The NCAA men’s tournament field has been cut in half during the past two days, leaving 32 teams still alive entering the second round. The field will be further pared down by half over the next two days as winners advance and losers go home.

The schedule for Saturday features a little bit of everything. There’s a pair of No. 1 seeds, a trio of double-digit seeds and a host of other potential Final Four contenders set to take the floor across four different sites.

Who will advance? Will there be more drama to unfold as we see every March Madness? Those questions will be answered and more. A breakdown of the eight matchups that will solidify half of the Sweet 16 that will take place next week:

No. 4 Purdue vs. No. 12 McNeese State

Time/TV: 12:10 p.m., CBS

Can the Cowboys follow their upset of Clemson with another against a power-conference opponent? The drama surrounding coach Will Wade and his future didn’t deter them Thursday. The Boilermakers, however, will provide a different challenge with the veteran backcourt of Braden Smith and Fletcher Loyer balanced by the frontcourt strength of Trey Kaufman-Renn.

No. 2 St. John’s vs. No. 10 Arkansas

Time/TV: 2:40 p.m., CBS

Coaching matchups in the tournament don’t get much better than this. Rick Pitino and John Calipari both won national titles at Kentucky and are both members of the Basketball Hall of Fame. Pitino’s team had a much better season, with the Red Storm running through the Big East in their best season this century. Calipari had some growing pains in his first season with the Razorbacks before turning things on in the second half of the season. Both teams play like their fiery coaches, so expect a frantic pace with the most-efficient team prevailing.

No. 4 Texas A&M vs. No. 5 Michigan

Time/TV: 5:15 p.m., CBS

This will be the first matchup of the SEC and Big Ten in the tournament and shapes up to be a tight struggle. The Wolverines will be playing their fifth game in nine days after winning the conference tournament and a tight win Thursday against UC San Diego. If fatigue is an issue, the Aggies aren’t the team you want to play. They love to play at a frenetic pace with guards Wade Taylor IV and Zhuric Phelps capable of scoring and playing pressure defense. Michigan will hope its size with Vladislav Goldin and Danny Wolf can negate A&M’s speed edge against its backcourt.

No. 3 Texas Tech vs. No. 11 Drake

Time/TV: 6:10 p.m., TNT

Like low-scoring rock fights? This is your game. Tech isn’t as proficient on defense but still is able to limit opponents. Meanwhile, the Bulldogs are second in fewest points allowed – a product of their ball-possession game reliant on screening. JT Toppin is the top option for the Red Raiders after a breakout season. Drake will counter with star guard Brandon Stirtz in his first season with the team after following coach Ben McCollum from Division II.

No. 1 Auburn vs. No. 9 Creighton

Time/TV: 7:10 p.m., TBS

If you like big men, this is the game for you with two of the country’s best playing on opposite sides. Auburn’s Johni Broome, the reigning SEC player of the year, averages 18.7 points and 10.6 rebounds per game. Creighton’s Ryan Kalkbrenner is one of the nation’s premier shot-blockers, while also averaging a double-double. The Bluejays got huge games from Jamiya Neal (29 points) and Steven Ashworth (21 points) in the first round against Louisville. That’s the recipe for surprising the Tigers.

No. 3 Wisconsin vs. No. 6 Brigham Young

Time/TV: 7:45 p.m., CBS

You’ll be hard-pressed to find a better second-round matchup with more entertainment value than the Badgers and Cougars. Both like a fast tempo and average 80 points per game. You’ve got two standout players – John Tonje of Wisconsin and Richie Sanders of BYU – who can take over a game. And there’s plenty of support for each from the 3-point line. Buckle up and hydrate for this one.

No. 1 Houston vs. No. 8 Gonzaga

Time/TV: 8:40 p.m., TNT

Gonzaga has been to nine consecutive Sweet 16s, but that streak is in serious jeopardy considering its opponent. Houston doesn’t have the notoriety of other No. 1 seeds, but the Cougars have won 14 games in a row with one of the elite defenses in college basketball. The Bulldogs have proven to be more efficient in their last five games. It will take big efforts for leading scorers Graham Ike and Kahlif Battle to keep the streak alive.

No. 2 Tennessee vs. No. 7 UCLA

Time/TV: 9:40 p.m., TBS

The closer for the late crowd that will likely be up past midnight on the East Coast before all the action is done. Tennessee’s troubles in the tournament are well-documented, and this is the kind of tricky matchup that needs its full attention. UCLA with Mick Cronin as coach is short on elite scoring but long on defense and grit. It shapes up to be a grind-it-out affair where one critical run in the second half can be pivotal.

Major League Baseball removed references to ‘diversity’ from its careers website, the latest organization to acquiesce to the Trump administration’s executive order aiming to purge diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives in America.

‘Our values on diversity remain unchanged,’ MLB said a statement Friday. ‘We are in the process of evaluating our programs for any modifications to eligibility criteria that are needed to ensure our programs are compliant with federal law as they continue forward.’

‘Our values, particularly our values on diversity, remain unchanged. But another value that is pretty important to us is we always try to comply with what the law is,’ MLB commissioner Rob Manfred said last month after an owners’ meeting.

‘There seems to be an evolution going on here. We’re following that very carefully. Obviously, when things get a little more settled, we’ll examine each of our programs and make sure that while the values remain the same that we’re also consistent with what the law requires.’

In 2023, a right-wing legal group founded by Trump advisor Stephen Miller brought a complaint against MLB with with the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, alleging that baseball’s Diversity Pipeline Program, Diversity Fellowship Program, Diversity in Ticket Sales Training Program and the Diverse Business Partners Program were racially discriminatory. MLB is just one of many companies that Miller’s America First Legal has taken action against over DEI policies in recent years.

Earlier in the week it was discovered that Trump’s Department of Defense had taken down a webpage celebrating the military achievements of Jackie Robinson, who broke MLB’s color barrier in 1947. The page was later restored and the Pentagon blamed the use of artificial intelligence for the content being ‘mistakenly removed’ amidst the department’s scrubbing.

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Legendary boxer George Foreman has died at 76, according to a statement released by his family Friday night on his official Instagram account.

The cause of death was not initially revealed by the family.

Foreman was a two-time world heavyweight champion and Olympic gold medalist who is regarded as one of the hardest punchers in boxing history. One his most memorable punches was the knockout blow he landed against Michael Moorer in 1994 when Foreman became the oldest heavyweight champion in history at 45.

He was inducted into both the World Boxing Hall of Fame and the International Boxing Hall of Fame.

‘But my life is much more than boxing – I’ve been knocked out more outside the ring than in the ring,’ Foreman told USA TODAY in 2023.

Remembering those we lost: Celebrity Deaths 2025

He was married five times. He had 12 children, and one of them, Freeda, died in 2019 by apparent suicide.

One of his most famous fights came against Muhammad Ali in the so-called ‘Rumble in the Jungle’ that took place in 1974 in Zaire. He vowed to kill Ali in the ring. Instead, it was Ali who knocked out Foreman.

But Foreman said he was less demoralized by being knocked out than failing to knock out Ali.

‘I just knew no one could stand up to my punch,’ Foreman told USA TODAY in 2014. ‘But Muhammad did. His taking those punches, I went away thinking, ‘What is going on here? That’s not supposed to happen.’ That bothered me more than anything.’

A late friendship with Ali

Just three years later, he retired from boxing. But in 1979, he returned to the ring at 39 – and eventually stunned the boxing world.

In 1994, two decades after his loss to Ali, Foreman fought Michael Moorer, then 26, for the world championship. He won by knockout in the 10th round and news of the feat elevated him to champion for the second time of his career.

He retired for good at 48 with a record of 76-5 with 68 knockouts.

But his life outside the ring marked a striking transformation in the public eye.

Foreman evolved from a villainous boxer who once promised to kill Ali in the ring. A few years later, Foreman experienced what he referred to as a religious awakening, and he later became a preacher and businessman who sold millions of George Foreman Grills.

And Foreman and Ali, who died in 2016, went from bitter enemies to close friends.

After becoming the oldest heavyweight champion, Foreman said he received a congratulatory letter from his old nemesis.

‘Can you imagine that?’ Foreman said during a 2014 interview with USA TODAY. ‘Who would think almost 20 years later, there’s Muhammad, my conqueror, congratulating me in fighting for the championship of the world and winning it. …

‘I was pretty close to hating him; I wanted revenge. He became the best, and one of the longest friends, I’ve ever had. I love him to this day.’

An Olympic gold medal, 40-0 record

Foreman was born Jan. 10, 1949 in Marshall, Texas and, by his own admission, was a troubled youth. He dropped out of school at 15. Boxing provided salvation. He took up the sport at 16 and a mere three years later he won an Olympic gold medal at the 1968 Olympics in Mexico City.

He turned pro in 1969 and his power became legendary. He knocked out 10 of his first 11 opponents, and most of his fights ended with opponents on the canvas. In 1973, he became heavyweight champion for the first time when he beat Joe Frazier by second-round TKO.

His record improved to 40-0 before Foreman suffered his first defeat – against Ali in the ‘Rumble in the Jungle.’

The loss to Ali became a defining moment, but during a 2014 interview with USA TODAY, Foreman recalled another moment with Ali.

In 1989, Foreman said, he and Ali were in England with Frazier, Kenny Norton and Larry Holmes as part of a ‘Champions Forever’ tribute. It was five years after Ali had been diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease.

‘He was still mouthy,’ Foreman said. ‘And he made a statement, and it was on the front of some London paper, that ‘God is Black.’ They had a picture of him on the front page, and Frazier didn’t like it. Frazier didn’t like Muhammad.’

Later, Foreman recalled, the boxers were putting on tuxedos for a photo shoot.

‘(Ali) came down and he was alone,’ Foreman said. ‘He couldn’t put on his cuff links. He couldn’t even put the bow tie around his neck. And I made certain there wasn’t any cameras around and I took him in the room and I fixed him up because I wanted to make sure they see the beautiful Muhammad Ali.’

Frazier saw what happened, and on a ride back from the event that night, he was livid, according to Foreman.

‘Frazier said, ‘Don’t help him. Don’t help him. Where are all those people that were screaming Ali? Where are all those hangers-on now? Nobody better help him. Leave him alone,” Foreman said. ‘And I remember telling him, ‘Joe, we are our brother’s keeper.’

‘There I was for the first time protecting what I was trying to destroy.’

As a boxing analyst for HBO, Foreman further cultivated his likable persona and he was engaging and readily available for interviews. Although as Mike Tyson prepared to fight Jake Paul on Nov. 15, Foreman communicated by text message.

‘If he gets in shape like he’s in now, and then gets his timing back, and all the other things fall into place, he can have an opportunity to fight for the title,’ Foreman said before Tyson lost to Paul by unanimous decision.

While Foreman withdrew from the public eye, lawyers were fighting on his behalf.

At the time of his death, Foreman faced civil lawsuits from three woman who said he sexually abused them in the 1970s. He denied the charges.

Athletes and boxing figures from across the world paid tribute to Foreman as news of his death spread Friday night.

‘Tonight I am flooded with tears after learning of the death of my dear friend and broadcast partner George Foreman,’ Hall of Fame boxing announcer Jim Lampley said in a statement. ‘ I loved him.  He was a great fighter and a far, far greater human being. Every great thing that ever happened to him, and there were many extraordinary blessings, was richly deserved. My thoughts and prayers tonight are with his family and his friends and his congregation. It’s a massive loss, but I feel blessed and privileged to have known him and spent countless hours in his presence. He’s with Ali now, and they are at peace with each other.’ 

‘Condolences to George Foreman’s family. His contribution to boxing and beyond will never be forgotten,’ Tyson wrote on X.

‘George was a great friend to not only myself but to my entire family. We’ve lost a family member and are absolutely devastated,’ Top Rank promoter Bob Arum said in a statement.

This story was updated for editing changes and to add new information.

This story was updated to add a video.  

LOS ANGELES – JuJu Watkins arrived for practice Friday with the Southern California women’s basketball team starkly unready for the Trojans’ opening-round game in the NCAA Tournament.

Which is to say her hair was in an imperfect low bun rather than the magnificent, crisp high bun she wears on game days.

The hair transformation will take place before No. 1 seed Southern California plays No. 16 seed UNC Greensboro Saturday at the Galen Center. The Trojans (30-2) will be led by Watkins, a sophomore sensation, along with her trademark bun.

On Friday, she tried to remember the last time she played without it. Probably in high school, she said.

‘It just kind of became a thing,’ Watkins added during a session with the media before practice began. ‘I started to realize that I played better with it.’

A first-team All American, Watkins, 19, is trying to lead USC to its first national title since 1984. She’s averaging 24.6 points, 6.9 rebounds, 3.5 assists and 2.2 steals. A 6-foot-2 guard, she’s also tied for the team lead in blocked shots with 1.9 per game. She had eight blocks in Southern California’s 80-67 victory over then-No. 1 UCLA March 1.

Turns out she’s a far better basketball player than hairstylist.

“I’d rate her like a strong four,’ said her mother, Sari.

That’s four of out 10. Fortunately, Sari Watkins handles the hair. The signature bun is literally in her hands, before home games and road games, too. (The low bun is not an uncommon sight at practices.)

“I try to make sure that my energy is perfect to produce the most perfect artwork for her by the end of our 45 minutes to an hour and a half, whatever (it takes),’ Sari Watkins told USA TODAY Sports. “And I think it is a part of this character, this JuJu character…

“I feel like I’m being challenged every time I’m doing her hair, too.”

If you’re wondering, ‘But how does she do it?’ Sari Watkins isn’t revealing any secrets just yet.

‘The secret behind the bun is don’t tell the secret behind the bun,’ she said during an interview with NBC Sports’ ‘On her Turf.’ But JuJu Watkins said just days ago that ‘something’s in the works’ when asked if they would reveal hair products or a hair care line.

JuJu Watkins without a bun? It’s true

USC basketball coach Lindsay Gottlieb acknowledged something about Watkins’ bun.

“Once in a while, like when she doesn’t have the bun in for practice, I kind of do a double take just because you’re used to seeing her in season in the bun,’ she said.

There are other double-take moments.

On July 11, Watkins wore her hair down to the ESPYs in Los Angeles when she accepted the award for “Best Breakthrough Athlete.’ She’s also sported braids and a ponytail. But it’s the high bun on game days.

The bun has become so iconic — young fans regularly show up to her games with the ‘JuJu bun’ — it’s understandable if Watkins feels a tad exasperated having to talk about it all the time.  

“I love that’s the first question,’ Watkins said with a grin Friday after USA TODAY Sports opened a press conference with this question:  Juju, when is the last time you’ve played without a bun? And how did this become a tradition?

‘I don’t really know. Probably in high school. I used to wear like a puff,’ she said.

And, courtesy of USA TODAY Sports, the second question of the press conference: Whether it’s the ritual with your mom and the bonding or just something about the hair itself, is there some power to it? Is there something that gives you added confidence?

‘Yeah, for sure. I think that’s really our time to kind of talk about the game and talk about different things,’ Watkins said. “I never really take that for granted. It’s just a cool thing for me and her.’

JuJu’s bun is not indestructible

Kayla Padilla, a grad student guard on last year’s team, said of Watkins’ gameday hair bun: ‘The biggest thing that everyone noticed is it was always perfect and it was never out of place.’

Then again, there was USC’s game at UCLA during Watkins’ freshman year.

‘I’m sitting in the first row and one of the girls (from UCLA) knocked the bun out and she’s on the bench trying to fix it,’ Sari Watkins said of JuJu. ‘So I go over there…and I pull her hair back and I try to tie her bun up so that she could relax and concentrate on winning the game.’

Sari Watkins said she had the bun repaired in about 15 to 20 seconds. Watkins scored 27 points, but USC lost to UCLA, 71-64 — after the bun had been undone.

‘So stuff like that, I think she’s extremely superstitious about it,’ Sari Watkins said.

Watkins appears to be protective of the bun, too.

A video clip shows USC players with water bottles chasing after Watkins in celebration and the superstar fleeing, clearly avoiding her teammates drenching her bun.

‘Everyone is very conscious of one another’s hair,’ Gottlieb said. ‘We do know that they feel better when they look better,’ Gottlieb said. ‘So anyone with fresh braids or a bun in, everyone’s pretty respectful of one another, for sure.’

The bun has ‘superpower’

McKayla Williams said she wasn’t sure what to expect when Watkins joined the varsity team at Windward School, a private school in Los Angeles, as a ninth grader. Williams was a senior and the team captain.

“A lot of girls with that much hype, usually they come in and they want to run everything or everything has to be about them.’ Williams said. ‘But she was always a humble person.’

They spent time off the basketball court — in the bathroom, doing their hair, Williams said.

“I remember she used to always be serious about her hair,’ Williams said. ‘My bun, she would say it looked too pointy or it looked like Mickey Mouse.’

Vanessa Nygaard, who coached Watkins at Windward, shared a hairy memory.

‘I do remember for Halloween, she dressed up as Snoop Dogg,’ Nygaard. said. ‘She had the two little braids and the sunglasses and the flannel. So she didn’t have a bun that day for sure.’

Before Watkins junior year, she transferred to Sierra Canyon in Southern California. She no longer wore the puff hairdoo on the court, said Alicia Komaki, the head coach of the girls basketball team at Sierra Canyon. As a junior, Watkins led Sierra Canyon to the Open Division state title with a 30–2 record. As a senior, she led the team to a 31-1 record and the CIF-Southern Section Open Division.

“That bun does have superpower,’’ Komaki said.

Now, as the bun goes, so go the Trojans.

Rick Pitino coached his first game at Hawaii in 1976, under odd circumstances. Before Pitino ever won a game, a newspaper cartoonisted predicted his great career.
NCAA probe resulted in Rick Pitino being elevated to acting coach at Hawaii. He left after that 1976 season finished for assistant job at Syracuse.
Rick Pitino, coaching St. John’s, is trying to become the first coach to reach a March Madness Final Four with four different programs.

A newspaper cartoonist forecasted the legend of Rick Pitino, nearly 50 years ago.

“Personally, I’d like to see Rick Pitino get a good, fair, reasonably long-term shot … at coaching the UH basketball team,” Lyons wrote in a column that February, accompanied by a cartoon depiction of Pitino coaching the Rainbow Warriors.

Lyons wouldn’t get his wish. Pitino left the island state following the conclusion of that tumultuous season for an assistant’s job on Jim Boeheim’s Syracuse staff. But Lyons proved right in his prediction that Pitino would become something special.

If Pitino takes St. John’s to the Final Four, he’ll become the first coach ever to reach a Final Four with four different programs. His second-seeded Red Storm will play No. 10 Arkansas in the NCAA Tournament’s second round on Saturday.

Nearly all of Pitino’s career victories came while coaching teams in the Eastern Time Zone, but not his first victories. Those came at Hawaii, amid a wacky season that attracted an NCAA probe and a cartoonist’s praise.

How Rick Pitino’s coaching career began at Hawaii

Pitino began the 1975-76 season as an assistant for Hawaii coach Bruce O’Neil, but things quickly soured for O’Neil after the Honolulu Advertiser reported that four basketball players violated NCAA rules by appearing with O’Neil in a television commercial for a local car dealership.

O’Neil accepted responsibility for the commercial, and Hawaii relieved him of his coaching duties that February.

The university elevated Pitino to acting head coach. Hawaii lost its first game under Pitino by two points in overtime to Long Beach State. Next came a one-point loss to San Jose State in overtime, then a 15-point loss to UNLV.

With Pitino’s coaching career off to an 0-3 start, Lyons, the Honolulu cartoonist, had seen enough. He wanted Pitino as full-time coach.

“It isn’t often that a coach gets a pat on the back for losing three out of his first three games,” Lyons wrote in a column that published Feb. 24, 1976, “but here’s one. Rick Pitino, the acting coach of the UH Rainbows, has done a great job.

“Pitino took charge in a hurry when the whole program could have tumbled into a very deep, very dark hole.”

Lyons went on to praise Hawaii’s “admirable finishes under rugged odds.”

Harry Lyons: cartoonist, Hawaii sports fan, Rick Pitino supporter

The Advertiser’s 1989 obituary for Lyons described him as a whimsical man who enjoyed smelling the flowers, drinking Beefeater on the rocks and watching sports. Lyons, like Pitino, was a New York native – the coach from the city, the cartoonist from Scarsdale. Lyons came to Hawaii in 1959 to be the Advertiser’s cartoonist, back when local newspapers employed such positions. He stayed on in that role for 20 years and earned high acclaim. President Lyndon Johnson reportedly collected his cartoons.

Lyons also had a knack for the written word, and, in 1973, he started writing sports columns for the Advertiser while still a cartoonist. In this particular column in 1976, he threw full support behind Pitino.

“The majority of folks I’ve talked to think he’s something special,” Lyons wrote, “despite the fact that his team has yet to win.”

Lyons went on to quote a few Hawaii fans’ opinions of Pitino. One fan praised the coach’s cool demeanor and his interest in his players. Another lauded Pitino’s four-corner offense and the team’s improving defense, but one fan hoped Hawaii would swap Pitino for John Wooden.

Yes, even before internet message boards and social media, fans harbored visions of “big fish” hires during times of transition.

Lyons finished that column by opining on the Hawaii band’s musical selection for games. He quipped that the Hawaii band put the crowd to sleep with its music, in contrast to Missouri’s band that played ‘brassy pep songs.”

Hawaii would lose a fourth straight game under Pitino before finishing with back-to-back victories against Portland, giving Pitino a 2-4 record as acting coach.

And then he was gone, off to Syracuse.

Months later, the NCAA released findings that Pitino, too, broke rules at Hawaii.

NCAA found Rick Pitino broke rules at Hawaii; he says otherwise

The television commercial that landed O’Neil in hot water in 1976 wasn’t the only rule-breaking activity occurring within the program. The NCAA, in a 1977 infractions report, detailed a slew of violations involving improper recruiting inducements and extra benefits for athletes that occurred during O’Neil’s tenure.

Pitino, who was at Syracuse when the NCAA’s report published, committed several rules infractions, according to the NCAA. Hawaii basketball received two years’ probation.

Among its findings, the NCAA ruled that Pitino arranged for multiple commercial flights between New York and Hawaii for athletes and recruits, at no cost to the athletes. The NCAA also found that Pitino and O’Neil arranged for the same car dealership involved in the TV commercial to give two athletes used cars, in exchange for two season tickets. Also, the NCAA said, Pitino gave coupons to athletes so they could eat free meals from McDonald’s.

O’Neil and Pitino “acted contrary to the principles of ethical conduct,” the NCAA wrote, and “their involvement in various violations in this case demonstrates a knowing and willful effort on their part to operate (Hawaii basketball) contrary to NCAA legislation.”

The NCAA ordered Hawaii to sever ties with O’Neil, Pitino and former athletic director Paul Durham. By then, though, none of the three were working for Hawaii.

The Honolulu Advertiser, in an editorial, wrote that Hawaii basketball “got off easy” by receiving two years’ probation.

“I guess the ban won’t hurt me too much,” O’Neil quipped to the newspaper after the NCAA’s report. “I never expected to be a coach at the University again, anyway.”

As for Pitino’s part in the saga, he adamantly denied involvement in most of the infractions.

“The only one that’s true is the one about handing out McDonald’s coupons,” he told the Honolulu newspaper. He denied knowing anything about cars or flights for athletes.

Pitino maintained that stance when interviewing to become Kentucky’s coach in 1989.

“I didn’t make any mistakes (at Hawaii),” Pitino told reporters. “I don’t care what anybody says.”

Pitino accepted the Kentucky job, ending his NBA tenure with the New York Knicks after two seasons.

By then, it was becoming clear that Pitino’s career would become “something special,” just as a newspaper cartoonist in Honolulu had predicted.

Blake Toppmeyer is a columnist for the USA TODAY Network. Email him at BToppmeyer@gannett.com and follow him on X @btoppmeyer. Subscribe to read all of his columns.

After a first day of the women’s NCAA Tournament in which South Carolina, Notre Dame, Duke, and UCLA made emphatic statements to advance to the second round, Paige Bueckers and the No. 2 UConn Huskies will look to do the same against No. 15 Arkansas State.

Bueckers leads the five-time defending Big East champions into the tournament hoping for UConn’s first national championship win since 2016. The Huskies have proven they can beat anyone, having notched a win over South Carolina already. However, this is March, where anything can happen on any given day.

Bueckers leads UConn with an average of 19.1 points in 28.6 minutes per game, while also notching 4.8 assists and 4.7 rebounds. Sarah Strong and Azzi Fudd are also averaging double digits at 16 and 12.8 points per game, respectively.

If Arkansas State is to play spoiler, the Red Wolves will have to lean on their trio of Zyion Shannon, Kennedie Montue, and Crislyn Rose.

To Geno Auriemma’s credit, his UConn teams are hardly ever snakebitten in early rounds of the tournament. UConn hasn’t lost on the first weekend of the NCAA Tournament since 1993, and has made the Final Four in 16 of the past 17 seasons.

What time is UConn vs Arkansas State?

Date: Saturday, March 22
Time: 1 p.m. ET

Bueckers and UConn tip off their respective 2025 women’s NCAA Tournament at 1 p.m. against Arkansas State from Harry A. Gampel Pavilion in Storrs, Connecticut.

Connecticut is the No. 2-seed in the Spokane 4 Region.

What channel does Paige Bueckers play on today?

Channel: ABC
Stream:Fubo (free trial)

Bueckers and UConn will play on ABC Friday, part of the Disney family of networks that includes ESPN, which is broadcasting the entire women’s NCAA Tournament.

UConn vs Arkansas State betting odds, spread, moneyline

Odds courtesy of Bet MGM as of Saturday, March 22

Spread: UConn (-44.5)
Over/Under: 148.5
Moneyline: N/A

UConn schedule

Sunday, March 2: UConn 97, Marquette 52
Saturday, March 8: UConn 71, St. John’s 40
Sunday, March 9: UConn 82, Villanova 54
Monday, March 10: UConn 70, Creighton 50
Saturday, March 22: (2) UConn vs (15) Arkansas State, 1 p.m. ET

Arkansas State schedule

Wednesday, Feb. 26: Arkansas State 56, Southern Miss 54
Friday, Feb. 28: Arkansas State 89, Troy 85
Sunday, March 9: Arkansas State 81, Troy 66
Monday, March 10: Arkansas State 86, James Madison 79
Saturday, March 22: (2) UConn vs (15) Arkansas State, 1 p.m. ET

We occasionally recommend interesting products and services. If you make a purchase by clicking one of the links, we may earn an affiliate fee. USA TODAY Network newsrooms operate independently, though, and this doesn’t influence our coverage.

SUN VALLEY, Idaho — When Lindsey Vonn first heard this year’s World Cup finals were going to be in the United States, it made her a little sad.

She’d had so few opportunities to do speed races in the United States, let alone in a World Cup finals. Now that there was one, she was retired.

“I was like, `I really would’ve loved to race there,’” Vonn said Friday before breaking into a grin. “And lo and behold, I’m here racing.”

Vonn was forced to retire in the middle of the 2019 season, the pain from her many injuries over the years no longer tolerable. But after a partial knee replacement last April left her pain free for the first time in years, she came out of retirement, determined to end her career on her terms.

She returned to the World Cup circuit in December and qualified for the finals in both the downhill and super-G. The downhill is Saturday and the super-G is Sunday.

At 40, Vonn will be the oldest woman to compete at the World Cup finals.

“I think there’s just an expectation of, especially women at a certain age, you need to be doing a certain thing, and I don’t believe in that at all,” Vonn said. “I think you’re only limited to what you push yourself to do.

“If you feel good, if you mentally have the drive, there’s no reason why you should stop doing what you love to do,” she added. “The reason why I stopped before was because my body wasn’t working. And now that my body’s working again, my mind is able to do what it wants to do. Which is go fast.”

Vonn is one of the greatest ski racers of all times. Her three Olympic medals include gold in the downhill at the Vancouver Games in 2010, and her 82 World Cup victories are third behind only Mikaela Shiffrin (100) and Ingemar Stenmark (86).

Though she has yet to make the podium in her return, she’s had two top-10 finishes. One of those was a fourth-place finish in the super-G in St. Anton, Austria, where she missed the podium by 0.32 seconds.

Vonn came into the World Cup finals ranked 17th in super-G and 19th in the downhill.

“I learned that I haven’t forgotten anything. It’s like riding a bike,” she said. “I know exactly what I need to do, and everything came back very quickly.

“What surprised me was more the fact that my equipment would take so long to figure out. I kind of underestimated that challenge,” Vonn added. “But the sport hasn’t changed that much since I left. So for me, I just have to figure out my equipment and I think I’ll be in a good place.”

Vonn has said she wants to ski through the Milan-Cortina Olympics next year, which is fitting.

The women’s alpine races will be held in Cortina, one of Vonn’s favorite venues. It’s where she made her first World Cup podium, finishing third in the downhill in 2004, and she got 12 of her 82 World Cup wins there. She made the podium another seven times in Cortina, too.

But that’s next season. For now, Vonn is savoring being back at the World Cup finals for the first time since 2018, when she won the downhill and was third in the super-G.

“Finals are always fun,” she said, “so it’s nice to be back.”

The fans who came out to watch training Friday at Sun Valley Resort greeted Vonn enthusiastically, cheering throughout her run and kids shouting her name as she did interviews in the finish area.

It was a bit of a full circle moment for Vonn, who has talked often of being inspired by meeting Picabo Street when she was a young girl. Now she’s closing out her career in the United States in Street’s hometown, in an event she never imagined being at not that long ago.

 “This is maybe my last chance to race at home in my lifetime,” Vonn said, “and I’m going to enjoy it.”

Follow USA TODAY Sports columnist Nancy Armour on social media @nrarmour.

Correction/clarification: A previous version of this story incorrectly reported how many times George Foreman has been married. He was married five times.

It was sometime in the late 1980s. I think. When George Foreman punched me in the face.

Foreman was in Houston and I was sent to do a story on the legendary fighter while working at the Dallas Morning News. Foreman was in the middle of his metamorphosis from a scowling boxing bad guy into one of the sport’s greatest ambassadors. Then, later, an all-time pitchman.

People would stop by a makeshift gym in his garage and he would lightly spar with them. Toy with them, really. Using a fraction of his power to make a point: boxing is hard.

So he lightly punched me. In the face. In the core. In my arms. He laughed and then hugged me, and then told stories. His smile was something. It was genuine and kind and behind it were stories, and he’d tell them until you got your fill. About Muhammad Ali. About rumbles. In jungles. About the life. That boxing life.

Foreman wanted you to understand that human beings were in the ring. Not robots. Not soulless punchers. People with lives and cares in the world. He wanted you to see the humanity in fighters because of how he was once portrayed as a boxing Frankenstein that lumbered and growled. He succeeded. Through all of the controversies and multi-phasic aspects of his being was someone who, in the end, wanted you to like him, and love boxing.

He sold millions of George Foreman Grills. In the ring, he busted grills. He laughed. He retired. He came back. He got old. He still busted grills. He had 12 children. Seemingly nine boxing lives. Almost as many wives. He was hated. He was skilled. But most of all, in the end, he was cherished. There are few people across the globe who don’t know that name.

Foreman has died at 76, according to a statement released by his family Friday night on his official Instagram account. You will hear about his staggering number of boxing accomplishments. They are many and they are important. The ‘Rumble in the Jungle’ happened in 1974 when Ali knocked out Foreman in Zaire (now the Democratic Republic of the Congo). That fight is one of the greatest sporting events of all time.

“For years afterwards I would agonize, ‘How could this happen?’ ‘ he once said. “That night I lost everything I ever was. It was the most devastating event in my life as an athlete. I was not even a man no more.”

Ali was able to neutralize Foreman’s power by staying on the ropes and blocking Foreman’s big punches: rope-a-dope.

‘I was one strong heavyweight punching fighter,’ Foreman told Reuters in 2007. ‘I was one punching machine and that was the first time I delivered everything I had and nothing worked.’

Foreman would rebound. He and Ali would become friends. Foreman also became extremely religious and later returned to boxing in 1987, fought for another decade, and in 1994 became the heavyweight champ at the ancient boxing age of 45. After winning it, he received a letter from Ali.

‘Can you imagine that?’ Foreman told USA TODAY Sports. ‘Who would think almost 20 years later, there’s Muhammad, my conqueror, congratulating me in fighting for the championship of the world and winning it.’

Foreman was such a boxing force that he did something many human beings cannot: He evolved. Foreman was initially more of a brawler. He was still that, of course, but his skillset grew. That evolution allowed him to compete against much younger fighters as he got older.

“When you fight for the heavyweight championship of the world it does feel unbelievable, it doesn’t feel like you’re really there, it could be a dream,” he told Boxing News in 2023. “‘You’re going to wake up soon, you don’t belong in the ring with these guys.’ The second time around, I could deal with all those thoughts. It was a special moment, more so than when I won the fight with (Joe) Frazier.”

Those are all the boxing things. They are important. In general, Foreman lived. It wasn’t a perfect life. When you’re married five times, well, there are some things there. He was also once accused of child sexual abuse. He denied the allegations.

Foreman would notice that being pleasant sold better than the other thing. Maybe that’s who he always was. But we are all lucky to have seen that side of him.

Boxing won’t be the same without George Foreman.