ANN ARBOR, Mich. — It’s a big one for Michigan basketball, not only because rival Ohio State is in town, but also because the Wolverines are honoring former point guard Trey Burke, hanging his number in the rafters, at halftime.

Even with the big honor, there is a game, and the maize and blue are looking to continue their dominance over the rival Buckeyes.

OSU enters at seventh in the Big Ten with five losses (Pitt, Illinois, North Carolina, Nebraska, and Washington). Meanwhile, Dusty May’s group is 17-1 and ranked third in the nation.

Tipoff is at 8 p.m. EST. Follow along here for updates, highlights, and more.

Starting lineups

Here’s the starting lineup for Michigan basketball:

• G Elliot Cadeau
• G Nimari Burnett
• F Morez Johnson Jr.
• F Yaxel Lendeborg
• C Aday Mara

And for Ohio State:

• G John Mobley Jr.
• G Bruce Thornton
• F Amare Bynum
• F Devin Royal
• C Christoph Tilly

This article originally appeared on Wolverines Wire: Live updates, highlights: Michigan basketball vs. Ohio State

SEATTLE (AP) — The Seattle Mariners acquired right-hander Cooper Criswell from the New York Mets on Friday for cash, and designated left-hander Jhonathan Diaz for assignment.

The 29-year-old Criswell appeared in seven games for Boston last season, going 1-0 with a 3.57 ERA. He was claimed off waivers by the New York Mets on Dec. 5 and designated for assignment Wednesday.

Diaz, 29, appeared in one game with the Mariners in 2025. He was 11-6 in 27 games with Triple-A Tacoma and led the Pacific Coast League with a 4.15 ERA.

___

AP MLB: https://apnews.com/hub/MLB

Netflix has postponed its “Skyscraper Live” event, in which Alex Honnold was set free-climb one of the tallest buildings in the world Taipei 101, due to unprecedented weather conditions.

“Due to weather, we are unable to proceed with today’s #SkyscraperLIVE event,” a Netflix spokesperson said. “It has been rescheduled for Saturday, January 24 at 8 p.m. ET | 5 p.m. PT. Safety remains our top priority, and we appreciate your understanding.”

Due to weather, we are unable to proceed with today’s #SkyscraperLIVE event.

It has been rescheduled for Saturday, January 24 at 8 PM ET | 5 PM PT. Safety remains our top priority, and we appreciate your understanding. pic.twitter.com/FtNvSug48y

— Netflix (@netflix) January 24, 2026

Professional climber Honnold was set to free-climb the skyscraper in Taiwan. He will have no ropes or harnesses attached, no safety nets to land in. Honnold was the subject of the 2018 biographical documentary “Free Solo,” which won a BAFTA and an Academy Award.

More to come…

The post Alex Honnold and Netflix Postpone ‘Skyscraper Live’ One Day, Citing Taipei Weather appeared first on TheWrap.

Texas A&M (15-4, 5-1 SEC) will host South Carolina (11-8, 2-4 SEC) on Saturday afternoon, as College Station, as well as most of the country, will experience snowstorms and freezing temperatures this weekend, leading to Saturday’s game being moved up two and a half hours to noon CT.

First-year head coach Bucky McMillan urged the Texas A&M students and Aggies in the area to come out for the early matchup, revealing that students will be admitted for free, while the predicted inclement weather is expected to hit College Station after the game ends.

After blowing out Mississippi State 88-68 on Wednesday night, this matchup is obviously a quick turnaround, and that’s why McMillan is urging the fan base to show up in droves to help his veteran team overcome any slow starts that the Gamecocks look to take advantage of early on. During Friday’s pre-game press conference, McMillan provided his final plea:

“I have to preface this by saying I’m not a weatherman, but the game moving up will allow our fans to get here with no issue. We need everybody here. Get here to Reed arena, let’s have a great time, and we’ll get you home safely.”

Against the Bulldogs, Texas A&M’s press defense, which never let up despite leading by ten-plus points throughout the second half, was as relentless as advertised, holding star MSU guard Josh Hubbard to a season-low 12 points, leading the senior to ask Aggie guard Rylan Griffen if A&M was ever going to stop pressing, which received a simple “no.”

Texas A&M is 8-1 since losing to SMU on the road, dropping only one SEC game to Tennessee in double-overtime on the road, and is beginning to look in sync while perfecting small ball, led by senior forward Rashaun Agee, who is coming off his season-high 23 points and ninth double-double of the season.

Here is the full pre-game press conference before Texas A&M hosts South Carolina on Saturday afternoon.

Contact/Follow us @AggiesWire on X (formerly Twitter) and like our page on Facebook to follow ongoing coverage of Texas A&M news, notes and opinions. Follow Cameron on X: @CameronOhnysty.

This article originally appeared on Aggies Wire: Texas A&M HC Bucky McMillan urges fans to show up vs. South Carolina

OLEAN, N.Y. (AP) — Ishan Sharma scored 29 points and No. 24 Saint Louis routed St. Bonaventure 97-62 on Friday.

The Billikens (19-1, 7-0 Atlantic 10) tied their best start 20-game start in the program’s 110-year history, joining the 1993-94 team. They took control of the game early, dominating from 3-point range, and had a 58-26 lead to end the first half.

Trey Green had 15 points for Saint Louis and Amari McCottry added 12.

The Billikens opened on a 10-2 run and started 6 for 7 from 3-point range. They were 13 for 18 (72.2%) behind the arc in the first half and finished 19 of 33.

Saint Louis shot 64.7% in the first half (22 of 34) compared with just 33.3% for the Bonnies (10 of 30). Sharma had 18 points in the first half and was 6 of 7 from 3-point range.

The struggles continued for the Bonnies (12-8, 1-6), who have lost six of their last seven games. St. Bonaventure was just 1 for 8 (12.5%) on 3s in the first half. Davonte Bowen had 17 points for the Bonnies. Darryl Simmons II had 12.

Up next

Saint Louis: Hosts George Washington on Tuesday.

St. Bonaventure: Visits Duquesne on Wednesday.

___

Get poll alerts and updates on the AP Top 25 throughout the season. Sign up here and here (AP News mobile app). AP college basketball: https://apnews.com/hub/ap-top-25-college-basketball-poll and https://apnews.com/hub/college-basketball

As spring training draws ever nearer, the Mariners have again fortified the group of arms they’ll bring to camp (known around here as The Pitching Pile), acquiring RHP Cooper Criswell from the Mets for cash. Long-tenured sixth (or seventh or eighth) starter Jhonthan Díaz was designated for assignment in a corresponding move.

Criswell, 29, was originally drafted in the 13th round by the Angels in 2018 (obligatory Mariners tie-in: the Angels’ last pick of that draft was Isaiah Campbell from Arkansas, who would return to school and be drafted by the Mariners in the second round the following year). He then spent two years with the Rays and two years with the Red Sox. The Angels brought Criswell up as a starter, but he spent most of his first year with the Rays relieving. The Red Sox moved Criswell back into a starter role, slotting him into the fifth starter role.

Criswell is in an unusual situation: he’s out of options but pre-arbitration, meaning he makes the league minimum. Boston, facing a roster crunch this off-season but not wanting to lose the versatile Criswell, hatched a plan to try to sneak him through waivers: they signed him to a 2026 deal for slightly above league minimum, at $800K, meaning any team that tried to pick him up off waivers would have to pay above the minimum. That plan was foiled, however, first by the Mets, and then by the Mariners, who picked up Criswell when the Mets DFA’d him to make room for Freddy Peralta and Tobias Meyers.

It’s unclear how the Mariners plan to use Criswell, who isn’t exactly the minor-league castoff who usually shows up on the pitching pile. As a starter, Criswell fits the mold of a typical back-end starter. He has four solid pitches: a changeup, cutter, sinker, and a sweeper. He throws the first three pitches about equally, around 30% of the time each. Criswell has an extremely low arm slot, and his changeup has plus drop, as does the sinker; the two, along with the cutter, combine for a wealth of ground-ball outs rather than strikeouts. It’s a familiar profile: the groundball-getting contact manager back-end starter.

The real interest with Criswell is his sweeper, which he doesn’t throw often: only about 10% of the time. That’s curious, because on paper it looks like it should be his best pitch, with a hellacious 20” of glove-side break. FanGraphs’s Stuff+ model has the pitch well into “elite” territory. However, the few times he threw it last season, batters didn’t miss it. In a small sample size, hitters slugged a gaudy .875 on the pitch.

But why not knockout pitch if knockout pitch-shaped?

Criswell offers a host of possible avenues, but “wipeout sweeper reliever” sounds a bit more interesting than “depth starter contact manager.” We will see how the Mariners choose to deploy him this spring.

In a corresponding move, lefty Jhonathan Díaz, spot starter/stalwart of Tacoma’s rotation and winner of the Casey Lawrence Memorial Bacon-Saver Award, was designated for assignment. It’s not a glamorous role, but Díaz filled it capably for the Mariners for several years. We wish him well.

A former Miami Heat security officer has been sentenced to three years in federal prison and ordered to pay $1.9 million in restitution after pleading guilty to transporting and transferring stolen goods across state lines, the Associated Press reported Friday.

Marcos Tomas Perez, 62, pleaded guilty in the Southern District of Florida in August after being accused by federal officials of stealing more than 400 game-used jerseys from the Heat facilities.

Perez had previously worked as a police officer for the city of Miami for 25 years before his employment with the Heat from 2016 to 2021 and then as an NBA security employee from 2022 to 2025.

“This defendant was a former police officer who betrayed the public trust and exploited his access to our beloved hometown team for personal gain,” U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of Florida Jason Reding Quiñones said in a statement, per the AP. “The Miami Heat represent excellence built through hard work and discipline in South Florida — and this conduct was the opposite.”

According to allegations from the U.S. Attorney’s Office, Perez stole jerseys and other items from a secured equipment room and sold them to online brokers, including more than 100 stolen items over a period of three-plus years for which he garnered $1.9 million, often selling items below market value.

Perez, who was sentenced earlier this month, allegedly had access to the equipment room because he worked game-day security at the Kaseya Center. The equipment room had memorabilia set aside for a future Heat museum.

RELATED STORIES:

• Former Heat security officer pleads guilty to theft of jerseys
• Ex-Miami Heat security officer charged in theft of more than 400 jerseys
• Heat probe includes game-used jerseys from LeBron, Shaq, D-Wade
• Sources: Stolen Miami Heat memorabilia at center of federal probe

A court filing related to the plea agreement alleged Perez would tell a co-worker he had to use the bathroom (or offer another excuse) and take the key, open the equipment room and leave the door propped open before returning the key. Later, he would return to steal items from the room.

According to the same document, Perez utilized a third-party liaison to broker the deals, splitting the profits. Then he used his corporate entity, South Florida Signature Authenticators Incorporated, to sell the items. Platforms identified in the document as venues for him advertising and negotiating deals include OfferUp, eBay and Instagram.

The most notable example cited by the U.S. Attorney’s Office was LeBron James’ jersey from Game 7 of the 2013 NBA Finals, which he sold for $100,000. That jersey would go on to fetch $3.7 million in an auction at Sotheby’s.

Law enforcement executed a search warrant at Perez’s home April 3, recovering nearly 300 additional stolen game-worn jerseys and memorabilia, which the Heat confirmed had been stolen from its facility, according to the statement.

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Sean McVay will spend his 40th birthday on Saturday in the exact same way he spent the vast majority of his 30s.

He’ll be preparing the Los Angeles Rams to play their hearts out.

“What’s a good birthday? When I’m working on my birthday, and if I’m working next week,” McVay said. “That would be a hell of a birthday. That’s the only present I want.”

This year, he’ll be working to get the Rams ready for the NFC championship game on Sunday. If Los Angeles (14-5) beats the Seattle Seahawks (16-3), McVay will open his next decade by preparing to coach in his third Super Bowl — something no one has done at his age.

McVay has been the “youngest” and the “first” to a jaw-dropping number of accomplishments since he took over the Rams as a 30-year-old prodigy. He became the apogee of cerebral, offense-minded coaching while transforming a long-struggling franchise into a winner, and his stature in his profession’s hierarchy hasn’t really changed in nine years.

As he reaches 40, McVay is still working long hours, innovating constantly and striving to master every facet of this complex game. But after he publicly considered walking away from coaching several years ago, the father of two young sons also says he has developed a more nuanced perspective about what football really means — and what coaching truly is.

“I’ve had a lot of growing up to do since nine years ago when we first got here,” McVay said. “Over the last couple of years, and I think through some of the adverse times where you’re really forced to do that reflection, is where the appreciation and joy and the journey come from. It’s not exclusive to just the trophies. Those are all fleeting. The other things last a lot longer, and I think it keeps your cup full when that’s really where your intrinsic motivation comes from.

“Because if it’s just about the other stuff, I think that’s too shallow.”

McVay has already summitted nearly every coaching mountaintop, and he was almost always the first to reach each peak.

He became an offensive coordinator at 27 in Washington. He was the youngest head coach in the Super Bowl era when the Rams hired him in 2017, and he immediately led them to their first playoff berth in 13 years.

At 33, McVay became the youngest head coach to reach the Super Bowl.

At 36, he became the youngest coach to win the Super Bowl.

At 39 last week in Chicago, McVay claimed his 10th playoff victory — the most by any coach under 40, and the same number as Bill Walsh and George Seifert managed in their entire careers.

With Mike Tomlin’s departure from Pittsburgh and Sean McDermott’s firing by Buffalo this month, McVay is now the second longest-tenured coach in the entire NFL, behind only Kansas City’s Andy Reid.

While his year-to-year results have been outstanding — eight winning seasons, seven playoff berths, four NFC West titles and those two Super Bowl runs — McVay says he takes more pride in his evolution as a leader than in his steady success on the field.

“What I think about the most is the appreciation for when I haven’t been at my best, but the unconditional support that I felt,” McVay said. “That means a whole hell of a lot to me. (There were) moments I’ve been open about where I wasn’t the leader, I wasn’t the man or the coach that I wanted to be on a consistent basis. I’m not by any stretch saying that I’ve got it all figured out. But I’m better than what I once was, and it’s only because I’m around people, and I have family and friends and people in this building, that make you want to do better.”

McVay needed that maturity to thrive during a tumultuous 2025.

He started last January coaching the Rams through two playoff games amid the chaos caused by the Southern California wildfires near their training complex. He began the new season by tearing his plantar fascia on the sideline in Week 2 while running to speak to an official.

The Rams rolled to an 11-3 start before a late slump knocked them out of the No. 1 seed in the NFC. But after two gritty playoff wins, McVay’s team could become only the sixth in NFL history to win three straight postseason games in road stadiums.

Amid all of this work excitement, McVay and his wife, Veronika, then expanded their family last month with the birth of Christian McVay, their second son in just over two years. The erstwhile workaholic loves parenthood, both for its new viewpoint on life and for the way it bonds him with friends and colleagues.

“It’s been fun to watch him become a father of two,” said quarterback Matthew Stafford, who has four kids of his own. “I was FaceTiming my girls in the meeting room (Friday) morning, and he’s asking (youngest daughter) Tyler if her tooth is still loose. It’s a really cool, unique relationship, and one that I don’t take for granted.”

Even with a new noisemaker in his house, McVay has become a convert to the importance of sleep, getting at least seven hours every night after spending years in the performative sleep droughts so often flaunted by football coaches.

It’s only the latest signal that McVay is growing and maturing. He’s no longer younger than any of his players, and he isn’t the youngest head coach in the NFL after he spent a whopping seven seasons holding that title.

But as anyone can see on the Rams’ sideline each week, McVay remains a ferocious competitor and a football obsessive who’s grateful to be working instead of blowing out candles.

“I’m not a big birthday guy,” McVay said with a broad grin. “And if you guys say, ‘Happy 40th,’ I’ll slap the (expletive) out of you.”

___

AP NFL: https://apnews.com/NFL

The Chicago White Sox likely won’t be a contender in the American League this season. And that applied before they traded Luis Robert Jr. to the New York Mets. 

However, the team still signed one of MLB’s top strikeout relievers on Friday, reportedly inking right-hander Seranthony Dominguez to a two-year, $20 million contract. The White Sox have not yet officially announced the signing. 

Dominguez, 31, pitched for the Baltimore Orioles and Toronto Blue Jays last season. Featuring a five-pitch arsenal (four-seam fastball, sweeper, splitter, sinker, curveball), he compiled a 3.16 ERA with 79 strikeouts in 62 2/3 innings. His strikeout rate of 11.35 per nine innings ranked 23rd among qualifying MLB relievers.

With that strikeout stuff comes some control issues. Dominguez threw a career-high 36 walks last season and tied for the MLB lead with 12 wild pitches. 

[Get more Chicago news: White Sox team feed]

In the postseason, Dominguez made 12 appearances during the Blue Jays’ run to the World Series. He registered a 3.18 ERA with 10 strikeouts in 11 1/3 innings. 

During his seven MLB seasons, Dominguez has a career 3.50 ERA in 322 appearances with a strikeout rate of 10.6 per nine innings. He pitched his first six seasons with the Philadelphia Phillies. 

Presumably, Dominguez will be a good trade piece at the deadline for contenders looking to bolster their bullpens, which would ideally allow the White Sox to add a top prospect or two. But for now, he’s part of an effort by White Sox general manager Chris Getz to strengthen the team’s roster. 

This offseason, the White Sox have also added relievers Sean Newcomb and Anthony Kay. They surprised MLB by signing Japanese third baseman Munetaka Murakami and acquired infielder Luisangel Acuña in the Robert trade.