Watching NC State forward DJ Burns Jr. reduce a long line of defenders to barbecue chicken (Shaquille O’Neal’s recipe) this past weekend took Frank Hamrick back to the years he coached the breakout star of the 2024 NCAA tournament in high school. It was in the gym at York Preparatory Academy in Rock Hill, South...
Olivia Madkins has been playing softball since she was 8 years old and knew early on that her dream was to play in college. It wasn’t until the day she got her offer letter to Columbia University, however, that she realized chasing her dreams would also mean making history. She is the first Black player...
As Valhalla, a wrestler who wears antlers and whose face is spray-painted black down to the nose, enters during the WWE streaming event Royal Rumble on Jan. 27, the familiar guitar strums of someone else’s music interrupt. The camera pans from the menacing Valhalla walking toward the ring to R-Truth jogging behind her. R-Truth gives...
As Valhalla, a wrestler who wears antlers and whose face is spray-painted black down to the nose, enters during the WWE streaming event Royal Rumble on Jan. 27, the familiar guitar strums of someone else’s music interrupt. The camera pans from the menacing Valhalla walking toward the ring to R-Truth jogging behind her. R-Truth gives...
For more than a week, LSU women’s basketball coach Kim Mulkey launched a preemptive strike against a Washington Post story that that was expected to drop before LSU’s Sweet 16 game against UCLA. Kent Babb’s well-reported story that dropped on Saturday offered an in-depth though not surprising look into Mulkey’s style as a coach, her...
It’s not enough for South Carolina guard MiLaysia Fulwiley to push the tempo in transition. She blows by two Clemson defenders, fakes a pass and finishes the layup. A few sequences later, she crosses up a defender and drops a no-look dime to forward Ashlyn Watkins. Too skilled. Too fast. Too good. Many plays for...
For the casually initiated, an Academy Award is the key that unlocks doors of opportunities for one’s Hollywood career. But everything that glitters isn’t always gold in a place built on creating and maintaining illusion. Take Louis Gossett Jr., the Academy Award-winning actor who died March 29 at 87. Conventional wisdom says that after winning...
The 2002 NBA All-Star Game contains one of those Kobe Bryant moments that tell you so much about who he was on the court. The game is an exhibition, and players generally don’t care much about who wins. Well, players not named Kobe Bryant. The Philadelphia native wanted to win MVP at home, in the...
BROEDERSTROOM, South Africa – How do you make a strong and fit 6-foot-11 man feel small and short? Witness two-time NBA All-Star Joakim Noah visit the Lion & Safari Park in South Africa. “It’s a different order out there in the wild,” Noah told Andscape from the Lion & Safari Park. “They always say, ‘It’s...
The ‘23-24 Grind Session Power Conference season has come to an end, and it comes with a well-known name in the world of prep school basketball at the top: Prolific Prep. The Napa, Calif. power ran the table throughout the season and defeated Dream City Christian (Glendale, Ariz.), 84-74, at Chicago’s Malcolm X College on...