Washington
Giants’ Malik Nabers, Washington’s Jayden Daniels made $10,000 Rookie of the Year bet
Giants wide receiver Malik Nabers and Washington Commanders quarterback Jayden Daniels have a $10,000 bet on which LSU standout is going to win Rookie of the Year in 2024.
Nabers told The Pivot podcast that he and his college teammate made the bet well before draft night, when Daniels went No. 2 overall to Washington and Nabers went No. 6 to New York.
“Going against him is gonna be fun,” Nabers, 20, told The Pivot in Detroit last Thursday after getting picked. “We got a bet going for Rookie of the Year. Whoever loses gotta pay, I think it’s $10,000 cash.”
The two former Tigers stars are now division rivals, so they are guaranteed to face each other twice a year in the NFC East.
Nabers said both he and Daniels will have no problem treating each other as rivals.
“When we walk out that tunnel, me and him — since we [are] on different sides — we know it’s time to talk sh-t now,” Nabers said with a smile. “We done talked sh-t with other people. So it’s time to talk sh-t with each other.”
Daniels is a major reason that Nabers is in this position, though, he said. So that living out their dreams together as opponents will mean the world to them personally.
“Having that guy as a teammate, he’s a great leader, a great person to be around,” Nabers said. “I probably wouldn’t have had the year I had without him — by him pushing me every day at practice, by him waking me up in the morning to go watch film, him having my back through it all. Just having that guy in my corner has been the best.
He said their first jersey swap will be a “great moment.”
“Having that LSU legendary status when you [are] going into the league, seeing your brother across that you played with, ya’ll guys finally accomplished your dreams,” Nabers said. “So having that brother two times a year on a gameday, able to talk sh-t, able to share jersey swaps with him. That jersey’s gonna mean a lot to me and him.”
Not that Nabers will be focused on anything but winning. The young receiver’s confidence and swagger jumped off the screen as he explained his killer mentality to hosts Ryan Clark, Fred Taylor and Channing Crowder.
“This game could have been taken from me early a lot of different times. So when I’m out there on the field, the mentality that I have is, ‘I’m gonna f— you over,’” Nabers said. “When I get that opportunity, I’m gonna do it. Because a person’s gonna do it to me. So if I can do it to you before you do it to me 100 times on the field before you can get that one, I’m gonna keep doing it every time.
“I’m not gonna stop,” Nabers continued. “It is what it is. Because that one time it’s gonna happen to me, it’s gonna be pushed and talked about more than anything. So if I got the ups, I got the ups. That’s just how it is. I’m hoping to have the ups every time.”
Nabers didn’t know he was going to the Giants specifically when the first round of the NFL Draft arrived, but he said “I kept hearing I’m not getting past top 8.”
“So they was telling me anybody after four, you make ’em pay when you play ’em,” he said. “So it was just whoever passes me up after that, it’s war after that.”
That puts the Los Angeles Chargers on the hook as a team Nabers has circled to embarrass whenever he faces them.
It stuck out how much this journey means to Nabers personally, however, when he described the dinner he had with family and friends in Detroit the night before the draft.
“We shared tears in this restaurant,” he said. “Last night I went around the table. And I spoke about [how] all the people that [were] here at the table [were] here for a reason. I shared a story that a lot of them probably thought I forgot or didn’t know. A lot of key moments in my past that — they helped me when I was a child, they helped my mother, when she didn’t have — they helped me when I didn’t have school clothes to go to school.
“So it was just the little things that mattered to me when I was a kid that led to this moment,” he added. “The little things that counted for me rather than the big things. To spend that night with them, they’ve been crying all week, crying all month to hear my name. So I’m just living it up with them.”
And he balances that sentiment with supreme confidence that he takes to the field.
Like how he handles the pressure of being the next great LSU wide receiver.
“I know there’s gonna be a lot on my shoulders for that — but I’m like that,” Nabers said with a huge grin.
Asked how he will handle New York, Nabers said: “I got a nice smile so, I got a nice style so, yeah. I’m ready.”
Washington
How IU women’s basketball’s Yarden Garzon ended her shooting slump vs. Washington in key win
Indiana women’s basketball coach Teri Moren has learned to give her talented shooters space when they go through a prolonged slump.
She stuck to that game plan in recent weeks while watching Yarden Garzon go 3 of 18 (16.7%) from 3-point range during IU’s three-game losing streak. It was only the second time in Garzon’s career she shot under 20% in three consecutive games, but Moren’s patience paid off.
Garzon broke out of her slump on Monday night with a career-best performance in a 73-70 win over Washington.
The junior forward scored a career-high 35 points and went 8 of 10 from 3-point range — she had more 3-pointers than the entire Huskies team — to surpass 1,000-career points. She’s the 33rd player to reach the milestone, but that achievement took a back seat to helping IU get a crucial Quad 1 win to add to the team’s NCAA Tournament resume and end a challenging West Coast swing on a high note.
“It feels amazing just to see the ball go through the net again and again,” Garzon said, with a smile.
‘I feel like I didn’t change a thing’
Indiana practiced at some unfamiliar places on their road trip including the Seattle Storm’s training facility, but Garzon maintained the same practice routine she’s used throughout her career.
The Ra’anana, Israel native came into Tuesday night’s game as a 42% career 3-point shooter. While she’s shooting under 40% this season (37.3%), she’s attempting two more triples per game (6.6) than she did last year and ranks among the top 50 Division 1 players with 2.47 made 3-pointers per game.
It’s why she didn’t even spend much time thinking about her recent shooting woes.
“I feel like I’m really confident about my shot no matter what. I know that they will fall in,” Garzon said. “Last year, I shot it at a really high clip, in some games it doesn’t work or go my way, but I just have to keep showing up every day and doing my thing.”
Moren mentioned Garzon’s confidence in her post-game remarks as well.
Her unspoken strategy to boost Garzon up in recent games was simply calling the same plays she normally would to get her the ball. It’s the same approach she’s relying on with Sydney Parrish, who has gone through similar struggles of late.
“I think that can give them the best vote of confidence from me and our staff because we feel like they can come through for us,” Moren said.
It helped Garzon get on track right out of the gate against Washington. The Hoosiers swung the ball around the perimeter on one of their first possessions to get her an open look. She hit nothing but net and remained locked in for the rest of the night.
‘We rely on her’
Garzon’s 35 points are the most since Amanda Cahill scored 38 in a four-overtime win over Michigan State in 2018. Garzon’s career-high eight 3-pointers tied for the second most in a game in school history.
Indiana isn’t expecting Garzon to score 30-plus points every night, but Moren has made it clear on multiple occasions this season that the Hoosiers face an uphill battle when Garzon struggles to score.
It’s why Moren found Garzon’s 21-point performance against Iowa earlier this month so encouraging.
After knocking down a 3-pointer right in front of the Hawkeyes’ bench early in the game, the Hoosiers relied on Garzon like they did with Mackenzie Holmes and Sara Scalia last year.
Garzon had a series of clutch moments against Washington as well — she ended a late-game scoring drought by banking in a contested mid-range jumper that set up a 3-point play and made a 20-footer coming off a screen in the final minute.
Indiana improved to 8-1 when Garzon scores 20 or more points and it was further proof that when she plays at a high level that the Hoosiers are capable of beating anyone.
“I’m trying to do my best,” Garzon said. “If it goes in, it’s just fun and I’m happy to help the team win. That’s the most important thing.”
Michael Niziolek is the Indiana beat reporter for The Bloomington Herald-Times. You can follow him on X @michaelniziolek and read all his coverage by clicking here.
Washington
Washington Nationals GM Says Shinnosuke Ogasawara Helps 2025 Rotation
The Washington Nationals took a walk on the wild side by signing a pitcher that seldom walks many. Shinnosuke Ogasawara, 27, also has a 54-72 career record, doesn’t throw very hard, and had a losing record in seven of nine pro seasons in Japan.
Nevertheless, General Manager Mike Rizzo told reporters that he believes the left-hander is “big league ready.”
Ogasawara got a two-year, $3.5 million contract last week as the first free agent in team history to be signed from Japan. He is expected to compete for a job in the rotation behind MacKenzie Gore, Jake Irvin and Michael Soroka. His chief competition is expected to come from nine-year MLB veteran Trevor Williams and second-year men DJ Herz, Mitchell Parker and Jackson Rutledge.
“This is the deepest starting pitching staff we’ve had in a long time in the upper minor leagues and major leagues,” Rizzo said. “We think we go nine or 10 deep now, which is something that we’ve been trying to get to for years.
“You never have enough starting pitching. That is the driver of success in the big leagues.”
Rizzo said the club had scouted Ogasawara for a few years and likes the soft tosser’s ability to throw strikes. The lefty walked only 1.4 batters per nine innings in 2024, when he had a 3.12 earned run average but only a 5-11 record for the Chunichi Dragons.
Ogasawara turned pro at age 18. He has relied on a fastball/changeup mix and occasionally throws a curveball that has been timed at under 70 mph. The fastball averages 89 to 91 mph, but he has shown the ability to place it where he wants in the strike zone.
Two decades ago, Jamie Moyer baffled batters with slow stuff. The lefty’s fastball averaged 82 mph when he had a 21-7 record at age 40 for the 2003 Seattle Mariners. He also threw a 77 mph cutter and 73 mph changeup, both with movement. He pitched until age 49.
Ogasawara’s best season was 2022, when he went 10-8 with a 2.72 ERA, 140 strikeouts and only 40 walks. Rizzo believes the 5-foot-11, 180-pound pitcher can do better.
“Part of the attractiveness to him is that he’s not a finished product,” Rizzo said. “There’s still some development that he could learn from and become a better pitcher than he even is now.”
Japanese Pitchers In MLB
There are 11 players from Japan returning in 2025 to MLB rosters. Nine of them are pitchers, including two-way superstar Shohei Ohtani of the Los Angeles Dodgers. He did not pitch in 2024 as he recovered from Tommy John Surgery.
The others: Yu Darvish and Yuki Matsui, San Diego Padres; Shintaro Fujinami, Seattle Mariners; Shota Imanaga, Chicago Cubs; Yusei Kikuchi, Los Angeles Angels, Kenta Maeda, Detroit Tigers; Kodai Senga, New York Mets; Yoshinobu Yamamoto, Dodgers.
The Dodgers recently signed prized prospect Roki Sasaki to a $6.5 million contract and the Baltimore Orioles signed Tomoyuki Sugano in December to a one-year, $13 million deal.
Ichiro The Exception
Last week, former outfielder Ichiro Suzuki became the first Japanese player elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame. Most of the 70 other Japanese players in MLB history have been pitchers, starting with Masanori Murakami in 1964.
The right-hander pitched in 54 games for the San Francisco Giants before returning to Japan after the 1965 season at age 22. He had a 5-1 record, 3.43 ERA and 9 saves. Murakami went on to pitch 566 games in Japan until 1982, going 103-82 overall.
It would be 30 years before MLB got another Japanese player. Hideo Nomo joined the Dodgers in 1995 and was the NL Rookie of the Year with a 13-6 record. Overall in America, he worked in 324 games for seven teams through 2008, twice pitching no-hitters.
In 2000, Kazuhiro Sasaki won the AL Rookie of the Year Award at age 32 with the Seattle Mariners after earning 37 saves. He totaled 129 saves over four MLB seasons.
Now, Roki Sasaki, no relation, is an early favorite to be the NL’s top rookie in 2025.
Tomo Ohka To Washington
The only Japanese pitcher to previously play for the Nationals was Tomo Ohka in 2005. He went to Washington when the Montreal Expos moved there that year.
Ohka pitched parts of four seasons for the Yokohama Bay Stars before the Boston Red Sox purchased his contract. He had a spectacular debut in Boston’s farm system in 1999, going 15-0 with a 2.32 ERA in 24 games.
In 33 games over parts of three seasons for Boston, Ohka was barely okay. He had only a 6-13 record and was dealt to Montreal at the trading deadline in 2001. His best season was 2002: a 13-8 record and 3.18 ERA.
In one year with Washington, he went 4-3, then pitched for Milwaukee, Toronto and Cleveland before finishing his career back in Japan.
The Nationals are hopeful that throwing strikes with a limited arsenal will lead to more success for Shinnosuke Ogasawara.
Washington
Netanyahu planning to visit Washington on February 3-5
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Senior Israeli officials stated that this planned trip depends on Netanyahu’s health status, the report noted.
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