Actually a Sports Blog

Paige Bueckers (Dallas): 768 Minutes in 23 Games Sonia Citron (Mystics): 829 Minutes in 26 Games Kiki Iriafen (Mystics): 673 Minutes in 25 Games  Lucy Olsen (Mystics): 264 Minutes in 22 Games Hailey Van Lith (Chicago): 335 Minutes in 24 Games Aari McDonald (Fever): 403 Minutes in 16 Games  Li Yueru (Wings): 338 Minutes in 15 Games  Julie Vanloo (Sparks): 96 Minutes in 7 Games Chloe Bibby (Fever): 11 Minutes in 1 Game  Through July 28  DeWanna Bonner: now at 391 games for the Mercury  

If anyone needs some upcoming vacation time, the locations of the next three Frozen Fours (Division I men's ice hockey) have been announced: The 2026 installment will be in Las Vegas for the debut time- Thursday, April 9th and Saturday, April 11th- although T-Mobile Arena is in Paradise, Nevada, it's technically part of the Las Vegas metropolitan area.  In 2027 (Thursday, April 8th and Saturday, April 10th), the Frozen Four will be hosted by Washington, D.C. for the first time since 2009 at Capital One Arena. And in 2028 (Thursday, April 6th and Saturday, April 8th), Chicago and the United Center will host the tournament for the first time since 2017. 

This isn't about who's *in* the field- that's material for another post- but rather about who's *not* in the field- previous winner Dakota Ditcheva (not surprising, given that she hadn't committed to another run through a tournament format). With the headline that the reigning champion isn't in the field, was this the right call for PFL to assemble the women's flyweight field without her? WRONG CALL: The field won't include "the best". During her run to the 2024 crown, Ditcheva's four wins were all finishes and her first three all came in the first round. Ditcheva is clearly the cream of the crop of the women's flyweights at PFL and there's going to be fair criticism that the 2025 winner won't have had to take down Ditcheva to claim the top spot- not the fighter's fault, to be fair, but something worth mentioning.  RIGHT CALL: Other fighters can be spotlighted.  Leaving Ditcheva out of the field means that PFL can spotlight ...

Paige VanZant will be returning to MMA competition for the first time since July of 2020- she's signed with new promotion Global Fight League.  Has she been active since leaving the UFC? She has, first off- two fights in BKFC, a boxing match, and a pair of Power Slap fights, so she's kept herself active in that span.  Why'd GFL sign her? In my opinion, and if we're looking at business reasons, for the same reason that the PFL signed Jake Paul- she's a recognizable name that can be a spokesperson for the promotion and someone that people will pay to see, but it's not quite clear at this point if this is a good move long-term.  ...HOWEVER, one can look at this GFL signing and going back to MMA as a "blank slate" for her.  Why is this a potential bad move long-term? Simply put, her lack of success in the combat sports world since leaving the UFC. Part of success is getting paid- and she's done that, with five bouts in four years- but another part of c...

Overall Cierra Burdick: 10 Games, 74 Minutes, 27 Points Dearica Hamby: 10 Games, 81 Minutes, 46 Points Rhyne Howard: 10 Games, 72 Minutes, 39 Points  Hailey Van Lith: 10 Games, 76 Minutes, 49 Points Bronze Medal Game (Game 10) v. Canada Dearica Hamby: 3 Points (46 Total) in 9:10 (81:10 Total) Cierra Burdick: 3 Points (27 Total) in 7:27 (74:02 Total) Hailey Van Lith: 6 Points (49 Total) in 6:31 (76:05 Total)  Rhyne Howard: 4 Points (39 Total) in 6:52 (72:34 Total)    Semifinal (Game 9) v. Spain Dearica Hamby: 5 Points (43 Total) in 9:29 (72:00 Total) Cierra Burdick: 0 Points (24 Total) in 7:35 (66:35 Total) Hailey Van Lith: 8 Points (43 Total) in 8:31 (69:34 Total)  Rhyne Howard: 3 Points (35 Total) in 6:55 (65:42 Total)     Quarterfinal (Game 8) v. China Dearica Hamby: 9 Points (38 Total) in 7:48 (62:31 Total) Cierra Burdick: 5 Points (24 Total) in 7:56 (59:00 Total) Hailey Van Lith: 2 Points (35 Total) in 7:25 (61:03 Total)  Rhyne Howard: 5 ...

Memphis Grizzlies Monday, July 8- Summer League Zach Edey posted a solid 34 minutes in the OT loss to the Jazz in his debut, scoring 14 points and adding 15 boards for a double-double.   Utah Jazz Monday, July 8- Summer League Kyle Filipowski posted 17 minutes off the bench in his debut, grabbing 4 boards.  LA Lakers  Sunday, July 7- Summer League Dalton Knecht: 22 Minutes, 12 Points (48 Minutes and 24 Points in two games) Bronny James DNP  *Next game Wednesday  Colin Castleton posted 20 Minutes and 10 Points in the starting five (47 and 21 in two SL games)  Tommy Kuhse, in the starting lineup for the first time this summer, added 23 minutes and 10 points (46 and 25, respectively, in 2024 Summer League action)  Saturday, July 6- Summer League Dalton Knecht (Lakers debut): 26 Minutes, 12 Points Bronny James (Lakers debut): 22 Minutes, 4 Points  Colin Castleton: 27 Minutes, 11 Points Tommy Kuhse: 23 Minutes and 15 Points off the bench ...

English League Championship -- Premier League Promotion Semifinal Second Leg: Leeds United v. Norwich City (tied 0-0) Thursday at 3p Eastern  When was each team last in the Premier League? Leeds United was in the top flight from the 2020-21 season through this previous season- the 2020-21 season was their first top-flight season in sixteen years.  Norwich City has been on a yo-yo, most recently securing Premier League play for 2021-22 before being relegated back for 2022-23 and this season.