Basketball hotbeds like Indiana, North Carolina, and California have produced some of the game's best players, but all 50 states have featured tremendous talents over the years. Who's the best college basketball player from Arizona? Nevada? What about Montana? Let's explore the best players whose hometowns are in each state.
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The Houston Cougars came back from down double-digits to beat Duke in the Final Four, and then the reverse happened to them in the national championship game on Monday night. Houston lost to the Florida Gators 65-63 in the title game at the Alamodome in San Antonio, Texas, after blowing a 12-point lead in the second half. Florida took the lead thanks to a pair of Alijah Martin free throws with 46 seconds left and then extended their lead to two (65-63) on a Denzel Aberdeen free throw. Houston had the ball following a timeout with 19.7 seconds left. They inbounded the ball from under their basket and then crossed halfcourt with over 15 seconds to go. Things went poorly from there. The Cougars were very slow with the ball and struggled to find someone open. They just didn’t know what to do and gave the ball to Emanuel Sharp, who raised up for a three-point attempt. But Sharp realized his shot was going to be blocked, so he tried to stop himself from shooting. But he let go of the ball and was unable to touch it. His teammates didn’t appear to realize what had happened, which gave Florida an opportunity to dive for the ball to seal the game. That is a painful way to go down. Imagine having the national championship on the line and not even being able to get a shot off in 20 seconds. Brutal. That definitely is not how Kelvin Sampson drew it up.
Video footage from Caitlin Clark’s legendary performance during a scrimmage against a men’s practice team has emerged. Clark was the most recent guest on “My Next Guest Needs No Introduction with David Letterman,” which was released by Netflix. During the sit-down interview portion of the program, Letterman asked Clark about the famous scrimmage she took part in. Clark said that she had scored like 22 points in 2 minutes against a team full of male players who her Iowa Hawkeyes would practice against in college. “We have a practice team that’s just all guys. They have to be students at the university. They basically just volunteer their time. I think we were down 15. So we make a couple threes, we cut it to like, 10. … So I think I had 22 points in 2 minutes was the moral of the story,” Clark recalled. The video showed Clark bombing three-pointers from extremely deep. Clark said that she was motivated by having an audience there to watch the game. “We had a high school girls’ basketball team there that day. So we had a little audience, and they were like jumping out of their chairs, going crazy. Usually I never react when I hit a big shot. Like, I do, but never in a shocked way. After like my fifth three in a row in like a minute, I was like, ‘oh my gosh.’ I couldn’t believe it. We ended up winning, and our boy practice players didn’t hear the end of it. They still don’t,” Clark told Letterman. This isn’t the first time “The Scrimmage” has received some media attention. Wright Thompson wrote about it in a March 2024 feature story about Clark. Thompson wrote that the scrimmage occurred on Oct. 20, 2021, just 15 days before the start of Clark’s sophomore season. Clark’s performance in the scrimmage apparently gave her the confidence to start attempting shots from extremely long range — something she started to become known for as her career went on. Clark averaged 27.0 points per game during her sophomore season. As a senior, she averaged 31.6 points per game and made 5.2 threes per contest. She put together a legendary career, and a lot of that legend was born during the scrimmage.
Former major league pitcher Octavio Dotel died when the ceiling of a nightclub in the Dominican Republic collapsed. He was 51 years old. Details are still emerging regarding the tragedy. The ceiling of the Jet Set nightclub in Santo Domingo collapsed early Tuesday morning. While the total number of casualties is still being determined, dozens were killed. Insider Hector Gomez reported that Dotel was still alive when he was rescued from the rubble Tuesday morning. However, he succumbed to his injuries while being transported to the hospital. Dotel was initially signed as an international free agent by the Mets in 1993. He spent two years in the Dominican Summer League before making his debut stateside in 1995. Dotel worked his way through the Mets system as a starter and was considered the 45th-best prospect in baseball heading into the 1999 season by Baseball America. While Dotel was not able to replicate that success as a starter in the majors, he quickly became a valuable weapon out of the bullpen. His mid-90s fastball, plus slider and curve, made Dotel a formidable option in the later innings. Dotel played for 13 different teams in his career, tied with pitcher Rich Hill and Negro League star pitcher Roosevelt Davis for the second-most teams in MLB history. He posted a lifetime 3.78 ERA and a 1.238 WHIP over his 951 innings, notching 109 saves while striking out 1,143 batters. Dotel reached the postseason five times, winning the World Series with the Cardinals in 2011. Our thoughts go out to the family and friends of the victims.
The Pittsburgh Steelers have a big dilemma coming up at the quarterback position. Besides the Aaron Rodgers saga, the 2025 NFL Draft is filled with so many passers with conflicting stock. The fact that they don't have a second-round pick makes things a little tougher. They have to decide if they want to pass on the best defensive tackles in the class to reach for a quarterback early, trade into the second-round for one, or wait and hope that their guy falls to them in the middle rounds. While making an appearance on The Arthur Moats Experience, former Steelers offensive lineman Trai Essex was asked about the quarterback situation as a whole. He went from coming to terms with the team signing Rodgers, to getting excited about one of the many prospects available in 2025. "If we can get a guy like Jaxson Dart, that would be ideal because he has some of that Ben [Roethlisberger], some of that Josh Allen in him," explained Essex. "Coming from a high-powered offense with [Lane] Kiffin down in Ole Miss, he knows how to sling that thing around too." Jaxson Dart's stock has been all over the place. Some analysts believe he will be selected within the first 10 picks; others think he would go somewhere in Day 2. There is no real accurate way to figure out exactly where he will go and in what round. If Essex's scouting report is correct, however, Pittsburgh may want to not take any chances and make sure to draft him at Pick 21 if he is available. Ben Roethlisberger and Josh Allen definitely have some similarities (including the former's prime of his career): both are known for being big, physical quarterbacks with rocket arms and the ability to escape sacks at will. Allen is a lot faster and more athletic than Roethlisberger, of course, but the two were still near the top of the quarterback mountain. Roethlisberger won two Super Bowls while playing in three of them. Meanwhile, Allen just won his first MVP title. Who knows if Dart can reach that level, but if he can, then the Steelers can finally fix their quarterback conundrum once and for all. They have not had any answers to replacing Roethlisberger since he was in his decline, and that needs to change as soon as possible. Dart is smaller than both Roethlisberger and Allen though. His combine measurements came at 6'2" and 223 pounds, with NFL.com listing him as a "good backup with the potential to develop into starter." Essex's take on him could still be right if his strength all around is top tier, but he likely won't be a Day 1 starter on any team in his rookie year. Steelers Need To Take Their Time With Dart If Dart will be even close to being as good those two stars, he will need to sit in his first year and learn as a backup. Like with many quarterbacks in this draft, he is a project that could blossom if he is given enough time to develop properly. Who knows if he will be good in his second year, but that's not always the cutoff time for first-round prospects. Roethlisberger sat in the first two games of his rookie year before taking the world by storm, and Allen only played in 11 games after being drafted initially. In fact, the latter passer was not seen as a good option until his third year in the league, when he was named the runner-up MVP. It will be ok if Dart doesn't come into the NFL guns a-blazing. Time will tell on how well this kid can really play.