Author: rb809rb

AFC East: Buffalo Bills | Miami Dolphins | New England Patriots | New York Jets

AFC North: Baltimore Ravens | Cincinnati Bengals | Cleveland Browns | Pittsburgh Steelers

AFC South: Houston Texans | Indianapolis Colts | Jacksonville Jaguars | Tennessee Titans

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AFC West: Denver Broncos | Kansas City Chiefs | Las Vegas Raiders | Los Angeles Chargers

NFC East: Dallas Cowboys | New York Giants | Philadelphia Eagles | Washington Commanders

NFC North: Chicago Bears | Detroit Lions | Green Bay Packers | Minnesota Vikings

NFC South: Atlanta Falcons | Carolina Panthers | New Orleans Saints | Tampa Bay Buccaneers

NFC West: Arizona Cardinals | Los Angeles Rams | San Francisco 49ers | Seattle Seahawks

Usually, a 12-2 team in sole possession of the best record in the NFL wouldn’t have a tough time getting noticed.

The Denver Broncos have a perception problem. They don’t have any issue winning games. They’ve lost twice this season: In Week 2 with no time left on the clock at the Colts, and Week 3 with no time left on the clock at the Chargers. That’s how close they are to being undefeated. Their last loss was Sept. 21.

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Yet, it has taken a long time for Denver to get respect afforded to most 12-2 teams. The Broncos were home underdogs Sunday. They’re not in the top two of current odds to win the Super Bowl. The narrative surrounding them has been about a lot of close wins. A wild comeback win over the Giants, in which they scored 33 fourth-quarter points, seemed to create an impression that they’re a lucky team and that has stuck. That ignores that the Broncos play a style that seems to get less respect in an offensive era. The Broncos play great defense and know how to finish games. They’re not a fantasy football-friendly team, but it’s a formula that can still work in the NFL. There has been some luck involved in winning 12 games but not as much as you’d guess, based on the lack of buzz around their fantastic season.

Denver has a head coach in Sean Payton who might be locking up his spot in the Hall of Fame this season, a stellar defense, a very good offensive line and a talented quarterback in Bo Nix, who is coming off the best game of his career. The offense is inconsistent but not bad; Denver is 11th in EPA (expected points added) per play and 12th in DVOA. Perhaps you didn’t realize all of that, considering the Broncos are the most anonymous 12-2 team in recent memory. That might change when they win the AFC West, or win 14 or more games, or get the No. 1 seed in the AFC. Or maybe it will persist until they make a Super Bowl. There’s no reason they can’t.

Here are the power rankings after Week 15 of the NFL season:

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Thanks to the Raiders for validating their move to the No. 32 spot last week. They had 75 yards on Sunday. Back in Week 7 they had 95 yards against the Chiefs. There have been three instances this season of a team gaining less than 100 yards in a game, and the Raiders account for two of them. This isn’t just a bad team, it’s unwatchable. If Pete Carroll makes it to the end of the season, it might be due to respect for what he has done through his career.

Defensive tackle Jeffery Simmons had a sack, two tackles for loss and even got a receiving touchdown when he stayed alive in the back of the end zone on a Cam Ward scramble. There aren’t many bright spots for the Titans, aside from occasional Ward highlights from a mostly horrendous offense, but Simmons is one. The problem is Simmons will be 29 years old next season on a franchise that might be years away from being good.

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If the Giants want to get the first overall pick of the 2026 NFL Draft, losing at home to the Washington Commanders is a good way to inch closer to it. The Giants still hold the No. 1 pick spot with three weeks to go, according to Tankathon. The first pick might be determined in Week 17, when the Raiders host the Giants. The loser will have a good shot at the top pick. No matter where the Giants end up drafting they’re going to get another fun, young starter to build around.

The Cardinals’ only win since Sept. 14? That came against the Cowboys. Four of the last six losses since that win at Dallas came by 22, 19, 28 and 20 points. The Cardinals have graduated from a team that had been losing mostly close games to one that isn’t competing anymore and looks like it wants the season to be over. That’s really bad news for head coach Jonathan Gannon.

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Eventually, trading Quinnen Williams and Sauce Gardner was going to cause the defense to implode. Over New York’s past three games it is allowing an average of 395 yards and 35.3 points. The last time the Jets allowed fewer than 20 points was Oct. 19. On Sunday, they allowed 48 to the Jaguars, who hadn’t scored more than 36 in a game this season. Defensive coordinator Steve Wilks paid the price, as he was fired Monday morning. With games left against New England and Buffalo, it’s not going to get a lot better for the Jets’ defense.

The Browns were beyond bad in a 31-3 loss to the Bears on Sunday. According to Aaron Schatz of FTN Fantasy, the Browns posted the 11th worst DVOA score in any game since 1978. Shedeur Sanders was a big part of the problem. He had a poor game Sunday. That doesn’t mean we should make sweeping judgments on Sanders’ career. He’s a fifth-round rookie on a bad team. He’ll have good days, like Week 14, and some bad days. It’s OK to let it all play out slowly, with realistic expectations.

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Rookie quarterback Tyler Shough had 272 yards in a comeback win over the Panthers on Sunday, and his 110.4 passer rating was the second-best of his career (his best mark came in the first meeting vs. Carolina). The Saints might knock themselves out of the top-five draft pick but if Shough continues to show growth, New Orleans won’t feel the need to draft a quarterback anyway. There are positive late signs in what had been a miserable season.

In a featured role due to Chris Rodriguez Jr.’s injury, rookie running back Jacory Croskey-Merritt had 96 yards and a touchdown. He’s the type of player Washington should want to get a long look at down the stretch. A win over the Giants, after an embarrassing 31-0 loss to the Vikings the previous week, indicates Washington won’t sleepwalk to the finish.

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Sunday was weird. Joe Burrow had perhaps the worst game of his career, days after wondering aloud what he’s doing playing football if he’s not having fun. He said that had nothing to do with playing for the Bengals, but his mindset and how football fits into it. On Sunday, he looked like a player who had other things on his mind. Whatever is going on, the Bengals better do whatever they can to make it right, and soon.

Tua Tagovailoa never plays well in the cold, and he was terrible on Monday night. But it’s not a one-off. Tagovailoa hadn’t thrown for more than 173 yards in a game in the four games leading up to Monday night. He was minimized in the offense as the Dolphins dug themselves out of a big hole, but he somehow still leads the NFL in interceptions. Who knows if the Dolphins will have a viable replacement option at quarterback, but running it back with Tagovailoa next season seems unrealistic.

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It will be interesting to see what happens with Kirk Cousins the rest of the season. A 373-yard, three-touchdown game in a win over the Buccaneers should offer renewed hope that maybe there’s a trade market for him. Or, the Falcons keep him around because Michael Penix Jr. is far from a sure thing. It’s also possible that game was an outlier and Cousins falls apart. Regardless, Atlanta must be glad it held onto Cousins and has options.

The Colts nearly beat one of the two best teams in the NFL on the road with a 44-year-old quarterback who hadn’t played in five years and was signed less than a week earlier. That also made the last-second loss at Seattle tougher to take. Give credit to everyone involved, including Philip Rivers, for battling so hard Sunday. It reflects very well on head coach Shane Steichen. Let’s see how they rebound from such a crushing loss.

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J.J. McCarthy’s passer rating in his first six games: 57.9. McCarthy’s passer rating in his last two games: 120.3. This is why it’s dangerous to bury a young player after six games, even though McCarthy was unquestionably bad. He still missed plenty of passes against Dallas, but he also looks much better. The Vikings’ season isn’t going anywhere, but three more solid performances by McCarthy would give Minnesota good vibes going into the offseason.

The Saints are 2-0 against the Panthers and 2-10 against the rest of the NFL. Carolina losing a 17-7 lead to get swept by the Saints, when they had a great chance to take a game lead in the NFC South, was one of the worst losses of the season. The Panthers probably have to sweep the Buccaneers in their two games over the next three weeks to make the playoffs. The only good news for Carolina is the Buccaneers are also frustratingly inconsistent.

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The Buccaneers got lucky with that Panthers loss at New Orleans. They should have been penalized more for losing to the Falcons at home, blowing a 28-14 lead. Head coach Todd Bowles was obviously fed up after the loss, calling it inexcusable. “You gotta f***ing care enough where the sh** hurts. Gotta f***ing mean something to you,” Bowles said. “It’s more than a job, it’s your f***ing livelihood. How well do you know your job? How well can you do your job? You can’t sugar coat that sh**. It was in-f***ing-excusable. And there’s no f***ing answer for it.”

Jerry Jones said after the Cowboys fell under .500 with a home loss to the Vikings: “We certainly didn’t think we’d be here in this kind of shape with three games to go and be behind the eight ball the way we are.” The troubling part is that he didn’t see it coming. The Cowboys are a mediocre team. That hasn’t changed all season. You can’t properly build a roster if you don’t have self-awareness to know where you stand. Jones is the last to know his team isn’t very good.

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It was reasonable to think that the Chiefs could have rebounded right away next season and continued their dynasty. One bad season with many close losses wasn’t the death of the Chiefs, regardless of how everyone proclaimed it so. But Patrick Mahomes’ torn ACL changes the math. We don’t know how Mahomes will rebound from that injury, especially since he suffered it so late in the season. The Chiefs aren’t in as bad of shape as you might hear, but now it all centers on Mahomes’ recovery.

A 24-0 win over the Bengals isn’t proof the Ravens are back. But it was their best performance in many weeks, and perhaps the whole season. Baltimore hosts the Patriots, plays at the Packers and then finishes at the Steelers. Baltimore takes the division title if it wins out, but it’s tough to expect that from this Ravens team. Unless what we saw Sunday at Cincinnati is a sign of a late-season surge.

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It seems like we spent more time talking about 44-year-old Philip Rivers last week than we have about Aaron Rodgers all season. But what Rodgers is doing at age 42 is very rare. If we remove Tom Brady, who was a historical outlier, the highest passer rating for any quarterback at 42 years old or older (minimum 100 attempts) was 76.6. Rodgers, who turned 42 this month, entered Monday’s game with a rating of 96.2 and had a very good game in a win over the Dolphins. It doesn’t seem like a vintage Rodgers season due to his track record, but it’s remarkable for his age.

For 3 1/2 months, the Lions have alternated wins and losses. They haven’t had a two-game winning streak or two-game losing streak since the start of October. This is just what Detroit is. It’s an inconsistent team. The defense is not good enough after taking on key injuries. The Lions have a 96% chance to make the playoffs if they win out, according to The Athletic’s playoff simulations, but can a team that can’t win two straight games be trusted to do that?

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The headline was the Chiefs being eliminated from the playoffs and Patrick Mahomes’ season-ending injury, but the Chargers deserve plenty of credit for that 16-13 win at Arrowhead Stadium. The Chargers are becoming a defensive force under coordinator Jesse Minter. They’ve allowed 46 points in three games since the bye. In a wide-open AFC, the combination of an elite head coach, superstar quarterback and top defense makes the Chargers dangerous.

It’s hard to tell how good the 49ers are. The last time they beat a team that currently has a record over .500 was when they knocked off the Rams back in Week 5. The only other victory over a winning team was against Seattle in the opener. But it’s difficult to get to 10-4 regardless of the strength of schedule, and the 49ers deserve credit for fighting through injuries. We’ll learn more: The 49ers don’t have another remaining game against anyone under .500 (they finish the season at Colts, vs. Bears, vs. Seahawks), including any potential playoff foe.

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The Jaguars get a bit of a move up, and it’s because of Trevor Lawrence. Over Jacksonville’s past three games, he has nine touchdowns and no interceptions. Is it possible that Lawrence is finally clicking with first-year head coach Liam Coen? It looked like it Sunday, when he became the first player in NFL history with five passing touchdowns, one rushing touchdown and 50-plus rushing yards. If Lawrence can maintain this level, the Jaguars will be a factor in the playoffs.

A loss at Denver wouldn’t have downgraded Green Bay much. It’s Micah Parsons’ season-ending torn ACL that knocks the Packers back a few spots. It’s possible to win a championship after the loss of a star player, but Parsons was by far the biggest defensive difference-maker. It’s not the Packers’ only major injury, either. Sometimes very good teams get sidetracked due to bad injury luck. We get a test of how good the Packers are without Parsons on Saturday, when they face the Bears in Chicago.

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The Bills got a really nice win at New England. They also fell behind 21-0, and allowed 385 yards at 7.5 yards per play. They needed Josh Allen to bail them out, and he did. He’s capable of that, but it’s hard to rely on that as a core strategy for multiple games through the playoffs. However, it’s plausible with Allen at quarterback. He might be even more deserving of NFL MVP this season than he was last season, when he won.

It’s hard to even know what Sunday’s 31-0 win meant because it came against a Raiders team that doesn’t even resemble a professional operation lately. But Philly’s defense does get credit for allowing only 75 yards, the fewest allowed in any game this NFL season. The offense had its best game in a long time. The Eagles will have to repeat that against an actual professional team, but at least the win wasn’t in doubt.

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Sunday provided a glimpse of a championship upside for the Texans. Their defense, still No. 1 in points allowed and yards allowed, is at a championship level. The offense was the question. Then, on Sunday, C.J. Stroud had his best game of the season, with three touchdowns and a passer rating of 137.1. That came against a Cardinals team that is fading fast. But we know Stroud has talent. If the offense is just above average the rest of the way, look out for Houston.

Are the Bears the fifth-best team in the NFL? Probably not. But nobody behind them has shown enough to move into the top five. And Chicago, who built a nice record on close wins against bad teams, has played much better the past three weeks and had those wins banked. The injury to Micah Parsons hurts Chicago’s biggest threat in the division. If Chicago beats Green Bay on Saturday night, the Bears will justify this ranking.

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The Patriots lost after leading 21-0 against the Bills, and that’s not great. Let’s not overreact though. New England is 10-1 in their past 11 games. The Patriots have a quarterback in Drake Maye who can still win MVP if they win the division. New England outgained Buffalo on Sunday, it just couldn’t close out the win. The loss wasn’t great, but every team behind the Patriots in the rankings has lost more than one game over their last 11. Don’t give in to recency bias.

There are now three distinct tiers at the top. The top two teams in the NFC West are practically 1a and 1b. Next it’s the Broncos, and then a gap to everyone else. DVOA has Denver with an 81.5% chance to get the No. 1 seed in the AFC. The Broncos have a strong home-field advantage in the altitude, a head coach who is likely going to the Hall of Fame and a defense that is comfortably in the top five. Underrate them at your own risk.

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Losing to the Colts would have been horrendous. But they avoided a disaster and won in the final minute, and it’s OK to chalk up the bad performance to looking ahead to the Rams and looking past a Colts team that everyone had left for dead. Here’s what it boils down to: If the Seahawks beat the Rams on Thursday, they’ll be No. 1 next week in these rankings and have the inside track at the NFC’s No. 1 seed with two games to go. That’s all that matters.

The Rams’ win on Sunday was impressive. It would have been easy to look past a capable Lions team and start thinking about Thursday night’s game in Seattle. But the Rams kept focus, put up 41 points and won. The Rams are already a significant Super Bowl favorite, and that’s despite them being just 55.6% to win the NFC West (via DVOA). If the Rams win Thursday, they’d be a near lock to win the division, get the No. 1 seed and they’d be an overwhelming favorite to win it all. Lose on Thursday and the Rams might end up as a wild-card team playing a cold weather game in Green Bay, Chicago or Philadelphia. The stakes are enormous.

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Welcome to our second edition of the ‘Fantasy Playoffs Trust Meter’ with Justin Boone and Scott Pianowski. The dynamic duo asks the question for some of the most important players we’ve been relying on all season: Can we trust them in the fantasy playoffs? The two put them through the meter ahead of Week 16.

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(2:00) – Fantasy fallout: Jayden Daniels out for season, Bhayshul Tuten out for fantasy postseason, Davante Adams week-to-week

(12:30) – Fantasy Playoffs Trust Meter intro

(13:00) – Trust meter: Kyle Pitts, JJ McCarthy + Justin Jefferson, Tyler Shough, DJ Moore, Terry McLaurin

(31:20) – Trust meter: Chiefs offense, Chargers offense, Colts offense, Trevor Lawrence + Brian Thomas Jr., Dalton Kincaid

(52:05)- Trust meter: Quinshon Judkins, Bucs RBs, Seahawks RBs, Jawhar Jordan, Michael Carter

(1:09:55) – Top Waiver Wire adds for Week 16

🖥️ Watch this full episode on YouTube

Check out the rest of the Yahoo Sports podcast family at https://apple.co/3zEuTQj or at yahoosports.tv

The Longhorns will have Arch Manning for another season.

Manning’s father, Cooper Manning, told ESPN’s Dave Wilson on Monday night that his son would be “playing football at Texas next year.” That had long been the expectation from Texas officials, though Manning could have declared for the NFL Draft or hit the transfer portal if he wanted to.

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Though it was a rough start to the season for the Longhorns, who started out as the No. 1 team in the country, Manning led the team on a 6-1 run to end the campaign. That nearly got them into the College Football Playoff, especially after an upset win over Texas A&M in their final game of the regular season.

Instead, after going 9-3 on the year, No. 13 Texas will take on Michigan in the Cheez-It Citrus Bowl later this month.

Manning finished this season, his first as a starter after redshirting his first year and then backing up Quinn Ewers last year, with 2,942 yards, 24 touchdowns and seven interceptions. All but two of those interceptions came in the first five games of the year. He had eight rushing touchdowns, too, and completed better than 61% of his passes.

“He’s a young man who’s gotten better as the season’s gone on, and not only physically, but mentally, maturity-wise,” Texas head coach Steve Sarkisian said on Monday, via ESPN. “I would think he’s going to want another year of that growth to put himself in position for hopefully a long career in the NFL. And he’s got some unfinished business of what he came here to do and what he came here to accomplish.

“We had a really good football season. We left some meat on the bone with an opportunity to be SEC champs, national champs, and so ultimately for him, I think the competitor in him is going to say, ‘Man, I sure would like another crack at trying to do those things.’”

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Though he has undoubtedly proven himself as a strong NFL prospect already, Manning will get at least one more opportunity with the Longhorns. With one season now in the books, save for the bowl game in Orlando on Dec. 31, he should be in a much more confident position for the beginning of his second run as a starting quarterback in Austin next fall.

The 2025 Emirates NBA Cup began roughly five weeks ago with all 30 of the league’s teams competing in the in-season tournament that will provide the players of the winning team with a cool half a million dollars apiece. After this weekend’s semifinals in Las Vegas, the two remaining teams are set: the San Antonio Spurs will face the New York Knicks on Tuesday night. Both teams are first-time finalists in the tournament, which means there will be a new champion for the third year in a row. The Los Angeles Lakers and Milwaukee Bucks were the winners of the first two tournaments in 2023 and 2024, respectively.

You can catch this week’s NBA Cup championship final on Prime Video, the platform holds exclusive rights to the playoffs — and if you’ve missed any of the on-court action, you can find replays and recaps of all the previous playoff games to the platform, too. Find out how to watch the the NBA Cup final between the San Antonio Spurs and the New York Knicks below.

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How to watch the 2025 NBA Cup final:

Date: December 16, 2025

Time: Broadcast begins at 7:30 p.m. ET, tip-off at 8:30 p.m. ET

Streaming: Prime Video

2025 NBA Cup schedule:

Below is a list of every remaining playoff game in the 2025 NBA Cup.

All times Eastern

Tuesday, Dec. 16

8:30 p.m.: Championship Final, San Antonio Spurs vs. New York Knicks

2025 NBA Cup Groups:

East Group A: Cleveland Cavaliers, Indiana Pacers, Atlanta Hawks, Toronto Raptors, Washington Wizards

East Group B: Boston Celtics, Detroit Pistons, Orlando Magic, Brooklyn Nets, Philadelphia 76ers

East Group C: New York Knicks, Milwaukee Bucks, Chicago Bulls, Miami Heat, Charlotte Hornets

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West Group A: Oklahoma City Thunder, Minnesota Timberwolves, Sacramento Kings, Phoenix Suns, Utah Jazz

West Group B: Los Angeles Lakers, Los Angeles Clippers, Memphis Grizzlies, Dallas Mavericks, New Orleans Pelicans

West Group C: Houston Rockets, Denver Nuggets, Golden State Warriors, Portland Trail Blazers, San Antonio Spurs

What channels do I need to watch NBA Cup games live?

While many games in the group stage were televised on broadcast TV, the championship final will stream exclusively on Prime Video.

How to stream 2025 NBA Cup games:

You can catch every playoff game as well as the Championship final on Prime Video.

We can dispense with the bells and whistles now: the inflated point differentials and arcane tiebreakers, the only-on-special-occasions scheduling and intermittently unsafe or unavailable alternate playing surfaces, etc. What’s left at the 2025 Emirates NBA Cup is all that’s ever left when the game matters most: two teams, with only one game and one another standing between them and a big ol’ trophy.

What began as a league-wide effort to inject some flavor into the period between opening night and Christmas Day concludes with two teams vying for 35 pounds of sterling silver topped with 24-karat gold. Out of the West: the San Antonio Spurs, who shook off an early double-digit deficit to the Oklahoma City Thunder —  the defending NBA champions and a mid-coronation juggernaut that was riding a 16-game winning streak and a 24-1 start to the season — with the kind of confidence that can only come from knowing that you have a Hulk:

Victor Wembanyama played 21 minutes in his first NBA action in nearly a month; San Antonio outscored Oklahoma City by 22 points in those 21 minutes. (Welcome back, big fella.) With the transformational center joining De’Aaron Fox, Stephon Castle and Devin Vassell in a quartet of 20-plus-point scorers, the Spurs came back from 16 down to hand the Thunder just their second loss of the season, pulling off the upset — although not a gigantic one, considering they’re 18-7 and all — to punch their ticket to the championship game.

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Joining them in the Cup final: the New York Knicks, who advanced out of the East by knocking off the Orlando Magic for the second time in a week behind a masterful performance from their captain:

Jalen Brunson’s 19th 40-point game as a Knick — third-most in franchise history, behind only Patrick Ewing and Bernard King — paced yet another high-octane outing for the NBA’s No. 2 offense. With Brunson dealing, Karl-Anthony Towns torching Orlando’s bigs to the tune of 29 points on 11 shots, and the wing trio of OG Anunoby, Mikal Bridges and Josh Hart continuing their sterling starts to the season, the Knicks shot 60.7% from the field against an elite Magic defense in a 132-120 victory — their fifth straight and ninth in the last 10 games — to reach the winner-take-all finale.

Let’s set the table for what’s sure to be a thrilling conclusion by considering three big questions ahead of Tuesday’s NBA Cup championship (8:30 p.m. ET, Prime Video):

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1. How will New York deal with Wemby?

The last time the Knicks saw Wembanyama — in the Christmas Day matinee nearly one year ago — things didn’t really go so hot.

Wembanyama set foot on the floor at the World’s Most Famous Arena and announced his presence with jaw-dropping authority: 42 points on 31 shots, 18 rebounds, 4 assists, 4 blocks and 1 steal. He and then-Spurs point guard Chris Paul repeatedly attacked Towns in the pick-and-roll, with Wembanyama either popping free for open 3-point looks or working his way behind Towns’ drop coverage for point-blank opportunities against the Knicks’ rotating low-man defenders — who were often a foot or more shorter than the French phenom.

New York still came away with the win, thanks partly to a season-high 41 points from Mikal Bridges — and, partly, to seizing the opportunity to make hay while the sun was out, which is to say, when it was not being blotted out by a devastatingly coordinated skyscraping Slenderman. The Spurs outscored the Knicks by seven points in Wembanyama’s 40 minutes of floor time last Christmas; in the eight minutes the big fella took a seat, New York outscored San Antonio 21-11.

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You’d imagine Wembanyama won’t approach 40 minutes in his second game back from a prolonged absence due to a calf strain. (You’d also imagine a Spurs team now featuring Fox, an improved version of second-year guard Castle, impressive freshman Dylan Harper and a bona fide backup center in ex-Knick Luke Kornet might not be quite as susceptible in the non-Wemby minutes … although it’s worth noting the Thunder blitzed San Antonio by 19 points in the 27 minutes that Wemby was on the pine.) But it’ll be interesting to see how he’s deployed in whatever minutes he does get — particularly on the defensive end.

Wembanyama primarily guarded Towns and then-Knicks backup center Precious Achiuwa in that Christmas matchup. As the season wore on, more and more teams started cross-matching against New York, putting a wing on Towns to better switch the KAT-Brunson pick-and-roll while stationing their centers on Hart, allowing their bigs to sag off a player known to be an inconsistent shooter to better protect the basket and muck things up on the interior.

That gambit was very successful last season, and the starting lineup of Brunson, Towns, Hart, Bridges and Anunoby waned in effectiveness as a result. This season, though, with Hart shooting 38.1% from 3-point range, that quintet has been dynamite, outscoring opponents by 37 points in 77 minutes, with a net rating of +21.5 — the sixth-best mark of any lineup to log at least 50 minutes this season, according to NBA Advanced Stats.

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Will Spurs head coach Mitch Johnson test-drive a cross-match — say, Harrison Barnes (and/or Julian Champagnie, Jeremy Sochan and Keldon Johnson) on Towns and Wembanyama (and/or Kornet) helping off Hart — and make the Knicks prove they can problem-solve their way around a defense with elite rim protectors hanging around the rim? Or might San Antonio just decide to play things straight up and challenge New York to generate consistent buckets against a defense that has prevented points at a top-two level with Wemby on the floor?

The matchup’s pretty spicy on the other end, too. On one hand, the notion of Towns taking on the bulk of the Wembanyama assignment seems like a five-alarm fire for the Knicks, considering Wemby has averaged nearly 32 points per 75 possessions when guarded by Towns since his rookie season, according to Databallr’s matchup data. On the other, Wemby went 7-for-16 in the Christmas contest when matched up with Towns, who has quietly been playing perhaps the best defense of his career this season. Will Mike Brown trust KAT to hold up, perhaps with Anunoby shading over as a helper to provide some extra muscle, disruption and secondary rim protection? Or might Brown — who, lest we forget, was not the Knicks’ head coach when these two teams last squared off — try to throw a curveball to keep the Spurs’ ascendant superstar from wrecking the game?

2. Can San Antonio’s guards collapse New York’s defense?

Before the Spurs’ quarterfinal matchup with the Lakers, while the smart money seemed to be on Luka Dončić, LeBron James and Co. to advance, some extremely attractive and incredibly humble local hero suggested that L.A.’s point-of-attack defense might be ripe for the plucking by San Antonio’s perimeter talent:

Sure enough: San Antonio finished that game with 53 drives to the basket — 37 of which came from the trio of Castle (who exploded for 30 points, 10 rebounds and 6 assists), Fox and Harper — and went 23 for 39 in the paint, earning 36 trips to the free-throw line and generating 13 catch-and-shoot 3-pointers in an impressive, dominant road win.

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The overall volume of marches to the cup was bound to decrease against the league-leading Thunder defense. Even still: Castle, Fox and Harper combined for 35 drives to the basket against Oklahoma City, and while the Spurs struggled to cash out on them, those forays into the teeth of the OKC coverage did generate a bunch of good looks:

While Wembanyama was healing up, the Spurs shifted into an offense-first attack — 119.7 points per 100 non-garbage-time possessions since Nov. 15, according to Cleaning the Glass, ninth-best in the NBA in that span — with the dribble penetration, rim pressure and facilitation of Fox, Castle and Harper at the forefront of that acceleration. All three of those ball-handlers are big, quick, physical and adept at both slithering through cracks in coverage to get all the way to the rim and creating (and often finishing through) contact in the process. And when they’re able to collapse the defense and spray the ball out to waiting shooters like Barnes, Champagnie, Johnson, Vassell and one another, the offense can hit the sort of high notes that would allow San Antonio to trade haymakers with a Brunson-and-KAT-led attack that’s been the NBA’s most potent outside of Denver this season.

The premise behind the Knicks’ roster construction over the past couple of years is that adding Anunoby, Bridges and Hart — big, physical, versatile and excellent perimeter defenders — would insulate the more vulnerable Brunson and Towns, and allow New York to play high-level defense against high-level perimeter playmakers in games of consequence. The theory bore fruit against the heavily favored Celtics in the 2025 Eastern Conference semifinals; it wobbled, however, in the subsequent round against the Pacers, contributing to New York failing to break through to the NBA Finals for the first time in 25 years. Through this season’s first 25 games, the Knicks have defended at an elite level with that five-man unit on the floor. Those numbers have been propped up, however, by opponents shooting just 30.6% from 3-point land against it, a league-worst-caliber — and all but certainly unsustainable — rate of long-range inaccuracy.

If Anunoby, Bridges, Hart and Co. are able to stand tall at the point of attack, corralling the Spurs’ ball-handlers off the bounce and keeping Castle, Fox and Harper from collapsing the coverage, San Antonio could struggle to consistently create good enough scoring chances to keep pace with a Knicks attack that’s been humming all season. If they can’t, and if the Spurs’ perimeter quickness, strength and athleticism once again shines through — the absences of Deuce McBride and Landry Shamet, New York’s two best perimeter defenders off the bench, could loom large, especially when Brown has to turn to the, um, huntable Tyler Kolek and Jordan Clarkson — New York could be in for a long, tough night in Sin City.

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One more note:

Under Tom Thibodeau, the Knicks barely ever played zone defense. Under Brown, they’re dialing it up 2.3 times per game, according to Synergy, or about 2.5% of their defensive possessions. They haven’t been particularly good at it, giving up 1.12 points per zone possession this season, a bottom-10 mark, but they’ve been willing to give it a shot.

You know what team has had the least success against zone this season? You guessed it: The Spurs, who’ve faced more zone than all but four teams in the league this season, and who’ve scored just 0.73 points per possession against it. Which is to say: If San Antonio’s offense gets humming, don’t be surprised if Brown calls for an off-speed pitch to try to get the Spurs out of their rhythm.

3. Who controls the possession game?

One reason why New York’s offense has been so efficient and overwhelming this season: No team in the NBA does a better job of making sure it gets more bites at the apple than you do.

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The Knicks pull in about four more offensive rebounds per game than they concede, and turn the ball over about 1.5 fewer times per night than their opposition. That combination of second-chance generation — led by reserve center Mitchell Robinson, who has pulled in three or more offensive boards in his last seven games (despite playing more than 20 minutes just once in that stretch) and is coming down with the ball on a historically obscene 28% of New York’s missed shots during his time on the floor — and Brunson-helmed turnover avoidance has the Knicks atop the nightly possession battle leaderboard, according to analysis by Jared Dubin of Last Night in Basketball.

That’s the formula for New York. Stay away from live-ball turnovers that give your opponent the chance to sprint out in the open floor — only Boston commits fewer such cough-ups per game, according to PBP Stats — and generate some of your own, if possible (the Knicks are 10th in the NBA in opponent turnover rate and 11th in points off turnovers per 100 possessions). Get more shots on goal than the other guys, and have those shots taken by dudes who can make them (all of the Knicks’ starters are shooting at least 53% on 2s and 36% on 3s).

Do all that, and chances are, you’re going to wind up putting up the kind of point total that will either leave the other team in the dust or have you in a tight game late … and when you’ve got Jalen Brunson, and the other team doesn’t, that’s not too bad a place to be.

While the Knicks want to play methodically, the younger, more athletic Spurs prefer to inject some more pace into the proceedings, with a faster average time to shot (11.5 seconds, 13th in the NBA, according to Inpredictable) than New York (12.1, 25th), and a significantly higher share of its offensive possessions coming in transition (16.2%, ninth in the NBA, according to Cleaning the Glass) than the Knicks (15.4%, 20th). Fox, Castle, Harper, Vassell and Co. want to hit the gas and play uptempo … which can, at times, lead to some miscues, with San Antonio ranking just above league-average in turnover rate and 10th in live-ball giveaways per game.

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The presence of Wembanyama could serve as the great equalizer — helping keep Robinson and Co. off the offensive boards, ratcheting up the defensive intensity enough to disrupt New York’s previously smooth-running offensive machinery, and giving what might’ve been otherwise unsteady San Antonio possessions a safe place to put the ball. Even an 8-foot wingspan might not be able to cover every potential pressure point, though — and if New York’s able to tilt the possession math in its favor on Tuesday like it’s been doing all season, the Spurs might have a tough time finding a pathway to the Cup.

About the NBA Cup final

The Emirates NBA Cup championship game is the only contest in the entire tournament that won’t also count toward participants’ regular-season records and statistics. For the Spurs and Knicks, it will count as Game 83.

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Just making the knockout round guaranteed every player on the participating teams a payout. To the winners, though, go greater spoils, with the tournament champion taking home the biggest bank.

For the inaugural in-season tournament, the prize pool operated in nice round numbers: $50,000 for each player on teams that lose in the quarterfinals; $100,000 for players on teams that lose in the semifinals; $200,000 for players on the team that loses in the final game; and a crisp $500,000 for everyone on the team that hoists the NBA Cup. The math has changed a bit year-over-year, thanks to a passage in the collective bargaining agreement between the NBA and its players union stipulating that those prize payouts rise by a “growth factor” tied to any increase in the basketball-related income (BRI) that the league generates.

BRI has gone up from over the past two seasons; thus, so have the payouts:

Win on Tuesday, and you take home the whole showcase: the NBA Cup and whatever bragging rights go with it, plus that $530,933 winner’s purse for each player. Which, as holiday bonuses go? Pretty decent.

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🚨 Headlines

🏈 Arch to return: Arch Manning will return to Texas for his junior year rather than declare for the NFL draft. After a rough start to the season, he ended up leading the Longhorns to a 9-3 record that nearly got them into the College Football Playoff.

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🏀 Flagg makes history: Cooper Flagg scored a career-high 42 points in the Mavericks’ overtime loss to the Jazz, breaking LeBron James’ record for the most points ever scored in a game by an 18-year-old. He turns 19 this Sunday.

⛳️ Scottie named POY again: Scottie Scheffler was named the PGA Tour’s Player of the Year again, joining Tiger Woods as the only golfers to win the award in four consecutive seasons.

⛳️ AP polls: Arizona (men) and UConn (women) remain atop their respective AP Top 25 polls, which featured little change after a week devoid of notable upsets.

⚽️ Red Bulls hire Bradley: Former USMNT captain Michael Bradley has been named head coach of the New York Red Bulls, taking over a job his father, Bob, held two decades ago. Bradley led the club’s MLS Next Pro squad to a title last month.

⚽️ Huskies complete epic run to title

Washington was unseeded entering the NCAA men’s soccer tournament. Four weeks later, they’re national champs.

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Cinderella run: The Huskies beat NC State, 3-2, in Monday’s title game to win their first national championship and become the first team to win six matches away from home in the tournament — taking down five seeded teams along the way.

• First Round: Washington 3, Oregon State 2 (OT)

• Second Round: Washington 1, SMU 0

• Sweet Sixteen: Washington 1, Stanford 0

• Elite Eight: Washington 3, Maryland 1

• Semifinal: Washington 3, Furman 1

• Final: Washington 3, NC State 2 (OT)

Golden goal: Washington blew a two-goal lead in the second half, but Harrison Bertos scored 1:54 into overtime for the walk-off championship victory.

What they’re saying: “That was a heck of a game and all 10,000 people in attendance got to witness a spectacle,” said Huskies head coach Jamie Clark. “And it was a spectacle because NC State didn’t hang their head down 2-0 and they pushed us right to the limit.”

💯 Big numbers

🏈 23rd straight win

The Steelers beat the Dolphins, 28-15, last night to win their 23rd consecutive home game on Monday Night Football, the longest such streak since MNF began in 1970.

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Speaking of streaks: This was Miami’s 14th straight loss (including playoffs) in games colder than 40 degrees.

🏀 7 undefeated teams

No. 1 Arizona (9-0) is one of seven undefeated teams remaining in men’s DI hoops, along with No. 2 Michigan (10-0), No. 3 Duke (10-0), No. 4 Iowa State (10-0), No. 13 Vanderbilt (10-0), No. 15 Nebraska (11-0) and Miami-Ohio (10-0).

Historic start: The top-ranked Wildcats are the first team in the history of the AP poll (since 1948) with five wins over ranked opponents in their first nine games. They’ve earned their undefeated start.

⚽️ 277 goal involvements

Mohamed Salah was involved in his 277th goal for Liverpool on Saturday, breaking the record for most goal involvements (goals and assists) for a single club in Premier League history.

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Whose record did he break? The Egyptian has 188 goals and 89 assists for Liverpool in England’s top flight, overtaking Wayne Rooney’s tally of 276 goal involvements (183 goals, 93 assists) for Manchester United.

🏈 27 years

With the Chiefs eliminated from playoff contention, the upcoming NFL postseason will be the first in 27 years (since 1998) without either Peyton Manning, Tom Brady or Patrick Mahomes.

Who were the QBs in 1998? John Elway (Broncos), Brett Favre (Packers), Steve Young (49ers), Dan Marino (Dolphins), Drew Bledsoe (Patriots), Randall Cunningham (Vikings), Elvis Grbac (Chiefs), Kordell Stewart (Steelers), Mark Brunell (Jaguars), Trent Dilfer (Buccaneers), Danny Kanell (Giants), Scott Mitchell (Lions).

🏈 2025 AP All-Americans

Indiana’s Heisman-winning QB Fernando Mendoza headlined the AP All-America first team, which was released on Monday alongside the second and third teams.

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Notes:

• By conference: The Big Ten (10) had by far the most players on the 27-man first team, followed by the SEC (6), Big 12 (3), C-USA (2), ACC (1), American (1) and MWC (1), plus three independents.

• By school: Ohio State led the way with four first-team players, including three from their FBS-best defensive unit. Notre Dame, USC, Iowa, Texas A&M and Texas Tech were the only other schools with multiple first-team players.

• By class: Seniors (14) and juniors (10) comprised almost the entire first team, with just three underclassmen making the cut: sophomores Jeremiah Smith, Ahmad Hardy and Leonard Moore.

Sign of the times: Nearly half of the first-team players (12 of 27) didn’t begin their careers at their current schools, which has become the norm in the transfer portal era.

100 years later… This year marked the 100th anniversary of the inaugural AP All-America team selected back in 1925. To celebrate, the AP named its all-time All-Americans back in August, with guys like Tim Tebow, Barry Sanders and Dick Butkus leading the 25-player first team and Archie Griffin, Lawrence Taylor and Champ Bailey leading the second.

🏈 The perils of an 18-game NFL season

From Yahoo Sports’ Jay Busbee:

If football is good, more football is better, right? If NFL Sundays are the finest of Sundays, why not create another one?

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More football means more revenue for the league and broadcast partners, more opportunity for fantasy and gambling for fans, more of everything that makes football great. Who wouldn’t want the NFL season to add an 18th game?

“I’m not a big fan of it,” one NFL player said back in July when asked about the possibility of the NFL season moving to 18 games. “You’ve seen the amount of injuries that have kind of piled up there at the end of seasons, and you want to have the best players playing in the biggest games.”

That player was Patrick Mahomes, who is now lost for the season thanks to a Week 15 ACL tear. Also gone for 2025: Green Bay’s Micah Parsons, who tore his ACL around the same time Mahomes did.

Every play in the NFL is a roulette-wheel spin that carries with it the possibility of a catastrophic injury. And every extra game means another 40 or 50 spins of that wheel.

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For Mahomes and Parsons, the wheel came up double-zeroes on Sunday. Asking who’s next — wondering whose season is about to be derailed by injury — is a grim endeavor, but a necessary one if we’re talking about adding yet another game.

Keep reading.

📺 Watchlist: Tuesday, Dec. 16

🏀 NBA Cup Final

The Spurs and Knicks face off tonight in Las Vegas (8:30pm ET, Prime), where a champion will be crowned in the third annual in-season tournament.

Prize money: Each player on the winning team will earn $530,933, while each player on the runner-up will take home $212,373. That may be a drop in the bucket for the NBA’s biggest stars, but it’s a substantial prize for those on league-minimum deals.

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🏒 NHL on TNT

Sidney Crosby and the Penguins host Connor McDavid and the Oilers in the first leg of the doubleheader (7:30pm), while the Kraken host the league-leading Avalanche in the nightcap (10pm).

Alone at the top: Colorado (23-2-7) doesn’t just have the best record in the NHL, their +54 goal differential is more than twice as high as the next best mark (Stars, +25).

More to watch:

• 🏀 NCAAM: No. 11 Louisville at No. 20 Tennessee (7pm, ESPN); DePaul at No. 22 St. John’s (7pm, Peacock); Butler at No. 5 UConn (8:30pm, Peacock)

• 🏈 NCAAF: Troy vs. Jacksonville State (9pm, ESPN) … The Salute to Veterans Bowl in Montgomery, Alabama.

Today’s full slate.

🏈 NFL trivia

52 years ago today, O.J. Simpson became the first of nine players in NFL history to rush for 2,000 yards in a season.

Question: How many of the other eight can you name?

Answer at the bottom.

📸 Photo finish

🇨🇭 Davos, Switzerland — Italy’s Davide Graz competes in a cross-country World Cup event. What a shot.

Trivia answer: Eric Dickerson (2,105 yards in 1984); Adrian Peterson (2,097 yards in 2012); Jamal Lewis (2,066 yards in 2003); Barry Sanders (2,053 yards in 1997); Derrick Henry (2,027 yards in 2020); Terrell Davis (2,008 yards in 1998); Chris Johnson (2,006 yards in 2009); Saquon Barkley (2,005 yards in 2024)

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After last season ended well short of a Super Bowl, Green Bay Packers general manager Brian Gutekunst spoke of the franchise operating with more urgency.

“I think it’s time that we start competing for championships, right?” Gutekunst said, via NFL.com.

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That’s why the Packers traded for Micah Parsons. It was a push to go from good to great. And Parsons transformed the Packers’ defense with his 12.5 sacks.

And now, with Parsons done for the season with a torn ACL, the worry has to be that the Packers go from a potentially great season and revert to being good.

The Packers aren’t going to go away without Parsons. There’s still a lot of talent. But Super Bowl dreams are much less realistic without their best player, and one of the best players in the entire NFL. Even beating the Chicago Bears for the NFC North championship becomes harder.

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Parsons made that type of impact. He is third in the NFL with 79 pressures, according to Pro Football Focus. His 12.5 sacks are tied for third in the NFL. No other Packer has more than 47 pressures or 7.5 sacks. No offense to Rashan Gary or anyone else on the defense, but there’s no other difference maker that’s on Parsons’ level, or anywhere close.

And if the Parsons injury was the only one, it would be easier. The Packers have also lost tight end Tucker Kraft, who was their best weapon in the passing game this season, as well as defensive tackle Devonte Wyatt and offensive lineman Elgton Jenkins. Include Parsons and the Packers are going forward without four key players. That’s a lot to overcome.

The Packers knew they had to upgrade to chase a championship. Parsons was everything they could have asked for. Without him, it seems like a Super Bowl might be out of reach.

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Panic meter: It’s looking like a “what if” type of season for Green Bay

Patriots have a rough loss

The Patriots could have clinched the AFC East with a win Sunday. They led 21-0 over the Bills. And they allowed Buffalo to score a touchdown on five straight drives. The Bills’ 35-31 win left the Patriots with a 37.7% chance to win the division, according to DVOA.

They are still clear favorites, but 37.7% isn’t insignificant. And the Bills might feel even closer after they overcame that 21-point lead with an AFC East title on the line.

It was a bad turn of events, but the Patriots shouldn’t panic. They had won 10 in a row before Sunday. They still lead the division by a game over a Bills team that has a great quarterback but plenty of flaws around him. The Patriots’ shot at the No. 1 seed took a hit when they lost and the Broncos won, but the first priority is winning the division. And that should still happen.

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Panic meter: Every team is allowed a loss every 11 games, even if it’s a big blown lead to a division rival

Buccaneers’ slide continues

When Todd Bowles went on an expletive-laden rant after Tampa Bay blew a 14-point lead to the Atlanta Falcons and lost, it was out of character. It was so out of character, it seemed like a head coach who needed something extreme to get his team going, since nothing else was working.

The Buccaneers should be running away with the NFC South. Instead they lost back-to-back games to the Saints and Falcons, who are a combined 9-19. Tampa Bay is fortunate it plays in a bad division. The Panthers lost to the Saints on Sunday to make sure the Buccaneers didn’t feel too much pressure.

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In terms of the division race, the Buccaneers are fine. They’re tied for first place and if they win two more games they’ll take the division title. That might not be the point. Due to the ongoing struggles of the offense and the defense’s inability to even slow down Kirk Cousins and the Falcons, the Buccaneers look like a team that will be immediately dismissed from the postseason, if they get there. It’s a team that is playing under its talent level.

Panic meter: The Bucs’ slump has exposed major issues

Big change for Dallas’ D?

The Cowboys hired Matt Eberflus to be their defensive coordinator, then traded Micah Parsons right before the season started. That didn’t help Eberflus out, but the results have still been poor. Dallas ranks 31st in points allowed and 29th in yards allowed. After seeing the Cowboys get shredded by Vikings quarterback J.J. McCarthy, who had struggled mightily for much of the season, Jerry Jones was asked if he thought Eberflus was the right coach to run the defense.

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“The adjustments that we should be making [defensively] should be with these next three games in mind,” Jones said, via The Athletic. “With three games left in the short time that we’ve got to play them in, then that will impact any adjustments that you make regarding coaching with the timeframe we’re dealing with. That’s a legit question.”

That’s also not much confidence in Eberflus. Unless there’s a big improvement with just a few games left, Eberflus might be in trouble.

Panic meter: It seems like Eberflus has three games left to save his job

In March 1989, two days after Selection Sunday, Michigan men’s basketball coach Bill Frieder made a major miscalculation.

He incorrectly assumed that he could accept a job offer from another school yet still coach the Wolverines in the NCAA tournament.

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The morning after Frieder revealed that he intended to leave for Arizona State after the season, Michigan athletic director Bo Schembechler summoned Freider’s top assistant Steve Fisher to his office for a 7 a.m. meeting. When the 43-year-old assistant coach arrived, Schembechler didn’t waste time with small talk or pleasantries.

“Fisher, can you coach this team?” Fisher recalls Schembechler gruffly asking. “Because there’s no way Bill Frieder’s going to coach them.”

Thirty-six years after Schembechler famously told Frieder not to bother showing up to the NCAA tournament, that banishment has gained newfound relevance. It’s by far the closest historical precedent to the messy breakup that captivated the sports world over Thanksgiving weekend, the one that resulted in Ole Miss refusing to let Lane Kiffin coach the Rebels in the College Football Playoff after he spurned them for conference rival LSU.

As sixth-seeded Ole Miss prepares for its opening-round matchup against 11th-seeded Tulane on Saturday, the Rebels will be hoping that the parallels with Michigan basketball don’t end with the ill-timed coaching change. They’ll try to emulate how the ‘89 Wolverines rallied around their anonymous new coach, embraced the role of jilted underdogs and stormed to their program’s first — and still only — national championship.

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Can newly promoted Ole Miss head coach Pete Golding become the Steve Fisher of college football? Can Golding enter the College Football Playoff with zero wins as a head coach and then guide the Rebels to an improbable national title? Fisher will be watching with great interest from his home in Del Mar, California.

“Both teams were playing for national championships with a different head coach,” Fisher said. “I wish [Golding] good luck. I hope he has a great run and I’ll be following it closely.”

Schembechler vs. Frieder

The two coaches who abandoned title contenders on the eve of the postseason had drastically different reasons for leaving.

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Kiffin viewed SEC juggernaut LSU as “the best job in football,” a program whose in-state talent, championship pedigree and unmatched resources offer a smoother path to the top of the sport than what he had at Ole Miss. Frieder saw Pac-10 lightweight Arizona State as a soft landing, a chance to leave Michigan on his own terms before his alma mater pushed him out.

There were some at Michigan who had grown weary of Frieder despite his back-to-back Big Ten titles in 1985 and 1986 and his 188-90 overall record as head coach of the Wolverines. His talent-laden teams advanced beyond the NCAA tournament’s opening weekend only one time, fueling the perception that Frieder was a proficient recruiter but an ineffectual coach.

The dissatisfaction intensified during the 1988-89 season when a Michigan team with four future first-round NBA draft picks in its starting lineup finished an underwhelming third in the Big Ten. Fans at Crisler Center booed the Wolverines off the court after they concluded the regular season with a one-sided 89-73 loss to Big Ten runner-up Illinois.

It didn’t help Frieder’s job security that Schembechler took on the role of athletic director near the end of his decorated tenure as Michigan’s football coach. Schembechler and Frieder were “polar opposites,” according to Mark Hughes, a senior center on Michigan’s 1989 team. They clashed over everything, from funding for the basketball program, to player discipline, to how coaches should dress.

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Schembechler seldom appeared in public without a crisp collared shirt and well-coiffed hair. Frieder was most comfortable in a sweatsuit and didn’t seem to own either an iron or a comb. Schembechler inspired players with his throaty growl, no-nonsense leadership and gruff but compassionate demeanor. Frieder demanded his players work hard too, but allowed far more leeway.

“The football team was under strict rules,” Hughes told Yahoo Sports in 2014 for a story that coincided with the 25th anniversary of Michigan’s title run. “If you broke a rule or you missed a class, you would suffer the consequences. Coach Frieder was more of a player’s coach. He’d listen to your story and assess the situation. He wanted us to study and work hard in practice but he also wanted us to enjoy college and have fun.”

When the Arizona State men’s basketball job opened in March 1989, Sun Devils athletic director Charles Harris reached out to Frieder for feedback on top target Gene Keady. Frieder raved about the Purdue coach, then gently noted he too might be interested.

Once Keady rejected Arizona State on the Tuesday after Selection Sunday, Harris immediately pivoted to Frieder. Unsure about his future under Schembechler and eager for a new challenge in a warmer climate, Frieder discussed the opportunity with his wife and accepted the job offer within 20 minutes.

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Later that day, Frieder pulled his assistant coaches aside after practice and broke the news that he had taken the Arizona State job. Frieder also called players individually late that night when he learned that media outlets in Phoenix were reporting he’d be joining the Sun Devils.

“We couldn’t really understand at the time because we were young, but once we got older, we understood it was a business decision,” former Michigan forward Terry Mills said. “If you’re about to get fired at Michigan and someone is going to give you a seven-year deal, what are you going to do? You’re going to protect your family.”

In his conversations with Michigan players and staff, Frieder said that he expected to be allowed to finish the season with them. The way Frieder explained it, he’d be introduced in Tempe the next day but would rejoin the Wolverines in Atlanta in time for their first-round NCAA tournament game against Xavier.

The next day, Schembechler made it clear that wasn’t going to happen.

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“I don’t want someone from Arizona State coaching the Michigan team,” Schembechler famously told reporters. “A Michigan man is going to coach Michigan.”

‘We wanted to win for him’

The “Michigan man” responsible for preparing the Wolverines for an improbable postseason run actually grew up in small-town Illinois and played at Illinois State. Fisher had never been a head coach at the college level, but his even-tempered, reassuring demeanor made him well-suited to provide stability to a chaotic situation.

Since Fisher had recruited many of the Wolverines and had been given the freedom to run practices and deliver pregame speeches, he already had the respect and admiration of the locker room. In fact, the idea of winning for Fisher inspired the Michigan players because they knew a deep NCAA tournament run was the only way Schembechler would ever consider giving Frieder’s top assistant the permanent job.

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“When Coach Fish took over, we didn’t just want to win it for us,” Hughes told Yahoo Sports in 2014. “We wanted to win it for him.”

While Fisher maintained a calm outward demeanor, he admits that the uncertainty of serving as interim coach wore on him. He and his wife Angie didn’t know whether they’d be staying in Ann Arbor or house-hunting in Tempe or elsewhere in a few weeks.

“I didn’t eat a lot,” Fisher admitted. “I probably worried more than I should.”

The unyielding spotlight on Fisher also was uncomfortable for him.

“I’ve never been one to be excited to be the center of attention,” he said. “I’ve never wanted that. But for three weeks, as we were making our run, I was the story — front page, above the fold, they were talking about me.”

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Had Michigan lost its first-round NCAA tournament game against Xavier, Fisher might as well have started packing his bags to join Frieder in Tempe. The Wolverines instead erased a six-point deficit with 9:45 to go and escaped with a 92-87 victory. Little-used guard Demetrius Calip sparked the comeback with nine points down the stretch after Fisher inserted him out of necessity when starter Rumeal Robinson got into foul trouble.

Michigan built momentum two days later by swatting aside 11th-seeded South Alabama. The Wolverines then outlasted second-seeded North Carolina in the Sweet 16 and pounded Virginia to advance to the Final Four. By then, Fisher believed he had done enough to secure the full-time job, not that Schembechler confirmed that to him.

At the Final Four in Seattle, Michigan faced its Big Ten nemesis, an Illinois team led by future NBA Draft picks Nick Anderson, Kenny Battle, Marcus Liberty and Kendall Gill. The Illini swept the Wolverines in the regular season, but Michigan got revenge when it mattered most on a game-winning put-back from forward Sean Higgins.

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“Illinois was the best team in the country,” Fisher said. “If it was 4 out of 7, they probably would have won the national championship.”

The title game against PJ Carlesimo’s Seton Hall team also came down to the final possession. With Michigan trailing by a point in the final seconds of overtime, Robinson attacked the rim and drew a whistle that even Fisher admits was a “touch foul.”

“If you’re on PJ’s side, you’re saying, ‘How can you possibly call that?’” Fisher said, referring to Carlesimo. “On our end, we’re saying, ‘Great call.’”

Robinson had been in a similar situation earlier that season against Wisconsin and missed both free throws to cost the Wolverines the game. After that, he asked Fisher to stay after practice and rebound for him every day until he sank 50 free throws.

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When Robinson stepped to the foul line again against Seton Hall, he carried himself with more confidence. The 64% free throw-shooter swished both, raising his right arm in triumph after the second one.

“I think he was ready for that moment,” Fisher said. “What happened at Wisconsin impacted him in a positive way when he went to the line against Seton Hall.”

Even then, nobody told Fisher that he had done enough to shed his interim label. It went without saying that the full-time gig was his.

As Mills put it after the game, “I’ve never heard of an undefeated coach getting fired.”

Kiffin vs. Frieder: Not the same

The new Ole Miss football coach won’t have to audition for the full-time job the way Fisher did.

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Athletic director Keith Carter immediately threw his support behind Golding, highlighting the respected defensive coordinator’s desire to be at Ole Miss, his ability to galvanize the current players and his longterm vision for the program.

Golding’s promotion continues his meteoric rise since his days as an undersized Delta State safety who led his team in tackles and interceptions. At 23, he landed his first defensive coordinator gig. At 34, he became Nick Saban’s top defensive lieutenant. And now at 41, he’s taking the reins at a budding SEC powerhouse.

When asked during his first news conference as head coach if he has taken the time to reflect on that journey, Golding laughed and said there hasn’t been time for that. His first few weeks on the job have been a whirlwind of little sleep and endless responsibilities.

As soon as Carter told him the job was his, Golding said he “got my ass up out of my seat and went straight out the door to try to recruit offensive staff not to get on that airplane” with Kiffin. Then he worked to replace the staff members who did leave while also trying to salvage as much of Ole Miss’ 2026 recruiting class as he could before signing day. In between all that, there has been the minor detail of keeping day-to-day preparation as normal as possible for the current Rebels while also readying them for one of the biggest games in program history on Saturday.

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What has worked for Golding so far is being unapologetically himself. Cuss words, and all.

In a thinly veiled reference to Kiffin during his first news conference as head coach, Golding explained. “I’m not changing who I am, ain’t changing what I wear. I’m [not] going to yoga. I ain’t doing any of that s***. I am who I am.”

The only exception will be when it comes to the scheme Ole Miss runs the rest of the season. Golding views himself similarly to an interim coach in the sense that there’s no need to deviate from what has been working under Kiffin. He draws inspiration from his time at Alabama when offensive coordinator Steve Sarkisian coached the Crimson Tide in the Iron Bowl after Nick Saban tested positive for COVID.

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“Sark walked us out of the tunnel and we still beat the s*** out of Auburn,” Golding said.

The deeper Ole Miss advances in the College Football Playoff, the more awkward the situation will likely be for Kiffin.

That’s how it was for Frieder anyway.

When Michigan players and coaches celebrated on the court after capturing the program’s first national title, Frieder watched on TV alone in his Seattle hotel room. Dozens of reporters swarmed Frieder at halftime of the only NCAA tournament game he attended, so he accepted watching the Wolverines play in solitude the rest of the postseason so he didn’t become a further distraction.

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When asked in 2014 how tough it was to watch the team he built win a championship without him, Frieder responded, “If that’s the worst thing that ever happened to me, I’ve led a pretty good life.” He insisted that he is “happy with how things turned out” and that he has “never regretted” leaving Michigan.

Frieder credited his longtime friend Fisher for going out of his way to make him feel included during the title run. Fisher sought Frieder’s advice on a daily basis. He also instructed a team manager to sneak Frieder into the team hotel through a service entrance whenever he wanted to counsel or congratulate the Michigan players.

After the season, Fisher included Frieder among the people who were to receive championship rings. When someone scratched Frieder’s name off the list, Fisher paid for Frieder’s ring with his own money.

“It was his team winning the ultimate prize, what everyone aspires to, and he’s not there to enjoy it,” Fisher said. “He was happy for the team. He was happy for me. But it had to be immensely difficult.”

LAS VEGAS — The magic of the NBA Cup, for all the internal and external pushes to make this in-season tournament a success, lies in the significance of the insignificant.

For instance, recent history indicates there isn’t a strong correlation between a deep tournament run and playoff success. The Los Angeles Lakers and Milwaukee Bucks, winners of the 2023 and 2024 editions of the NBA Cup, respectively, were eliminated in the first round of the postseason just five months later.

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Still, Tuesday night’s Spurs-Knicks tilt (8:30 p.m. ET, Prime Video) offers a unique blend of markets, approaches and overall organizational goals — and it should be a celebration of the diversity in teams that the league embraces.

In one corner, the Knicks, in the NBA’s largest market, were assembled with aggression, precision and arrogance. New York attracts stars and is hell-bent on winning a championship sooner rather than later. It’s a city full of passionate fans desperate for something, anything they can claim as their own.

“I’ve been a Knick fan my whole life,” rapper and actor Ja Rule told Yahoo Sports. “I was born in ‘76 and they ain’t never won s***. So I’m here praying that at least we can get the in-season cup.”

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In the other corner, the Spurs, in one of the league’s smallest markets, were built on patience, timing and a bit of luck. The organization built through the draft, with the hope that the pieces in place will create a sustainable model of success for years to come. San Antonio doesn’t possess the gravitational pull that New York does, but it has Victor Wembanyama, the game’s most interesting and talented player in decades.

So while both teams will naturally want to lift the NBA Cup trophy after making it this far, even if it doesn’t count for anything in the standings, there are more important things at stake once the dust settles in Las Vegas.

“It’s not going to be a super significant step, but still a significant one,” Wembanyama said Monday. “Because it’s a high-stakes game that both teams are going to be very invested in winning. It just shows that we are preparing and we will pass the next step for more significant games in the playoffs.

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“As competitors, we want to win every game, and this one brings something new on the table, so we want to win it even more.”

[Spurs vs. Knicks: 3 big questions for the NBA Cup championship game]

What makes this matchup so intriguing, aside from the outside factors, is the stylistic clash. The Knicks are led by their 6-foot-2 point guard, Jalen Brunson. Following a brilliant 40-point performance in the semifinal win over Orlando, the star guard is averaging 34.8 points and 5.4 assists in Cup games. The bulk of San Antonio’s defensive game plan will be centered around slowing Brunson’s change-of-pace approach, a plan that likely will involve keeping Wembanyama near the rim to deter one of the NBA’s most proficient drivers. Brunson is the beginning and end of New York’s hopes, and a team that has leaned on his leadership thus far doesn’t plan on changing.

“Having a guy like Jalen as your leader,” head coach Mike Brown said, “who embraces the work, embraces the process, more importantly embraces the details of what you need to do to go out there and win; at his size and his athleticism, he doesn’t have a lot of room or a lot of margin for error, so he embraces the little things. That feeds off to everybody else.”

The Spurs, who are working Wembanyama back after missing a month with a left calf strain, must determine how to deploy their 7-4 center. The Frenchman played 22 minutes against Oklahoma City on Saturday, but the team must be intentional about his workload.

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San Antonio has proven it can win in his absence, with head coach Mitch Johnson leading the Spurs to an impressive 9-3 record during that period. But the sheer attention Wembanyama invites — with or without the ball in his hands — forces opponents to be strategic. Knicks starting center Karl-Anthony Towns received the bulk of defensive duties during their Christmas matchup last season, when Wembanyama exploded for 42 points, 18 rebounds, 4 assists and 4 blocks. This time around, with a much-improved Stephon Castle and the additions of De’Aaron Fox and Dylan Harper, New York’s scheme should see some tweaks.

“You’re not going to be able to guard a guy like that one-on-one,” Brown said. “You try to put length, size and physicality at the point of attack when it comes to him, but it’s got to be five guys guarding the basketball at all times.

“We have some pretty good defenders with length, and hopefully they can, at the point of attack, try to make it as difficult as possible with him, knowing that they have help behind them.”

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Regardless of the result on Tuesday, both the Spurs and Knicks are trending in the right direction. They are both among the top-10 teams in net rating, according to Cleaning the Glass. Both are 18-7, contenders in their respective conferences with the majority of their rotational contributors healthy. There’s no concern these teams, having physically outmatched their opponents en route to Vegas, will depart from their trajectory once the Cup is concluded.

“You treat it like you would any other game, honestly,” Brunson said. “You’re not winning or gaining anything in your record, but you’re going out there and competing. You’re playing for more than just yourself. You’re playing for your team, your organization and your city. There’s a lot at stake besides the record. You go out there and compete no matter what.”

We might be getting to the point in the NFL season in which some of the worst teams aren’t capable of covering a big spread.

There were five double-digit underdogs last week. Four of them failed to cover, and the list of teams that got blown out in that situation are some of the worst in the NFL: Raiders, Cardinals, Titans, Jets. The only double-digit team to cover was the Colts, who are 8-6 but were starting 44-year-old Philip Rivers on the road at the Seahawks. The double-digit underdogs who were uncompetitive looked like they’re ready for the season to end.

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This week there are two double-digit underdogs: Browns at home vs. Bills (-10), and Raiders at Texans (-14.5). It’s worth seeing if last week’s trend continues.

Here are the top betting storylines going into Week 16 of the NFL season, with all odds from BetMGM:

Josh Allen getting back in MVP race

The odds board last week indicated that NFL MVP was a two-man race between Matthew Stafford and Drake Maye. The reigning MVP had something to say about it.

Allen had another big game, carrying the Bills back from a 21-0 deficit at the Patriots to win and stay alive for the AFC East championship. It also kept Allen alive for the MVP as well.

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Stafford is a big favorite at -300 after Maye’s Patriots lost on Sunday. Maye is +400, and Allen went all the way to +500. Two weeks ago he was +2500 and last week he was +1400. Allen’s biggest problem is that the Patriots are still favored to win the AFC East, and a quarterback from a wild-card team hasn’t won MVP since 2008. But it’s hard to watch Allen play every week and not believe he’s deserving of another MVP.

Packers’ Super Bowl odds shift

It shouldn’t be a surprise that the Packers’ Super Bowl odds got worse since last week. They lost to the Broncos as 2.5-point favorites, which makes the road to winning the NFC North tougher, and they saw defensive end Micah Parsons suffer a season-ending torn ACL.

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The Packers were +800 to win the Super Bowl last week, but that has moved to +1400 this week. That shouldn’t be a big surprise. Losing Parsons, on top of some other key injuries like Tucker Kraft’s season-ending knee injury, is a big obstacle in the Packers’ quest for a Super Bowl. The Packers are barely favored to win the NFC North anymore.

Packers still favored at Bears

Saturday night’s game between the Packers and Bears should decide the NFC North title. Oddsmakers like the Packers’ chances, even on the road.

The Packers are 1.5-point road favorites at Chicago. They’re also slight -105 favorites to win the division, with the Bears at +110. The Packers are shorthanded, but there still is enough faith in them outlasting the Bears on Saturday and winning the division.

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Seahawks are home underdogs

One of the NFL’s best matchups of the season has an interesting point spread.

The 11-3 Rams play at the 11-3 Seahawks on Thursday night in what amounts to an NFC West championship game, and the Rams are road favorites. They’re -1 at Seattle. The Rams beat Seattle 21-19 on Nov. 16 when the Seahawks missed a long field goal as time expired. Sam Darnold threw four interceptions in that game. Darnold also struggled in the playoffs against the Rams last season, when he was with the Vikings. That might be a factor in Seattle being underdogs. The Rams are still Super Bowl favorites, but perhaps that changes if Seattle pulls off the (very minor) upset on Thursday.

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Ravens favored over 11-3 Patriots

There’s not much faith in the Patriots in the betting market.

Last week the Patriots were home underdogs to the Bills, and they ended up blowing a big lead and losing. This week the 11-3 Patriots go on the road against a 7-7 Ravens team that has been disappointing all season, and they’re underdogs by a full field goal. That could be a reflection of the belief that the Ravens are back after a 24-0 win at Cincinnati last week. But the Patriots’ odds have rarely matched their record this season. The Patriots are still -250 to win the AFC East, though that could have a big shift if they lose to the Ravens and the Bills win as 10-point favorites against the Browns.