Portland Trail Blazers guard CJ McCollum has been cleared for contact practice as he continues to recover from a left foot fracture, president of basketball operations Neil Olshey announced Thursday.

The Blazers also issued an update on Jusuf Nurkic, saying the center is making progress in his recovery from a right wrist fracture and has continued to increase his on-court activity.

Both players will be reevaluated next week.

McCollum had gotten off to a blistering start to the season before injuring his foot in a win over the Atlanta Hawks on Jan. 16. In 13 games, McCollum averaged 26.7 points and 5 assists.

Nurkic went down just two days prior, injuring his wrist in a loss to the Indiana Pacers on Jan. 14. He had surgery on the wrist a few days later. The 7-foot Bosnian center was averaging 10.3 points and 7.6 rebounds

Despite their absence, the Blazers have stayed competitive in the Western Conference -- thanks in large part to the play of star point guard Damian Lillard. Entering Thursday's games, Portland held the No. 5 seed with a 20-14 record.

NORTH PORT. Fla. -- Atlanta Braves pitcher Max Fried won't make his first scheduled start of spring training because of a potential exposure to someone with COVID-19.

Braves manager Brian Snitker said Thursday that Fried hasn't tested positive for the virus, but the team is taking no chances.

The left-hander had been scheduled to start Friday against the Minnesota Twins.

"We're laying him low for a couple of days," Snitker said.

Fried, a 17-game winner in 2019, went 7-0 with a 2.25 ERA last season and finished fifth in the NL Cy Young Award balloting.

GOODYEAR, Ariz. -- - Cincinnati Reds outfielder Shogo Akiyama returned to spring training after a week away to be with his wife, who was seriously injured when a tree fell on her in a park in Ohio.

Akaya Akiyama was hospitalized after being injured by the tree last week while she was walking in Sharon Woods in Cincinnati. Her husband said Thursday that her condition is improving.

"I was in the hospital with her, I was spending time with [the] kids," the 32-year-old Akiyama said through a translator at the team's spring training complex in Goodyear, Arizona. "I think it was the inevitable time that I needed with this week away."

Manager David Bell said Akiyama won't be in the lineup for a spring training game until Sunday.

The Reds signed the Japanese player to a three-year, $21 million contract before the 2020 season. He played in 54 games last year, hitting .245.

"That's bigger than baseball," Reds pitcher Lucas Sims said. "Being able to see him today, it made us all happy and glad to know that she's doing all right. Hopefully, everything gets back to normal."

SPEED SPORT’s Ralph Sheheen was thrown the keys to a 2021 mid-engine Chevrolet Corvette Z51 and he could not resist the chance to take it for a spin. Check out what Ralph thinks about the latest incarnation of his beloved Corvettes.

HUNTERSVILLE, N.C. — After Michael McDowell won the Daytona 500 to open the NASCAR Cup Series season, many people expected him to have a surge in confidence.

However, McDowell took that wave of momentum and has carried it forward to three top-10 finishes in three races, one of the most prolific stretches in the history of Front Row Motorsports.

It has been one of the feel-good stories of the NASCAR Cup Series season, and the journeyman driver from Glendale, Ariz., shows few signs of slowing down.

He recorded a sixth-place finish last Sunday at Homestead-Miami Speedway.

Asked this week on a media conference call if his run of success was due to better cars, better engines or a rise in confidence, McDowell smiled and shook his head before responding.

“None of the above. I think that it’s a combination of different things and one of those things is that we ran fairly well last year at Homestead,” McDowell tipped. “We had a top-15 car and were able to come back with something very similar with a few adjustments. I think the competition has actually come back toward us. My guys have done a great job. We’ve made our cars a little bit lighter, (added) a little bit more downforce and we’ve made some small gains, but I don’t feel like we’ve done anything different or special as far as engines and chassis and all those things. We’re still getting the same equipment that we got last year.

“I feel like we’re executing better and I feel like starting up front helps a tremendous amount,” McDowell noted. “When you start 25th or 30th, it’s hard to dig yourself out of that hole, so I think that the track position helped us early on. Obviously, we had a car capable of it, but I think there’s a lot of factors to it. We didn’t go out and buy new chassis and buy new cars and have a bunch of new parts and pieces. We’re running the same stuff we ran last year; it’s just that our guys have done a good job of making it a little bit faster and a little bit better.

“And I do feel like (Scott Miller and Jay Fabian) cracking down on some of the shenanigans going on has helped close the gap for us.”

McDowell’s smile was unmistakable in advance of Sunday’s Pennzoil 400 presented by Jiffy Lube at Las Vegas Motor Speedway. It was the look of someone finally understanding what it’s like to run at the head of the pack in the top level of stock car racing after years of effort and heartache.

“It feels great. It’s very rewarding, in particular last week at Homestead,” said McDowell. “It was an awesome team performance, not just on-track, but even our pit stops were good. We came in in the top 10 and left in the top 10 and even gained a couple spots; there’s so much to having good on-track performance. It was just nice to have one of those days where it was all there.

“We had a fast car. We executed well. The strategy was good. The pit stops were good. Not that it was easy, but it was a pretty smooth day altogether and it was a special day for me,” he continued. “I know coming off the 500 it’s hard to compare to that, but to run how we ran at Homestead was very rewarding for us.”

With a win already in hand, McDowell knows his No. 34 Ford team will compete in the NASCAR Cup Series playoffs later this year. It’s a new position for McDowell, who fought for many years just to survive in the sport and make a name for himself.

Considering he’ll be going into uncharted waters in the fall, McDowell admitted his expectations for the future are still unclear. He’s just trying to enjoy the moment.

“You always want to have goals and you always want to have something that you’re trying to achieve, and we have achieved that already, so what does it look like next? I’m not exactly sure what the expectation looks like, but I think the approach and the mentality stays the same, and our approach has always just been to fight hard and give it everything you have,” McDowell said. “I don’t know how we’ll be at Vegas and I don’t know how we’ll be at Phoenix. I would love to be the guy that comes on here and says, ‘Yeah, we’re legit. We’re going to win five races this year and contend for the title,’ but I don’t know that to be true yet.

“What I do know is that we’re going to fight our guts out and we’ll see where we end up, because I don’t know,” he added. “We don’t know whether we’ll have the speed that we did at Homestead or if we’re going to run 20th, but we’ll fight hard and keep pushing at the shop and at the track to keep moving in a good direction. I think that will pay off, but I really can’t tell you where I think we’re at right now.”

Whether more successes like what McDowell is experiencing now are ahead is still to be seen, but he did make one thing clear: he’s having the time of his life and plans to enjoy it while it lasts.

“It’s a fun time to be at Front Row Motorsports. We’re all enjoying it and it’s a tremendous team effort,” said McDowell. “Everybody has worked really hard in all the departments and in all the areas we can to get us to where we’re at.”

The Pittsburgh Penguins have activated Sidney Crosby from the COVID Protocol Related Absence list ahead of Thursday night's game against the Philadelphia Flyers.

Crosby missed Tuesday's game against the Flyers while on the list.

Crosby is tied for the team lead in goals (7), assists (11) and points (19) in 20 games.

Assistant coach Todd Reirden has passed the COVID Protocol, and is cleared to return to his regular duties tonight at PPG Paints Arena.

The Penguins also recalled forwards Anthony Angello and Josh Currie from the taxi squad.

Jose Mourinho said the decision to hand Dele Alli just his second Premier League start of the season against Fulham on Thursday was "not a gift" and was "deserved" reward after his recent performances.

Alli's involvement led to what proved to be Tottenham's winner in their 1-0 win at Fulham. He connected with Son Heung-Min's cross in the first half and his effort and deflected in off Fulham defender Tosin. It was later credited as an own goal.

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It was Alli's first top-flight start since the opening day of the season, as he lined up alongside Harry Kane, Son and Gareth Bale. He played 66 minutes before being replaced, but Mourinho was happy with Alli's performance.

"He deserved it," Mourinho said of Alli's start. "It was not a gift -- it was a consequence of his work. Since he came back into the team and working with the team 100% and becoming fit to play, he did well in the Europa League and coming from the bench against West Ham and against Burnley. He was deserving."

Mourinho would not get carried away with Tottenham's recent run of three wins on the bounce in all competitions, with the side now sitting just three points off the top four.

"I don't want to look at the table -- I want to win matches," Mourinho said. "For a team like us that is playing in two competitions -- Premier League then Europa League -- I don't want to look at table, I just want to win matches."

The Spurs manager would not be drawn on the handball awarded against Fulham player Mario Lemina, which ruled out Fulham's potential equaliser. VAR intervened after Josh Maja looked to have equalised for Fulham in the second half, only for the goal to be ruled out for handball after Davinson Sanchez's clearance hit Lemina's arm with the Fulham player standing a couple of metres away.

Fulham boss Scott Parker said common sense was needed in that instance and said VAR is "killing" the excitement of the game.

"We're trying to make the game so pure and sterile and controlling every phase and moment. We want to see excitement, but VAR is killing every bit of it," Parker said.

"You no longer celebrate a goal -- you're hanging on thinking it'll be disallowed. You're losing the raw emotion of the game we love. My opinion has not changed. I knew slowly along the way -- experiences, disappointment -- will only have a damning effect. Tonight was about common sense for me."

A 2013 internal investigation accused former LSU coach Les Miles of inappropriate behavior towards female students, but did not find that Miles had sexual relationships with any of the women, according to a USA Today report on Thursday.

Citing the investigation, USA Today reported that Miles was accused of "texting female students, taking them to his condo alone, making them feel uncomfortable and, on at least one occasion, kissing a student and suggesting they go to a hotel after telling her he could help her career."

According to the report, Miles strongly denied kissing the girl, and said he didn't do anything wrong; he was mentoring young women at the university. Athletic department staff accused Miles of saying that female student employees who helped lure top recruits to the football team "needed to be attractive, blonde and fit," according to USA Today, and if they didn't fit that description, they should be given fewer hours or fired.

In a statement provided to ESPN, Miles' attorney, Peter Ginsberg, said the release of the Taylor Porter Report "should put an end to the baseless, inaccurate media reports that Coach Les Miles engaged in an inappropriate touching of an Athletic Department student volunteer eight years ago."

"As the Report concludes, the allegation that coach Miles attempted to kiss the woman was supported by no evidence and warranted no discipline: 'We do not believe under existing law and the terms of the contract there is cause to discipline and/or terminate' coach Miles. Coach Miles denied then, as he denies now, that any such conduct occurred."

"Coach Miles learned an unfortunate lesson eight years ago: his naturally open and trusting nature exposes him to false claims by people with a different agenda than his," Ginsberg said. "Coach Miles has always been supportive and friendly with his entire staff - men and women. For this, he has been punished this week by unfair speculation and media attacks. Fortunately for those with whom he works, Coach Miles remains dedicated to his role as mentor and role model."

Miles' attorney said a second woman made a similar allegation, which was not supported in the findings.

The investigation, which was done by law firm Taylor Porter on behalf of LSU, determined "we are unable to determine what occurred" in Miles' car, where the woman said Miles had kissed her twice, according to USA Today. As a result of the findings, LSU issued Miles a letter of reprimand, according to the report, and ordered him to stop hiring student employees to babysit and wasn't allowed to be alone with them anymore.

He also had to attend eight, one-hour sessions with an attorney and pay for it himself. Miles, who is now head coach at Kansas, and his attorney did not immediately return a request for comment. USA Today has reported widespread mishandling of sexual misconduct allegations by LSU's athletic department and administration. As a result, LSU hired law firm Husch Blackwell in November to audit its handing of dozens of sexual misconduct cases since 2016.

The results of that investigation will be released on Friday.

If Cade Cunningham hadn't already gotten your attention, the Oklahoma State freshman standout surely received it on Saturday. Cunningham, the current favorite to go No. 1 in the 2021 NBA draft, dropped 40 points and 11 rebounds on Oklahoma in a critical overtime win for the Cowboys, and he followed that performance by leading OSU to a sweep of its in-state rival two days later. The 6-foot-8, 220-pound Cunningham can seemingly play anywhere on the floor, but it's his potential as a lead guard and facilitator that has NBA scouts salivating. Before he gets to the league, we asked ESPN.com's panel of experts to talk about which stars of the past the Wooden Award finalist most evokes in their minds.

Which college basketball player of the past does Cade Cunningham most remind you of, and why?

Jeff Borzello, college basketball insider: Well, in last week's roundtable, Cunningham was my pick to be this season's Kemba Walker -- and that was before his 40-point effort. I think he could still be that in terms of how he can carry the Cowboys, and how he finds ways to make plays late in games.

Let me throw a wild card at you, though: a bigger Deron Williams. Before you close this window immediately, it's not unbelievable. Both use their strength to power through defenders and finish in the lane, and both guys always play under control -- in transition and in a pick-and-roll or half-court setting -- and rarely get sped up. Williams was more of a volume 3-point shooter than Cunningham, but like Cunningham, he preferred to play off the bounce and get into the lane before finishing on his own or finding teammates. Both also have terrific passing ability and consistently make teammates better. Both guys are the primary playmaker in a very good perimeter group filled with pesky defenders and capable shooters. There might not be a Dee Brown in Stillwater this season, but I'm still going with big Deron Williams as my comp for Cade.

Joe Lunardi, ESPN bracketologist: I'm old enough to remember when Magic Johnson was considered too tall to be an NBA point guard and too slow to thrive in a transition offense. The result of that speculation? "Showtime" and five NBA championships. Understand, no one is saying Cade Cunningham is the next Magic Johnson, but his profound impact on a game is undeniable. If Oklahoma State needed him to play center like Magic once did? Check. Does he defer almost to a fault? Check. Is he still the biggest threat at what Magic called "winning time"? Double check. Cade might not be Magic, but he's at least Ben Simmons with a jump shot.

John Gasaway, college basketball writer: I for one refuse to be intimidated or outdone by all of these deep historical references and all of this archival muscle flexing from Lunardi and Borzello. I'll go even further back in time! Let's see, Jo Jo White. Dick McGuire. Wait, I've got it, Phog Allen, and I mean Allen when he played for Coach Naismith.

Or perhaps the more recent past really is the way to go. I'll take Greivis Vasquez. In 2010, when Vasquez was a senior at Maryland, it was still somewhat rare to see a 6-foot-6 guy with the ball in his hands. The Terrapins ran their offense through Vasquez, and, like Cunningham, he was a playmaker who looked to get to the rim and/or distribute first and consider a 3 only after that or when wide-open. Like Cunningham, Vasquez had the calm mastery with the ball that every coach wants to see in their primary creator. The one place where this comp fails is that Cunningham helps out to a much greater extent on the defensive glass.

If I were really trying to check every box across the board, I'd have to ignore the "player of the past" part of the question and look at Ayo Dosunmu. Cunningham is younger and taller than all of the above, of course, and thus the NBA is quite rightly keen to draft him as soon as possible.

Myron Medcalf, senior college basketball writer: I always love these questions. I was a Big Ten kid. And I remember how unstoppable Jim Jackson was at Ohio State during the 1991-92 season. Like Cunningham, he was a threat everywhere. He made 40% of his 3-pointers while averaging 22.4 PPG. He was a huge, 6-6 guard who was quick enough to split a pair of defenders, fly above the rim or make an impact from the perimeter. He averaged 4.0 APG, too. He also shared Cunningham's reliability at the free throw line (81% success rate).

Jackson's squad won 26 games before losing to Michigan in a memorable Elite Eight game. He was a physically imposing, versatile scoring threat. He was also a defensive standout (1.7 steals per game, second in the Big Ten in the 1991-92 season). You go through that list of All-Americans over the past 40 or 50 years and you won't find anyone quite like Cunningham. But I think Jackson could have been a big point guard in today's college game. Thanks for giving me a reason to watch early-1990s Big Ten basketball highlights -- never forget Rashard Griffith! -- for the past half hour.

On-form silver medallist from 2019 wants to go one better at this year’s European Indoor Championships and take over from Tom McKean

It has been 31 years now since Tom McKean won European Indoor 800m gold. That victory in Glasgow’s Kelvin Hall remains the last time a British man landed that particular prize.

Jamie Webb has already been involved in a piece of middle-distance history this year, however, and feels he is now in prime position to consign that statistic to the past.

The 26-year-old arrives at this year’s championships as a very different athlete to the one who landed silver two years ago – also in Glasgow – at the Emirates Arena.

Until this year, his time of 1:47.13 from that race had been his indoor PB. However, Webb began 2021 with a run of 1:46.95 in Vienna, then followed it up with 1:46.45 in Ostrava and 1:46.26 in Staten Island before producing the run of his life on the very same Toruń track where he is now going for gold this weekend.

Fellow Briton Elliot Giles grabbed all the headlines after winning that World Indoor Tour race and breaking Seb Coe’s 38-year-old British indoor record with the second-fastest run in history, clocked at 1:43.63.

Right behind him, however, Webb also took a massive leap forward thanks to his performance of 1:44.54 – a time which was also inside Coe’s mark of 1:44.91 and moved him to ninth on the all-time rankings list.

Giles has opted not to compete in Toruń and though he will face stiff opposition in the likes of three-time winner and home favourite Adam Kszczot, Spanish defending champion Alvaro de Arriba and Sweden’s Andreas Kramer, Webb is very much aware of the window of opportunity which has opened up in front of him.

“I went in two years ago and expected a performance in myself but didn’t quite believe,” he says of his previous European Indoors experience. “This time I go into it as one of the favourites believing I can perform at that level. I believe I can face up against anyone and give them a race. I have high expectations of myself.

“All my weaknesses have become a lot stronger and I’m a rounded athlete as an 800m runner. The first job is to get through the heats. Come that final, it’s all to play for. I’m sure he [Kszczot] classes himself as the favourite but I’m sure he’s very beatable.”

Webb’s progress so far this year has been made all the more impressive given not just the challenges brought on by the pandemic but also the stress fracture he endured to his femur in April of last year.

“It was definitely a challenging year,” he says. “In April I got my injury and it coincided with the Olympics [being postponed]. I was blessed that I could take the time to really recover.

“That was one the best things I’ve done – to really take a back seat. I had two to three months of doing hardly any exercise and it gave me a really nice platform to build up from.

“From July I came at the sport with a slightly different outlook of pushing my body when I needed to and taking a more laidback approach at times and recovering properly – I think that’s been one of the biggest reasons for my breakthrough this year.

“I’m coming at it from a more mature perspective now.”

The subject of footwear technology has hung particularly heavily in the air following some of the recent track performances. Webb, an Adidas-sponsored athlete who will compete in the old version of their spikes until the latest ‘super’ model is released in May, has been forthright on the topic, admitting to being “stunned” by how fast the new spikes are.

Is there a danger that the discussion will overshadow this weekend’s proceedings?

“I hope not,” he says. “There are a lot of phenomenal athletes here and it’s about championship running now. The beauty of this sport is that it’s about racing and times are only important to a certain extent. There’s so many elements in an 800m, so many things that can go wrong tactically. It’s completely different to a time trial and I’m really looking forward to a good, competitive championships.”

Webb is part of what is a burgeoning British middle-distance scene right now. Laura Muir, Jake Wightman, Giles, training partner Daniel Rowden, teenage talents Keely Hodgkinson and Max Burgin, Jemma Reekie, Keely Hodgkinson … the list of names goes on and is as impressive as it is long.

However, the man who is guided by his father Adrian and former European Indoor 1500m gold medallist Matt Yates insists there is work to be done before any headlines about a ‘golden era’ can deservedly be written.

“I think we’ve got to win things for it to be a golden era, to be honest,” he says. “We’re in a very good spot and you definitely can’t take the foot of the gas.

“I spoke with Elliot about it and I think that’s definitely what’s pushing us forward. What I’ve done so far indoors this year – running 1:44.54 – isn’t necessarily going to be enough to get me on the Olympic team.”

He adds: “We’re all competitive enough and we all know that we want to beat each other. We know how many spots there are and we’re not all going. I get on well with Dan [Rowden] but we still know we need to beat each other. You can keep that fire on the track and it’s nice that get on well at times and respect each other as athletes because we know how hard we work.”

Getting into that gold medal-winning habit may well start in Toruń. Webb’s recent experience of the track and a race in which he “learned a lot” have provided a perfect confidence-booster for a challenge which he hopes will result in him succeeding the aforementioned McKean in the history books.

“I met Tom two years ago in Glasgow actually and he said ‘well done’ to me,” says Webb. “It would be really good to match that [800m gold]. Matt Yates was reminding me of his gold, too, so I’d like to be able to say I’ve won one as well.”