Luka Dončić and the Los Angeles Lakers were back in action Thursday night against Anthony Edwards and the Minnesota Timberwolves.

Dončić was coming off a triple-double performance against his former team, the Dallas Mavericks. He had 19 points, 15 rebounds and 12 assists in 35 minutes of play in that contest.

The Lakers won again Thursday, 111-102, and are now 8-2 overall since Dončić was traded to Los Angeles (4-2 when he’s actually been in the lineup).

Luka Doncic stats vs. Timberwolves

Points: 21
FG: 6-for-20
3PT: 1-for-9
FT: 8-for-12
Rebounds: 13
Assists: 5
Steals: 0
Blocks: 0
Turnovers: 3
Fouls: 2
Minutes played: 36

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Anthony Edwards ejected

Lakers vs. Timberwolves highlights

Lakers’ next game

The Lakers will host the Los Angeles Clippers on Friday in the second game of a back-to-back. The game is scheduled for 10 p.m. ET (ESPN).

The one-loss Bruins are the overall No. 1 seed in the projection released by the NCAA on Thursday night, just as they were when the first women’s college basketball seedings were released Feb. 16. Texas, USC and Notre Dame are the other No. 1 seeds.

In the leadup to Selection Sunday on March 16, the NCAA releases projections of who would be the top 16 seeds if the season ended that day. It does not, of course, with the UCLA-USC rematch on Saturday night and conference tournaments still to be played.

Still, the projections give an idea of how the bracket will shape up.

South Carolina, UConn, LSU and N.C. State are all projected to be No. 2 seeds. TCU, North Carolina, Duke and Tennessee are the No. 3 seeds, and Oklahoma, Kentucky, Kansas State and Ohio State are the No. 4 seeds.

UCLA spent much of the season ranked No. 1 in the USA TODAY Coaches poll before suffering its only loss of the season, to crosstown rival USC, on Feb. 13. The Bruins are currently No. 2 in the poll, one spot behind Texas. But it’s hard to argue with the Bruins as the overall No. 1 seed for the tournament given the other top schools all have two or more losses.

The committee also projected regional assignments. UCLA and USC were sent to the Spokane regional while Texas and Notre Dame were assigned to Birmingham.

NCAA Tournament selection committee rankings

Here’s a full look at the top 16 teams and the regions in which they find themselves from Thursday’s NCAA tournament selection committee ranking unveiling:

Overall seed in parentheses

Spokane 1

UCLA (1)
LSU (7)
North Carolina (10)
Kansas State (15)

Birmingham 2

Texas (2)
NC State (8)
TCU (9)
Ohio State (16)

Spokane 3

Southern California (3)
UConn (6)
Duke (11)
Kentucky (14)

Birmingham 4

Notre Dame (4)
South Carolina (5)
Tennessee (12)
Oklahoma (13)

Unfamiliar territory

If the projected seedings hold – and there’s still a lot of basketball to be played – this would be the first time since 2019 that neither UConn nor South Carolina is a No. 1 seed. UConn was a No. 2 seed that year, and South Carolina a No. 4 seed.

The No. 1 seeds that year? Baylor, Mississippi State, Notre Dame and Louisville.

The selection committee got it half right that year, with Baylor beating Notre Dame for the title. The other two teams in the Final Four, however, were UConn and Oregon.

Potential stumbling blocks

We can’t stress enough that these are projected seeds, and the top 16 in the final bracket could look a lot different. For instance, UCLA hosts USC on Saturday night in a rematch of the Bruins’ only loss of the season. There’s a good chance the crosstown rivals could meet for a third time in the Big Ten tournament title game, too.

Elsewhere, the conference tournaments could upend things. The SEC alone has five teams in Thursday’s projected top 16 seeds while the ACC has four teams and the Big 12 three.

Tobacco Road

North Carolina is used to being the epicenter of men’s basketball. If the final bracket winds up like Thursday’s projection, it will be for women’s hoops, too.

N.C. State, North Carolina and Duke would all host first- and second-round games. It would be the first time since 1998 that all three schools were seeded high enough to host early-round action.

The Tampa Bay Buccaneers announced Thursday that former coach Jon Gruden has been reinstated to the team’s Ring of Honor.

‘Jon Gruden was initially inducted into the Buccaneers Ring of Honor based on his many accomplishments during his seven seasons as our head coach and he remains a significant figure in the history of our franchise. Upon further reflection, we have decided to reinstate him into the Buccaneers Ring of Honor,’ the team wrote.

Gruden had been removed from the Buccaneers Ring of Honor in 2021, after the emergence of emails of his that contained homophobic, misogynistic and racist language. The scandal led to his resignation as head coach of the Las Vegas Raiders.

Explaining his removal from the Ring of Honor at the time, the Buccaneers said they ‘have advocated for purposeful change in the areas of race relations, gender equality, diversity and inclusion for many years. While we acknowledge Jon Gruden’s contributions on the field, his actions go against our core values as an organization. Therefore, he will no longer continue to be a member of the Buccaneers Ring of Honor.” 

Gruden, Tampa Bay’s head coach from 2002-08, was first inducted into the Buccaneers Ring of Honor in 2017. He has the most wins in team history (57) and was at the helm when the Bucs won their first championship by defeating the Raiders in Super Bowl 37.

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Olympic icon Peggy Fleming was visiting a friend in California on the morning of Jan. 30 when her husband Greg Jenkins called from their home in Colorado to tell her about a plane crash in Washington, D.C., involving members of the U.S. figure skating community, young skaters and their parents and coaches. 

As she watched the news on television, her mind raced to another place, another time, another tragedy. 

“What a flashback it was,” she said in a phone interview earlier this week. “It was like it was happening all over again.”

On Feb. 15, 1961, Fleming was a promising 12-year-old skater in Southern California when she awoke to the news that her coach, William Kipp, and the entire U.S. figure skating delegation  — 18 skaters and 16 officials, coaches, judges and family members — had been killed in a plane crash near Brussels on the way to the world championships in Prague.

‘I heard it right before I went to school that day,” Fleming said. “My mom had seen it on television. And I just couldn’t believe it. It was just unreal. So I did go to school — you just don’t know the impact at that age — and I think of what a disaster that really was, and all those talented skaters, their lives just cut short, and all the top coaches in the U.S. were gone.”

This month, as Fleming began to process the horror of the mid-air collision at Reagan National Airport that killed 11 skaters, four coaches and 13 family members, a friend told her about a memorial skating show, Legacy on Ice, that was being planned at Capital One Arena in Washington. 

Fleming contacted U.S. Figure Skating and offered to be a part of the show. “It’s all so tragic,” she said. “We want the families to know we care.”

So this weekend, 76-year-old Peggy Fleming is coming to Washington to participate in the Sunday afternoon show that will honor the 67 victims of the air disaster, including the young skaters and members of the skating community who were killed on their way home from a national development camp after the U.S. championships in Wichita. 

In this way, she is serving as a bridge between her sport’s two unspeakable tragedies, 64 years apart. “It just brings back so many memories,” she said. “I feel so bad for all these families. It’s heartbreaking.”

Fleming said she will not be skating Sunday but rather serving as a presenter offering an introduction during a segment of the show. 

“Are you kidding?” she said with a laugh. “I’m not even bringing my skates. I’m just there to support.”

Her presence at the show is especially meaningful, said 1988 Olympic gold medalist Brian Boitano, who is co-hosting the show with 1992 Olympic gold medalist Kristi Yamaguchi. 

“She saved figure skating,” Boitano said Thursday in a phone interview. “Out of the ashes comes the phoenix. She was the phoenix.”

Spurred on by two coaches who came to the United States to find work after the crash — first England’s John Nicks for a year, then Italy’s Carlo Fassi for the length of her competitive career — Fleming won five national titles from 1964-68 and the gold medal at the 1968 Winter Olympics in Grenoble, France. Her victory launched figure skating into the television age, so it was fitting that she went on to commentate on the sport with the late Dick Button for 28 years on ABC and ESPN. 

“She had everything come together to make a champion,” Nicks, now 95, said over the phone Thursday. “Her physique, the self confidence to perform under pressure, being such a likeable person — many, many things went into being Peggy Fleming.”  

“The ultimate icon of the sport,” Boitano said. “When you think of figure skating, you think of Peggy Fleming.”

Washington Capitals star Alex Ovechkin is on pace to pass Wayne Gretzky’s NHL career goal record before season’s end.

Ovechkin, 39, entered this season needing 42 goals to break Gretzky’s record of 894 career goals, which has stood since 1999. The Washington captain has 30 goals this season and needs 12 more with 23 games left to become the NHL’s all-time leader.

Ovechkin scored 15 times in his first 18 games before suffering a fractured left fibula during a Nov. 18 game against the Utah Hockey Club. He has scored 15 times since he returned on Dec. 28.

This season, he moved into second place with 20 consecutive 20-goal seasons and set a record for number of goalies scored against in his career. He tied records for game-winning goals and most franchises against which he has a hat trick. And he became the first player to score 200 goals in three different decades.

If he doesn’t reach Gretzky’s goal record this season, he has one more season left on his contract.

Here’s where Ovechkin stands in his chase of Gretzky’s goal record:

How many career goals does Alex Ovechkin have?

Ovechkin has 883 career goals.

How many goals does Alex Ovechkin need to pass Wayne Gretzky?

Ovechkin needs 12 goals to break Gretzky’s record.

How many goals does Alex Ovechkin have this season?

Ovechkin has 30 goals and 17 assists in 43 games. Factoring in the 16 games he missed, that is a 46-goal pace, giving him a chance to break the record this season.

What did Alex Ovechkin do in his last game?

Ovechkin had no points on four shots in a 5-2 loss to the St. Louis Blues on Thursday night.

When is Alex Ovechkin’s next game?

The Capitals play Saturday, March 1, at home against Tampa Bay. He has 50 goals in 82 career games vs. the Lightning.

Alex Ovechkin goals in 2024-25

Oct. 19: 1 vs. New Jersey
Oct. 23: 1 vs. Philadelphia
Oct. 29: 2 vs. N.Y. Rangers
Oct. 31: 1 vs. Montreal
Nov. 2: 1 vs. Columbus
Nov. 3: 1 vs. Carolina
Nov. 6: 1 vs. Nashville
Nov. 9: 2 vs. St. Louis
Nov. 17: 3 vs. Vegas
Nov. 18: 2 vs. Utah
Dec. 28: 1 vs. Toronto
Dec. 29: 1 vs. Detroit
Jan. 2: 1 vs. Minnesota
Jan. 4: 1 vs. N.Y. Rangers
Jan. 11: 1 vs. Nashville
Jan. 16: 1 vs. Ottawa
Jan. 23: 1 vs. Seattle
Jan. 30: 1 vs. Ottawa
Feb 1: 1 vs. Winnipeg
Feb. 4: 1 vs. Florida
Feb. 6: 1 vs. Philadelphia
Feb. 23: 3 vs. Edmonton
Feb. 25: 1 vs. Calgary

Alex Ovechkin career goals breakdown

Even strength: 558, third overall

Power play: 320, a record

Short-handed: 5

Empty net: 64, a record

Game winners: 135, tied for first with Jaromir Jagr

Overtime goals: 27, a record

Multi-goal games: 178, second overall

Goalies scored against: 181, a record

Hat tricks: 32, tied for fifth overall. Ovechkin has hat tricks against 20 franchises, tying Brett Hull’s record.

20-goal seasons: 20, tied for second

30-goal seasons: 19, a record

40-goal seasons: 13, a record

Alex Ovechkin empty-net goals

Ovechkin has a record 64 empty-net goals, but Gretzky is up there, too, with 56. Ovechkin passed Gretzky in that category last season.

Alex Ovechkin goals per season

Season: Goals, career total

2005-06: 52, 52
2006-07: 46, 98
2007-08: 65*, 163
2008-09: 56*, 219
2009-10: 50, 269
2010-11: 32, 301
2011-12: 38, 339
2012-13: 32*, 371
2013-14: 51*, 422
2014-15: 53*, 475
2015-16: 50*, 525
2016-17: 33, 558
2017-18: 49*, 607
2018-19: 51*, 658
2019-20: 48*, 706
2020-21: 24, 730
2021-22: 50, 780
2022-23: 42, 822
2023-24: 31, 853
2024-25: 30, 883

*-led league in goals that season

NHL all time goal leaders

The top 21 NHL all-time goal scorers all have 600 or more goals. All of the players are in the Hockey Hall of Fame, except Ovechkin, Sidney Crosby and Jagr, who are still playing.

1. Wayne Gretzky, 894 goals in 1,487 games

2. Alex Ovechkin, 883 goals in 1,469 games

3. Gordie Howe, 801 goals in 1,767 games

4. Jaromir Jagr, 766 goals in 1,733 games

5. Brett Hull, 741 goals in 1,269 games

6. Marcel Dionne, 731 in 1,348 games

7. Phil Esposito, 717 goals in 1,282 games

8. Mike Gartner, 708 goals in 1,432 games

9. Mark Messier, 694 goals in 1,756 games

10. Steve Yzerman, 692 goals in 1,514 games

11. Mario Lemieux, 690 goals in 915 games

12. Teemu Selanne, 684 goals in 1,451 games

13. Luc Robitaille, 668 goals in 1,431 games

14. Brendan Shanahan, 656 goals in 1,524 games

15. Dave Andreychuk, 640 goals in 1,639 games

16. Jarome Iginla, 625 goals in 1,554 games

17. Joe Sakic, 625 goals in 1,378 games

18. Bobby Hull, 610 goals in 1,063 games

19. Sidney Crosby, 610 goals in 1,331 games

20. Dino Ciccarelli, 608 goals in 1,232 games

21. Jari Kurri, 601 goals in 1,251 games

Wayne Gretzky, the Canadian hockey legend known around the world as ‘The Great One,’ is suddenly in a big pickle in his home country because of his relationship with U.S. President Donald Trump.

Gretzky, 64, served as the honorary captain for Canada in the 4 Nations Face-Off championship game in Boston on Feb. 20, and his presence created more fuel for a brewing controversy north of the border. The greatest hockey player of all-time has faced criticism in his homeland over his association with Trump in light of the president’s political threats related to tariffs and comments about Canada becoming the 51st state of the United States.

The negative rhetoric led Trump, fellow Canadian hockey legend Bobby Orr and Gretzky’s wife to defend his national pride in recent days. Orr wrote an op-ed for the Toronto Sun last Saturday to express his disappointment at the treatment Gretzky received for his appearance on behalf of Canada’s hockey team last week, while Trump posted on his social media website, Truth Social, in an apparent effort to help Gretzky.

Janet Jones Gretzky, who attended Trump’s presidential inauguration in Washington last month with her husband, then posted a thank you to Orr on her Instagram account Thursday. The caption offered a glimpse into the toll this controversy is taking on Wayne Gretzky.

‘I have never met anyone who is more Proud to be a Canadian and it has broken his heart to read and see the mean comments,’ Janet Jones Gretzky wrote. ‘He would do anything to make Canadians Proud, with his Love for Hockey and his Country.’

The rising political tension between the United States and Canada since Trump returned to the White House in January coincided with the NHL’s first 4 Nations Cup this year, and it helped create a level of interest in the tournament that caught even the most staunch hockey supporters by surprise.

Trump called the American team to wish them luck ahead of the game and Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau needled Trump on social media after Canada’s 3-2 overtime win. Trump, in reference to Canada joining the United States as the 51st state, declared Gretzky a ‘free agent’ on social media Wednesday in an effort to demonstrate Gretzky supports an independent Canada.

‘Wayne is my friend, and he wants to make me happy, and is therefore somewhat ‘low key’ about Canada remaining a separate Country,’ Trump wrote, in part. ‘… He’s the Greatest Canadian of them all, and I am therefore making him a ‘free agent,’ because I don’t want anyone in Canada to say anything bad about him. He supports Canada the way it is, as he should, even though it’s not nearly as good as it could be as part of the Greatest and Most Powerful Country in the World, the Good Ole’ U.S.A.!’

Orr was the first notable hockey figure to publicly back Gretzky as more Canadians turned against one of its country’s sports heroes and called for him to speak out against Trump’s recent comments regarding Canada. Some fans in Edmonton even started an online petition for a freeway named after Gretzky to be changed. It had more than 10,000 signatures as of Thursday.

‘How fickle can people be, when someone who has given so much time and effort to Canadian hockey is treated in such a way,’ Orr wrote in the op-ed. ‘Listen, we all have our personal beliefs as they pertain to things such as religion and politics. Wayne respects your right to such beliefs – why can’t you respect his?’

Known as ‘The Great One’ during a 20-year career with the Edmonton Oilers, Los Angeles Kings, St. Louis Blues and New York Rangers, Gretzky is the league’s all-time leader in points, goals and assists. Washington Capitals star Alex Ovechkin is currently on the verge of passing his goals record.

Gretzky represented Canada in international competition throughout his career, including the 1998 Nagano Olympics when NHL players were allowed to participate for the first time. He was executive director of the 2002 Olympic team that won gold in Salt Lake City and ended Canada’s 50-year championship drought.

Gretzky retired from playing professional hockey in 1999 and later became part-owner and coach of the Arizona Coyotes. He’s currently a studio analyst for TNT.

Between 31 automatic bids and shoo-ins from the powerhouse conferences like South Carolina, LSU, USC and N.C. State, much of the 68-team field for the NCAA tournament is already set.

There are still spots to be had, though, and two weeks for teams living on the bubble to make their case to the selection committee that they deserve one of them.

In no particular order, here’s a look at some of the teams the committee might be looking at for those last few spots in the NCAA tournament:

Virginia Tech (17-10 overall, 8-8 in the ACC)

The Hokies play in a tough conference, and their wins over Louisville and Georgia Tech help their case. Especially that Georgia Tech one, coming in double overtime and on the road.

But the home losses to Stanford and Syracuse hurt, and Virginia Tech could use a win or two in the ACC Tournament to solidify a spot.

Nebraska (18-10, 9-8 in Big Ten)

The Cornhuskers were considered a lock at one point, with a 20-point road walloping of then-No. 17 Maryland their most impressive win. But their losses to other ranked teams haven’t been close and a bad loss at home to Washington last weekend raises questions.

Washington (17-12, 8-9 in Big Ten)

The Huskies are one of the bubbliest of the bubble teams, with wins over Minnesota and Nebraska and single-digit losses to USC, Oregon and Maryland. Beating Oregon in the regular-season finale and winning a game or two in the Big Ten tournament would go a long way in getting them off the bubble and securely into the tournament.

Saint Joseph’s (21-7, 12-5 in Atlantic 10)

Already teetering on the edge, Saint Joseph’s might have sealed its fate with a 74-65 loss to Dayton on Thursday night. It had convincing wins over George Mason and a ‘good” loss to Utah but also lost to VCU, which doesn’t have a winning record overall or in the A-10.

Colorado (18-10, 9-8 in Big 12)

Buffs have wins over West Virginia and Kansas State, and six of their 10 losses have been to ranked teams or teams receiving votes. But most of those losses have not been close, and the availability of leading scorer Frida Formann (stress fracture in foot) remains uncertain.

Iowa State (20-10, 11-6 in Big 12)

The Cyclones get credit for a tough non-conference schedule, playing UConn, South Carolina and Iowa. But beating Colorado by 30 at home is the closest they have to a signature win – unless they can knock off K-State this weekend.

Quinnipiac (22-3, 14-2 in MAAC)

Very much an outsider; is the committee really going to give the MAAC two teams? If it does, Quinnipiac deserves consideration. One of its three losses was in OT at Miami, and another was to MAAC leader Fairfield.

Princeton (18-6, 9-2 in Ivy)

Hard to see the committee taking three Ivy teams, and Harvard is likely in because of the strength of its schedule while Columbia currently leads the league. Best chance the Tigers have is to beat Harvard on Friday, then hope Harvard wins the Ivy League tournament.