Author: rb809rb

Arizona crashed — hard.

Here’s everything you missed in the 15th week of the regular season, and the latest Associated Press poll.

Michigan overtakes Arizona at No. 1

Arizona’s undefeated run through college basketball ended.

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The Wildcats, after starting the season on a 23-game win streak, lost back-to-back games this past week. Kansas handed Arizona its first loss of the season without the help of star Darryn Peterson, who missed that contest at Allen Fieldhouse with flu-like symptoms, on Feb. 9. Then Texas Tech went into Tucson and handed the Wildcats a second loss in overtime on Saturday night, thanks to 31 points from JT Toppin.

The two defeats dropped Arizona three spots in this week’s poll to No. 4. That paved the way for Michigan to take over the No. 1 spot. It also made Miami (Ohio) the last undefeated program in the country. The Redhawks, at 25-0, will take on UMass and Bowling Green on Tuesday.

The Wolverines improved to 24-1 last week after a 30-point blowout over UCLA. They’ve got No. 7 Purdue and No. 3 Duke up this week. Houston moved up a spot to No. 2 after Arizona’s skid, and UConn climbed to No. 5.

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It’s probably not time to panic about Arizona yet. The Wildcats were bound to slip eventually. No team has gone undefeated and won the national championship in half a century. And, Arizona has lost these two games by a combined seven points. But the Wildcats will have to rebound with No. 23 BYU — which has gone on a string of losses and is without star Richie Saunders after his ACL tear — and No. 2 Houston this week. A rematch with Kansas and Iowa State are still on the Wildcats’ schedule, too. Things could spiral quickly.

There is, though, plenty of time to rebound before the Big 12 tournament starts. Assuming this week goes well, there’s no reason to start doubting the Wildcats just yet.

Games to watch this week

All times ET | * denotes neutral site

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Monday, Feb. 16

No. 2 Houston at No. 6 Iowa State | 9 p.m. | ESPN

Tuesday, Feb. 17

No. 1 Michigan at No. 7 Purdue | 6:30 p.m. | Peacock
No. 22 Miami (Ohio) at UMass | 7 p.m. | ESPN+

Wednesday, Feb. 18

No. 23 BYU at No. 4 Arizona | 9 p.m. | ESPN

Friday, Feb. 20

Bowling Green at No. 22 Miami (Ohio) | 8:30 p.m. | CBSSN

Saturday, Feb. 21

No. 4 Arizona at No. 2 Houston | 3 p.m. | ABC
No. 1 Michigan at No. 3 Duke | 6:30 p.m. | ESPN*
No. 6 Iowa State at No. 23 BYU | 10:30 p.m. | ESPN

AP Top 25

The full Associated Press men’s basketball poll from Feb. 16, 2026.

1. Michigan (24-1)
2. Houston (23-2)
3. Duke (23-2)
4. Arizona (23-2)
5. UConn (24-2)
6. Iowa State (22-3)
7. Purdue (21-4)
8. Kansas (19-6)
9. Nebraska (22-3)
10. Illinois (21-5)
11. Gonzaga (25-2)
12. Florida (19-6)
13. Texas Tech (19-6)
14. Virginia (22-3)
15. Michigan State (20-5)
16. North Carolina (20-5)
17. St. John’s (20-5)
18. Saint Louis (24-1)
19. Vanderbilt (21-4)
20. Arkansas (19-6)
21. Louisville (19-6)
22. Miami (OH) (25-0)
23. BYU (19-6)
24. Wisconsin (18-7)
25. Alabama (18-7)

Others receiving votes: Clemson 55, Utah State 45, Tennessee 36, Villanova 29, Kentucky 15, Miami 10, Saint Mary’s 3, VCU 1

Being a Daytona 500 winner is a whole lot like being a Masters champion or an Oscar winner. No matter where you go for the rest of your life, no matter what you do in the rest of your career, you’ll always be known as a Daytona 500 winner.

Plus, you get a pretty sweet ring and a Rolex, too.

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Tyler Reddick won the Daytona 500 Sunday night in one of the wildest, most chaotic final laps in recent memory. Probably a good dozen drivers had a shot at winning the race as it wound through its final turns, but in the end, 23XI’s Tyler Reddick was the last man driving. (Almost literally; the second through fifth cars crashed behind him, joining the dozens that had wrecked earlier in the race.)

Going on a couple hours’ sleep — “I’m used to that with an 8-month-old and a 6-year-old” — Reddick spoke to Yahoo Sports Monday morning to discuss that finish, his new jewelry, and what happens when Michael Jordan himself tells you you’re his driver.

“Something felt right from the beginning of the day, to go the way it did,” Reddick said. “It’s surreal. You dream of having the opportunity to cross the finish line first in the Daytona 500. To be able to seize the opportunity was huge, because some drivers go their whole career with only getting one shot. Some drivers never get that opportunity to win that race. So it was super important for me to capitalize on the moment in front of me.”

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In front, behind and around him. Reddick combined data, strategy and good old gut instinct in that final lap. “It took a little bit of everything,” he said. “The things we’ve learned, been working on on the Cup side, the strategy to get in that position, leaning on numbers and data decisions about the final laps. And then I leaned on and relied on instincts, the type of things that helped me get to where I am today from dirt racing.”

A self-professed late bloomer, Reddick first attended the Daytona 500 as a fan, sitting in the backstretch and watching Matt Kenseth’s rain-delayed win in 2012. Back then, he was a dirt track racer just trying to break through the dirt-to-asphalt barrier. He found a seat in Ken Schrader’s ARCA car in 2013, and then caught the attention of Brad Keselowski, who put him in a Camping World Truck in 2014. From there, he moved upward through the ranks of then-Xfinity and Cup series … until the day in 2022 when he received the proverbial summoning before the throne.

Two days after the now 30-year-old Reddick was born, Michael Jordan — then with only three championships to his name — dropped 48 points on the Philadelphia 76ers. So Reddick knows Jordan as a basketball player only from highlight films. Even so, the GOAT’s shadow was long enough to intimidate Reddick … right up to the moment that Jordan and Denny Hamlin — co-owners of 23XI Racing — made him an offer he couldn’t refuse.

“The first time I met him,” Reddick recalled, “he and Denny both told me, ‘Of all the drivers in the Cup garage, you’re the guy we want the most. You’re our first pick, and we’d love to have you drive our race cars.’”

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That made an impression on Reddick, even if he can only remember Jordan on the Washington Wizards. “When you have someone like [Jordan] that believes in you and what you do, what you’re about and how hard you work, and how much you care about racing,” Reddick says, “and then hearing how much he cares about racing too on top of that, it just helps really sell it that 23XI is where I need to be.”

Jordan and Hamlin’s faith paid off. Reddick has won six races since joining 23XI at the start of the 2023 season, and he’s made the playoffs every year. He won the 2024 regular-season championship and was one of the now-defunct Championship 4 that year. He and his family struggled through personal challenges last year — his infant son Rookie had to have surgery after doctors found a tumor in his chest — but wife Alexa, Rookie and Rookie’s older brother Beau were in victory lane Sunday night.

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“We travel on the road together,” he said. “I feel it’s important to share these moments with our children. To celebrate the biggest times together is important, especially coming off of some of the things we went through the last year.”

Reddick is in the midst of a media crush — his voice is already ragged, and he’s got a New York media car wash to go — and then he’ll need to get ready for the Atlanta race this coming weekend. But he’s already getting used to the fact that, yes, he’s a Daytona 500 champion.

“Looking at the ring, it helps,” he said, laughing. “Looking down at my Daytona Rolex watch, yeah. Every time I look at the time on this thing, I’ll think of this race and that day.”

Buffalo Bills players expressed concerns with the team’s training staff via the 2025 NFL team report cards, which the league stopped the NFLPA from publishing due to an arbitration ruling. The news that the NFL blocked the NFLPA from publishing these reports broke over the weekend, but Pro Football Talk obtained the 26-page ruling, which includes multiple criticisms of how certain NFL teams function, including the Bills.

“The Union dropped the Club in the overall rankings from prior years because ‘issues … previously raised [by Players] … have not been addressed and thus have become greater concerns,” as stated in the ruling, per PFT.

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“The Union claimed Players were concerned that ‘current [training] staffing is inadequate to help them recover,’” it continued. “‘And travel continues to be the worst part of their experience’ because they ‘do not have a comfortable amount of space when traveling and the travel schedule itself is a source of significant dissatisfaction.’”

Buffalo’s front office opted to retain the current training staff shortly after introducing former offensive coordinator Joe Brady as the team’s new head coach, following Sean McDermott’s dismissal.

Coming out of the Bills’ Week 12 loss to the Houston Texans, Buffalo had more than 15 players dealing with significant injuries.

Last season, Buffalo had 17 players miss a total of 246 games, which ranked fifth in the NFL. The injured reserve list was packed for the Bills during the 2025 campaign. Defensive tackle Ed Oliver missed 14 games due to several injuries, while kicker Tyler Bass was lost in training camp to ankle and knee injuries. They were among several others to miss significant time for the Bills in 2025.

New York Liberty forward Breanna Stewart will play for Fenerbahçe Opet in April ahead of the EuroLeague Women Final Six, the team announced Monday.

The announcement has sparked concerns from WNBA fans about her potential availability to start training camp. The EuroLeague Women Final Six is scheduled from April 15-19. WNBA training camps opened for the 2025 season on April 27, which would give Stewart time to get back prior to reporting — should the league keep a similar schedule.

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The 2025 regular season began on May 16; this year, season tipoff is set for Friday, May 8.

Despite the CBA negotiations still ongoing, Stewart said she was encouraged by the recent progress on the Game Recognizes Game with Stewie and Myles show.

Stewart will return to Fenerbahçe after playing for Opet in the 2022-2023 season. Stewart won the Turkish League title and was named Euroleague Final Four MVP. She also led Opet to its first EuroLeague Women’s championship after a 35-point performance over Çukurova Mersin. Stewart has also played for the UMMC Ekaterinburg, Dynamo Kursk and the Shanghai Swordfish during her time overseas.

Last season, Stewart averaged 18.3 points, 6.5 rebounds and 3.5 assists for the Liberty. The Liberty were defeated by the Phoenix Mercury in the first round after winning the WNBA championship the previous year. Stewart is currently playing with Mist BC for the Unrivaled league.

The Cleveland Browns will reportedly hire Atlanta Falcons defensive pass game coordinator Mike Rutenberg as defensive coordinator, according to ESPN’s Jeremy Fowler. The Browns hired Rutenberg over Browns linebackers coach Jason Tarver and Houston Texans defensive passing game coordinator Cory Undlin.

Rutenberg will replace Jim Schwartz, the former Browns defensive coordinator who resigned after the team selected Todd Monken instead of him for the head coaching position. This will be Rutenberg’s first time as a defensive coordinator. Similarly, the Browns’ new offensive coordinator, Travis Switzer, is serving in this role for the first time.

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Before joining the Falcons, Rutenberg coached under Tennessee Titans head coach Robert Saleh with the New York Jets and the San Francisco 49ers. The Titans requested to interview him for their defensive coordinator opening before hiring Gus Bradley.

The 44-year-old also spent time in the NFL with the Jacksonville Jaguars and Washington Commanders and at the collegiate level with New Mexico State and UCLA.

Rutenberg will take over for a Browns defense that ranked in the top five in yards allowed and sacks last season. The team is also expected to bring back 2025 Defensive Player of the Year Myles Garrett, who set the NFL’s single-season record with 23 sacks last season. Browns linebacker Carson Schwesinger also won Defensive Rookie of the Year.

The Browns are coming off a 5-12 season and missed the playoffs the last two seasons.

The New York Mets have not had a team captain since David Wright retired in 2018. And that will continue as long as Steve Cohen owns the franchise, he said.

“As long as I’m owning the team, there will never be a team captain,” Cohen told reporters before the Mets’ first full-squad workout on Monday. “That was my decision. My view is the locker room is unique. Let the locker room sort it out year in, year out.”

Cohen added that he has felt that way ever since buying the Mets in 2020.

Sentiment had been building toward shortstop Francisco Lindor being named captain going into his sixth season with the team. The Mets even appeared to indicate that by including him in a video honoring Wright when his number was retired last season. (The team deleted the video, but it can still be found online.)

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The topic was raised before last season, but Mets players such as outfielder Brandon Nimmo pointed out that several in the clubhouse — including Juan Soto, Pete Alonso and Sean Manaea — filled the role as team leader at various times.

Lindor is under contract for another five years after 2026 following the 10-year, $341 million contract extension he signed in 2021.

The Mets have had four official team captains in franchise history. The first was Keith Hernandez, given the honor in 1987 after the team won the World Series. Hernandez shared the designation during the 1988 and ’89 seasons with Gary Carter. The team then went without a captain for 11 seasons until John Franco received the title.

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After Franco left New York as a free agent, the Mets again went without a captain for eight years until David Wright was named by the organization during the spring of 2013. No one in team history might embody a team captain more than Wright. He was given the nickname “Captain America” during the World Baseball Classic that year.

At the time, only two other MLB teams had designated captains: Paul Konerko with the Chicago White Sox and Derek Jeter with the New York Yankees.

Last season, three teams had captains: Salvador Perez with the Kansas City Royals, Marcus Semien with the Texas Rangers and Aaron Judge with the New York Yankees. Semien is now Lindor’s middle infield partner at second base after being acquired in exchange for Nimmo in November.

“My view is every year, the team’s different, and let the team kind of figure it out in the locker room rather than having a designation,” Cohen added, via MLB.com. “Having a captain in baseball doesn’t happen often. It’s actually unusual. Whatever previous ownership did, that was their way of doing things. I look at things differently.”

The importance of the team captain role for the Yankees is likely a reason Mets fans give the title some value. It could also be viewed as a reward for a longtime star, like Lindor has been for the Mets.

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During his five seasons in Queens, he has batted .261/.338/.462 with 148 doubles, 141 home runs, 445 RBI and 117 stolen bases. This year, he’ll tie the number of seasons he played with the Cleveland Guardians before being traded to the Mets before the 2021 campaign.

Cleveland Browns safety Ronnie Hickman was hospitalized after being assaulted Monday morning in New York, the team announced.

Per the Browns, Hickman sustained “minor injuries” in what the team called an “assault” and was released from a hospital later Monday.

“Safety Ronnie Hickman was a victim of assault early Monday morning at a New York City hotel,” a Browns statement reads. “Ronnie was treated for minor injuries at an area hospital after the incident, was later released, and is home resting with his family.”

The Browns didn’t release further details of the incident. Hickman did not release a statement.

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[Get more Browns news: Cleveland team feed]

The New York Post reported the alleged assault took place around 4:30 a.m. in the lobby of the Sixty Les Hotel in Manhattan’s Lower East Side. Per the report, citing police sources, a group of four attackers assaulted Hickman after a dispute.

Hickman’s attackers fled the scene after assaulting him, according to the report. Hickman was taken to Bellevue Hospital in stable condition, according to the report. No further details were reported as of Monday afternoon.

Hickman, 24, has played three NFL seasons, all of them with the Browns. He joined them as an undrafted free agent in 2023 and played as a part-time starter in his first two seasons. He became a full-time starter in 2025 and played in all 17 of Cleveland’s games.

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He finished third on the team with 103 combined tackles in addition to recording two interceptions, seven passes defended and one tackle for loss.

LIVIGNO, Italy — Eileen Gu’s second Winter Olympics isn’t going quite as well as her first, but by the way she celebrated winning the big air silver medal, she isn’t going to walk away disappointed.

Against a stronger field of freestyle skiers that executed bigger and better tricks than four years ago in Beijing, the American-born Gu, who now competes for China, was unable to defend her gold medal in this event but put together two good runs and simply got beat by outstanding tricks from Canada’s Megan Oldham. Italy’s Flora Tabanelli took the bronze.

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Gu had an excellent first run, scoring 90.00 with a double cork 1440, but a mediocre second run put her in a precarious position going into the final round.

In big air, skiers get three attempts and are ranked by their two best scores combined.

Gu’s final run was spectacular — a perfectly-executed left side double cork 1260 that inspired her to throw her fists in the air as the 89.00 score came in, putting her into second place behind Oldham and holding that position until the end.

It was Gu’s second medal of these Olympics, joining the silver she won in slopestyle. She still has one more chance to bring hardware back to Stanford — where she’s re-enrolling as a junior after the Olympics — in the halfpipe where she’s also the defending gold medalist.

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The start of the big air final was delayed by 75 minutes as significant snow with wind gusts up to 18 miles an hour made the conditions too dangerous for a sport where competitors ski down a 15-story ramp, launch themselves into the air and perform their biggest trick.

Even though conditions improved, snow was still falling at the beginning of the final and picked up throughout. That didn’t stop the competitors from trying massive tricks, including Muir’s leftside double cork 1620 — 4½ full rotations with two off-axis flips and a Cindy grab  — that scored a 93.0 and launched her into position to win if she could execute one more big trick on her final run.

Ironically, that’s the same audacious trick Gu landed on her third and final attempt in 2022 to win her second gold medal in Beijing. Trying to make something special happen again and repeat what Gu did four years ago, Muir went huge on her final run but did not land it.

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Both Swiss skiers, Anouk Andraska and Mathilde Gremaud, were forced to withdraw from the finals due to injuries suffered during training Monday before the final.

Gremaud, who edged out Gu for the slopestyle gold medal last week, injured her hip according to an official release from Swiss Ski and would have been a contender to hit the podium in big air. It’s unclear at this point whether the injury will take her out of the halfpipe competition scheduled for the end of the week.

Austria didn’t need its final jumps on Monday night to claim a gold medal in Predazzo, Italy.

The Austrians claimed the men’s super team large hill ski jump on Monday after the event was canceled early due to a large snowstorm that worked its way into the area. Conditions on the course got very bad out of nowhere during the third round of the competition, and officials ended up wiping the round altogether — as several teams had yet to make their third and final jumps.

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So, since Austria was in the lead after the second round, they took the gold medal. It marked the country’s second straight win in the event, following their gold-medal finish at the Beijing Olympics four years ago.

The Austrian duo of Jan Hörl and Stephan Embacher finished with 558.7 points to win, just more than 20 points ahead of Poland. Norway finished in third, less than a half-point ahead of Germany. The American pair of Kevin Bickner and Tate Frantz ended up in eighth with a score of 520.2.

Japan was widely considered the favorite to win, though it finished sixth after rough first jumps from Ren Nikaido and Ryoyu Kobayashi. Nikaido has already won three medals so far in Italy, and Kobayashi won gold on the normal hill in 2022. He won six World Cup events in the past year. While it would have taken a big third jump from each to move up in the standings and reach the podium, they didn’t end up getting the chance.

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While that’s undoubtedly frustrating for them, it’s hard to blame the officials considering the weather that dominated the region on Monday. It was not the only event impacted, either. The start of the women’s big air final was delayed by more than an hour on Monday due to snow and wind.

Tyreek Hill’s time with the Miami Dolphins is over.

The Dolphins released the longtime wide receiver on Monday, officially making him a free agent for the first time in his career. The eight-time Pro Bowler is currently recovering from a dislocated knee and torn ACL injury he suffered in Week 4 last season, so it is unclear when or if Hill will play next season.

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Hill would have had $11 million become fully guaranteed this month and his release will reportedly save the Dolphins $22.8 million.

The Dolphins were busy Monday. They also released wide receiver Nick Westbrook-Ikhine and guard James Daniels. They are also reportedly releasing edge rusher Bradley Chubb.

The Dolphins could still reportedly look to move quarterback Tua Tagovailoa, who was benched in favor of seventh-round rookie quarterback Quinn Ewers in Week 16 and already has $54 million fully guaranteed to him in 2026.

Hill originally joined the Dolphins in 2022, when the team acquired the wideout in a deal with the Kansas City Chiefs. The Dolphins promptly gave Hill a four-year, $120 million extension and watched as he torched defenders for 1,710 yards and seven touchdowns in his first season in Miami.

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His second year with the Dolphins was even better. Hill led the NFL with 1,799 receiving yards and 13 touchdowns. Led by Hill and a healthy Tagovailoa, the Dolphins went 11-6 that season, but failed to advance past the wild-card round. Hill’s performance earned him a first-team All-Pro nod, a sixth-place finish in the MVP voting and a second-place finish in the Offensive Player of the Year award voting.

The following season proved to be the beginning of the end for both the Dolphins and Hill. Tagovailoa was injured two games into the 2024 season. He missed four games, and the Dolphins’ offense completely changed once Tagovailoa returned. Limited by the team’s refusal to throw deep and a wrist injury, Hill finished the year with just 959 yards and six scores. He posted his lowest catch and yardage total since 2019.

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In 54 games with the Dolphins, Hill had 340 receptions, 4,733 receiving yards, 28 touchdowns and was first team All-Pro in two seasons (2022, 2023).

After the Dolphins failed to make the playoffs, Hill voiced his frustrations. He later walked back his remarks, but the fact that he was not named a team captain in 2025, the first time since his Miami arrival in 2022, suggested tension may have still been in play.

Following offseason surgery, Hill entered 2025 looking to recapture his old form, but he tore his ACL four games into the season. Hill’s agent Drew Rosenhaus commented on the Dolphins releasing his client and whether he’d play in the NFL again coming off this latest injury.

Should Hill choose to return for season No. 11 in the NFL, he’d be 32 years old by the time the 2026 campaign begins.