Yahoo Sports AM: Hurley stays home
In today's edition: Hurley spurns Lakers, Panthers take 2-0 lead, College World Series preview, Federer speech, and more.
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🚨 Headlines
📈 Business is booming: The WNBA ended May with its highest attendance in 26 years (roughly 400,000 fans) and new viewership records on multiple networks.
🏀 Ham to Bucks: Darvin Ham is returning to the Bucks to work under Doc Rivers as an assistant coach after being fired by the Lakers.
🏈 Year 19: Tight end Marcedes Lewis will play his 19th NFL season after the 40-year-old officially re-signed with the Bears.
🏀 NC State vs. NCAA: 10 members of NC State's 1983 national championship team are suing the NCAA for not compensating them for using their NIL to promote college basketball.
🏒 PWHL draft: New York drafted Princeton's Sarah Fillier, dubbed a "generational talent" by league scouts, with the No. 1 pick.
🏀 Hurley spurns Lakers, stays at UConn
Dan Hurley turned down a six-year, $70 million offer from the Lakers to return to UConn, where he'll enter next season seeking the first three-peat since John Wooden and UCLA.
Dan Wetzel: A great day for college basketball
The Lakers came with a pile of gold and plenty of control, offering Hurley, just 14 years ago a New Jersey high school coach, the keys to one of the most decorated franchises in all of sports, let alone the NBA.
17 championships. Legends stretching from Mikan and West, through Kareem and Magic, to Shaq, Kobe and LeBron. All the glitz. All the glamour. All the potential at a place where free agents flock and banners get hung.
And yet in the end, after days of interviews and contemplation, Hurley said no to it all. No to the NBA. No to L.A. No to tackling the game at the highest and most sophisticated level.
Instead he said yes to staying at the University of Connecticut, yes to a life in the New England woods, yes to the realities of today's college basketball.
This is, obviously, a phenomenal day for UConn. It is also a phenomenal day for all of college hoops — yes, even those of you who have seen and will continue to see your favorite team lose to the Huskies.
Jeff Eisenberg: Hurley follows in Coach K's footsteps
The massive headline across the top of the Los Angeles Times sports section read "Lakers Shift Their Focus."
The Lakers had just swung for the fences and whiffed in their bid to pry away college basketball's most accomplished coach.
That was July 2004, when Mike Krzyzewski turned down the chance to replace the resigning Phil Jackson, explaining "you have to follow your heart and lead with it and Duke has always taken up my whole heart."
He went on to win two more national titles with the Blue Devils while satisfying his curiosity whether he could coach NBA players by leading USA Basketball to three straight Olympic golds.
Two decades later, Dan Hurley is poised to follow the same path that Krzyzewski once took.
What's next: Where do the Lakers go from here?
🌎 The world in photos
Sunrise, Florida — Evan Rodrigues (two goals) and the Panthers dominated the Oilers, 4-1, to take a 2-0 Stanley Cup Final lead and complete their seventh comeback victory this postseason (fifth-most ever).
Pinehurst, N.C. — Tiger Woods was all smiles Monday as he practiced for this week's U.S. Open at Pinehurst No. 2 alongside his son, Charlie, who's helping him prepare.
Rome — Amanda Ngandu-Ntumba of Team France competes during the Women's Discus Throw at the 2024 European Athletics Championships.
Plateau des Glieres, France — The peloton passes in front of cow herd during the 76th Critérium du Dauphiné, one of the foremost races in the lead-up to the Tour de France.
⚾️ Eight teams, two leagues, one title
Only two conferences (SEC and ACC) will be represented in the 2024 College World Series, which was finalized Monday.
The last time that happened? All the way back in 1948 when there were only two teams in the CWS. USC won the title over Yale, whose captain and third baseman was someone you may have heard of: George H.W. Bush.
The field: Four SEC teams and four ACC teams are headed to Omaha, Nebraska, where they'll be split into two double-elimination brackets. The two teams who emerge from each bracket will then meet in the best-of-three finals.
Bracket 1:
No. 1 Tennessee (55-12): The Vols have bashed 173 homers — 22 more than second place — and their 3.83 ERA ranks third in the nation. They're title favorites for a reason.
No. 4 UNC (47-14): The Heels' first appearance since 2018 has been fueled by freshman ace Jason DeCaro, who was supposed to be a high school senior this year but reclassified to join UNC early. He turned 18 two months ago.
No. 8 Florida State (47-15): The Seminoles' 24 CWS appearances are the third-most of any program, but they're the only one with 20+ trips and no titles.
No. 12 Virginia (46-15): The Cavaliers have the nation's second best batting average (.336) and sixth-best OBP (.428). Good luck keeping them off the bases.
Bracket 2:
No. 2 Kentucky (45-14): The Wildcats are making their CWS debut after winning 40+ games in back-to-back seasons for the first time in program history.
No. 3 Texas A&M (49-13): The Aggies are a juggernaut, ranking fourth nationally in home runs (132) and sixth in ERA (3.94).
No. 10 NC State (38-21): The year of the Wolfpack continues, as NC State has now made the men's Final Four, women's Final Four and CWS, where they seek their first title.
Florida (34-28): Last year's runner-up snuck in as the lone unseeded team behind two-way star Jac Caglianone, who ranks second nationally in home runs (33) while also serving as the Gators' ace.
Looking ahead: Double-elimination play starts Friday, and the championship series begins two Saturdays from now (June 22).
📆 June 11, 1950: The Miracle at Merion
74 years ago today, Ben Hogan won the U.S. Open at Merion Golf Club in a three-way, 18-hole playoff just 16 months after nearly dying in a car crash.
The shot of a lifetime: Needing a par to make the playoff, Hogan pulled out his 1-iron* and hit one of golf's most iconic shots, landing it 40 feet from the pin and two-putting for par. Perhaps just as iconic was the photo (above) taken by Hy Peskin who, if you believe his story, took only that single photograph all day.
⚾️ 1938: Reds lefty Johnny Vander Meer threw his first of two consecutive no-hitters, a feat no other pitcher in MLB history has ever accomplished.
🏁 1955: Disaster struck at the 24 Hours of Le Mans when the deadliest crash in motorsports history left 84 dead and hundreds injured.
*Lost and found: Hogan's 1-iron was stolen from his bag that night and returned to him 33 years later when a golf club dealer found it in a set he bought for $150.
📺 Watchlist: All 30 teams in action
There aren't many sports on TV tonight, so it's the perfect time to check in with your favorite MLB team roughly one-third of the way through the season.
All 30 teams in action:
6-7pm ET: Braves at Orioles (6:35pm); Nationals at Tigers (6:40pm); Cubs at Rays (6:50pm)
7-8pm: Guardians at Reds (7:10pm); Marlins at Mets (7:10pm); Phillies at Red Sox (7:10pm, TBS); Rockies at Twins (7:40pm); Pirates at Cardinals (7:45pm)
8pm-late: Yankees at Royals (8:10pm); Blue Jays at Brewers (8:10pm); Angels at D-Backs (9:40pm); White Sox at Mariners (9:40pm); A's at Padres (9:40pm); Astros at Giants (9:45pm); Rangers at Dodgers (10:10pm)
MLB links: Scores | Standings | Stats
🏈 NFL trivia
Mike Tomlin signed a three-year extension with the Steelers on Monday, keeping the NFL's longest-tenured coach (2007) in Pittsburgh through at least 2027.
Question: Who's the NFL’s second-longest tenured coach?
Answer at the bottom.
🎓 Fed: "Perfection is impossible"
Roger Federer delivered the commencement address at Dartmouth over the weekend, and it was fantastic.
My favorite part:
Perfection is impossible. In the 1,526 singles matches I played in my career, I won almost 80% of those matches.
Now I have a question for you: What percentage of points do you think I won in those matches? Only 54%.
In other words, even top-ranked tennis players win barely more than half of the points they play. When you lose every second point on average, you learn not to dwell on every shot.
You teach yourself to think: "Okay, I double faulted — it's only a point. … Okay, I came to the net and I got passed again — it's only a point."
Even a great shot, an overhead backhand smash that ends up on ESPN's top 10 plays — that too is just a point.
Here's why I'm telling you this: When you're playing a point, it has to be the most important thing in the world. And it is. But when it's behind you, it's behind you.
This mindset is really crucial because it frees you to fully commit to the next point and the next point after that with intensity, clarity, and focus.
Trivia answer: John Harbaugh, Ravens (2008)
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