Bulgarian side Arda Kardzhali invited club great Petko Ganchev and feted him at their first division match on Wednesday, two weeks after they held a minute's silence for their former player thinking he had died.

When Arda played Levski Sofia last month, players from both sides lined up at the centre circle to honour Ganchev.

But before the day was done, the club posted a message saying they had received "incorrect information about his death" and that the 78-year-old was very much alive.

On Wednesday, the club said their 'legend' was a special guest for their match against Cherno More, where the home side won 4-0. Ganchev also received a jersey with his name and the No. 9.

"Before the match Petko Ganchev saw the sport director Ivaylo Petkov, who gave him a jubilee jersey... He watched the match in the company of other ARDA veterans," the club said.

"Once again we apologise to Petko Ganchev for the gaffe two weeks ago."

Ganchev said he received several phone calls when the club held a minute's silence while his wife was in tears when he got home late to watch the match.

"When I heard the terrible news, I poured myself a little brandy," he had told Bulgarian outlet Blitz.

"To bury you alive is very stressful. Truthfully, the situation was not pleasant."

When Antony was packed off on loan from Manchester United to Real Betis, the Spanish club were convinced they were signing a player who would improve the club's fortunes and not the forlorn figure who had struggled so badly in the Premier League.

Antony arrived at United for an eye-watering fee of nearly 81 million ($105.02 million) in 2022, but by the time he left in January he had lost the spark that had made him a joy to watch at Ajax Amsterdam.

Once hailed for guiding the Dutch club to the Eredivisie title, the Brazilian winger failed miserably to justify his price tag and was loaned to Betis having picked up more bookings than goals scored in two-and-a-half seasons at Old Trafford.

But Betis had a plan for him and although they were ridiculed for their David Lynch-inspired video to unveil their new signing, it is the Seville-based club that is now having the last laugh.

Since his arrival, Antony has four goals and four assists in 12 games in all competitions with Betis fighting on two fronts as they bid to win the UEFA Conference League and secure Champions League qualification for next season.

"I am very happy ... I found myself, I needed to find myself, I needed to be happy, I needed my family to be happy too. Every day that goes by, I see that it's the best decision I've made," Antony told DAZN.

"I am enjoying the city, the club, every day. [Seville] reminds me a lot of things from Brazil -- the sun, the food, everything. The people are also very warm. I'm very happy and that's important for us as Brazilians."

The 25-year-old has rediscovered his confidence on the ball which was largely absent during his time at United.

Betis were 10th when he arrived but now -- on the back of a six-game winning streak which included a 2-1 derby victory over Sevilla -- Manuel Pellegrini's side are sixth, six points from a top-four spot.

Betis have not played in the Champions League since the 2005-06 season and would like to keep Antony at the club beyond the current campaign.

"We have to crowdfund so he can stay at least another year," his teammate Isco said.

"We've noticed a change since he arrived. He brings us a lot. I'm happy to have Antony here, he's surprised us all with his humility and desire to help."

Betis do not have the option to buy Antony but if it were up to him, he would make the Villamarin Stadium his new home.

"I am very grateful to United for everything ... I lived difficult moments at United, but also very good moments," he added.

"I'm also preparing myself to be here today, enjoying myself. And well, today my head is here, I am very happy."

U.S. men's national team midfielder Tyler Adams has voiced his support for the idea of bringing promotion and relegation to MLS, saying it would improve the competitiveness of the league.

Promotion and relegation is the model used by soccer leagues in nearly every country throughout the world, including England, Spain, Germany, Brazil and Argentina, but the idea has been kept at arm's length by MLS since the league's inception in 1996.

However Adams, who plays his club soccer in the English Premier League with Bournemouth, said he has seen the benefits of the system.

"I would like to see [promotion and relegation] it in MLS, in the U.S. I think that would add to the competitive nature of the league," Adams, who captained the USMNT at the 2022 World Cup, told USA Today this week.

"It just gives everyone a lot more to play for when you know there's a risk of going down when you don't play well, so it adds a little bit more pressure, adds a little bit more nerves and excitement for the fans as well. So hopefully one day it's in MLS."

Adams came up through the youth ranks at MLS club New York Red Bulls, before moving to Europe with RB Leipzig in 2019. He experienced relegation from the Premier League to the English Championship with Leeds United in 2023.

Adams' comments come as club owners for the United Soccer League (USL) voted last month to introduce a promotion and relegation system. It marks the first time the system would be implemented in the United States.

In February, the USL confirmed plans to launch a Division One men's professional league in 2027 to rival MLS within the sanctioning standards of the U.S. Soccer Federation.

USL said that league would operate completely separately from MLS, despite working under the same sanctioning by U.S. Soccer as a professional soccer league. This new league would give the USL a three-tiered pro system featuring the Division One, plus a second-division called the USL Championship and third-division USL League One.

MLS commissioner Don Garber has pointed to the lack of promotion and relegation as being a key driver in investment in the league, which has seen expansion fees for climb to $500 million for newest club San Diego FC. However, he has not completely ruled out the system existing in some form in the future.

NJ/NY Gotham FC and United States women's national team defender Tierna Davidson tore the anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) in her left knee and has been added to the NWSL's season-ending injury list, Gotham FC announced on Wednesday.

Davidson exited Friday's scoreless draw with the Houston Dash just before halftime following a noncontact knee injury.

"We are heartbroken for Tierna," Gotham FC general manager and head of soccer operations Yael Averbuch West said in a statement. "Our club will do everything we can to support her through this recovery and rehabilitation process. We know she will come back stronger than ever."

Davidson previously tore her ACL in her right knee in 2022. That injury sidelined her for most of that year, and the long recovery contributed to her missing out on the 2023 World Cup squad.

She left Stanford University early to turn pro in 2019 and was on the roster for the USWNT's World Cup triumph that year.

She was a starting center back for the USWNT last year in its run to a fifth Olympic gold medal. Davidson was voted Gotham FC captain by her teammates prior to the start of the 2025 season in March.

"Tierna is a warrior, is our captain. It was devastating seeing her coming off the pitch how she did but then seeing her on the pitch at the end of the game, it was also a message from her to the team of how strong she is," Gotham FC coach Juan Carlos Amorós said after Friday's game.

Davidson joined Gotham as a free agent ahead of the 2024 NWSL season and quickly became one of the team's defensive anchors.

She was replaced by fullback Gisele Thompson on the USWNT roster that will face Brazil twice over the next week.

The USWNT is also without fellow starting center back Naomi Girma, who has not played internationally in 2025 due to a lingering calf injury.

MIAMI -- Five-time major champion Brooks Koepka admits he hoped the LIV Golf League would be further along in its fourth season as it prepares to play its first tournament in the U.S. starting Friday at Trump National Doral.

The breakaway circuit funded by Saudi Arabia's Public Investment Fund is undergoing a bit of a reset with former Merlin Entertainments CEO Scott O'Neil replacing Greg Norman, in addition to other leadership changes, as well as a new broadcast deal with Fox in the U.S.

"I think we all hoped it would have been a little bit further along, and that's no secret," Koepka said Tuesday. "No matter where you're at, you always hope everything is further along. But they're making progress, and it seems to be going in the right direction."

The league, which has team and individual competitions being played concurrently, shotgun starts and 54-hole tournaments, didn't see a bump in TV ratings in the U.S. in its first four events in 2025, which were played in Saudi Arabia, Australia, Hong Kong and Singapore.

O'Neil, who replaced Norman as LIV Golf's CEO on Jan. 15, is overseeing the league's strategic vision, business operations and global growth. One of his first tasks in his first three months on the job was changing LIV Golf's slogan from "Golf But Louder" to "Long LIV Golf."

O'Neil, 54, was previously the president of Madison Square Garden Sports and oversaw operations of the New York Knicks and New York Rangers. He later managed the Philadelphia 76ers and New Jersey Devils as CEO of Harris Blitzer Sports & Entertainment before taking over Merlin Entertainments, which operates theme parks and hotels around the world.

"There's a place for LIV Golf in the world," O'Neil told ESPN on Tuesday. "That's one thing I've 100 percent committed to. I think the notion of being the F1 of golf is real. It's 100 percent real. Auto racing is a really interesting analogy because in the U.S. you've got NASCAR and you've got the [IndyCar] Series, and then you've got F1, and they all work pretty well together."

LIV Golf and the PGA Tour haven't worked together since Norman disrupted the sport by poaching several of the tour's top stars, including Koepka, Bryson DeChambeau, Jon Rahm, Dustin Johnson and others, with guaranteed contracts reportedly worth more than $100 million.

The PGA Tour and the PIF sued each other in federal court, but the lawsuits were dropped when they signed a framework agreement on June 6, 2023, to form an alliance that would reunify the sport. That deal expired at the end of 2023, but the sides have continued to try to hammer out a deal the past two years.

PIF governor Yasir Al-Rumayyan met with PGA Tour commissioner Jay Monahan and player directors Tiger Woods and Adam Scott for more than four hours at the White House on Feb. 20.

U.S. President Donald Trump also met with Monahan and Scott in Washington on Feb. 4. Trump owns the golf course where LIV Golf is competing this week.

O'Neil isn't a part of the negotiations between the PIF and PGA Tour, but receives regular updates from Al-Rumayyan. Sources have told ESPN that team golf's place in the sport, and whether the LIV Golf League would continue to be played in its current form, are big obstacles in the negotiations.

"The reality of the way I see the world is I see the LIV Golf League with a lot of hope and a lot of future," O'Neil said. "I hope that we find a way to get more opportunities to have the best players in the world playing together. It might not be in a nice, neat bow, or it might be. We'll see."

O'Neil has been welcomed a bit more than Norman was by golf's establishment. O'Neil will attend next week's Masters, the first major of the season, after being invited by Augusta National Golf Club. Norman, a three-time Masters runner-up, had to purchase tickets to attend the 2024 tournament. A dozen LIV golfers are in the Masters field, including five past champions.

O'Neil declined to say whether LIV Golf has extended contracts for golfers who joined the circuit in its early days. O'Neil did point out that LIV Golf extended its contract with the South Australian state government to host a tournament at The Grange Golf Club in Adelaide through 2031. An estimated 100,000 fans attended the Australian tournament in each of the past two seasons.

Bringing that excitement to the U.S. is the next step. According to published reports, about 34,000 viewers watched the final round of Joaquin Niemann's victory in Singapore on March 16 on FS1.

An average of about 3.6 million viewers (with a peak of 6.2 million) watched the final round of the Players Championship on the same day, and about 1.5 million tuned in to see Rory McIlroy defeat J.J. Spaun in a playoff at TPC Sawgrass the next day.

O'Neil called the U.S. a "pretty saturated market," and said the league is doing well in terms of viewership around the world. He said 2.5 million watched LIV Golf's season opener in Saudi Arabia on Feb. 6-8.

"It's not that the facts aren't accurate," O'Neil said. "It's just we're playing a different game. Check our ratings in the Middle East. Check our ratings in Europe when we're playing there.

"I like where we are, like our positioning. I like being a global sports league. I think that's different. I'm happy to be held accountable for ratings on Friday, Saturday, Sunday. I'm happy to take a beating, quite frankly, if they're not high enough. Nobody can possibly be any more critical of us than us."

Defensive end Trey Hendrickson said Wednesday he's disappointed and confused by Cincinnati Bengals executive Katie Blackburn's recent comments on his contract talks with the team.

On Tuesday, at the NFL's annual meeting, Blackburn, the Bengals' executive vice president, said of Hendrickson, "I think he should be happy at certain rates that maybe he doesn't think he'd be happy at. I think some of it is on him to be happy at some point, and if he's not, you know, that's what holds it up sometimes. So, you know, it takes him to say yes to something, and also, we have all the respect in the world for him."

Hendrickson, who is looking for a new contract after posting 17.5 sacks each of the past two seasons, expressed his displeasure with those comments Wednesday in an appearance on "The Pat McAfee Show."

"First off, yesterday was April Fools' [Day] so I was traded to all 31 teams and had like a hundred different contracts. The one thing I was hoping was an April Fools' joke [were those comments]. Called my agent [Harold Lewis], found out it was not and that was a little disappointing because the communication has been poor over the last couple of months," he said.

Hendrickson said the Bengals have not communicated with his agent directly about his contract, saying that has "been something that's been a little bit frustrating."

"We're on the D-end National Football League Street. The market value for that is going up like it did for wide receivers last year. Where I fit in that road is all up to discretion. We're willing to talk about those things. With the market continuing to go up, I'm not going to apologize for that, because I've been basically asking for the same thing every year, to be solidified as a Cincinnati Bengal for life."

Trey Hendrickson

Hendrickson, who is set to enter the final year of his contract, said the team told him in a meeting with his agent last year that something would get done with his contract this year, which he said was reiterated at the scouting combine in February.

"Open line of communication is always open with me and my agent so if they have anything they'd like to discuss, we've been nothing but willing to listen," he said.

Hendrickson, 31, is coming off his best season in the league. He led the NFL in sacks and was named to the All-Pro team for the first time in his career. Hendrickson also made the Pro Bowl for the fourth straight season. However, at $21 million, he ranks 10th among edge rushers in average annual salary, according to OverTheCap.com.

Hendrickson's contract is the final hurdle remaining for the Bengals in an offseason where they also needed to address deals for wide receivers Ja'Marr Chase and Tee Higgins. The Bengals took care of both of their star wide receivers last month, signing Chase to a four-year, $161 million extension and Higgins to a four-year, $115 million contract.

"Through this process, communication, when I say it's been poor, it's been like here and there," he said. "And respect to Ja'Marr and Tee. I don't want to take anything from all the great things they've accomplished in their careers. They deserve everything that they've gotten and no doubt in my mind they're going to excel in the National Football League. I have a tremendous respect for both of them. But when it comes to my situation, it would have been nice to know in some ways like, 'Hey we're going to put you in the queue,' no problem with me."

Hendrickson said he's not looking to become the highest-paid defensive end or "first in line" to get a deal done but with organized team activities set to begin later this month, there's an urgency to get something done.

"When you have things like OTAs coming and guys like Sam Hubbard, who's been a tremendous captain for our team last year, that leaves a vacancy for that and I'm excited to fill that but how do we reach that before we get there. Those are the things that matter when you're talking about a Super Bowl. It's in the little things and the little details," he said.

Hubbard, also a defensive end, announced his retirement from the NFL last month after seven seasons with the Bengals.

The Bengals had granted Hendrickson permission to seek a trade earlier this offseason, but so far there have been no developments on that front. Asked Wednesday if he has a deadline in mind on when he needs to get a deal or if it comes to it, force a trade, Hendrickson said he doesn't know if he "can put a time stamp" on that.

"That's where to read what I read yesterday was confusing, like it's my decision. I would have been willing to sign three years ago, two years ago and this year. It was communicated to me we would get something done this year and reiterated with [director of player personnel] Duke [Tobin]'s comments at the combine. I treat it like a house now, house value has gone up, it's the cost of living. In some ways life continues to go forward. I know I'm a football player. I'm training to be the best Trey Hendrickson I can be, and however that looks, whatever team, we can address that," he said.

Regarding his contract, he said "there are things I'm willing to do and things I'm not willing to fudge on."

"I don't think I want to play for incentives that will be out of my control. I don't think I want to play on a short-term contract and see where it goes. I would like to be able to tell my wife, here's where we're going to build a family together," he said.

He noted that the price keeps going up each year based on contracts signed by his peers the past few years. Just this year, both Maxx Crosby and Myles Garrett have reset the edge rusher market with their deals.

"Three years ago, it was the Rashan Garys, the Montez Sweats, those guys were balling out. The next year it was the Brian Burns, the Josh Allen deals, they were balling," he said. "Now it's getting to the point where guys with two years left on their deals, Maxx Crosby, Myles Garrett, guys with one year left on their deals Danielle Hunter, myself, TJ [Watt] and obviously Micah Parsons, he's an incredible athlete as well.

"I see that as that's the street. We're on the D-end National Football League Street. The market value for that is going up like it did for wide receivers last year. Where I fit in that road is all up to discretion. We're willing to talk about those things. With the market continuing to go up, I'm not going to apologize for that, because I've been basically asking for the same thing every year, to be solidified as a Cincinnati Bengal for life."

ESPN's Ben Baby contributed to this report.

THE GAME WAS over, but the noise wouldn't stop. Rebecca Lobo and her UConn teammates were ready to head out after a historic victory. But as they walked out of the locker room toward the Gampel Pavilion court, Huskies fans were trying to make time stand still, lingering in the arena long after the final buzzer had sounded.

"The people were still there. Like, singing 'R-E-S-P-E-C-T.' It was like a party no one wanted to leave," Lobo told ESPN. "A euphoric sort of feeling. Almost like they were afraid that if they left, the feeling would go away."

It was Jan. 16, 1995, and No. 2 UConn had defeated top-ranked Tennessee 77-66. It was billed as the first meeting between a traditional powerhouse and an up-and-coming program -- it ended up being one of the most important games in women's basketball history.

On Martin Luther King Day, the game was televised on ESPN at a time when the sport still had limited broadcast exposure. The Associated Press postponed Top 25 poll voting for a day to account for the outcome, an unprecedented delay.

"The energy in the building -- everything about it made it feel like the magnitude that it ended up being," Lobo said. "We had never experienced anything like that."

But the victory was a pivotal step in a season that changed the Huskies' lives, their program and the sport. Over the next 2 months, UConn put the finishing touches on a 35-0 season and won its first NCAA title, including another victory over Tennessee in the national championship game in Minneapolis on April 2, 1995.

The Huskies' 1994-95 journey, culminating in the second perfect season in Division I women's basketball history, included a preseason trip to coach Geno Auriemma's homeland of Italy, a new offense popularized by Phil Jackson's Chicago Bulls, the launch of the game's biggest rivalry and the birth of several legends.

In the years that followed, Auriemma's Huskies have gone on to win 10 more national titles -- and go for their 12th this weekend in Tampa, Florida. With all that winning, it's easy for some championship details to blend together or be lost to time. But not when it comes to the first one.

"That one's still as if it was last week," Auriemma told ESPN.

THE SEEDS OF UConn's championship run were sowed in 1994. That March, the Huskies lost in the Elite Eight to eventual champion North Carolina, a disappointing end to the program's first 30-win season. But the Huskies were optimistic for the following year, when they would return all their major players and add freshman sensation, and Connecticut native, Nykesha Sales.

That summer, the team went on a European trip to Belgium and Italy (Auriemma's home country), an opportunity to gauge the Huskies' process on the basketball court and to bond off it.

One night, Auriemma went from ordering his players around on the court to ordering them to wash dishes. He took the team to a restaurant where there was no English menu, so he made the choices. And a lot of players didn't finish their food.

Lobo, UConn center, 1991 to 1995: "Coach made us all bring our plates back into the kitchen and wash them. He thought we were being ungrateful. Like, 'Don't act like spoiled young kids [because] the food isn't something you're used to eating.' It was a lesson about accountability.

"Really, that's a big part of the culture at UConn -- then and still now."

When Auriemma wasn't instilling life lessons, the team experienced the typical thrills (and occasional mishaps) of traveling and playing abroad.

Chris Dailey, UConn associate head coach, 1985 to present: "Jamelle [Elliott] and Kara [Wolters] got stuck in a small elevator when we were coming home from Milan. Jamelle was so mad. She said it was because Kara's bag was too heavy and because they have the smaller elevators [in Europe]. To this day, we talk about that, and I think Jamelle's a little more cautious going into elevators. But if you saw Kara's bag, you wouldn't have gotten in the elevator, either. It was humongous. She's the worst packer ever."

From a basketball standpoint, the trip couldn't have gone much better. Auriemma and Dailey used the trip to install a triangle offense. They were also preparing to incorporate Sales, who as a freshman wasn't on the trip, into the mix. After seeing how well the Huskies fared against professional European squads, the team felt confident going into the season.

Dailey: "We played five games, and it was our last game. We were in an arena that had the plastic over it because fans throw stuff at teams when they play professionally. Kara Wolters got hurt in warmups, something with her back, so we literally only had five players. And at one point, I think Pam Webber ended up with a triple-double, and one of those was with fouls. They just let her keep playing because we didn't have anyone to sub." But the groundwork was laid.

Auriemma: "Once we got over there and I saw us play, I was convinced when we got back and put Nykesha in the mix, 'Man, it's going to be hard to beat this. We just have a lot.'"

The lineup included point guard Jennifer Rizzotti and an inside combo of 6-foot-4 Lobo, 6-7 Wolters and 6-foot Elliott. Rizzotti and Elliott were so competitive, they couldn't be put on opposing teams during practices or pickup games.

Auriemma: "Jen and Jamelle are just sled drivers. Everything had to be according to their standards."

Rizzotti, UConn guard 1992 to 1996: "Rebecca and [fellow senior] Pam [Webber] were much more of calming leaders for us, like the voices of reason in the locker room after games."

Ranked No. 4 in the preseason poll, the Huskies immediately clicked. Their closest game in November-December was decided by 23 points. Still, Lobo said the Huskies didn't really think about the pressure of trying to win a national championship.

Lobo: "We weren't walking into Gampel looking at all the banners then, like players do now."

Sales, UConn guard/forward 1994 to 1998: "We really had some good, tough, hard-nosed leaders that can get the best out of you on the court but also had great relationships with you off the court, which really matters. They did everything they preached. They came ready, they played hard, they were tough and gritty and knew the game."

Dailey: "We were definitely not the most talented group, but we were the best team. It's about chemistry, how to play and playing together. We were better at that than everybody we played that year."

ONE DATE LOOMED large: Jan. 16. ESPN brokered a matchup between the Huskies and Tennessee, which at that point had won three NCAA titles. Lady Vols coach Pat Summitt agreed to come to Storrs, Connecticut, two days after playing at Auburn.

Holly Warlick, Tennessee assistant coach, 1985 to 2012: "Pat was always going to do whatever was best for women's basketball to grow. UConn was up and coming, and she thought it was important for us to play them. Plus, Pat always wanted to get ready for the NCAA tournament. She just accepted the challenge.

"We as assistants weren't always very happy. Like, 'growing the game' again? Can't we just worry about trying to win?"

Dailey: "Tennessee's thing back then, they would put two big guys on the block and throw it in and dare you to be able to guard them and stop 'em. And they would pressure you and press and press and press. So every day from the first day of practice, we had our practice players pressure our guards."

Auriemma: "The practice the day before, I think it lasted like 45 minutes or something. I had to stop. It was just ruthless. Those guys were so ready to play. It was unbelievable."

Dailey: "Then they didn't even press us, but we were ready for it."

Tennessee was 16-0, UConn 12-0. The Huskies had a 41-33 lead at halftime, and the Lady Vols never got closer than four points in the second half. Wolters had 18 points, Rizzotti 17. Lobo had 13 points, 8 rebounds, 4 assists and 5 blocks.

Mimi Griffin, ESPN analyst, who called the game with Robin Roberts: "Women's basketball had great rivalries before, but the masses did not know about them. This one particular game established a rivalry with sustainability at the highest level, and in the backyard of ESPN and New York-based media. All the stars aligned."

Later that night, several players attended the UConn men's game versus Georgetown in Hartford.

Dailey: "They were walking down [into the stands], they get a standing ovation. It was just this moment that will always stand out to me."

The UConn-Tennessee rivalry ultimately consumed women's basketball for the next decade-plus. But in the moment, it reaffirmed the Huskies' confidence for the rest of their season.

Carla Berube, UConn forward, 1993 to 1997: "That game probably just put in our minds, 'We can play with anybody. We can beat anyone in the country.'"

Auriemma: "Maybe because of what happened the year before, we were determined to not take our foot off the gas or go to practice and pretend like we're way better than we are. I was able to coach them really hard, really demanding. The more I pushed them, the more they wanted to be pushed.

"I had never been through a season where the feeling was, 'If we show up every day and play, I don't think anybody can beat us.'"

Rizzotti: "That was the first year they were really starting to show women's basketball highlights. As the season continued, and we stayed undefeated, ESPN kept putting us on 'SportsCenter.' So it was a big ritual for us: Watch 'SportsCenter' and see what Keith Olbermann would say about us."

UCONN GOT ANOTHER confidence-building win in front of 17,000 fans in Kansas City, Missouri, against No. 17 Kansas on Jan. 28 in a nationally televised doubleheader with the Huskies men's team, which was also unbeaten heading into its game.

Rizzotti: "It was the first time we ever chartered anywhere with the men's team, which was probably the last, because they lost and we won. We're on the charter [to go home] and CD's like, 'You've got to be quiet in the back.'"

Auriemma: "The ride out there was a trip, and the ride back was an LSD trip. I sat all the way in the back, like I charged a toll. You had to go by me to go use the restroom. I would not have wanted to be in [the UConn men's team's] shoes that ride home."

The spotlight in Storrs intensified, especially on Lobo, the front-runner for national player of the year.

Auriemma: "Unfortunately for Rebecca, but fortunately for the rest of them, she took the brunt of it all. Eventually, the only way we could somewhat get a handle on it is we just stopped sending her to press conferences, just started sending other people. But even that didn't necessarily calm anything down."

Lobo: "At St. John's, I went to the scorer's table to check into the game. A St John's player was there at the same time, and the game wasn't particularly close. She said to me, 'After the game, can I get my picture with you?' I was blown away, thinking, 'What? We're competing against each other!'"

Rizzotti: "She was the face of the program in a way that no one had ever had to deal with before. She was a rock."

Even Auriemma, whose wisecracking personality was perfect for entertaining the media, at times got overwhelmed by all the attention.

Auriemma: "I was like, 'I can't handle all this.' When we won the Big East championship that year, I said to [wife] Kathy, 'We've got to get out of town.' We went to Newport, Rhode Island, for two-three days, because we didn't have practice.

"But you couldn't get away from it. I never knew it would become like that on a regular basis."

UCONN WON ITS first three NCAA tournament games -- over Maine, Virginia Tech and Alabama (a Final Four team the year before) -- by an average of 35.7 points. At the regional in Storrs, Virginia was the Huskies' last hurdle to the Final Four. UConn jumped ahead, but the Cavaliers rallied and took a seven-point lead at the break. It was the only time all season the Huskies trailed at halftime.

Auriemma: "I was scared to death: 'We're not even going to get to the Final Four.' This is ridiculous."

Lobo: "Jen and Jamelle came in [to the locker room], and they were like, 'Come on, let's go! We're going to kick their asses in the second half. We are not losing this game!' As players, they were the two toughest SOBs on any team. So then I had a feeling like, 'Yep, we got this.'"

Auriemma: "I went in at halftime. Apparently, Jen and Jamelle had already read the riot act in there, so I guess whatever I said didn't matter anymore. But they came out and played great."

Still, it was tense until the end. The Huskies, up by three, forced a critical five-second violation by the Cavaliers with 19 seconds left.

Berube: "I do remember feeling a little stressed, like, 'This can't be the end. This is not how this was written.' Our defense finally came through when it needed to."

Stanford, which had defeated UConn in three previous meetings, awaited the Huskies in the national semifinals in Minneapolis. The programs had gone head-to-head for some recruits, including Lobo. At the time, the relationship between Auriemma and Stanford coach Tara VanDerveer was frosty.

Lobo: "There was a lot going into that game -- a feeling like we had been disrespected. We had played out there my junior year and lost. During our warmups then, we had been counting our made shots and clapping; it's just something you do. Somebody heard one of their players say, 'Oh, they can count!'"

The flexibility allowed by the triangle offense worked perfectly against the Cardinal. The Huskies won 87-60, led by Wolters' 31 points and nine rebounds.

Lobo: "I had not expected it to be so easy."

VanDerveer, Stanford coach, 1985 to 2024: "They were experienced. They played well together. They had a plan. By the Final Four, they were playing with a lot of confidence and just had a lot of weapons. Because they had never won, they were just very hungry. That was a really special team."

Auriemma: "[Then VanDerveer's] prediction was, 'There's no way they can beat Tennessee' in the final. How's that make any sense? We just beat you by 27. Pick us and make yourself look good."

The Huskies and Lady Vols had less than 24 hours to prepare for the championship game; this was the last year that the women's semifinals and final were on back-to-back days. With all the fan attention and frenzy surrounding the team, UConn stayed outside the city instead of at the NCAA-provided hotel in downtown Minneapolis.

Lobo: "That whole weekend was a whirlwind. It felt like if we weren't on the basketball court, we were somewhere accepting an award for something. Sleep had never been an issue for me. Now here I was before the national championship game, having the hardest time getting any sleep. And it was this ridiculous turnaround. I probably got like four hours of sleep that night."

UConn was still unbeaten, but Tennessee had won championships before. The Huskies didn't like being considered the underdog, and then the Lady Vols irritated Rizzotti even before tipoff.

When the Huskies went to warm up, the Tennessee players were stretching in the center circle, including on UConn's side of the court.

Rizzotti: "It was kind of an audacious statement to think that you could just sit on our half of the court because that's what you did every other game of the year. I told them to get off. And they all looked at me. I walked over the scorer's table, and I said, 'Get them off our half of the court. We're trying to warm up.' They made the move."

Lobo: "That just pissed her off, which was the wrong thing for them to do. Jen will look for anything to use as a sign of disrespect to get motivated; to this day, she's like that in her personality."

Then the game started, and whistles became the Huskies' biggest concern. Lobo, Wolters and Rizzotti were in foul trouble in the first half.

Lobo: "I got my third foul on a screen-and-roll; Dee Kantner called it, and I still give her a hard time for it. I don't think it was a foul, but it also probably was a stupid risk for me to take on the roll."

Auriemma: "We were down six at halftime and I was very calm, actually. I said, 'So we have three All-Americans sitting on the bench, and we're down six. If we played against anybody and their three All-Americans are sitting on the bench, how much do you think would be up at halftime? And they're like, '20.' I go, 'Exactly. It's not going to end like this.'

"And in the last 10-12 minutes of that game, Rebecca became Rebecca Lobo, national player of the year."

Lobo: "I just ran the baseline, demanded the basketball, got it, turned and shot it. And the shots were going in. It was a different feeling than I had ever felt before -- like I'm going to take a little bit more ownership of this."

"Then I looked up at the clock, saw the time and the score, and it hit me that there was no mathematical way that we could lose the game."

Auriemma: "The biggest shot of the game was, I think, Nykesha threw it to Jamelle and Jamelle scored to give us the lead late in the game against a kid like 6-foot-3. Jamelle was barely 5-10, 5-11. And I thought, 'That's the one right there.'"

UConn won the national championship 70-64 behind Lobo's 17 points and eight rebounds, with four other Huskies scoring in double figures. The image of Lobo running back toward the UConn bench with arms in the air defined the moment.

LATER, BACK AT the team's hotel, the celebration was on for the team, their families and supporters. A "guardian angel," as Lobo put it, had filled the tub in her and Rizzotti's room with ice and alcohol.

Eventually, Auriemma and most of the players gathered in his suite with a VHS tape of the game to watch.

Auriemma: "They're introducing the starting lineups, and they're sitting there booing the introductions. I was sitting on the couch, trying to keep myself awake or something. The game's going on. They're yelling and screaming, throwing stuff, and I was running commentary and they're like, 'Shut up!''

Lobo: "At some point, because he can't help himself, he starts rewinding and treating it as if it's a film session. Missy Rose, who was a sophomore that year, just looks at him and flips him the double bird. It was just so perfect. It was something she would never do in a real-world environment. But we had just won the national championship and we're enjoying one of the greatest celebratory moments of our lives."

Eventually the players dispersed, and with his family asleep, Auriemma took in the moment alone.

Auriemma: "That's probably when it really hit me. And then I heard a thump and open the door. There's the paper, back when they used to give the newspaper at a hotel. I am sitting there reading [about the victory] in USA Today. And I go, 'Yeah, I was there.'"

But a bigger celebration -- seemingly with everyone in the state of Connecticut -- was still to come. Along with all the new expectations. UConn had crossed over into superpower territory.

Auriemma: "We were flying back from Minneapolis. I said to Jeff Hathaway, our assistant [athletic director] at the time, 'Isn't there a way that we can have what we have and do what we just did, but not have to deal with what's coming next?' He said, 'No, unfortunately, those two things go together.'"

Lobo: "We land at Bradley Airport, and there's thousands of people there on the other side of the chain-link fence. We go over to greet them, and we're all massively hung over and exhausted. All we want to do is sleep.

"Then we get on these charter buses to get to campus ... people lining the sides of the highway, on the overpasses. They had signs, like they had spray painted on a sheet, 'Go UConn, national champs.' We couldn't help but joke it was reminiscent of the summer in 1994 and the O.J. Bronco chase."

Auriemma: "It's like man landing on the moon. [TV] helicopters flying above us ... they interrupted the soap operas to show where our bus was."

Dailey: "I think of Nykesha Sales' mother. She was at the Bloomfield exit. Ever since, for every other championship, she's been there."

Lobo: "We get on campus and find out we're still not able to go home, there is a reception at Gampel that afternoon. And it's completely packed. We were super appreciative, of course. Then it was like, 'Can we finally go to sleep?'"

For Lobo, the circus never slowed down. She went on talk shows like "Late Show with David Letterman," missed her graduation because of U.S. national team commitments and became one of the first three players to sign with the WNBA. Now an ESPN analyst and mother of four, she thinks back on how magical UConn's 1995 title run was.

Lobo: "I understand the perfect storm of all the factors that came into play: us being in the backyard of ESPN, the proximity to New York media, the NHL strike [during the 1994-95 season] that meant there were more minutes available on 'SportsCenter.' That we were undefeated.

"But I do sort of believe in the fate part of it. I knew I wanted to play for Coach Auriemma and that I belonged there. I believed it so much; it drove me to be able to tell my parents for the first time in my life that I was doing something against their wishes. They didn't want me to go there.

"It sounds obnoxious when teams say something like they were 'destined to win.' But it did feel like there was something set in motion that helped us play a role that we were meant to play."

Dailey: "There will never be another feeling like the first time that we won a national championship. I don't think it could ever be better."

Oklahoma freshman guard Jeremiah Fears will enter the 2025 NBA draft and forgo his remaining college eligibility, he announced on ESPN's "The Paul Finebaum Show" on Wednesday.

"I was lucky to walk into a great situation at Oklahoma with a lot of opportunity," Fears said. "I had great teammates and coaches working with me every day to help a young freshman achieve his dreams."

Fears, the No. 7 prospect in ESPN's NBA draft projections, was named to the SEC All-Freshman team after averaging 17.1 points, 4.1 rebounds and 4.1 assists in 30 minutes per game this season.

Glen Taylor has agreed to the Marc Lore-Alex Rodriguez group acquiring 100% ownership of the Minnesota Timberwolves and Minnesota Lynx at the same $1.5 billion price the sides reached agreement on in 2021, sources told ESPN.

As part of the agreement, Taylor decided not to appeal an arbitrators' ruling from February that ruled in favor Lore-Rodriguez in a dispute over the sale contract.

The NBA has started the transfer process, including ultimately holding a board of governors vote, sources said.

Lore and Rodriguez initially agreed to purchase the team from Taylor in 2021 in a three-part sale. The first two tranches, totaling 36% of the teams, changed hands for about $500 million as planned. But in March 2024, Taylor called off the sale when he believed Lore and Rodriguez breached terms of the sale agreement and missed a deadline to finalize the deal.

There was a disagreement, and the issue eventually went to arbitration, where Lore and Rodriguez prevailed in a split decision among a three-judge panel.

In the meantime, Lore and Rodriguez shored up their group by adding partners, including billionaire former New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg, billionaire former Google executive Eric Schmidt, and Blue Owl Capital, an NBA-approved private equity fund. The group raised an additional $950 million and put it in escrow to demonstrate that it was prepared to execute the transaction.

Over the past six weeks, the Lore-Rodriguez group and Taylor held discussions and came to an agreement to finalize the deal.

Taylor, 83, purchased the Wolves in 1994 for $94 million, saving the team from a possible relocation to New Orleans. He had put the team on the market and pulled it off several times over the past two decades.

Ten-time NBA All-Star Carmelo Anthony has been notified that he has been elected into the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame Class of 2025, sources tell ESPN's Shams Charania.

Anthony, a six-time ALL-NBA selection, was drafted third overall by the Denver Nuggets in 2003, a draft that featured LeBron James going first to the Cleveland Cavaliers and Dwyane Wade going fifth to the Miami Heat.

Anthony quickly developed into one of the league's premier scorers, averaging 21 points per game over the course of his rookie season. He would go on to average 24.8 points, 6.3 rebounds and 3.1 assists over eight seasons and 564 games for the Nuggets, which included a Western Conference finals loss to the Los Angeles Lakers during the 2008-09 season.

In 2011, Anthony was traded to the New York Knicks as part of a blockbuster three-team deal as the Baltimore native returned to the East Coast and quickly became a fan favorite for a Knicks fan base that was clamoring for a superstar. He led the NBA in scoring in 2013 but could not lead the Knicks beyond the second round of the playoffs that season. Melo would average 24.7 points, 7.0 rebounds and 3.2 assists in 412 games with the Knicks.

After seven seasons with the Knicks, Melo was traded to the Thunder ahead of the 2017 campaign but spent just one season in Oklahoma City. He then spent parts of the next five seasons with the Houston Rockets, the Portland Trail Blazers and the Lakers, joining L.A. for 2021-22, his final season in the NBA. He would finish with career averages of 22.5 points, 6.2 rebounds and 2.7 assists per game over his 19-year career while shooting 44.7% from the floor, 35.5% from 3-point land. Anthony finished with 28,289 points, good for 10th on the NBA's career scoring list.

As a collegian, Anthony made his one-and-only season at Syracuse count, leading the Orange to the 2003 NCAA championship and earning Most Outstanding Player honors along the way.

Anthony also starred for the United States in Olympic play, capturing a bronze medal in 2004 followed by three straight gold medals during the 2008, 2012 and 2016 Games, finishing as the most-decorated American men's Olympic basketball player of all time.