With a 72-55 win over Seton Hall in its conference home opener, Villanova’s winning streak reached seven on Friday night.
The Wildcats (9-2, 2-0 Big East) made an early statement at Finneran Pavilion against one of their prime conference rivals. Seton Hall (7-4, 1-1 Big East) was third in the conference preseason poll, while Villanova was ranked fourth.
Sophomore guard Jasmine Bascoe led the way with 20 points and seven rebounds. Senior guard Ryanne Allen added 19 points.
Villanova guard Jasmine Bascoe (11) prepares to shoot a three-point basket against Seton Hall on Friday.
The Pirates were paced by sophomore guard Jada Eads, who scored 12 points and grabbed four rebounds.
It wasn’t one of Villanova’s strongest shooting nights. The Wildcats went 30-for-68 (44.1%) from the field, including 12-of-34 on three-pointers. But they thrived on defense to claim a double-digit victory over their Big East foe.
Villanova’s success in the turnover battle was key, as they scored 18 points off 15 Seton Hall turnovers. Meanwhile, the Pirates managed four points from Villanova’s 12 turnovers.
Shaking off the rust
It took some time for the Wildcats to find their rhythm after a nearly two-week hiatus from competition. Villanova last played on Dec. 7, when it beat St. Joseph’s to claim the Big 5 Classic championship.
The Wildcats shot just 5-for-18 from the field in the opening 10 minutes.
However, Villanova leaned on its steady defense, notching six steals in the first quarter and holding Seton Hall to 5-for-14 shooting from the field.
As Villanova trailed, 11-7, with 49 seconds left in the first quarter, Bascoe stole the ball and drove in a layup. Freshman forward Brooke Bender then sank a three-pointer to give the Wildcats a one-point edge heading into the break.
Allen heats up
Allen fueled the scoring in second quarter, making all five of her three-pointers.
The Wildcats continued to control possession as 12 of their 23 points came off turnovers.
With 1 minute, 23 seconds remaining in the first half, junior forward Brynn McCurry grabbed a steal and passed it to Bender. She then assisted Allen’s fourth three-pointer to secure a 35-25 halftime lead.
Using offensive depth
Villanova pulled away from Seton Hall in the third quarter. A three-pointer from Bender gave the Wildcats a 21-point advantage in the period’s final seconds.
The Wildcats shot just 3-for-14 on three-pointers in the final 20 minutes, but Bascoe and McCurry were effective in distributing the ball.
Villanova finished with 20 assists, and McCurry dished out a team-high eight.
Meanwhile, Villanova limited Seton Hall’s movement, holding the Pirates to just six assists.
Up next
Villanova will host St. John’s (11-2, 1-1 Big East) on Monday (noon, ESPN+).
MILWAUKEE — Duke Brennan came up to the top of the key and set a screen for Devin Askew, rolled to the paint, and rose for a two-handed dunk to put Villanova up eight in overtime, sending Wisconsin fans to the exits.
The inside of Fiserv Forum on Friday night felt more like a Wisconsin home game than a neutral-site nonconference matchup. It was a tale of two halves for Villanova, but when the clock hit zero, the Wildcats picked up a resumé-boosting 76-66 overtime win against the pesky Badgers, who had beaten Big East foes Providence and Marquette.
The win moved Villanova (9-2) into the 29th spot of KenPom’s rankings and sends the Wildcats into the Big East slate on a high note.
“I thought they did a really good job of extending their halfcourt defense on us, which kind of surprised us a little bit,” Villanova coach Kevin Willard said postgame. “We had opportunities in the second half to win the game. And when you have two freshmen and a sophomore out there, sometimes you have to live through those mistakes.”
Live by the three, die by the three
The Wildcats got off to a hot start from the three-point line, hitting 8 of 19 attempts in the first half, led by Tyler Perkins’ barrage. He came into the game making 40.5% of his three-pointers, and his third three-pointer of the half from the top of the key pushed Villanova’s lead to 13 before the break.
Perkins paced the Wildcats with 19 points and earned praise from his coach afterward.
“I like the fact that Perk’s looking to shoot the basketball,” Willard said. “He’s shooting a high percentage. He does all the little things that most people don’t see. But when he’s aggressive out there, it gives us another scorer.”
Villanova guard Tyler Perkins prepares to shoot a three-pointer against Wisconsin on Friday.
But the second half was a different story. The three-point shots weren’t falling (1-for-10 in the second half), and the pressure Wisconsin (7-4) put on Villanova’s ballhandlers, like freshman Acaden Lewis and transfer guard Bryce Lindsay, left little room to operate.
A lead that had ballooned to 15 early in the second half was slowly whittled to three with less than seven minutes remaining in regulation. After a Brennan layup with 6 minutes, 16 seconds left, the Wildcats did not score a field goal for nearly five minutes. Villanova was outscored, 34-21, in the second half and shot just 8-for-29 from the field.
“We knew they [were] going to go on that run,” Lindsay said. “They got everybody in the crowd [into it], their fans. We just had to stay [together] as a team and play together.”
Wisconsin tied the game with 31 seconds left, and Lewis’ contested stepback jumper fell short right before the buzzer to send the game to the extra frame.
But in overtime, it was Lindsay, who shot 1-for-9 from the field through the first 40 minutes, who ignited the Wildcats. He opened the scoring with a curling three from the top of the key after a Brennan screen freed him. A dribble handoff with Villanova’s big man got Lindsay loose again two minutes later, pushing the Wildcats up seven with 2:59 left in overtime.
“I see one fall, the hoop gets a little bigger for me,” said Lindsay, who finished with 12 points.
Brennan’s battle on the boards
Brennan was tested by the size of Wisconsin big men Nolan Winter (7-foot) and Aleksas Bieliauskas (6-10). The 6-10 Brennan, who entered the night averaging 11.6 rebounds, second-most in college basketball, pulled down seven of his 11 rebounds in the first half and outrebounded Winter and Bieliauskas combined.
He also found soft spots in the middle of Wisconsin’s defense on pick-and-roll action. Lindsay found him in the lane for an and-one layup to open the second half, and Lewis found him on a similar action to end a scoring drought later in the half.
Villanova’s Duke Brennan dunks the ball during overtime of a 76-66 win over Wisconsin.
He played a team-high 39 minutes finished with his fourth double-double of the season.
Turning up the heat defensively
It was a shame that Lewis got into foul trouble in the first half because he was a big reason Wisconsin turned the ball over.
His full-court pressure, along with Lindsay and Askew, made the Badgers uncomfortable in the first 20 minutes, which was part of Villanova’s game plan. The Wildcats scored 15 points off 16 Wisconsin turnovers, eight of which came in the first half.
“That’s a Wisconsin team that can put up a lot of numbers,” Willard said, “and to have them struggle and turn them over like that, to me, was huge.
“If you let them just run their offense, they will pick you apart. And really early in the game, we wanted to get them uncomfortable.”
Free basketball at Fiserv Foum. Villanova and Wisconsin tied at 56 heading into extra period.
Friday was another learning experience for Lewis, who had opportunities to close out the game for Villanova. He missed the front end of a one-and-one with the Wildcats up three with 59 seconds left, committed a foul on the other end to give Wisconsin two free throws, then missed the potential game-winning shot and didn’t play most of the overtime period.
However, he didn’t turn the ball over and finished with seven points and two assists on 3-for-9 shooting.
Villanova freshman Acaden Lewis attempts a shot over Wisconsin’s Nick Boyd on Friday at Fiserv Forum in Milwaukee.
“I thought he played great,” Willard said. “This is a great learning experience for him of what to do at the end of the game. But he had two huge steals in the end of the second half. And he’ll make his free throws next time, and he’ll make a better play at the end of the game.
“That’s why you got to put him in those situations, and he’ll learn from it. He’s done it every game.”
Added Perkins: “He’s so mature. … He got in foul trouble early. And a lot of freshmen would dig in their head, not be ready, not stay in the game. But he had some great stops at the end of the game.”
Before the game, Villanova announced that freshman guard Chris Jeffrey underwent right knee surgery and is out indefinitely. Jeffrey, a Brooklyn native, had a knee injury before he arrived on campus that “recently flared up,” the program said.
In nine games this season, Jeffery was averaging 4.2 points across 10.6 minutes. The team also announced that walk-on Wade Chiddick also had right knee surgery and has no timetable to return.
Up next
Villanova will open conference play at Seton Hall on Tuesday (7 p.m., Peacock). The Wildcats hope to ride the momentum they gained through their tough stretch of nonconference play.
“The schedule we inherited, didn’t give us a whole ton of games in November to test ourselves,” Willard said. “And I think going through Michigan, [Pittsburgh], now Wisconsin, and now we got a really good Seton Hall team on Tuesday, now we’re testing ourselves, and I like the way these guys are going.”
When Kevair Kennedy saw Ernest Shelton enter his name in the transfer portal after spending two years at Division II Gannon University in Erie, Pa., the Merrimack College pledge texted his former Father Judge teammate about joining him in Massachusetts.
“I was just telling him, if me and him team up again, we could cause so much damage,” said Kennedy, now a 6-foot-2 freshman point guard. “He’s familiar with my game, I’m familiar with his game. He knows that I like to drive, he like to shoot, so we got a good one-two punch. I also was reminding him about all the good times that we had at Father Judge, and he bought into it.”
That he did. Shelton, a 6-5 junior shooting guard who led Gannon with 17.4 points last season, didn’t have any Division I scholarship offers in high school. But after proving himself in the PSAC, Shelton wanted to move up a level.
His name and background — being a Father Judge product coached by Chris Roantree — stood out to Merrimack head coach Joe Gallo, who heavily recruits the Philadelphia area and has built a relationship with Roantree. So with the push of a former teammate and the familiar ties to his hometown, Shelton landed with the Warriors, where he and Kennedy are the team’s leading scorers, averaging 14.6 and 15.2 points, respectively, for the 6-7 team.
The two have quickly emerged as impact players, and their addition to the program, which lost its top scorer last season in former West Catholic standout Adam “Budd” Clark, now at Seton Hall, has filled a large void.
“I knew Kev would probably have to carry a big load with us losing Budd, and we’re a pretty point guard heavy program,” Gallo said. “We always have a great guard, so I knew he’d have the opportunity to do it. He’s definitely exceeded expectations, and Ern the same thing. You never know when a player goes from Division II and transfers up a level if it’s going to translate. But they both hit the floor running right from the summer.”
Here’s a glimpse of their contributions so far: Shelton tied the single-season program record with 9 three-pointers against Boston on Nov. 15, where he finished with a career-high 33 points and was named MAAC Player of the Week. Kennedy also had his first career double-double (16 points, 11 rebounds) against the Terriers. He’s been selected as Rookie of the Week twice.
A familiar face played a major part in their success. Shelton and Kennedy met while playing AAU together on Philly Triple Threat. Shelton spent his first two years of high school at Bishop McDevitt in Wyncote, before it closed down at the end of the 2020-21 academic year.
He considered going to Archbishop Wood, where Roantree was a longtime assistant under John Mosco. But once Roantree landed the head job at Father Judge, Shelton decided to follow his coach there. He was reconnected with Kennedy, then a freshman who saw minutes. He later became a stater on the varsity team.
The team took some bumps in those first two years as the program underwent a rebuild under a new coach. The Crusaders finished 4-9 in the Catholic League in 2021-22. They were 6-7 in 2022-23. But last season Father Judge made school history, earning a Catholic League and state championship.
Kennedy played a large role in that achievement.
Coach Chris Roantree of Father Judge raises the trophy after his team defeated Roman Catholic in the Catholic League championship. Kevair Kennedy is on the left.
“I feel like I grew a lot in leadership there,” Kennedy said. ”Somebody had to be the leader, be the voice, and get us going on days when they didn’t feel like it. I feel like [Roantree] trusting me at an early age helped me with my accountability, not just hold others accountable, but hold myself accountable too.”
Kennedy, who held one other scholarship offer from Wagner, had the chance to play at the Plaestra as a college player when Merrimack competed in the Cathedral Classic from Nov. 28 to Nov. 30. It wasn’t the same as playing in front of 10,000 fans for the Catholic League championship, but it was “a special moment” as the current Father Judge staff and team attended some of the games.
The Warriors were riding a four-game winning streak before falling to Vermont on Dec. 14, thanks in part because of Shelton and Kennedy. The two would consider themselves to be more reserved, but on the court, they always seem to know where each other are.
“It’s a lot more eye contact then words,” Gallo said. “Kev gets Ern a lot of unscripted three-point shots in transition, where we don’t even have to call a play, because [Kennedy] knows where [Shelton] is.”
They aren’t the only Philly-area players on the team, either. Graduate student Jaylen Stinson is a former Archbishop Wood guard, senior forward Brandon Legris attended Perkiomen School, and next year, Rocco Westfield, a senior at Father Judge, intends to play for Merrimack.
Gallo likes to recruit the area because of the the high-level competition in the Catholic League, and earlier in the season, when Merrimack faced Auburn and Florida, Kennedy and Shelton looked unfazed.
“They’ve just been Philadelphia battle tested,” Gallo said. “Neither one of them blink at any of the competition we played against. I think that’s just going to continue to pay dividends.”
So would Shelton and Kennedy say their time at Father Judge is helping them now?
“For sure, definitely,” Shelton said. “It means a lot to have someone that you grew up with in college.”
Kennedy added: “Having him here, it made me break through the ice even easier than it would have been if he wasn’t here. It was easier for me to get out of my shell, knowing that if I don’t know anybody at least I have Ern.”
When the Texas Rangers won the World Series in 2023, Brad Miller and Adolis García sprinted from the dugout to jubilate with their teammates behind the pitcher’s mound.
It wasn’t much of a race.
“Adolis has a torn oblique [in his left side] and is still just pulling away from me,” Miller said by phone this week, recalling the celebration. “Like, I can’t keep up with him.”
Nobody could. Not then. García was the hottest hitter on the planet for three weeks in the fall of 2023. He set a record with 22 RBIs in a postseason, including 15 in the American League Championship Series. With the Rangers facing elimination on the road in Houston, he smashed a grand slam in Game 6 and two homers in Game 7 to clinch the pennant.
“I’ve never seen a performance like that,” Miller said. “It was [freaking] insane.”
And it seems like a lifetime ago.
The Phillies signed García this week to a one-year, $10 million contract, and if he’s close to the middle-of-the-order masher that he once was, it will be a steal. From 2021 to 2023, he slugged .472 with a 113 OPS+, tied for sixth among all right-handed hitters with 97 home runs, won a Gold Glove, and was a two-time All-Star.
But in two seasons since his turn as Mr. October, he slugged .397 with a 96 OPS+ and 44 homers.
If that’s the hitter who shows up in Philly, the Rangers will be justified in not offering him a 2026 contract at a raised salary (projected $12 million) in his final year of arbitration. And it will be fair to wonder if García is an upgrade over even the right fielder he’s replacing: Nick Castellanos. Or if a Phillies outfield that is “pretty well set,” president of baseball operations Dave Dombrowski said this week, will be any better than it was this year.
OK, before we go further, a reminder: Castellanos isn’t leaving because he’s a free agent. (He’s actually still on the roster, not that you’d know it.) And the Phillies aren’t choosing to move on from him — even while paying all or most of his $20 million 2026 salary — simply because he’s amid a three-year decline as a hitter and one of the worst defenders in the sport.
Quite simply, he has to go — and thus far, the Phillies haven’t gotten much interest, according to a source, even though they’re willing to foot the bill. If they’re unable to trade Castellanos before spring training, they are expected to release him.
Either way, right field will represent upward of a $30 million outlay in 2026, even though it won’t be filled by Kyle Tucker, Cody Bellinger, or another $30 million-plus player. García will step into the payroll space occupied this year by Max Kepler, who got paid $10 million to slug .391 with 18 homers and an 88 OPS+ in a one-and-done Phillies tenure.
The Phillies believe García has more upside than Kepler and Castellanos. It’s a low bar. And even if hitting coach Kevin Long and the slugger-friendly environment of Citizens Bank Park are unable to unlock more production from García, Phillies officials still figure they will come out ahead.
But don’t take their word for it.
“What I would tell people is, Adolis is worth the price of admission,“ said Miller, the bamboo-loving former Phillies utility man and now a Rangers pre- and postgame television analyst. ”It’s not just like, ‘Oh, he’s a good outfielder.’ It’s exciting stuff, like he’ll make diving plays, he’ll throw a guy out from the wall in right field. I can just picture that at the Bank. He’ll have the arm to throw in the air from anywhere in right field and get somebody out.
“He plays with a flair. And he can do everything. I’m excited for him. I think it’s going be a breath of fresh air.”
Adolis García slugged .397 with a .675 OPS over the last two seasons for the Rangers, a drop-off from his .472 and .777 marks from 2021 to 2023.
Tale of the tape
Name the players, based on these numbers over the last two seasons:
Castellanos is Hitter A; García, if you couldn’t guess, is Hitter B. They were strikingly similar in their swing-and-miss tendencies. If anything, García exhibited marginally better discipline while Castellanos struck out slightly less frequently.
But a deeper dive into the quality of the contact each player did make helps explain why multiple Phillies scouts recommended to Dombrowski that García could be poised for a bounce back.
Over the last two seasons, the average exit velocity on balls hit by Castellanos was 88.1 mph, compared to 91.6 mph for García. Castellanos’ hard-hit rate, defined as batted balls at 95 mph or more, was 36.5%; García‘s was 47.6%.
And García‘s metrics weren’t far off his career-best 2023 season, when his average exit velocity was 92.1 mph and his hard-hit rate totaled 49.7%.
“Our scouts had very good reports on him,” Dombrowski said. “Even though some of the stuff may be slightly down, it’s still positive in many directions. The tools are there. The ball jumps off his bat still; bat speed’s still there; exit velocity is very good. Those are all things that we feel encouraged about.
“We think it has more to do with approach than it does with ability.”
In four seasons with the Phillies, Nick Castellanos batted .260 with 82 homers and a league-average OPS+ of 100.
The Phillies’ efforts over the years to tweak Castellanos’ approach weren’t always embraced.
Although Thomson and Long conceded that Castellanos always would be an aggressive hitter, they focused on “controlled aggression,” a happy medium in which he could still swing at pitches early in the count while laying off low-and-away breaking balls in particular. Castellanos often said the emphasis on his chase rate left him stuck between approaches.
The Phillies will soon discover if García is open to adjustments. Long and assistant hitting coach Edwar Gonzalez are expected to drop in on García at his home in Tampa, Fla., before spring training to start “chipping away,” as Thomson put it.
García said he has already had phone calls with Long.
“We believe in the same things,” he said, via assistant general manager Jorge Velandia’s interpretation. “We’re on the same page already. … The focus is not to be a hero. Just [stay] within myself.”
Whereas Castellanos tends to fish for sliders (pitchers fed him almost as many breaking pitches as fastballs this season), García is vulnerable to elevated fastballs. As such, he saw heaters 64.3% of the time and flailed away, batting .215 and slugging only .300 against 95 mph and harder.
“What Adolis did when I saw him hitting at his best is he took most of those pitches,” Miller said. “He laid off the velocity up. He was really hunting a certain spot and not necessarily tomahawking balls and doing anything crazy. He was just laying off those tough pitches.”
Never more than in the 2023 postseason.
“He would take some swings like Adrian Beltré, where he’d fall over and his helmet would fly off because he wanted it so bad,” Miller said. “But then he would recalibrate, take a deep breath. When he was at his best, it was very controlled. Because he has enough power and then some. When he stays within himself, good things happen.”
At least they used to. Since the 2023 playoffs, García’s .278 on-base percentage is the lowest among 120 players with at least 1,000 plate appearances. His .675 OPS is tied for 116th.
Adolis Garcia set a major league postseason record with 22 RBIs in 2023 to lead the Rangers to a World Series title.
Ready for a change
Corey Seager and Marcus Semien were the stars of the 2023 World Series team. But García predated both in Texas.
Acquired from the Cardinals in a cash trade in 2019, García got designated for assignment and outrighted to triple A in 2021 only to make the All-Star team later that season.
“He’s self-made, you know?” Miller said. “He was a fan favorite in Texas, truly. He was kind of ‘The Guy.’”
And when the Rangers stumbled to a 78-84 record in their title defense in 2024, Miller suggested nobody took it harder than García. He painted García as conscientious and “soft-spoken,” belying the fiery emotion that he often shows on the field.
It didn’t get much better this year. The Rangers were 26th in the majors in batting average (.234) and slugging (.381) and 22nd in runs scored (684). They got shut out 15 times and scored less than two runs in 20% of their games. Midway through the season, they fired hitting coach Donnie Ecker.
García conceded he might’ve put too much pressure on himself.
“He’s very self-aware,” Miller said.
In a sense, then, García might benefit from a change of scenery as much as Castellanos. Thomson, with Velandia’s help, delivered a message in their first phone conversation with him this week.
“You have to be yourself and relax,” Thomson said. “Have fun, be yourself, don’t try to do too much. Because we’ve got a lot of really good players around him. I know that Texas had some injuries last year. Maybe he tried to do a little bit too much for the team.”
Said Dombrowski: “We don’t need him to hit the ball out of the ballpark on every swing or every at-bat. He needs to be more under control with the swing. We think he can do that.”
And what if he does?
“There’s going to be some times,” Miller said, “where he is going to make Citizens Bank Park look very small.”
‘Twas the weekend before Christmas and all through the house I couldn’t find anything about which to grouse.
The Cowboys have Cowboyed, the Commies are done, the Eagles will again be the NFC East’s No. 1.
And not only that but they’ll be better than the Bucs, which means they won’t play the Rams, which really would have sucked.
Why you’d count out the Eagles is really beyond me, and that goes double for the grinches shouting Nick Sirianni.
I like the Eagles’ chances, and you can call me a fool, though I’ll call you a Scrooge if you say, “Bah, humbug … Patullo.”
Three reasons to cheer up about the Eagles as they look to clinch the division against the Commanders on Saturday.
Nick Sirianni’s Eagles get the Commanders twice over their final three games to try to boost their playoff standing.
1. The Eagles can easily end up with the No. 2 seed and host the NFC Championship game.
I’m not going to try to put into words all of the various scenarios that could play out over the final three weeks of the regular season. But there are two important points.
The Rams and Seahawks could be headed for a rubber match in their season series, which they’ve split in two of the more entertaining games of the season. One of those teams will likely enter the postseason as the fifth seed, and the other the one seed, which would put them in position to face each other in the divisional round, given that the second-best team in the NFC West (Rams or Seahawks) looks a lot better than the best team in the NFC South (Bucs or Panthers), whom they’d face in the wild-card round.
The Bears (10-4) close out the season against three potential playoff teams, with home games against the Packers and Lions sandwiched around a road game in San Francisco. They’ve already lost to the Packers and Lions. In a scenario where the Bears lose two or three of those games, the Eagles could finish ahead of them by winning out, or even by winning two of three.
In other words, the Eagles could easily end up hosting the Bears in the wild-card round and then playing someone other than the Seahawks or Rams in the divisional round. They would then host the NFC Championship if the lower-seeded team (Rams at the moment) knocked off the higher-seeded team (Seahawks).
The moral of the story is that the NFC is wide open. Sure, the road is likely to be tougher than it was a year ago, when the Commanders somehow advanced to the NFC Championship. The 49ers have won four straight games since Brock Purdy’s return at quarterback, with an average margin of victory of 16.25 points. Their only losses on the season have come against the 10-4 Jaguars, the 11-4 Rams, the 9-5 Texans, and a Bucs team that was 5-1 at the time. The Lions aren’t dead yet. If they beat the Steelers at home this week, they could easily be playing the Bears in Week 18 with a playoff berth on the line. Rams, Lions, 49ers would be a heck of a collection of wild-card teams.
But none of these teams are great, are they? The Eagles would be no worse than a coin flip in any potential playoff matchup, home or road. Even as the three seed, the Eagles would have a realistic chance at hosting an NFC Championship game.
Eagles defensive tackle Jalen Carter will miss his third straight game on Saturday following shoulder surgery.
2. Lane Johnson and Jalen Carter could be back on the offensive and defensive lines for the second or third-seeded Eagles.
Anytime Johnson misses a snap we hear about how important he is. The Eagles have lost six of their last nine meaningful games that they’ve played without their All-Pro right tackle, including three this season. But I don’t often hear Johnson’s absence when it comes time to dole out blame for the offense’s underperformance this season. That’s partially because they’ve struggled with him in the lineup. But they were also 8-2 with a bunch of big wins.
Carter’s impact is nearly as big on the defensive line. Over the last three seasons, the Eagles have lost five of the seven meaningful games that Carter has missed. One of the two wins was the season opener against the Cowboys, which easily could have been a loss. Carter clearly wasn’t himself in the Eagles’ loss to the Bears. A healthy return for the postseason alongside Johnson could be massive.
3. The Eagles could be better than we’re giving them credit for.
Rarely is it as easy as it was for the Eagles last season.
That’s something that has been underemphasized by your faithful servants in the chattering classes as we’ve performed our living autopsies on the 2025 season. While the Eagles have offered plenty to critique, a big part of their problem is perception. They set a standard that would have been tough for any team to match, let alone a team that is where they are in their talent cycle. Only five other times in the last 10 seasons had a team score at least 463 points while allowing 303 or fewer. Only once in the Super Bowl Era has a team done it in back-to-back seasons (the 1993-94 49ers). Heck, only five teams have done it multiple times in that 59-year span.
A big part of it is economics. Jalen Hurts’ cap hit jumped from $13.6 million in 2024 to $21.9 million in 2025. DeVonta Smith’s went from $7.5 million to $10.7 million. Jordan Mailata’s went from $11.7 million to $15.2 million. Combined, that’s an increase of about $15 million going to three players. That means the Eagles have $15 million fewer dollars worth of players elsewhere on the roster compared to 2024. In 2024, they spent roughly $15.4 million on the combined cap hits of Darius Slay, C.J. Gardner-Johnson, and Mekhi Becton. Economics is known as the dismal science for good reason.
But money isn’t the only element of the story. The NFL carefully structures itself to avoid prolonged runs by teams that were as dominant as the Eagles were last season. Parity is the goal of the draft, and of the scheduling process, and, yes, of the salary cap.
Over the last 10 seasons, the most games any team has won in a 65-game stretch is 53, which the Chiefs did between 2019-23. As of today, the Eagles have won 48 of their last 65, dating back to the start of the 2022 season. They are one of only five teams to accomplish that over the last decade.
Point is, the Eagles’ roller-coaster ride of the last four years is unique only because of the highs. No, they aren’t the steamroller they were last season. But you don’t need to be a steamroller to win a Super Bowl. Right now, the Eagles have as much reason as any team in the NFC to consider themselves the team to beat.
Those things stood out in Friday’s 116-107 victory over the New York Knicks at Madison Square Garden.
Statement victory
The Sixers (15-11) have played hard in most of their games, with several of those contests having exciting finishes. But the fact remained that they were 4-10 against teams with winning records.
So this matchup against the Eastern Conference’s second-place Knicks (19-8) was a chance for the Sixers to make a statement.
Before Friday, their only victories against teams with winning records came against the Boston Celtics (on Oct. 22 and Nov. 11), the Orlando Magic (Oct. 27), and the Toronto Raptors (Nov. 8). And this victory snapped their five-game losing streak against winning teams.
The Sixers tried to downplay this victory, saying it wasn’t a statement win.
“No, I think it’s just another one, to be honest,” Tyrese Maxey said. “Obviously, it’s a really good team, but it’s just another win. We have a long way to go. We have to keep getting better and get onto the next game, which is tomorrow.”
But beating the Knicks has to be a confidence boost, considering their recent results against winning teams, right?
“It’s definitely good to get the win, especially a team in the East,” Maxey said. “We got a game tomorrow. You know, it’s the NBA, so we got to try to win against them tomorrow.”
The Sixers will entertain the Dallas Mavericks at 7 p.m. Saturday at Xfinity Mobile Arena.
Against the Knicks, the Sixers played hard and kept things competitive throughout, as expected. But down the stretch, they made the clutch plays that winning teams have usually completed against them.
“Yeah, this is something we talked about, you know, finishing games and not allowing it to slip down the stretch of the game, coming out slow in those third quarters,” Andre Drummond said. “So, I think for us, we’re starting to turn it around a little bit, little by little. So, we’ll take the small victories and progress that we’re making and continue to build on it.”
They took an 88-87 lead into the fourth quarter after Adem Bona split a pair of foul shots. Then Maxey’s three-pointer gave them a 97-92 advantage with 8 minutes, 4 seconds remaining. Then, Edgecombe’s three-pointer with 2:44 left made it a 108-102 game. And Maxey hit another three-pointer with 47.9 seconds left to extend the Sixers’ lead to nine points.
The standout point guard showed why he’s worthy of being voted an Eastern Conference All-Star starter by outplaying the Knicks’ All-Star point guard, Jalen Brunson.
The Sixers picked up a rare victory over a winning team in Friday’s defeat of the New York Knicks.
Maxey finished with a game-high 30 points while making 6 of 12 three-pointers to go with nine assists. Brunson finished with 22 points on 7-for-22 shooting – including missing 6 of 7 three-pointers – along with six rebounds and nine assists.
With Edgecombe guarding him, Brunson was held to six points on 1-for-10 shooting in the second half.
“He’s a tough player,” Edgecombe said. “Everyone knows he’s super good. I just try to make it difficult. You’re not going to hold him scoreless, but just try to make it difficult. I was just trying my hardest to make sure he didn’t get off any clean looks or anything like that.”
In addition to shutting down Brunson, Edgecombe had 23 points, four assists, two steals, and a block.
Drummond showed his shooting range while starting at center in place of Joel Embiid, who had the night off. Drummond made a career-high three three-pointers while finishing with 14 points and a game-high 13 rebounds. It was his 10th double-double of the season.
Third quarter Edgecombe
This was the second consecutive game where Edgecombe dominated in the third quarter. The shooting guard scored 11 of Friday’s points on 5-for-6 shooting, including hitting a three-pointer, in the quarter.
This comes after Edgecombe scored 17 of his 26 points in the third quarter of Sunday’s 120-117 loss. On that night, he made 5 of 7 shots, including all three of his three-pointers, in the quarter. Like on Sunday, Edgecombe played the entire third quarter.
His ability to take over enabled the Sixers to snap out of their third-quarter blues.
“I have to be more aggressive in that quarter,” Edgecombe said. “It’s not just that whole quarter, it’s the whole game. I know myself. I tend to be slow in the third quarter. We are trying to get over that hump where we start to slow in the third. If that takes me scoring, I’ll do that.”
He added seven points on 3-for-4 shooting in the fourth quarter. But the third quarter got him going and kept the Sixers in the game.
“We talk about the third quarters a lot,” McCain said. “It’s something that we’re trying to obviously get better at, and when he’s aggressive like that, especially in the third, that’s what we need. So, he was perfect, and he’s been doing great with the thirds.”
Karl-Anthony Towns, left, was one of the few bright spots for the Knicks on Friday.
Mr. Healthy
McCain can just focus on hoops.
Friday marked his second game playing without a brace on his right thumb since returning from September’s surgery to repair a torn ulnar collateral ligament.
“Thank God for that,” McCain said. “So now, I guess that’s pretty much the last thing, now. Just being able to get back in rhythm without a brace and without the tape around it. So last game was the first time we just tried it, and now it’s just getting used to it.”
The second-year combo guard went scoreless on 0-for-5 in Sunday’s 120-117 road loss to the Atlanta Hawks. However, he tied season highs with five assists and two steals. On Friday, McCain finished with 12 points, three rebounds, and one assist. He hit several big shots and closed out the game for the Sixers.
McCain was also still working his way back from last season’s left-knee injury.
The 6-foot-2, 195-pounder missed the final 4½ months of last season with a torn meniscus. McCain suffered the injury on Dec. 13 during a home loss to the Indiana Pacers. He said Friday morning that he’s confident in the knee.
“I think I’m back,” he said. “I mean, I think I’m fully to where I need to be. I think most of it now is just being able to know when I’m coming in and being warm and being ready to come in, because the knee will get stiff if I don’t keep it warm.
“So, kind of just when I go back to warm up, I try and get ready, but sometimes it goes longer, and so I have to keep staying warm, keep doing jumping, or whatever I’m doing to get warm.”
NEW YORK — Tyrese Maxey scored 30 points, VJ Edgecombe had 23 and the 76ers became just the second visiting team to win at Madison Square Garden this season, beating the New York Knicks 116-107 on Friday night.
Andre Drummond, starting with Joel Embiid out because of an illness and right knee injury management, had 19 points and 13 rebounds. The center was 3 for 4 from 3-point range.
The 76ers snapped the Knicks’ six-game winning streak by outscoring them 28-20 in the fourth quarter, when Maxey scored 11 points and Jalen Brunson missed all five of his shots and was scoreless.
Brunson finished with 22 points, nine assists and six rebounds, but shot 7 for 22 a night after making the go-ahead 3-pointer with 4.4 seconds left in a victory at Indiana. Karl-Anthony Towns also scored 22 points and grabbed 11 rebounds.
In their first home game since winning the NBA Cup on Tuesday, the Knicks fell to 13-2 at home. They had been off to their best start at MSG since 1992-93.
They celebrated the Cup title before the game, though they have chosen not to hang a banner to commemorate it, as previous champions the Lakers and Bucks did.
The Knicks wasted Mitchell Robinson’s best game of the season. The center had season highs of 21 points and 16 rebounds and was a stunning 7 for 8 at the free-throw line after he came into the game 6 for 27 (22.2%) for the season.
Mikal Bridges also scored 21 points.
Maxey and Edgecombe combined for 18 points in the fourth quarter after the 76ers led by one going into the period. The Knicks were 1 for 8 on 3s in the quarter.
NEW YORK — The NHL hits a roster freeze at 11:59 p.m. on Friday, so with defenseman Egor Zamula clearing waivers and being assigned to the American Hockey League, it left a roster spot open.
Forward Denver Barkey has been called up.
Drafted by the Flyers in the third round of the 2023 NHL draft, Barkey turned pro this season and has been impressive while skating primarily on the wing for Lehigh Valley of the AHL. The 20-year-old has 16 points (seven goals, nine assists) in 26 games for the Phantoms, primarily playing on the wing with center Lane Pederson and winger Alex Bump.
“I think right from the start, he’s played very well,” Flyers assistant general manager Brent Flahr recently told The Inquirer. “On the production side, he makes plays, he works, and the details are great. Such a smart player. He’s got to get stronger and build up his body to handle the grind and but so far, so good.
“Down there, he’s been arguably our best forward a lot of nights, and coaches love them plays, plays a lot. He’s certainly going in the right direction.”
Well, the direction now is east to New York City ahead of the Flyers’ matchup with the New York Rangers on Saturday afternoon (12:30 p.m., NBCSP). The kid from Ontario is in line to make his debut at the World’s Most Famous Arena.
“I call him like a little mini [Travis Konecny],” Flyers director of player development Riley Armstrong said of Barkey over the summer. “He’s all over the puck. He’s grimy when he doesn’t have the puck. He’s always working to get the puck back.
“He’s really good with his stick picking pockets, transitioning, and his eyes are up; I don’t think a little guy like that skating around, his head down, is going to last very long in the game.
“But when you watch him go into corners, and he’s not afraid of that, he’s quick to get in, he’s quick to get out.”
Some have questioned Barkey’s size at 5-foot-10, 173 pounds, but no one questions his grit, moxie, will, and determination. Last season, he notched 25 goals and 82 points in 50 regular-season games before adding another nine goals and 20 points in 11 postseason games for London of the Ontario Hockey League.
On June 1, he captained the Knights to the Memorial Cup championship despite suffering a high-ankle sprain in the OHL Final. In the finale of the Memorial Cup, against the projected No. 1 for this June’s draft, Gavin McKenna, and Medicine Hat of the Western Hockey League, Barkey drove play and scored a pair of goals.
A month later, he was at the Flyers development camp but did not participate. He did, however, try.
“[Barkey] always comes to me every morning, ‘Hey, do you think you can get me out on the ice?’ No, no, you’re done,” Armstrong said with a chuckle in early July.
The rest helped. He was again impressive at the Flyers’ rookie camp and in a game against their Rangers counterparts in early September in Allentown.
Barkey opened eyes with his speed, hockey IQ, puck possession and patience, and high-end passing ability. Looking completely healed from his high-ankle sprain, the forward used his quickness, leverage, and ability to win pucks to beat the defense at every turn and notched a goal.
“Continue to get bigger, stronger,” Barkey said of his summer plans at development camp. “It’s a big jump next year. I’m going to be playing against older men and strong guys. So, continuing to get stronger, faster, and I think the biggest thing is just using my brain and then finding a way to adjust. It’s a different game in pro.”
And Barkey has adjusted well to the pro ranks, skating on the wing of the Phantoms’ top line, which drives play and is relied on for offensive swings. His fellow winger, Bump, was actually the one many thought would be called up.
The kid from Minnesota, who led Western Michigan to the NCAA championship in April, was pegged by everyone, including The Inquirer, to break camp with the Flyers; however, he was sent down after a poor main training camp. After a slow start in Lehigh Valley, he now has 20 points (seven goals, 13 assists) in 26 games in Allentown.
Ahkil Crumpton, a Philadelphia product and former West Catholic Prep football star who played two seasons for the storied University of Georgia Division-I football program, was convicted on state murder charges in Georgia earlier this week and received a life sentence without parole by Georgia Superior Court Judge Eric Norris.
Crumpton, 28, was already convicted in 2023 on all counts in a federal case related to the same 2021 fatal shooting of RaceTrac gas station attendant Elijah Wood, in Watkinsville, Georgia. Crumpton is serving a 30-year sentence in the federal case, and his federal sentence would run concurrently with the state sentence, meaning he would serve the longer, life sentence.
“We will definitely be appealing the conviction and the sentence,” said Crumpton’s Atlanta-based attorney in the state case, Bruce Harvey. “A sentence of life without parole – essentially death by incarceration – is manifestly unjust for a young, highly accomplished athlete, with no prior criminal history convicted of an unintentional killing. We are all hopeful that Ahkil may return to contribute to the community as exemplified by his life and the testimonials given at the sentencing (Thursday).”
Crumpton will be in state custody, Harvey said, and a court official said Crumpton is currently being held at the Georgia Department of Corrections.
It has been a dramatic fall from grace for a player who dreamed of playing in the NFL one day, and who landed at Georgia by way of Los Angeles Valley junior college after graduating from West Catholic.
But despite playing for Georgia coach Kirby Smart – who had identified Crumpton in 2017 as the elite receiver the team needed – for two seasons, Crumpton never reached his goal of playing pro.
“[Crumpton] was on a mission to make it to the NFL. I think he was so hell-bent on playing professional football,” a former L.A. Valley football coach who worked with Crumpton and asked not to be named, told The Inquirer in a past interview. “When things didn’t go the way he had planned, I’m sure it probably broke him, and I’m sure there was a lot of disappointment.”
In 2021, Crumpton’s life was forever altered through his links to two homicide cases – one in Georgia and one in his native Philadelphia.
Wood was killed in March 2021. But after a months-long investigation into Wood’s killer involving multiple state and federal agencies stalled, it was a ballistics match that ultimately led to Crumpton’s arrest for Wood’s murder. A July 2021 homicide in Philadelphia, just four months after Wood’s murder, involved Crumpton. Authorities said Crumpton fired 13 shots at a man named Anthony Jones near a South Street diner in Philly. Jones died at the scene.
It wasn’t until a federal agent ran the ballistics on both the Wood homicide and the Jones homicide that authorities came up with a match, tying Crumpton to both murders. Crumpton’s criminal records pertaining to the Jones case were apparently expunged.
Crumpton was living with his former Georgia teammate Juwan Taylor in Georgia in 2021. Taylor later testified against Crumpton in the federal trial that Crumpton came to their apartment after the Wood shooting and was “holding the pistol and was visibly upset saying, ‘I didn’t mean to do it – I just wanted the money, I just shot him at the store,’ ” according to the Department of Justice press release after Crumpton’s federal sentencing.
This week, a Georgia state jury found Crumpton guilty on all six counts, including felony murder.
“(Crumpton) can appeal the conviction and the sentence. But (it’s a life sentence without parole) unless he’s pardoned by the governor, or the law changes, and he can be resentenced, like the Menendez brothers (Erik and Lyle),” said Neama Rahmani, a former federal prosecutor and now the president of West Coast Trial Lawyers. “Something has to change.”
NEW YORK — Joel Embiid has been ruled out for Friday night’s game against the New York Knicks at Madison Square Garden with an illness and right-knee injury management.
The 76ers center was initially listed as questionable due to illness only. However, he’s been dealing with right knee issues since early November, which led to him missing nine consecutive games earlier in the season.
Embiid’s absence from the Knicks game should not come as a surprise, though. The 7-foot-2, 280-pounder doesn’t play on both nights of back-to-back games. After facing the Knicks (19-7), the Sixers (14-11) will play the Dallas Mavericks on Saturday at Xfinity Mobile Arena.
Embiid is averaging 20.5 points, 6.6 rebounds, and 2.8 assists per game. He had a season-high 39 points and nine rebounds in a 115-105 home victory over the Indiana Pacers on Dec. 12. Two nights later, Embiid had 22 points and a season-high 14 rebounds in a 120-117 road loss to the Atlanta Ha
wks.
He’s already missed 14 of the Sixers’ 25 games this season.
Embiid isn’t the only Sixer who will miss the game. Kelly Oubre Jr. (left knee LCL sprain) and Trendon Watford (left adductor strain) will remain sidelined.
