The dream of going from a developmental talent to a main roster call-up is what every Superstar in the making strives for in their eventual WWE career. And for former pro wrestler David Otunga, his came inevitably fast – less than two years after signing with the company. In an interview on “Developmentally Speaking,” the former and original Nexus member describes the adrenaline rush he felt after getting the call that he was going to be featured on the main roster.

“My call-up was so fast. I was just trying to get a handle on wrestling,” the former two-time WWE Tag Team Champion recalled. “I wasn’t even really on FCW TV that much. I’d just gotten on there. I think I may have had one match on there before they called me up to ‘WWE NXT.’ I’m not sure. One or two…I was like, ‘Wait, what? I wasn’t ready for this yet. But awesome.'”

Of course, mentally, Otunga did not feel he was ready, as he mentioned later on in his interview that he still was being led through matches, and the pressure to be confident in front of a live audience and millions watching from home, despite not having enough maneuvers in his arsenal, was extremely intimidating. His last televised match was as a participant in the Andre The Giant Memorial Battle Royal at WrestleMania 30 in 2014. Luckily for him, surviving the fear of a potential firing after the formation of Nexus, the former lawyer turned wrestler got to fulfill his in-ring dreams up until his release in 2020.

If you use any of the quotes in this article, please credit “Developmentally Speaking with Bryan Asbury,” with a h/t to Wrestling Inc. for the transcription.

Read more: Every WWE Star Departure In 2025 So Far

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Read the original article on Wrestling Inc.

A night game – and this one was actually scheduled this way, rather than being pushed back to the night to avoid the heat! Can’t say I blame anyone though. A high of 103 F today is just… wrong for mid-March, and it’s only a couple of degrees cooler than that now. Forecast high of 105 F tomorrow. Dear lord. I’m starting the countdown to the annual declaration by Mrs. SnakePit that she can’t take it any more, and we need to move. Don’t think we’ve ever previously had that discussion before Opening Day. Speaking of which, a week from now, things will be under way in games that matter…

Definitely an A-bullpen kinda day, with all the scheduled pitchers after Michael Soroka being ones with a non-zero chance of making the Opening Day roster. Specifically: RHP Kevin Ginkel, RHP Ryan Thompson, LHP Brandyn Garcia, RHP Jonathan Loaisiga and RHP Andrew Hoffmann. Garcia might be the one on thinnest ice, after a pair of spectacularly bad outings. Eleven batters faced, two outs – three hits, four walks and two hit batters. One more appearance like that and there’ll almost be no way back for him, considering there are only a handful of spring games left.

No broadcast apparently for this one, so you are on your own. Recappage should follow, but I’ll be on my phone, so it may be short and/or misspelled.

And, for the nightcap, here’s your major league spring training lineup for the Guardians:

Captain Marten de Roon didn’t shy away from the gulf in class after Atalanta BC fell 4-1 to Bayern Munich in the UEFA Champions League—and his full quote captures both the frustration and admiration that defined the night:

“We have a lot to learn from this team. We tried to press them at home and that didn’t work, so we sat deeper, and they still scored four goals. We played against a truly extraordinary opponent. Italian teams have much to learn from these sides, in their movements and their pace. We are too static, too tactical, and even the referees in Europe let play flow much better without stopping and starting all the time,” De Roon told Amazon Prime (as captured by Football Italia via @iMiaSanMia). “Kane was playing as a striker, a right-back and a left-back at different times. You have to run so much to keep up. I think Bayern Munich are the favorites to win the Champions League, they impressed me so much tonight, and that was without Musiala, Olise and Kimmich. We’ve got to be as humble as they are.”

It was a candid assessment and one that speaks to more than just a single result. Atalanta tried multiple defensive strategies — pressing high and sitting deep — but Bayern Munich solved both with ease. That ability to dictate the game regardless of opposition approach is what separates elite teams from very good ones.

His observation about Kane is especially telling. Modern football at the highest level demands positional fluidity, and Bayern Munich exemplifies that. Kane drifting across the pitch isn’t chaos, it is calculated movement designed to disorganize defenses and create space for others.

De Roon’s broader critique of Italy’s tactical rigidity also stands out. While structure has long been a strength of Italian football, Bayern’s blend of pace, movement, and technical freedom shows where the modern game is heading.

Perhaps most impressive — and concerning for the rest of Europe — is that Bayern Munich delivered this performance without key figures like Jamal Musiala, Michael Olise, and Joshua Kimmich. Depth, dynamism, and discipline, Bayern Munich has it all.

In the end, De Roon’s final message may be the most important: humility. Recognizing the gap is step one. Closing it is an entirely different challenge.

If you are looking for more Bayern Munich and German national team coverage, check out the latest episodes of Bavarian Podcast Works, which you can get on Acast, Spotify, Apple, or any leading podcast distributor…

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Since moving to Hi Corbett Field in 2012, Arizona has won more than 70 percent of its games and used that homefield advantage to lay the groundwork for four trips to the College World Series. Yet after Tuesday’s loss to New Mexico, the Wildcats are 4-6 at home this season including 0-3 in midweek matchups.

Being unable to defend its home field is just one of many things that have gone wrong this season for Arizona (7-13, 1-2 Big 12). The injuries continue to mount, leading to more and more freshmen getting meaningful playing time and getting put into high-leverage situations, and with that youth has come a lot of mistakes.

It’s also left coach Chip Hale searching for answers for how to turn things around as his team hosts Texas Tech (13-7, 2-1) in its first Big 12 home series of 2026. And it may mean taking an approach from his pro days that he hasn’t had to use since coming to Arizona.

“I’ve been through some really bad seasons in my career as a coach and a manager and head coach, so I just keep looking for ways to motivate them,” he said. “I’m not a big fear coach, but I think at some point guys have to understand if you’re not producing and you’re not playing the game the way we expect here at Arizona, that someone else is going to get an opportunity.”

Unfortunately, the options to make such changes keep dwindling. A fourth pitcher is likely out for the season, as Texas Tech transfer JT Drake is receiving a PRP (platelet-rich protein) injection in his arm. And freshman shortstop Cash Brennan is dealing with a high ankle sprain, joining three injured outfielders.

The position-player injuries have opened the door for younger players to see action, and many have capitalized on that. True freshman Caleb Danzeisen reached base three times on Tuesday, and on Friday at utah hit a 3-run home run with two out in the top of the 9^th to tie a game that Arizona won in 11 innings.

“I’ve never felt that way before,” Danzeisen said of his homer, the first of his career. “I love baseball for that reason. I can’t even put it in words.”

A catcher in high school and travel ball, Danzeisen has become the UA’s everyday right fielder. He’s hitting .288 in 17 games with 16 starts. He has a team-best .448 on-base percentage thanks to 14 walks and a hit by pitch against 12 strikeouts.

“I always knew I had a good chance (to play), but I worked my butt off,” Danzeisen said. “I got a great opportunity so I’ll take it any day.”

Hale said he expected Danzeisen to play a fair amount this season, he just didn’t know where. Catcher, first base and DH were all options but he said prior coaches felt outfield was where he’d end up in college.

As far as pitching goes, Arizona’s weekend starters have been as advertised even if Owen Kramkowski has had a few rough outings. It’s the bullpen that has been the issue, and a lot of that has been due to injuries and having to overuse many arms so early in the season. Corey Kling, Patrick Morris and Benton Hickman combined for six innings of relief against New Mexico, and five relievers apiece have already logged at least eight innings or appeared in seven or more games.

“It’s not just the usage, it’s their stuff,” said Hale, who has considered looking into cancelling some midweek games. “It’s impossible to pitch that much and your stuff stay good.”

Hickman had his best outing of the year with three perfect innings on Tuesday. Fellow freshmen Jack Lafflam and Andrew Jacobs haven’t gotten as much action but figure to see more with fewer and fewer available arms.

“I thought Hickman was a big plus for us,” Hale said. “We have a lot of trust in him. If he just throws strikes and gets ahead he’s tough to hit.”

Today the Texas Rangers have hopped the bus for a trip over to Phoenix, AZ to have a Cactus League quarrel against the Milwaukee Brewers.

LHP Jacob Latz will take the mound for Texas as the battle for the final spot in the rotation — of which Latz remains a competitor — nears a conclusion. Milwaukee will counter with RHP Brandon Woodruff.

You can listen to the game via 105.3 The Fan or follow along on Gameday. First pitch from American Family Fields of Phoenix is scheduled for 8:10 pm CT.

Go Rangers!

After missing the NCAA Tournament the last three years, the Ohio State basketball team used a late surge in the regular season to be a part of all the March Madness this year. Unfortunately for everyone clad in Scarlet and Gray, the run ended abruptly with a heartbreaking 66-64 loss to TCU in a game where the Buckeyes showed a lot of fight to come back from a big deficit in the second half.

Head coach Jake Diebler met with the media after the game and was very proud of his team’s effort. He talked about the players’ growth through the season, what TCU did to disrupt the Ohio State offense in the first half, what this year means for the program going forward, and more.

We have Diebler’s complete postgame press conference, thanks to the WBNS 10TV YouTube channel for your viewing pleasure below.

Ohio State will now go into offseason mode and look to build on the momentum it has from this year’s improvement.

Contact/Follow us @BuckeyesWire on X (formerly Twitter) and like our page on Facebook to follow ongoing coverage of Ohio State news, notes, and opinion. Follow Phil Harrison on X.

This article originally appeared on Buckeyes Wire: Ohio State vs. TCU: Jake Diebler reacts to NCAA tournament loss

SAN DIEGO – Much like Deion Sanders in football, Rick Pitino has developed a bit of a reputation for himself in this new era of men’s college basketball.

He’s a Hall of Famer who pioneered the art of flipping a team roster and becoming king of the transfer portal, following a blueprint similar to the one used by Sanders, the football coach at Colorado.

The big difference so far is sustained results. Pitino has revived St. John’s with three straight winning seasons, including a second straight NCAA Tournament appearance, this time as a No. 5 seed here against Northern Iowa on Friday, March 20.

“We don’t build through the high school ranks,” Pitino said Thursday. “We build through the portal. And we keep the ones we want coming back, and the ones that want to leave should leave.”

More: How Rod Strickland took LIU from college basketball’s worst team to March Madness

If that sounds familiar, Sanders said something like it when he was hired at Colorado in December 2022. He told his inherited players to “go ahead and jump in that portal” to make way for change.  

Pitino effectively did the same when hired at St. John’s in March 2023. He brought in 10 transfer players and two freshmen on a roster of 14 that finished with a 20-13 record but fell short of the NCAA Tournament.

Check him out now. He revived a dormant program and could make a run in the tournament at age 73, largely due to this peculiar roster-building strategy.

How Rick Pitino built his St. John’s roster

Pitino has landed one of the nation’s top-five transfer classes the past two years, including the nation’s No. 1 transfer class with seven players in 2025-26, according to 247Sports. One of them was Ian Jackson, a guard who ranked second in the team in scoring at North Carolina (11.9 points per game) before transferring to St. John’s.

“I came here to learn,” Jackson told USA TODAY.

That’s a common refrain among transfer recruits. Pitino has won more than 900 games in college, in addition to having coached in the NBA.

“When I came on my visit, I was star-struck, like I was meeting a celebrity, which I pretty much was, 100%,” said senior forward Dillon Mitchell, a transfer from Cincinnati.

The end result is a 15-player roster this season that lists nine transfers, four freshmen and two returning sophomores from Portugal and Greece. The team is led by Big East Conference player of the year Zuby Ejiofor, a senior who transferred from Kansas in Pitino’s first class in 2023 and now leads the team in four categories: 16.3 points per game, 7.1 rebounds per game, 119 assists and 73 blocks.

“I don’t think I’ve enjoyed coaching a player as much since 1987, when I coached Billy Donovan (at Providence),” Pitino said of Ejiofor. “And I’m going to miss him terribly. And I’m just going to appreciate him while I have him.”

Rick Pitino interviews each transfer recruit

Pitino’s success has reignited the college basketball scene in New York, where the Red Storm play in Madison Square Garden.

Before Pitino, St. John’s had sunk to as low as an 8-24 finish in 2016 and hadn’t been to the NCAA Tournament since 2019. Pitino’s first-round NCAA tournament victory last year against Omaha was the school’s first since 2000, which also helped erase memories of his own scandal-plagued past at Louisville before he moved on to Iona.

Such a quick turn of events is easier these days with the transfer portal, where new coaches can remake a roster overnight, unlike before 2021, when transfer players were required to sit out a year before playing at their new schools.

But few have been as good at it as Pitino. Sanders, a Pro Football Hall of Famer, took over a football team that was 1-11 at Colorado in 2022 before he flipped the roster in 2023. He brought in more than 45 transfer players out of a roster limit of 85 and finished 4-8 in Year 1. He then finished 9-4 in 2024 and 3-9 in 2025.

In Pitino’s case, he’s changed his portal strategy a bit and got a big return on his investment this year.

“This year we just went after culture guys, guys that we felt were really going to play for the name on the front, not worried about stats or making it somewhere else,” Pitino told USA TODAY Sports Thursday. “Just totally bought in. And we spent so much time interviewing and researching every individual from Dillon Mitchell, to (forward) Bryce Hopkins, to (guard) Dylan Darling, to (guard) Oziyah Sellers. Every single guy we did our homework and beyond that. And we got great culture guys. And it’s paid off very well for us.”

Follow reporter Brent Schrotenboer @Schrotenboer. Email: bschrotenb@usatoday.com

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: What does Rick Pitino have in common with Deion Sanders? Portal madness

Move over, Tiger King. The newest Netflix star is the home run king.

Netflix announced Thursday that Barry Bonds would be a special guest studio analyst for their telecast of the season opener between the San Francisco Giants and New York Yankees Wed., March 25. Bonds will join Albert Pujols and Anthony Rizzo as part of the pregame and postgame shows, a panel that combined for 1,768 home runs. Much like chicks, Netflix digs the long ball.

Bonds won’t be the only legendary Giants outfielder who will be part of the broadcast. Hunter Pence will be in the booth, alongside Matt Vasgersian and Hall of Fame pitcher CC Sabathia, giving each of the teams an alumni voice in color commentary.

Netflix had teased the announcement of Bonds, originally only announcing that a “Special Guest” would join the broadcast. However, John Shea reported that the streaming giant would be filling McCovey Cove with 73 red kayaks bearing the Netflix logo in honor of the 25th anniversary of Bonds’ record-breaking 73-homer season in 2001. So there was a strong chance the secret unannounced studio guy would indeed be Bonds.

In fact, who were the other possibilities? Brandon Belt would have only agreed to join the crew if he could be the studio captain. Huey Lewis specializes in national anthems, not baseball analysis. Tim Lincecum is shy. Barry Zito would bring an acoustic guitar. Brandon Crawford would only get on board if the Cheese Steak Shop was a sponsor. Gavin Newsom would blow Netflix’s entire hair and makeup budget. Aubrey Huff might be banned from even having a Netflix account, much less appearing on a Netflix show.

If it goes well, we’d like to humbly suggest some more SF Giants Netflix programming”

“Lou Seal In Paris”

The cuddly seal with the amorphous body moves to Paris in order to school European mascots in American-style clownery and his signature “belly bump” move. Lou struggles with driving his golf cart on the correct side of the road, wins over a squad of soccer hooligans and finds love with his downstairs neighbor, a Cirque du Soleil acrobat who is also an otter.

“Jake Paul vs. Hunter Strickland”

Hunter Strickland loves starting fights. Jake Paul loves scheduling fights. The 6-foot-3, 225-pound former Giants closer has a size advantage over Paul, but Paul has more experience. As for punchable faces, they’re about even. However, Michael Morse and Jeff Samardzija are not allowed to intervene!

“The Blanco Lotus”

See what happens and who gets murdered at a luxury hotel in Venezuela run by former Giants outfielder Gregor Blanco, his twin brother Gregory Blanco, and his little brother, Gregson Blanco. Unlike that other Lotus show, these three brothers won’t have any inappropriate contact with each other.

“Bay Bridgerton”

Tony Vitello struggles to learn etiquette in the complicated society of major league baseball, all while dealing with malicious gossip published by “Lord Whistledown” (Joe Maddon).

“Squib Game”

Luis Arraez competes in an intense, life-or-death game show where players face a series of dangerous challenges that mainly require putting a baseball in play, no matter how softly. If his BABIP drops too low, the Giants offense dies.

“Danny Ozark”

Giants manager Danny Ozark has to launder money for a Mexican drug cartel, all while trying to keep the 1984 Giants out of last place in the National League West. Starring J.K. Simmons as Ozark and Pete Rose, Jr. as Pete Rose, Sr.

Congratulations to Mr. Bonds! Let’s hope Hall of Fame voters aren’t all watching Paramount Plus instead.