Bill Belichick to Mike Norvell, expect another active college football hot seat in 2026, even after busy year of firings.
Dave Aranda, Luke Fickell near top of hot seat list.
LaNorris Sellers, DJ Lagway are the type of quarterbacks who can get a coach off the hot seat.

Any college football coaches left to fire? Oh, yes.

It’s quiet now, but give it seven months, and fan bases across the land will be hollering for the brass to, ‘Fire everybody!’

Last season delivered one of the most active coaching carousels in the sport’s history. Buyout beach must have run out of loungers, as schools from LSU to Florida to Penn State forked over failure money.

Probably, the coaching carousel won’t be quite so active this season. Probably. And, still, several coaches will enter the 2026 season standing on the precipice of buyout utopia.

As we sit in the calm before the next storm of firings, here are five college football hot seats I can’t stop thinking about:

Bill Belichick, North Carolina

What was the first sign this might be a disaster? Was it when Belichick showed up to an offseason interview wearing a ratty Navy sweatshirt? Or, maybe it was Belichick ducking out during North Carolina’s open week for a trip to Nantucket with his muse, 24-year-old girlfriend Jordon Hudson.

Or, let’s just stick to the on-field product. TCU’s 48-14 humiliation of the Tar Heels in Belichick’s first game gave a strong hint of how his debut season would go.

North Carolina hired Belichick to a five-year deal, but it left an escape hatch in the contract. He’d be owed about $10 million if fired after this season. That’s relatively small potatoes in an otherwise exorbitant buyout landscape.

Belichick signed a large recruiting class that ranked well within the ACC, but UNC had a quieter year in the portal. Should Beli really be playing the long game with freshmen?

Luke Fickell, Wisconsin

Wisconsin should not be 37 points worse than Iowa. Seventeen points worse than Maryland. Ten points worse than Minnesota.

When Wisconsin kept Fickell after a 4-8 record in his third season, the worst year of his tenure, it played the poor card and said it hadn’t properly supported Fickell with enough financial resources. Evidently, it thought that sounded better than, “We’re keeping him to fire him next season, when his buyout is cheaper.”

This whole situation reeks of Fickell being a lame duck.

Nothing about Wisconsin’s latest transfer haul or its recruiting class suggests anything resembling momentum. Prep the buyout cannon.

Dave Aranda, Baylor

NIL and pay-for-play are a boon for most schools in Texas, the nation’s No. 1 oil-producing state. Texas Tech strolled across an oil slick all the way to a Big 12 championship and a playoff bid. Texas A&M also notched its first playoff appearance. Texas underachieved in 2025, but the Longhorns are built to last. And then there’s Baylor.

The Big 12 has room for a third team to rise up and join Texas Tech and BYU to form a power triumvirate. Why shouldn’t it be Baylor? Seriously, Baylor’s administration must ask that question as it evaluates Aranda’s 36-37 record across six seasons. He’s made the hot seat his home for a few years. His teams are plagued by bad defenses. Wasn’t defense supposed to be Aranda’s forte?

Baylor brought in a solid transfer class that includes ex-Florida quarterback DJ Lagway. If Aranda can’t get the Bears into Big 12 contention this season, then Baylor must move on and try with someone else.

Shane Beamer, South Carolina

South Carolina possesses one of the SEC’s most-talented quarterbacks in LaNorris Sellers. If Beamer can’t win with him, that’s a problem — a problem that could spark a coaching search, on the heels of last year’s 4-8 season.

Beamer has delivered three winning seasons in five years at South Carolina. That makes him better than most predecessors not named Steve Spurrier. Trouble is, Beamer posted his best season in Year 4, followed by his worst year last season. That’s a classic case of raising the bar, then failing to meet it, and that’s a recipe for a firing.

Beamer is responsible for multiple big wins, but consistency eludes him.

The Gamecocks return ample production, and Beamer brought in Kendal Briles as his offensive coordinator. If this assembly doesn’t work, there’ll be no excuse that can save Beamer.

Mike Norvell, Florida State

Norvell twice prolonged his tenure by getting a vote of confidence from his boss, first in 2021 and then again from a different boss last season. Coaches generally don’t get a third vote of confidence. They get a buyout check.

Norvell’s whopper buyout bought him cover the past two seasons. The buyout is still quite large — well over $40 million — but Florida State isn’t the type of program that’s going to quietly stomach a third straight losing season.

With Clemson down, the Seminoles are wasting a golden opportunity to rise up, backpedaling with Norvell while Miami fills the power vacuum. That’s how a Florida State coach gets fired.

More heat: No hot seat list would be complete without mention of Mike Locksley (Maryland), Bill O’Brien (Boston College) and Derek Mason (Middle Tennessee). Other big names at major programs could find themselves on the hot seat if 2026 goes splat. You can probably guess some of those names. We’re not quite ready to go there.

Hey, it’s only February. The buyout cannon needs a chance to refuel.

Blake Toppmeyer is the USA TODAY Network’s senior national college football columnist. Email him at BToppmeyer@gannett.com and follow him on X @btoppmeyer.

Balance and control are important in any sport, but they’re especially crucial at the highest levels, such as at the 2026 Milano Cortina Olympics.

In the Winter Games, athletes often must be able to display the same skills while going forward and backward. In figure skating, ice hockey and snowboarding, for example.

But there have been times during these Olympics when athletes have gone out of control and turned completely around when they weren’t supposed to. And the moments have been magical.

In men’s dual moguls on Sunday, Feb. 15, Japanese freestyle skier Ikuma Horishima nearly lost it on the final jump, but somehow remained upright to cross the finish line … backwards.

Horishima went on to claim the silver medal in dual moguls.

And in short track speed skating, Italy’s Pietro Sighel − who had a big enough lead in an earlier heat that he turned around and crossed the finish line backward − had to do it again out of necessity in his 500 meter heat Monday when he was bumped as two skaters collided.

Sighel nearly won the race, but made it across the finish line to advance.

Unexpected surprises like these definitely have us looking forward to more as the Winter Games conclude.

Christian Pulisic took advantage of the 2026 Winter Olympics taking place in his home city, as the AC Milan star was in attendance for the USA’s 5-1 win over Germany in men’s hockey on Sunday, Feb. 15.

Pulisic was in the stands at Milano Santagiulia Ice Hockey Arena as the USA earned a bye into Wednesday’s quarterfinals with a dominant win.

The U.S. men’s national team forward returned from a brief injury lay-off on Friday, Feb. 13, coming off the bench as Milan defeated Pisa 2-1 to maintain its Serie A title challenge.

Pulisic made it back to Milan in time to catch the USA in action, taking time to give an interview to the NHL’s in-house media channel along the way.

The USMNT star estimated he’d been to ‘less than 10, 15’ hockey games in his life, most of which were the minor league Hershey Bears in his Pennsylvania hometown.

Pulisic said that having the Olympics in Milan was providing him with extra motivation with the World Cup coming to the United States this summer.

‘Just seeing some of these guys doing what they’re doing, competing at the highest level in their sport, supporting team USA, it definitely gives me that extra drive and gets me excited for the summer,’ he said.

Pulisic also spoke about the difference between playing in high-pressure competitions for AC Milan and the USMNT.

‘There’s always pressure in some of the biggest competitions, whether club or country. But I think when you play for your country, you always have that little extra sense of pride representing team USA,’ he said.

‘It’s the best thing you can do. It’s the most proud I am when I’m playing. So it’s similar, but definitely something special when you play for your country.’

Wisconsin-Green Bay men’s basketball coach Doug Gottlieb had some harsh words for the officials after a 75-72 loss to in-state rival Wiscosnin-Milwaukee on Sunday, Feb. 15. And the tirade he unleashed rivaled any hot take he ever had on his former national radio show.

The Phoenix had the lead for most of a foul-plagued second half, but Gottlieb was particularly upset by a loose-ball foul called on his team’s best player, CJ O’Hara, with 4:25 to go. The foul, with the Phoenix up by four, was O’Hara’s fourth and Gottlieb felt it changed the course of the game.

After getting called for a technical foul earlier in the half, Gottlieb was further incensed when no foul was called as his player drove for a potential game-winning shot in the final seconds.

‘You had the exact same play at both ends on the last play of the game,’ Gottlieb said to reporters, pausing momtarily before aggressively slamming his fists onto the table.

‘The exact same (expletive) play!’ he yelled, ‘The exact same play!’

He also took issue with the technical foul, which came with just under seven minutes to play.

‘So I need the new commissioner of the Horizon League to explain to me what a technical foul is when I don’t leave the box, I don’t curse, I’m not demonstrative,’ he said. ‘There is nothing, nothing, that should have been called a technical foul. I know when I earn one. I did not earn one.’

Milwaukee converted 22 of 24 free throw attempts during the second half of the game − despite being one of the worst-shooting teams from the line coming in at just 68.5% on the season.

The loss dropped UWGB to 15-13 overall and a tie for third in the conference at 10-7.

‘All we ask is that there’s a fair game,’ Gottlieb continued. ‘I need … our new commissioner to explain to me the disparity in the officiating. That’s what I need explained to me.’

INGLEWOOD, CA. — The savior of the NBA All-Star Game wasn’t Adam Silver, or whichever league exec came up with the revised “U.S. vs. World” format, or even the format itself.

It was a 7-foot-4 French phenom who, through stubborn persistence, forced the hands of the world’s best basketball players to give more.

Victor Wembanyama swatted the opening tip off to teammate Jamal Murray and sprinted until he got underneath the rim. He sealed off Cade Cunningham and begged for the ball. Murray whipped a pass that Wembanyama — seemingly in one single motion — caught on ascent to the rim before flushing a forceful dunk.

“He set the tone, man, and it woke me up,” Timberwolves guard Anthony Edwards, the eventual All-Star Most Valuable Player, told reporters after the event. “For sure.”

After Silver, the NBA commissioner, and the league overall faced repeated criticism over insipid All-Star Games that desperately lacked competitive play, Wembanyama’s competitive spirit saved the event this year, with the potential to carry it beyond. Wembanyama just turned 22 and made his second All-Star appearance in his third season. Undeniably one of the elite players in the world, Wembanyama is about to become a fixture — the fixture? — in NBA All-Star Games. And he proved Sunday, Feb. 15 that, with him as the steward of competition, the All-Star Game may just be sustainable after all.

To be sure, the format does deserve some credit.

Creating the four, 12-minute games essentially compressed play, converting each game into its own fourth quarter, elevating the stakes in the final minutes.

Tapping into national pride did appear to motivate players, but several said before and after the All-Star Game that they missed the East vs. West structure as well.

The 2026 All-Star Game worked, however, because players bought in and chose to push themselves.

The first three games were decided on the final basket, by a combined seven points. The first contest went into overtime. And as the prospect of winning crept in, teams intensified their defense.

All month long, Wembanyama had been saying that he wanted to lead the charge in forcing the world’s best basketball players to compete with organic intensity in the All-Star Game. It became a point of pride.

Consider his comments Saturday, when asked how, specifically, he planned to will his competitive vision onto other players.

“I think exclamation-point plays, playing in a solid manner and sharing the ball with energy,” Wembanyama said then. “If you share that energy, people feel like they have a responsibility to share it back to you.

“I’m confident in the way it’s going to go.”

Like Kobe Bryant before him, Wembanyama is bearing the standard, being the one outlier to demand more from his contemporaries.

Consider this: as Wembanyama was setting the tone six seconds into the event, Cavaliers guard Donovan Mitchell and his Team Stripes teammates were staying warm in an auxiliary gym here in the Intuit Dome, awaiting the winner of the first game.

Naturally, the All-Star Game was playing on the flatscreen in the corner. But even then, Wembanyama’s reputation preceded more than his play did.

“I’m not going to lie, I was working out when they were playing, so I didn’t really watch much of it,” Mitchell said. “But I already knew just from last year being on his (All-Star) team that he was going to come out and set that tone. He’s shown that’s who he is, and if you have a guy like that coming for everybody, it makes everybody kind of get going.”

Now, if Wembanyama was the savior of the All-Star, Edwards, Jamal Murray, Kawhi Leonard and several others were his accomplices.

Edwards scored 32 points across three games. Murray dished out 8 assists in two contests. Leonard erupted for a historic 31 points in Game 3 — essentially surpassing his season scoring average (27.9) in a 12-minute quarter.

But no player showed the irrational, maniacal fire that Wembanyama did, and, true to rigid competitors, that was most evident when things didn’t go well.

In Game 1, in overtime, a defensive rotation error led to Team Stars forward Scottie Barnes being wide open for the game-winning 3. Once it fell through the net, Wembanyama was visibly upset and yelled to himself, gesturing with his hands. He took a solitary lap around the floor. He walked off looking as if the Spurs had lost an important game.

“We had already conceded a 3 when we should have stayed home,” Wembanyama lamented later. “What we were saying was ‘No 3s, no 3s,’ because that’s what they needed twice in the game.

“So it’s disappointing.”

Yes, the future of the NBA All-Star Game is in good hands.

We’re less than four weeks away from Selection Sunday, and some teams considered locks in the preseason for March Madness will let their dancing shoes gather dust.

While teams like Miami (Ohio), Saint Louis, Clemson and Virginia have been surprises, plenty of men’s basketball teams have gone splat this season.

Here’s a look at 10 schools who have disappointed this year, including one already looking for a new coach and a few bluebloods who have fans nervous.

Oregon

Ranked just outside the preseason coaches poll (received second-most votes outside top 25), the Ducks have been a disaster this season. Losing All-Big Ten guard Jackson Shelstad to a season-ending injury didn’t help, but Oregon was already just 6-6 when he went down.

The Ducks (9-16, 2-12) finally snapped a 10-game losing streak on Feb. 14 by beating last-place Penn State.

‘The guys were feeling it,’ coach Dana Altman said. “It’s been a long six weeks, that’s for sure, for them, as much or more than our staff.”

Altman had won at least 20 games in each of his previous 15 seasons in Eugene, but the Ducks are on pace to their worst season since going 8-23 in Ernie Kent’s second-to-last campaign in 2008-09.

Baylor

We’re sure there aren’t too many people shedding a tear for the Bears. Baylor opened the season 10-2, then added a former NBA draft pick to its roster, causing plenty of consternation across the country.

Since the addition of 2023 draft pick James Nnaji, Baylor is 3-9 and sinking to the bottom of the Big 12 standings.

The Bears received 13 votes in preseason top 25, but at 13-12 they are flirting with their first losing season since 2006-07.

Baylor has won at least one game in each of the past six NCAA tournaments. This March, they will be lucky to play in the NIT or Crown.

By the way, Nnaji is averaging 1.7 points and 2.8 rebounds per game.

Creighton

The Bluejays were ranked No. 23 in the USA TODAY Coaches preseason poll and picked to finish third in the Big East. That ain’t gonna happen. Unless Creighton (13-13, 7-8) wins the Big East tournament it’s likely going to miss the NCAA tournament for the first time in six seasons.

Creighton is risking its first losing season since going 14-19 in 2014-15 (its second season in Big East). The Bluejays have lost five of their past six games and get No. 5 UConn and No. 17 St. John’s next.

Kansas State

Kansas State was picked to finish ninth pick in Big 12 and received a vote in preseason top 25. So expectations weren’t exactly soaring coming into the season, but anything but this.

Fans are wearing brown paper bags over their heads at games, and coach Jerome Tang says he would too. After a third straight home loss of at least 24 points on Feb. 11, Tang unloaded on his team, saying ‘they don’t deserve to be here.’

‘These dudes do not deserve to wear this uniform, and there will be very few of them in it next year. I’m embarrassed for the university, I’m embarrassed for our fans, and our student section. It’s just ridiculous.’

The Wildcats (10-15, 1-11) are headed to back-to-back losing seasons, and the school bit the bullet on the $18.6 million for Tang’s buyout and fired him on Sunday, Feb. 15.

UCLA

Ranked No. 12 in the preseason coaches poll, UCLA was a darkhorse Final Four team with transfer addition of Donovan Dent, a 20-point scorer from New Mexico. However, dent is pretty much what the reigning Mountain West Player of the Year has done to the rim, shooting a paltry 18.6% from behind the arc.

The Bruins’ record looks good (17-8, 9-5 in the Big Ten) but really only has one notable win (a 69-67 win over Purdue on Jan. 21). All of UCLA’s other conference wins have come against the Big Ten’s bottom half, and the Bruins are 2-6 in Quad 1 games.

The most interesting part of UCLA’s season has been Mick Cronin’s postgame rants as it seems the veteran coach doesn’t really like his team. A 30-point loss to Michigan last time out didn’t help.

Kentucky

The Wildcats began the season ninth in the coaches poll and are now out of the top 25 rankings.

A 5-7 record vs. Quad 1 teams will do that.

Mark Pope was under considerable heat early in the season with some massive nonconference beatdowns: a 28-point loss to in-state rival Louisville, a 17-point loss to Michigan State and a 35-point loss to Gonzaga.

Things have improved since then, but as Florida coach Todd Golden chided after the Gators’ win over the Wildcats on Feb. 14, a $22 million roster should yield greater results.

Kentucky (17-8, 8-4) have a favorable final stretch, with its two games left against ranked teams at Rupp Arena. But lose those, and Big Blue Nation waits for no man. Not even an alum.

Notre Dame

The seat is warming under Micah Shrewsberry with the Irish headed to a third straight losing season with him on the bench.

Picked to finish eighth in the ACC poll, the Fighting Irish (12-14, 3-10) were expected to contend for an NCAA tournament berth.

Instead, Notre Dame is 15th in the 18-team league with just two wins since the calendar flipped to 2026 and are a combined 3-12 in Quad 1 and Quad 2 games.

Notre Dame’s only moment of relevancy this season was when Shrewsberry nearly assaulted a referee after a Jan. 2 loss to Cal.

Mike Brey built a underappreciated, consistent program in South Bend with 12 NCAA tournament appearances in his 23 years. If the Irish finish this season with a losing record, it would mark the first time Notre Dame has had four straight losing seasons in more than 100 years (six straight losing years from 1917-23).

Providence

Kim English’s Providence tenure may be on borrowed time. Picked to finish fourth in Big East, the Friars (11-15, 4-11) are rooted at the bottom of the conference standings with Marquette. Providence had to replace five of its top six scorers from last season, including Brycen Hopkins who transferred to St. John’s. If you’re looking for a bright spot, four of Providence’s losses came in overtime, but that’s grasping at straws.

The low point came int he Feb. 14 loss to St. John’s with a dirty play by Duncan Powell on a hard foul on Hopkins that resulted in a fight and six ejections. Even worse, Powell’s haircut. IYKYK.

Marquette

How about some more Big East futility?

Marquette has made the NCAA tournament in each of Shaka Smart’s four seasons in Milwaukee. Not this year.

You knew it was going to be a rough year when a retooled Indiana team beat Marquette by 23 points in the third game of the season. The Golden Eagles (9-17, 4-11) followed that up with nonconference losses to fellow strugglers Maryland (10-14) and Oklahoma (13-12).

Marquette, which was picked to finish fifth in the Big East, sits in last place of the league standings, is 0-9 vs. Quad 1 teams and flirting with the most losses in program history (21 losses in 1963-64 — the season before Al McGuire arrived).

Ole Miss

Fresh off a Sweet 16 appearance last season, Ole Miss was expected to be a bubble team — at worst — this year.

The Rebels (11-14, 3-9) are in the midst of a seven-game losing streak, the latest a double-digit home loss to in-state rival Mississippi State.

Ole Miss is 1-10 vs. Quad 1 teams and is dealing with a major regression in Chris Beard’s third season.

Others under consideration: Alabama, Boise State, Princeton, Tennessee

Eileen Gu is the only free ski athlete competing in all three disciplines: big air, slopestyle and halfpipe.
Gu called the competition schedule ‘unfair’ after advancing to the big air finals prevented her from attending a halfpipe practice session.
The International Ski Federation (FIS) denied her requests for an alternate training time.

LIVIGNO, Italy – Normally, China’s Eileen Gu said, the International Ski Federation (FIS) – the governing body that oversees Olympic free skiing and snowboarding (among other disciplines) – is an accommodating organization.

Except in this case.

As Gu looks to repeat as the Olympic gold-medalist in the women’s big air event (finals are Monday, Feb. 16, at 1:30 p.m. ET) and go 5-for-5 in medals at her second Olympics, she is a tad perturbed by the schedule that only she has to confront.

Making big air finals prevented Gu from practicing during the allotted three-hour training session allowed for free skiers in the halfpipe on the other side of Livigno Snow Park.

‘Which is really unfair, and difficult for me to deal with,’ Gu said after qualifying Saturday.

Gu petitioned to train with snowboarders during their training last week, or to at least have an extra hour at another time. No dice, though.

FIS’ response and reasoning didn’t make sense to her. Generally, Gu said, FIS is accommodating and takes care of the athletes. Gu is the lone athlete – man or woman – to compete in all three disciplines; typically, halfpipe athletes specialize in that event, while those who compete in big air also do slopestyle.

‘This situation, I think, is really unfair,’ Gu said. ‘Because, for me, the Olympics should represent aspiration, and should be all about making dreams come true, doing the impossible. That’s the entire narrative of this contest. So I feel, because I’m the only person – the fact that I made big air finals for being the only person, only woman trying to compete in three events.’

Gu won gold in the halfpipe as the Beijing Games and said it is her favorite event. She took silver in slopestyle in back-to-back Olympics and has the chance to defend her big air title Monday night.

The American-born Gu, a Stanford student, said she was proud to make big air finals despite taking a break from the event since the last Olympics. She wanted to at least try and prove something to herself.

‘Sometimes I think that young women, particularly, are scared of failure before they can actually fail,’ the 22-year-old said. ‘So for me, I wanted to overcome a fear of failure just by trying. I just wanted to step up there and say, ‘Hey I haven’t competed in four years, I just want to try’ – as the defending Olympic gold-medalist.’

Gu qualified for big air finals by landing her first and third tricks despite not competing in the event in nearly four years, since she won it in China during the 2022 Beijing Games when she became a sensation in China and launched a personal brand that netted her more than $20 million last year, making her one of the biggest-earning female athletes in the world.

Snowboarder Jake Pates advanced to the 2026 Winter Olympics halfpipe final after a four-year retirement.
Pates retired from competitive snowboarding in 2020 due to mental health struggles and a concussion.
He started the Happy Healthy Brain Foundation to help others after his own experience with a brain injury.
Pates credits his return to the sport to the support of friends and fellow competitors.

LIVIGNO, Italy – As a pre-competition news conference was winding down for the United States men’s halfpipe snowboarding team at the 2026 Winter Olympics, Jake Pates leaned toward the microphone:

“Can I say one last thing?”

Pates wanted to take advantage of the platform, he said, to send a message.

“I think it’s really important to try to find the gratefulness in life and believe in yourself,” he said. “I’ve been someone who’s gone through a lot, I think, in my own way. … When you do have those tough moments, if you do lose hope and you do lose belief in yourself, you can find it again and you will find it again. You’ve just got to keep pushing.”

Just wanted to throw that out there, he closed, “if anyone is listening, going through a struggle.”

Watch Winter Olympics on Peacock

Pates knows what he was describing. The fact that the 27-year-old from Colorado is even competing at these Olympics – much less having advanced to the 12-man Olympic halfpipe final – is one of the most improbable comeback stories in the 2026 Milano Cortina Games.

Once a fast-rising young star in the sport and an Olympian at age 19 in Pyeongchang in 2018, Pates ended up retiring from competitive snowboarding in 2020 for self-described mental health reasons.

“My reason for retirement was rooted in that loss of belief (in myself),” Pates said. “But it also had to do a lot with the presence of mental health issues that I was dealing with. Things like doubt, just negative spiraling, ruminating, depression. I had so much going on, so much anxiety.”

In 2019, Pates suffered a concussion in 2019 while competing, and according to the Team USA website, he initially lied to medical staff to avoid being sidelined. “When I did go back out, I was just all over the place with symptoms,” Pates later told Olympics.com. “Headache, dizziness, nausea, all the above. At the time, I never understood the impact that serious brain injuries could become.”

The ordeal led to Pates starting a non-profit in 2020, the Happy Healthy Brain Foundation, during a time when he also was stepping away from the sport.

“I took a full four years off of competing,” he said. “I would ride a little bit. I had probably two years where I only rode like 10 days each year. That amount of time, especially at the pace this sport progresses, is kind of crazy. … I just feel like I’m so blessed that I’ve been able to make this happen and come back. But I haven’t been able to do it by myself.”

He credits Japan’s Ayumu Hirano, a long-time friend and snowboard competitor (and 2022 halfpipe gold-medalist), and his brother Kaishu for helping convince him to return to the sport and helping train him to have a chance to do it successfully.

Pates returned to world cup competition about two years ago, gradually working to earn a place – through coaches’ discretion, per Team USA – on the 2026 Olympic team that was headed to Italy.

On a chilly Feb. 11 evening in Livigno, Pates fell on his first halfpipe run in Olympic qualifying. True to form, though, he bounced back. He scored a clutch 75.50 on his second run. Pates needed to surpass a 74 to climb into 12th place. A tense wait remained, but none of the final competitors passed him.

“It was kind of a nailbiter,” Pates said, “but we made it happen.”

So the final snowboarder on the U.S. halfpipe team (barely) was now the last finalist in Livigno (barely, again). Pates will be first to drop in a Feb. 13 finals field that’ll also include Ayumu Hirano.

“It’s unreal, man,” Pates said. “The journey has just been crazy. I’m blown away that I’m even at the Olympics, nonetheless being in the finals. Just filled with gratitude.

‘My heart is full.”

Reach Gentry Estes at gestes@gannett.com and hang out with him on Bluesky @gentryestes.bsky.social

CORTINA D’AMPEZZO — Players come, players go and, yet, the result remains the same.

USA women’s hockey has won gold or silver at every world championships since they began in 1990. They’ve won gold or silver at all but one Olympics since women’s hockey made its debut in 1998.

The list of players who’ve worn the U.S. jersey is a who’s who of the game: Cammi Granatto, Angela Ruggiero, Jenny Potter, Julie Chu, Karyn Bye-Dietz, Natalie Darwitz, Hilary Knight, Kendall Coyne Schofield — you get the idea.

While nothing is said outright, every young player knows that history. And has no interest in being part of the team that screws it up.

‘There is definitely some pressure, of course, because we care and we want to keep that standard alive and be playing great USA hockey,” said Caroline Harvey, who despite still being a senior at the University of Wisconsin-Madison is playing in her second Olympics.

‘But it’s more enjoyable than anything because it’s just so exciting,” Harvey said. ‘You’re playing with the best of the best. Definitely nerves at times, but good nerves, and trying to channel that into good things.”

With Hilary Knight already saying these Olympics, her fifth, are her last and Coyne Schofield and four other players 30 or older, Milano Cortina is something of a changing of the guard for the U.S. women.

Of the 23-person team, 12 are newcomers and four made their Olympic debut in Beijing. Seven are still in college and nine are 23 or younger. Of the 10 Americans who are on the list of scoring leaders through the first five games at the Olympics, seven are under 25.

That includes Harvey, who leads all scorers with nine points.

“It’s fun to see a younger version of yourself in them and kind of remind you where you were when you were their age,” Coyne Schofield said. “But also just taking a step back and realizing how incredible they are. They’re leaders in their own way. They (are) young in age only. They’ve won. They’ve scored big goals. They’ve carried a team on their back. They’ve won national championships. They’ve done it all.

‘Whether it’s the Olympic games or not, they’ve pretty much done it all.”

The arrival of the next generation doesn’t mean there won’t still be room for the veterans in the next Olympic cycle. But there is a danger in sticking with what’s worked and expecting that will continue for another four years. (Cough, Canada, cough.)

By integrating the young Americans into the U.S. team while players like Knight, Coyne Schofield and Alex Carpenter are still around and in their prime, it assures the team of sustained success.

‘When I first was a part of the national team, I was like, ‘Well, this is cool. This is an honor (to be) amongst the best.’ But there’s a lot more to it than that. It’s how you represent yourself and you represent your country, on and off the ice, and how you carry yourself. What you’re doing to better yourself and your teammates,” said Laila Edwards, who is an Olympic rookie but is already poised to be one of the next generation’s big stars.

‘I just made sure to take in something every day, whether that was from my teammates, the captains, the coaches,” Edwards added. “I think that’s what the U.S. is about. We’re never content with where we’re at. We’re always wanting to get better.”

The approach is working.

The Americans beat archrival Canada in overtime last April to win the title at the world championships. Since then, the U.S. has outscored Canada by a whopping 29-7, including a 5-0 thrashing in the preliminary round in Milano Cortina.

The Americans are undefeated going into the semifinals, and their plus-25 goal differential is the best of the four teams left.

“It’s incredible where they’re going to take the sport,” Knight said. “They’re already so good … and this is just scratching the surface of what their capabilities are.”