Trending
Clark to play at Iowa again
INDIANAPOLIS (AP) -- Caitlin Clark and the Indiana Fever will be playing the Brazilian National Team this WNBA preseason at the University of Iowa.
The Fever announced the addition to their preseason schedule Thursday. The game on May 4 will allow Clark to play as a pro with her current team at Carver-Hawkeye Arena where she starred in college on her way to becoming the No. 1 overall pick in the WNBA last spring.
Indiana, scheduled to open the Fever's 25th WNBA season May 17 against Chicago, also has Damiris Dantas on the roster. She played in two Olympics for the Brazilian National Team, at the 2012 London Games and the 2016 Rio Games.
Iowa is retiring Clark's No. 22 on Sunday. Clark finished her college career last season as the all-time leading men's or women's scorer in NCAA Division I history and is widely regarded as a transformational figure in the women's game. The flair of her game and long-distance 3-point shots spawned a legion of fans adorned in her No. 22 jersey at games both home and away.
She then joined fellow All-Stars Kelsey Mitchell and Aliyah Boston in her WNBA debut, helping the Fever reach the playoffs for the 14th time in franchise history.
Cavaliers bounce Hawks
CLEVELAND (AP) -- Darius Garland scored 26 points and Evan Mobley had 16 points and 10 rebounds after both were named All-Star reserves, helping the NBA-leading Cleveland Cavaliers to a 137-115 win over the Atlanta Hawks on Thursday night.
Donovan Mitchell scored 24 points and Ty Jerome added 20 points off the bench for Cleveland (39-9), which has the best home record in the league at 23-3. Jarrett Allen had nine points and 15 rebounds.
Hawks rookie Zaccharie Risacher, the No. 1 overall draft pick, scored 30 points and De'Andre Hunter had 25 points and made all 12 of his free throws. Atlanta has lost a season-high seven straight.
Cleveland built a 29-point lead in beating the Hawks for the first time in three games this season. Atlanta won the first two meetings by a combined 27 points on Nov. 27 and Nov. 29.
Takeaways
Hawks: Point guard Trae Young, who is averaging 22.7 points and a league-high 11.4 assists, was not chosen as an All-Star. He missed 11 of 16 shots and finished with 15 points and 10 assists.
Cavaliers: All-Star starter Mitchell has been the driving force behind Cleveland's three-game winning streak that followed its initial three-game skid of the season, scoring 79 points in 88 minutes.
Div. II player wants more time
MADISON, Wis. (AP) -- Wisconsin cornerback Nyzier Fourqurean has filed an injunction saying the two seasons he played at Division II program Grand Valley State shouldn't count against his college eligibility.
Fourqurean, who completed his senior season at Wisconsin last fall, filed a brief in support of his case Wednesday in U.S. District Court in Madison, Wisconsin.
He brought his case to court after the NCAA denied him a waiver that would have given him an additional year of eligibility.
His attempt to continue his college career comes after a U.S. federal judge granted a preliminary injunction last month enabling Vanderbilt quarterback Diego Pavia, who spent two years at a junior college, to get another year of eligibility.
The NCAA is appealing the Pavia case but also issued a waiver enabling athletes who played at a non-NCAA school for more than one year to compete for one more year if they otherwise would have exhausted their eligibility in 2024-25.
Fourqurean enrolled at Grand Valley State in 2020, when the pandemic canceled the season. He then played at Grand Valley State in 2021 and 2022 before transferring to Wisconsin in 2023.
If he isn't granted additional eligibility, Fourqurean would be required to declare for the NFL draft by Feb. 7 if he wants to continue his football career.
Fourqurean's complaint notes that the NCAA enabled players who competed in 2020 to get an extra year of eligibility because of the pandemic-shortened season but Division II players weren't given that opportunity. It also notes that as a Division II player, he wasn't able to participate in name, image and likeness opportunities given to Division I players.
The complaint says that the NCAA therefore is violating the Sherman Antitrust Act by not granting Fourqurean a waiver and by limiting his economic opportunities to receive NIL benefits because of his prior attendance at a Division II school. The complaint also argues that the NCAA is interfering with the contract Fourqurean has with Wisconsin.
Fourqurean has been a starting cornerback at Wisconsin each of the last two seasons. He had 51 tackles and one interception last season as Wisconsin went 5-7.