumed or professed gender, and so just like the congress and the members of congress that passed Title IX in 1972, allowed this specifically provided for in the regulations that there had to be separate men’s and women’s teams based on biological sex, I think the court is going to see that is the original meaning of the statute and apply it in that way, and I think it’s going to be a big win in women’s sports.”
The Supreme Court’s conservative majority appeared prepared to rule in favor of West Virginia after oral arguments on Jan. 13.
Slusser spoke on the steps of the Supreme Court on Jan. 13 while oral arguments took place inside, sharing her experience with a divided crowd of opposing protesters.
With Fleming on its roster, SJSU reached the 2024 conference final by virtue of a forfeit by Boise State in the semifinal round. SJSU lost in the final to Colorado State.
Slusser went on to develop an eating disorder due to the anxiety and trauma from the scandal and dropped out of her classes the following semester. The eating disorder became so severe, that Slusser said she lost her menstrual cycle for nine months. Her decision to drop her classes resulted in the loss of her scholarship, and her parents said they had to foot the bill out of pocket for an unfinished final semester of college.
President Donald Trump’s Department of Education determined in January that SJSU violated Title IX in its handling of the situation involving Fleming, and has given the university an ultimatum to agree to a series of resolutions or face a referral to the Department of Justice.
Among the department’s findings, it determined that a female athlete discovered that the trans student allegedly conspired to have a member of an opposing team spike her in the face during a match. ED claims that “SJSU did not investigate the conspiracy, but later subjected the female athlete to a Title IX complaint for ‘misgendering’ the male athlete in online videos and interviews.”
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SJSU trans player Blaire Fleming and teammate Brooke Slusser went to a magic show and had Thanksgiving together in Las Vegas despite an ongoing lawsuit over Fleming being transgender. (Thien-An Truong/San Jose State Athletics)
SJSU Athletic Director Jeff Konya told Fox News Digital in a July interview that he was satisfied with how the university handled the situation involving Fleming.
“I think everybody acted in the best possible way they could, given the circumstances,” Konya said.
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Sports
Myles Garrett cited for speeding a ninth time, an elite pass rusher seemingly always in a rush
Myles Garrett is in a hurry to become the greatest pass rusher in NFL history. The Cleveland Browns All-Pro defensive end set the single-season sack record in 2025 and has cracked the top 20 career leaders after only nine seasons.
“I’m going to take that down, and I prefer I take it down in the next five years,” Garrett told Casino Guru News last month.
Off the field, however, his urgency to get from point A to B is a problem. He’s accumulating speeding tickets at an alarming rate.
On Feb. 21, Garrett was handed his ninth speeding ticket since his NFL career began in 2017. He was cited for driving 94 mph in a 70-mph zone on Interstate 71 between Cleveland and Columbus, Ohio.
The citation from the Wayne County Sheriff’s Office says Garrett was driving his green 2024 Porsche at 1:35 a.m., returning home after attending a Miami of Ohio basketball game in Oxford.
Body cam footage shows the officer telling Garrett that she kept the charge under 100 mph so that a court appearance wouldn’t be mandatory. Garrett reportedly still holds a Texas driver’s license — he attended Texas A&M — and told the officer that he did not have an Ohio license.
Cleveland Browns’ Myles Garrett wears a jacket displaying his girlfriend Chloe Kim before the women’s snowboarding halfpipe finals at the 2026 Winter Olympics, in Livigno, Italy.
(Lindsey Wasson / AP)
The officer wrote that the famously affable Garrett was “kind and cooperative,” and that drugs and alcohol were not a factor.
Garrett’s need for speed flies in the face of his persona. He has written poetry since high school, peppers social media with inspirational sayings and donates time and money to several charities.
His girlfriend is two-time gold-medal-winning U.S. Olympic snowboarder Chloe Kim, for whom he wrote a poem he shared on social media: “You enrapture fools to kings, and exist without a peer, put on this Earth for many things, but our love is why you’re here.”
Verse hasn’t slowed his roll. On Aug. 9 he was cited for ticket No. 8, clocked at 100 mph in a 60-mph zone in a Cleveland suburb a day after the Browns returned home from a preseason game at Carolina.
Garrett’s seventh ticket followed a frightening crash in 2022. He flipped his gray 2021 Porsche 911 Turbo S off State Road in Sharon Township and he and a female passenger were injured. He was cited for failing to control his vehicle due to unsafe speeds on what had been a slick roadway.
A witness told a responding police officer that Garrett’s vehicle went airborne, took out a fire hydrant and rolled three times. Garrett sustained shoulder and biceps sprains and was sidelined for the Browns’ game that week against the Atlanta Falcons. His companion was not seriously injured.
Cleveland television station WKYC reported that in September 2021 Garrett was stopped twice in a 24-hour period — for driving 120 and 105 mph. The infractions occurred on Interstate 71 in Medina County, where the speed limit is 70 mph, and he paid fines of $267 and $287.
A year earlier, Garrett was cited for driving 100 mph in a 65-mph zone of Interstate 77 — again while driving a Porsche — and paid a $308 fine. He accumulated his first batch of speeding tickets in 2017 and 2018, and the police reports recite similar circumstances: Garrett driving well over the speed limit, cited without incident, paid a nominal fine.
The piddly fines certainly aren’t a deterrent. Garrett, 30, and the Browns agreed to a four-year contract extension in March 2025 that made him the highest-paid non-quarterback in NFL history at the time. The deal pays the seven-time All-Pro more than $40 million a season and includes more than $123 million in guaranteed money.
He set the NFL single-season sack record with 23.0 last season, surpassing the 22.5 accumulated by T.J. Watt and Michael Strahan. Garrett has 125.5 career sacks, averaging 14 a season, a pace that would enable him to break Bruce Smith’s career record of 200 in five years.
“That is definitely on my mind to go out there and get,” Garrett said. “That’s a goal I’ve had for years now since college.”
Garrett has declined to discuss his driving habits.
“I’d honestly prefer to talk about football and this team than anything I’m doing off the field other than the back-to-school event that I did the other day,” he told reporters after ticket No. 8 in August, referring to a charity appearance.
“I try to keep my personal life personal. And I’d rather focus on this team when I can.”
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Former ESPN broadcaster Keith Olbermann once again incited backlash on social media Wednesday after he called late legendary college football coach Lou Holtz a “legendary scumbag” in an X post on the day Holtz was announced dead.
“Legendary scumbag, yes,” Olbermann wrote in response to a clip of Holtz criticizing former President Joe Biden in 2020 for supporting abortion rights.
Olbermann received scathing criticism in response to his post on X.
“You’re a scumbag that needs mental help,” one X user wrote to Olbermann.
One user echoed that sentiment, writing to Olbermann, “You’re the real scumbag here. Lou Holtz had more class, integrity, and genuine decency in his pinky finger than you’ll ever show in your lifetime.”
Another user wrote, “You’re a grumpy, lonely, Godless man. All the things Lou Holtz was not.”
Keith Olbermann speaks onstage during the Olbermann panel at the ESPN portion of the 2013 Summer Television Critics Association tour at the Beverly Hilton Hotel July 24, 2013, in Beverly Hills, Calif. (Frederick M. Brown/Getty Images)
Olbermann has made it a pattern of sharing politically charged far-left statements that are often combative and ridiculed on social media, typically resulting in immense backlash.
After the U.S. men’s hockey team’s gold medal win, Olbermann heavily criticized the team for accepting an invitation from President Trump to the State of the Union address. Olbermann wrote on X that any members of the men’s team who attended the event were “declaring their indelible stupidity and misogyny,” while praising the women’s team for declining the invitation.
In January, Olbermann attacked former University of Kentucky women’s swimmer Kaitlynn Wheeler for celebrating a women’s rights rally outside the U.S. Supreme Court during oral arguments for two cases focused on the legality of biological male trans athletes in women’s sports.
Former Notre Dame football coach Lou Holtz listens before being presented with the Presidential Medal of Freedom at the White House in Washington, D.C., Dec, 3, 2020. (Doug Mills/The New York Times/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
“It’s still about you trying to find an excuse for a lifetime wasted trying to succeed in sports without talent,” Olbermann wrote in response to Wheeler’s post.
In 2025, Olbermann faced significant backlash after posting (and later deleting) a message on X aimed at CNN contributor Scott Jennings, that said, “You’re next motherf—–,” shortly after the assassination of conservative influencer Charlie Kirk.
Holtz was a stern supporter of President Donald Trump, even saying in February 2024 that Trump needed to “coach America back to greatness!”
Near the end of Trump’s first term, shortly after former President Joe Biden defeated him in the 2020 election, Trump awarded Holtz with the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the highest civilian award of the United States.
After Holtz’s death was announced Wednesday, several top GOP figures paid tribute to the coach on social media.
Those GOP lawmakers included senators Tommy Tuberville, R-Ala.; Todd Young, R-Ind.; Tom Cotton, R-Ark.; and Lindsey Graham, R-S.C.; representatives Greg Murphy, R-N.C.; David Rouzer, R-N.C.; Erin Houchin, R-Ind.; and Steve Womack, R-Ark.; and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis; Indiana Gov. Mike Braun; U.S. Education Secretary Linda McMahon; and Rudy Giuliani.
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Lou Holtz, former Notre Dame football coach, addresses the America First Policy Institute’s America First Agenda Summit at the Marriott Marquis July 26, 2022. (Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call, Inc)
At the time of publication, prominent Democrat leaders have appeared silent on Holtz’s passing, including prominent Democrats with a football background.
Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, who worked as an assistant high school football coach; Sen. Cory Booker, D-N.J., who was a recruiting target for Holtz in 1986 as a college prospect; Rep. Colin Allred, D-Texas, who played in the NFL; and Rep. Kam Buckner, D-Ill., who played football for the University of Illinois, have not posted acknowledging Holtz’s death.
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