Online speculation about whether Maxey and Edgecombe liked each other started after a defensive miscommunication in the first quarter of Friday’s loss to Cleveland led to an open Donovan Mitchell three. Maxey and Edgecombe were caught on the bench having what appeared to be a heated conversation after the play.
But on Monday, after Maxey was named an All-Star starter, Edgecombe was the first person to reach out to him — telling reporters he set a 2 p.m. alarm just to make sure he found out right away whether Maxey had been named a starter so he could congratulate him.
Edgecombe woke up Maxey from his pregame nap trying to call him.
“I’m like, why is he calling me?” Maxey said pregame. “And I answer, and he’s screaming and showing me the TV. And I’m like, ‘OK.’ We chopped it up a little bit.”
And postgame, the two Sixers guards were having fun after the 113-104 win over the Pacers.
Nick Nurse thought back to the 76ers’ preseason trip to Abu Dhabi, and how a multitude of injuries (again) forced him to cobble the rotation together for two exhibition games against the New York Knicks.
“I’d be pretty happy that we’re here right now,” the coach said of his former self late Monday.
“Here” is a 23-18 record at the regular season’s halfway point following a 113-104 home victory over the Indiana Pacers. Nurse acknowledged he is still irked by the handful of close games he believes the Sixers gave away. The roster, meanwhile, still feels like a work in progress after finally reaching full availability earlier this month.
But the Sixers are considered one of the NBA’s pleasant surprises, entering Tuesday in fifth place in the crowded Eastern Conference standings where 1½ games separate third and seventh.
“Probably would have taken this at the start of the season, for sure,” Nurse said. “And, hopefully, a couple more [health] dominoes can fall here as we go on.”
In that spirit, here is a collection of second-half goals for the Sixers’ rotation players.
Tyrese Maxey: Make the MVP ballot
When Maxey received “M-V-P!” chants at the free throw line during an early-season home game, he told Joel Embiid, “I don’t know how you do this.”
Maxey has been worthy of such serenading from spectators while making another significant leap in his sixth season. The 25-year-old point guard was named an All-Star starter Monday afternoon, as the top American vote-getter. That naturally makes him an All-NBA contender.
One step beyond those potential accolades? Getting onto MVP ballots, a race that could become more open if Nikola Jokić, the three-time winner of the sport’s top individual award and this season’s early favorite, falls under the 65-game eligibility threshold because of a recent knee injury. Maxey was seventh in the first ESPN straw poll, which surveys 100 eligible voters, released on Dec. 19.
For good reason. Maxey entered Tuesday ranked third in the NBA in scoring (30.2 points per game) while also setting career highs in assists (6.7 per game) and rebounds (4.4 per game). He is shooting 40% from three-point range and 47.5% from the floor, on 22.3 attempts per game as a multidimensional bucket-getter. He has become more of a defensive playmaker, averaging 2.1 steals per game — including a career-high eight in Monday’s win over the Pacers — and turning several into blazing finishes at the opposite end. And he is doing this while leading the league in minutes played, at 39.4 per game.
Some of these numbers could dip slightly if Embiid and Paul George can stay healthy, taking some of that load off the relentless Maxey. And a tough two-game stint against the Cavaliers — he went a combined 14-of-39 from the floor in consecutive losses — demonstrates he still faces a learning curve as the focal point of opposing defenses.
But Embiid was correct in nicknaming Maxey “The Franchise” years ago. If Maxey is the leader of a Sixers team that shifts from resurgent to legitimate East threat, he will need to get used to those chants.
Joel Embiid and Paul George: More dunks!
Following a Jan. 3 win at the New York Knicks, Embiid’s first dunk of the season was a popular topic. Nurse quipped that it occurring with a win secured in the final seconds “was a pretty cheap way of getting it … but at least we know he can still dunk.” When VJ Edgecombe learned that Embiid had not dunked since last season, the rookie’s reaction was “Oh my God.”
The celebration is not as much about the act itself, but the ongoing physical progress it signifies.
Ditto for Embiid more often stepping to center court for the opening tipoff. Or that he has played in 10 of 11 games since Dec. 30, including logging 40 minutes for the first time since the 2024 playoffs in a Jan. 5 overtime loss to Denver. During this stretch, he has averaged 27.4 points on 51.6% shooting with 7.6 rebounds, 4 assists, and noticeably improved elevation and mobility as a defender and rim protector.
And by the time the Sixers won in Toronto on Jan. 12, Embiid was throwing down one-handed dunks in traffic.
“I’ve made a lot of strides since the beginning of the season,” Embiid said Monday. “I’m back to, probably say, All-Star level and getting back to that All-NBA level and MVP level each and every day. Just got to keep it going.”
George, who battled numerous injuries during a disappointing first season in Philly, can relate. Though he has been most dangerous this season as a three-point shooter (37% on 6.3 attempts per game entering Tuesday), he said his body also feels (and looks) better as a versatile complementary player on both ends.
“Those small things,” George said. “It’s like stuff that I can check off like, ‘All right, I’m able to do this again. I’m able to dunk again. I’m able to explode again.’ So it’s just the small gains that just keep you going.”
Dominick Barlow and Jabari Walker: Secure an NBA standard contract
While sitting inside a restaurant during the Las Vegas Summer League, Sixers president of basketball operations Daryl Morey said he believed the front office had been savvy in leveraging two-way contracts to sign helpful players in Dominick Barlow and Jabari Walker.
Morey was more than correct. Barlow has been the Sixers’ breakout player, lauded for his knack for crashing the boards and cutting while averaging 8.2 points, 5.1 rebounds, and 1.3 assists as the starting power forward. Walker is a high-energy rebounder (3.4 in 12.9 minutes per game), and has played in 39 of the Sixers’ 41 games.
“Those two guys just go out and play hard,” Nurse said Monday, “and have a lot of fun just giving everything they have.”
Both have certainly outplayed their two-way status, which primarily is designed for young, developing players to split time between the NBA and G League. The Sixers will aim to maximize the NBA games Barlow and Walker still have available before converting either (or both) to a standard contract. Because of a quirk for teams that do not fill their entire 15-man roster (the Sixers had 14 players signed to standard contracts as of late Monday), Barlow and Walker have a combined six active games with the Sixers remaining.
“We kind of have that respect for each other,” Walker said recently. “… This is new to both of us, so we don’t let the two-way define us. We just know we’re both big pieces and we have similar styles sometimes with our energy. We talk about how we can be effective as a team, and how we can both bring more energy.”
The Feb. 5 trade deadline could present an opportunity to free up another full roster spot. Kelly Oubre Jr., Andre Drummond, Eric Gordon, and Kyle Lowry are on expiring contracts.
Andre Drummond and Adem Bona: Stay ready
That sports cliche is in the air throughout the Sixers’ roster, as Nurse experiments with various personnel combinations with a healthier group. It is most applicable to the two centers behind Embiid. The roles for Drummond and Bona have ranged from starter to backup to completely out of the rotation.
With Embiid now (seemingly) able to play more consistently, matchups, foul trouble, and other factors could determine when exactly Drummond or Bona see the floor.
Drummond appeared to be in the midst of a resurgent season but has looked more limited at times since a late-November knee injury. Bona’s early-season minutes were more sporadic before he recently regained the backup spot. There have been games when one player took the first-half stint and the other held that role in the second half.
Sixers center Adem Bona has shared the backup spot behind Joel Embiid with Andre Drummond.
“We’ve got to do it by feel,” Nurse said. “But I think they’re not alone in that. That’s what we’re doing [with multiple players] almost every night as coaches. … We’re always, every night, trying to figure out which guy fits that moment of the game. It’s really moment-to-moment. It’s just kind of the way it is.”
Nurse said last week that, in the games Embiid does not play, he would prefer to start Drummond and bring Bona off the bench because of the way opponents typically go smaller with their backup frontcourt players.
On last month’s holiday road trip, Nurse even tried Embiid and Bona on the floor together. Bona said that making that partnership effective is one of his primary goals moving forward.
VJ Edgecombe: Embrace the grind
At halftime of a Jan. 5 loss to the Denver Nuggets, Embiid asked Edgecombe if he was taking the day off.
Then the rookie turned another quiet start into a fabulous finish on both ends of the floor. He flashed his rare blend of athleticism and poise while scoring 17 points after the break, and finished with a career-high nine assists and a slew of impact defensive moments.
This feels like a key stretch for Edgecombe, who has already surpassed the total games he played during his one college season at Baylor — and entered Tuesday ranked eighth in the NBA in minutes (35.7). He acknowledged some early-season fatigue before a calf injury. Now, he is entering the NBA doldrums before the All-Star break and, after that, a playoff push.
After that night against Denver, Edgecombe connected on 5-of-6 three-point attempts in a Jan. 12 win at the Raptors. He has taken on more ballhandling responsibility. He has guarded All-NBA guard Donovan Mitchell. But he also took only five shots in that Friday loss to the Cavaliers.
“I was the first person that went up to him [after that game],” Maxey said of Edgecombe, “and told him, like, ‘Dude, you shooting five times in a basketball game is not going to cut it for us. You’ve got to be up to 10, 12. You’ve got to be aggressive.’ Man, that’s my dog. That’s my little brother.”
On the season, Edgecombe is averaging 15.6 points, 5.3 rebounds, 4.3 assists, and 1.5 steals. He must embrace the grind, because the Sixers are counting on his electric impact to persist into the spring.
Kelly Oubre Jr.: Recapture the early-season flow
Oubre quickly got downhill for the Sixers’ first bucket of Monday’s victory, igniting an outing when he totaled 18 points and a season-high five assists.
He looked like the player Oubre was before a mid-November knee injury, when he arguably was putting together the best basketball of his career in his 11th NBA season. He was in more control with the ball in his hands, averaging 16.8 points on 49.7% shooting in 12 games. And he relished taking on challenging perimeter defensive assignments.
Sixers guard Kelly Oubre Jr. looked more like himself as he scored 18 points against the Pacers.
Oubre has been back for six games, initially with understandable rust. He has committed to allowing his defensive energy to ignite his offense. He gained some momentum in a Jan. 11 loss at Toronto (13 points, five rebounds, four steals, three blocks), and then put up 12 points as part of the closing lineup in Friday’s loss to Cleveland.
It will be critical for Oubre to maintain that patience and understanding with himself, rather than reverting to old habits.
“He’s done a good job of just kind of easing his way back in,” Maxey said of Oubre on Monday, “and I feel like letting the game come to him.”
Quentin Grimes: Make a Sixth Man of the Year push
Grimes was never going to be the high-volume scorer and lead ballhandler he was after the Sixers’ acquired him at last season’s trade deadline, then shifted into tank mode. But Grimes’ first full season in Philly has been spotty, at times.
After a December shooting slump, Grimes rediscovered his touch at the end of the Sixers’ holiday road trip. Since then, he has hit double figures in scoring in only two of the Sixers’ last six games. He entered Tuesday ranked sixth in that category among players with double-digit games played off the bench (14.2 points), while adding 4.1 rebounds, 3.3 assists, and a willingness to defend.
Grimes will often be in the closing lineup, where the Sixers can utilize their guard depth. But being that initial, consistent spark off the bench — which could lead to Sixth Man of the Year consideration — is another worthwhile goal.
One nugget: Grimes is now eligible to be traded, and has veto power on any proposed deal after signing his one-year qualifying agreement in October.
Trendon Watford and Jared McCain: Squeeze back into the rotation
Watford was regarded as a sneaky-good offseason signing because of his versatility as a “point” forward. Hamstring and thigh injuries have limited him to 20 games, though one was a triple-double against the Raptors.
Watford is beginning to crack the rotation minutes again, totaling four points, two rebounds, and two assists while setting the pace as an additional ballhandler on Friday against Cleveland.
He played another 12 minutes Monday against Indiana, with two points on 1-of-4 shooting.
“Being able to play a lot of positions and play with different lineups, I think I can do,” Watford said Saturday of that reintegration process. “I just try to keep building off of that. Obviously, the team has something going right now, so I’m just trying to integrate my way back into it with my style of play and my game. It’s a process, but it’s slowly getting there.”
Sixers forward Trendon Watford was considered a sneaky good offseason addition in free agency.
The opposite has happened for McCain, whose road back from knee and thumb surgeries has been choppy. His minutes have diminished as the Sixers’ roster returned to health, eventually falling out of the rotation Friday against Cleveland. The next day, he was assigned to the G League’s Delaware Blue Coats for the second time since his return. He was back in Philly in time for Monday’s matchup against Indiana, but he played only the final 47 seconds.
The former Rookie of the Year front-runner is shooting 35.4% from the floor, and has recently passed up some wide-open looks. His struggles even carried to the G League, where he went 5-of-18 from the floor (and had six turnovers) in the Blue Coats’ loss at the Noblesville Boom on Sunday.
“We’re just trying to get him some extended run,” Nurse said of McCain. “ … I don’t think he’s had much of a runway to play consistently.”
Which Eagles players should stay or go next season? Swipe and decide.
// Timestamp 01/20/26 1:02pm
Which Eagles should stay or go next season? Swipe and decide.
Eagles tight end Dallas Goedert will be a free agent this offseason.
The Eagles’ season ended sooner than expected with a loss to the 49ers in the wild-card round. Now the Birds will try to assemble a roster that can help them get back to their Super Bowl standard.
Beat writer Jeff McLane made his picks on what personnel decisions he sees the team making this offseason, including wide receiver A.J. Brown’s future and whether tight end Dallas Goedert should be back next season.
Make your pick for each player by swiping the cards below — right for Stay, or left for Go. Yes, just like Tinder.
One NFL personnel evaluator told ESPN the likely trading partner will be the Buffalo Bills, who desperately need to acquire talent to help Josh Allen.
“The Bills have to upgrade there — their best receiver is Khalil Shakir, who is a nice player but he’s not a top guy,” the executive told ESPN. “Brown is an immediate upgrade and he’s still young. And the Eagles can build the passing game around DeVonta Smith and a high draft pick.”
Other NFL scouts suggested to Fowler the Eagles could end up trading Brown to the Tennessee Titans, Cleveland Browns, San Francisco 49ers and Las Vegas Raiders.
Brown is under contract through the 2029 season, and trading him would certainly put a dent in the Eagles’ salary cap (though designating it a post-June 1 trade would free up $7 million in cap space). But as Philly Voice’s Jimmy Kempski pointed out, there would be major long-term savings for the Eagles — over $44 million per season — if they traded him away this offseason.
Eagles general manager Howie Roseman was noncommittal when asked if he would consider trading Brown.
“It is hard to find great players in the NFL, and A.J. is a great player,” Roseman told reporters at a news conference last week. “I think from my perspective, that’s what we’re going out and looking for, when we go out here in free agency and in the draft, is trying to find great players who love football, and he’s that guy. So that would be my answer.”
Daboll went 20–40–1 (.336) in four seasons with the Giants, and was named NFL Coach of the Year in 2022. Prior to that, he was the offensive coordinator with the Buffalo Bills, where he was credited with the development of Josh Allen.
After firing Sean McDermott, the Bills are reportedly interested in bringing back Daboll. He interviewed with the Tennessee Titans, who ended up hiring former San Francisco 49ers defensive coordinator Robert Saleh as their next head coach.
Daboll also reportedly interviewed for the vacant offensive coordinator position with the Los Angeles Chargers.
Robert Saleh is headed to the Tennessee Titans to become their next head coach.
And then there were five.
In an offseason that saw 10 head coaching vacancies (tying an NFL record last reached in 2022), four have already been filled.
The latest is former San Francisco 49ers defensive coordinator Robert Saleh, who has been hired by the Tennessee Titans as their new head coach, according to multiple reports.
Here’s a look at the newest NFL head coaches:
Atlanta Falcons: Kevin Stefanski, former Browns head coach
Tennessee Titans: Robert Saleh, former 49ers defensive coordinator
New York Giants: John Harbaugh, former Ravens head coach
Miami Dolphins: Jeff Hafley, former Packers defensive coordinator
Here are the remaining head coaching vacancies across the league:
Eagles have yet to convince Mike McDaniel to interview: sources
Ex-Dolphins coach Mike McDaniel is getting a lot of interest from multiple teams.
In the past week, the Eagles have made it known to sources around the league that hiring former Miami Dolphins head coach Mike McDaniel as their new offensive coordinator is their No. 1 offseason priority. That includes fired New York Giants coach Brian Daboll, who is expected to interview for the position this week.
Virtually no amount of money, literally no amount of autonomy, and no fear of conflict would deter the team from signing McDaniel, a respected offensive innovator.
McDaniel and Eagles defensive coordinator Vic Fangio endured a rocky year together in 2023, when Fangio worked for McDaniel as his defensive coordinator in Miami, and their split, while couched as a mutual parting of the ways, was not without acrimony.
At any rate, league sources indicate that even though Fangio’s work the last two seasons has been integral and possibly unmatched around the league, if the Eagles were somehow able to hire McDaniel, they would not be deterred by any possible discomfort from Fangio.
Of course, the actual hiring of McDaniel in Philadelphia would be an unexpected coup for the Birds. Right now, he’s a hotter commodity than Venezuelan oil.
League sources say the Eagles have not yet convinced McDaniel to interview, which offers a glimpse into how he considers the Philly job. That said, don’t expect money to be an obstacle. Sources say that, for McDaniel, the position could be worth as much as the $6 million annual salary the Raiders gave Chip Kelly, who then was fired just 11 games into 2025, his first of three seasons under contract. At the end of the season head coach Pete Carroll also was fired, which created the current vacancy.
Latest on Eagles’ search for a new offensive coordinator
Former Buccaneers offensive coordinator Josh Grizzard reportedly interviewed with the Birds Monday.
It’s been about a week since the Eagles moved on from offensive coordinator Kevin Patullo, and the Birds have been busy interviewing potential replacements.
Here are the offensive coordinator candidates the Eagles have already reportedly interviewed or are scheduled to meet with:
Brian Daboll: The former Giants head coach, reportedly at the top of the Eagles’ wish list, will interview with the team Tuesday, according to The Athletic’s Dianna Russini.
Josh Grizzard: The former Buccaneers offensive coordinator interviewed with the Birds Monday, according to Jordan Schultz.
Mike Kafka: The former interim head coach and offensive coordinator of the Giants interviewed with the Birds Saturday, according to ESPN’s Jeremy Fowler.
Jim Bob Cooter: The Colts offensive coordinator and one-time Birds assistant also interviewed with the Eagles Saturday, according to multiple reports. Colts head coach and former Birds offensive coordinator Shane Steichen is open to letting Cooter pursue an opportunity to call plays, according to Sports Illustrated’s Albert Breer.
Zac Robinson: The former Falcons offensive coordinator was the first candidate interviewed by the Eagles, according to ESPN’s Adam Schefter.
And here are some coaches the Eagles have either reached out to interview or plan to bring in:
Mike McDaniel: The former Dolphins head coach remains one of the Eagles’ top targets, but has yet to agree to an interview, according to columnist Marcus Hayes.
Eagles defensive coach Christian Parker to interview with Dolphins
Sources: The #Packers will interview #Eagles DBs coach and pass-game coordinator Christian Parker for their vacant DC job after Jeff Hafley took the Dolphins head-coaching position.
Broncos backup Jarrett Stidham will start his first game of the season Sunday against the Patriots.
We’re down to just three games remaining this NFL season, though most Eagles fans bailed following the Birds wild-card loss to the San Francisco 49ers.
The name you’ll be hearing all week is Jarrett Stidham, the backup replacing starting quarterback Bo Nix, who broke is ankle on the second-to-last play against the Bills Saturday and is out for the rest of the season.
Stidham (who was originally drafted by the Patriots and was once Tom Brady’s backup) will make his first start of the season Sunday. The last time that happened was 53 years ago in 1972, when then-backup Roger Staubach started in place of Craig Morton and played terribly in a lopsided loss to Washington.
“His last pass in a game came two years and two weeks ago,” retired NFL writer Peter King noted in his weekly newsletter.
Here’s the schedule for Sunday’s NFC and AFC Championship games:
No. 2 Patriots at No. 1 Broncos: 3 p.m., CBS (Jim Nantz, Tony Romo, Tracy Wolfson)
No. 5 Rams at No. 1 Seahawks: 6:30 p.m., Fox (Kevin Burkhardt, Tom Brady. Erin Andrews, Tom Rinaldi)
Jay Wright saw enough of Collin Gillespie a few nights before to invite him to Villanova on a Monday in January 2017 and offer him a scholarship. But this was hardly a courtship. Wright told Gillespie that he would redshirt his freshman season, maybe play as a junior, and then have a complementary role as a fifth-year senior.
“I thought he would get his master’s degree and be a great coach one day,” Wright said. “I was thinking ‘I would love to have this guy on my staff.’”
Gillespie — who has molded himself into an NBA starter with the Phoenix Suns after going undrafted in 2022 — nodded along. He didn’t have a Division I scholarship before his senior year at Archbishop Wood and declined to visit Division II schools because he believed bigger programs would eventually see what he already knew: He could play. Redshirt? OK. Bench player? Sure. Coach? Yes, sir.
“I didn’t really believe him,” said Gillespie, who will play against the 76ers on Tuesday night. “I believed in myself. I was just like, ‘Whatever he says, I’ll take it and then prove him wrong.’”
There was Gillespie 15 months later on the court for Wright in the national championship game, taking a charge against Michigan and looking the part. In his fifth year, the kid who had to wait for college scholarships was named the nation’s top point guard in 2022. He went undrafted that June but landed a non-guaranteed contract in July with the Denver Nuggets. He was on track.
Three weeks later, Gillespie suffered a broken right leg while playing in a pickup game at Villanova.
His NBA career — the one that is now flourishing — seemed unlikely then to nearly everyone except the guy who nodded along that day in Wright’s office.
“Everyone has their own journey,” Gillespie, 26, said. “Everyone runs their own race. You just have to stick to what you do, put your head down, and work hard. Don’t compare yourself to anyone else. If you work hard enough, you can probably achieve anything you want to.”
Collin Gillespie (right) became much more than a fifth-year senior role player first envisioned by Villanova coach Jay Wright.
G League to the league
Andre Miller often learned via text messages which players would be flying nearly three hours from Denver to join his G League team that night. He coached the Grand Rapids Gold, the Nuggets’ minor-league affiliate in Michigan that played 1,100 miles from Denver. Those morning flights gave Gillespie a chance to get on the court.
“It wasn’t a good recipe for these guys to be successful, but when he did show up, he didn’t want to come out of the game,” said Miller, who played three of his 17 NBA seasons with the Sixers. “We knew we had to leave him out there because he didn’t have an opportunity with the other team and he took great advantage of it.”
Gillespie feared that the Nuggets would void his contract after he suffered that injury playing at Villanova. That’s the first thing he said to his father, who was in the gym when it happened. But they didn’t. They kept him around that first season while he rehabbed and then split his time the next season between Denver and Grand Rapids.
“There was no ego,” Miller said. “One thing that’s tough to deal with is when your career is in the hands of other people. Some people felt like he wasn’t an NBA player and some people felt like he was an NBA player. The one thing that stood out about him to me is that he’s a competitor. He’s a dog. He’s a guy who enjoys playing basketball. He’s a leader. He plays with a chip on his shoulder.
“I wish I could have coached him more in the G League, but he was an NBA player. I knew that from the first time I saw him on the court with the G League players. I was like, ‘He probably won’t be here much.’”
Gillespie signed before last season with the Suns, again splitting time between the NBA and the G League. The 6-foot-1 guard earned a full-time role this season, starting for the Suns and fitting in with pesky defense and a three-point shot. Just like college, it took time before Gillespie’s game was appreciated.
“You just don’t see it initially. He doesn’t wow you,” Wright said. “But when you see him play over time and you realize this guy is getting to the rim and finishing, he’s elevating on his jumper and shooting over bigger guys, and he’s not getting backed down. You almost need to have time to believe what you’re watching.”
Collin Gillespie is shooting 41.4% from three-point range for the Suns.
Gillespie entered Monday’s game against Brooklyn averaging 13.2 points, 4.9 assists, and shooting 41.4% from three-point range. He hit a game-winner at the buzzer in November, regularly finds ways to create his own shot, and has proved that his game fits in the NBA.
Kevin Durant called him “a dog” and Anthony Edwards said after a loss to the Suns last season that “No. 12 is pretty good at basketball.” Two NBA superstars could see what Gillespie always believed: He belongs.
“He has more heart than talent,” said his father, Jim. “The kid just doesn’t want to lose. When he sets his mind to something, he just does it. And ultimately, he’s a winner. Wherever he’s gone, he’s won. At every level.”
Jay Wright says Collin Gillespie came to Villanova with a “killer mentality and stone face that we try to teach.”
Change of plans
Gillespie was in the stands for a Villanova game as a senior in high school, seated behind the La Salle bench at the Palestra. The Explorers invited him and Gillespie thought a scholarship offer was near.
“But they never offered,” Jim Gillespie said.
Gillespie eventually landed smaller Division I offers as a senior, but he was hopeful a Big 5 school would have a spot for him. None of them did until January when Villanova assistant Ashley Howard urged Wright to watch Gillespie play a game against five-star recruit Quade Green’s Neumann Goretti squad at Archbishop Ryan.
The Northeast Philly gym was packed and the coach couldn’t stay long as he was being hounded. Howard called Wright while he was driving home and told the coach that one kid scored 42 and the other kid scored 31. Wright figured the 42 points belonged to Green, who was already committed to Kentucky. It was Gillespie, the assistant said. Wright was sold.
“Nothing was spectacular, and he’s not bringing any attention to himself,” Wright said. “He just makes the right plays.”
Wright called Gillespie’s father and told him he needed his son at Villanova on Monday. The coach gave Gillespie his pitch that day without any guarantees.
“We left and we were like, ‘What are you going to do?’” his mother, Therese, said. “He said, ‘I’m going to play out my senior [year].’ I said, ‘Collin, it’s Jay Wright.’ He said, ‘Mom, I know what I’m doing.’”
Gillespie committed a week later, simply deciding after a game at Bonner-Prendergast that he had enough of the recruiting trail. He was headed to ’Nova and told a Wood coach without first running it by his parents. Gillespie knew what he was doing.
“He always said, ‘I’ll bet on myself,’” Jim Gillespie said. “He put the work in and the effort in and that’s what he’s always done.”
It took Gillespie just a few weeks to force Wright to rethink the plan that he would redshirt. Every day in practice that June he went up against Jalen Brunson and held his own.
Collin Gillespie (left) got to play in practice against future NBA players Donte DiVincenzo (center) and Jalen Brunson (right) at Villanova.
“He came in with that killer mentality and stone face that we try to teach,” Wright said. “But he came in with that. Then he spent every day with Jalen Brunson and it just became reinforced. It was so obvious. The coaching staff, behind closed doors, was going, ‘This kid is going against Brunson every day. He’s pretty good.’”
Gillespie suffered a minor injury that month and Wright checked with athletic trainer Jeff Pierce to see how the freshman was feeling. He was fine, the trainer said.
“The trainer said, ‘You’re not redshirting this kid,’” Wright said. “I said, ‘Is it that obvious?’ He said ‘Yeah, everyone knows.’ Yeah, it was.”
The guy who nodded along in Wright’s office proved that he belonged. Now, he’s doing it again in the NBA.
“It’s the way I was raised and where I come from,” said Gillespie, who grew up in Pine Valley before moving to Huntington Valley. “My brother is a year older, so I always played a year up. I had to play against older guys and was always smaller. I always had to prove myself and had a chip on my shoulder. My parents always believed in me and my family always believed in me and taught me to believe in myself.”
Fran Dunphy sat at a long table inside La Salle University’s athletic center early Monday afternoon, his body turned toward a wide window on the other end of a conference room, as if the difficult discussion topic pained him and he was trying to shield himself from the hurt.
A 70-page federal indictment had dropped Thursday accusing more than 39 college basketball players of fixing games and shaving points during the 2023-24 and 2024-25 seasons. Dunphy had read in disbelief as La Salle was mentioned more than once. One of his team’s games was the target of an alleged fix, and one of his former players, Mac Etienne, appeared in the indictment 28 times for shaving points at DePaul University in ’23-24, the season before he came to La Salle. Etienne reportedly reached a plea agreement with prosecutors on Dec. 8.
La Salle released a statement Thursday noting that no one now connected to the university was charged and that the school would cooperate with any investigation. No one has accused the university’s administrators or coaches of any wrongdoing, and everyone who knows Dunphy knows that his integrity is beyond reproach. Still, there’s no getting around the disturbing implication of the La Salle-related details within the indictment.
Two of the alleged fixers, Jalen Smith and Antonio Blakeney, “attempted to recruit” La Salle players to shave points in a Feb. 21, 2024, game against St. Bonaventure. The Bonnies were favored in the game’s first-half spread by 5.5 points, and the fixers “placed wagers with various sportsbooks totaling at least $247,000 on St. Bonaventure to cover” that spread. The Explorers led, 36-28, at halftime and won, 72-59.
“We did our job that day,” Dunphy, who retired from coaching after last season, said in his first public comments since the indictment’s release. “I felt good about that — that there was nothing there, that we had won the game. I truly liked coaching those guys on that team. That was a good win for us.”
But the fact that the bets failed and the fixers lost doesn’t answer an unsettling question: Why would the defendants have wagered nearly a quarter of a million dollars on a middling Atlantic 10 game if they didn’t already have reason to believe they’d win the bet — if they didn’t think they had someone inside working to help them?
“I couldn’t tell you,” Dunphy said. “Again, I didn’t go down that path even a little bit. I just thought about my team, the fact that we had played fairly well that day, and I was just surprised and disappointed that anybody even thought we were involved in any of that. That was my disappointment.”
Has he been thinking about that team, that season, and asking himself if such a scenario — one or more of his players shaving points — was possible?
“Well, we were about a .500 team,” he said. “It wasn’t like we were superstars. But we had a good group of guys who wanted to work their ass off. That’s how I looked at it. Did I go back to the guys who played a lot of minutes? Yeah. That wasn’t their M.O. That would have been really surprising to me if any of those guys thought that [shaving points] would be something beneficial to them or anybody. …
“Just surprise, disappointment, a bit shocking. Just, how did this happen? Where do we go with it?”
Mac Etienne (21), who began his career at UCLA before transferring to DePaul and then to La Salle, reached a plea agreement with prosecutors on Dec. 8.
As of Monday afternoon, he had neither rewatched the St. Bonaventure game nor reviewed the box score for anything curious or alarming. He hadn’t thought about the incident in those terms, he said, and perhaps he could not bring himself to think about it that way. How many times had he watched one of his players make a silly, stupid mistake during a game, and how many times had he yelled, What the hell are you doing? “I didn’t think twice about it,” he said. Was he supposed to have considered that a player screwing up like that was doing it on purpose, that the kid was on the take?
Hell, in the Explorers’ 81-74 victory last March over St. Joseph’s, in the final win of Dunphy’s career in his final home game, Etienne had scored 13 points and grabbed 11 rebounds in 36 minutes. “Just a phenomenal game for us, and he was very much a part of it,” Dunphy said. “He was a very interesting guy to coach. Talented. A worker. And he seemed to care very much about his teammates. … He never complained about minutes or any of that.” But now Dunphy was remembering Etienne’s recruitment, the coaxing it took to get him to transfer from DePaul to La Salle, with the hindsight that Etienne had thrown games before he ever showed up and settled in at 20th and Olney. Now Dunphy was searching for signs and tells in retrospect.
“You’re running through every guy who’s hitting the portal,” he said. “‘What do we need? This guy, does anybody know him?’ Some of the staff members knew him, knew about him.
“Years ago, the portal wasn’t like it is. You’d recruit a kid in his sophomore, his junior year. You’d get to him. You’d get to know the parents, get to know his coaches. The coaches tell you what the kid is like, some of the idiosyncrasies. We don’t study that much anymore. There’s not as much vetting in today’s world. But that’s the way it is. It’s a challenge, and you try to meet that challenge.”
Fran Dunphy (right) described Mac Etienne (defending St. Joseph’s guard Xzayvier Brown on March 13) as “a worker” in the time he coached him.
College basketball has had plenty of point-shaving scandals throughout its past, of course; one of the biggest, in 1961, involved St. Joe’s. But it’s so easy now for gamblers to contact players and for anyone to place a bet — just a few taps and swipes on a smartphone — that even if law enforcement authorities keep catching the fixers, the credibility of college basketball and sports overall still will be in peril. The more arrests, the less the public will trust what it sees on the field and the court. The corruption can appear total and endless, yet so many stay strangely silent about it.
Look around. Listen. Who are the giants of college basketball, the big-name coaches, who are speaking out about this scandal, who are sounding bells and alarms about the sanctity of their sport? “Nobody ever talked about this among my fellow coaches. Nobody,” Dunphy said. “It’s just not something that you talk about because you don’t believe it’s happening. You hear these stories that tell you it is, but you just say to yourself, ‘I don’t know how this could happen.’”
The rot may have spread to his program, and Fran Dunphy doesn’t have to be the loudest voice calling for everyone to open their eyes, including his own. He just had to do what he did Monday. He just had to be one of the first.
MIAMI GARDENS, Fla. (AP) — Fernando Mendoza bulldozed his way into the end zone and Indiana bullied its way into the history books Monday night, toppling Miami 27-21 to put the finishing touch on a rags-to-riches story, an undefeated season, and the national title.
The Heisman Trophy winner finished with 186 yards passing, but it was his tackle-breaking, sprawled-out 12-yard touchdown run on fourth-and-4 with 9 minutes, 18 seconds left that defined this game — and the Hoosiers’ season.
Indiana would not be denied.
“I had to go airborne,” said Mendoza, who had his lip split and his arm bloodied by a ferocious Miami defense that sacked him three times and hit him many more. “I would die for my team.”
Mendoza’s touchdown gave turnaround artist Curt Cignetti’s team a 24-14 lead — barely enough breathing room to hold off a frenzied charge by the hard-hitting Hurricanes, who came to life in the second half behind 112 yards and two scores from Mark Fletcher but never took the lead.
The College Football Playoff trophy now heads to the most unlikely of places: Bloomington, Indiana — a campus that endured a nation-leading 713 losses over 130-plus years of football before Cignetti arrived two years ago to embark on a revival for the ages.
“Took some chances, found a way. Let me tell you: We won the national championship at Indiana University. It can be done,” Cignetti said.
Indiana finished 16-0 — using the extra games afforded by the expanded 12-team playoff to match a perfect-season win total last compiled by Yale in 1894.
In a fitting bit of symmetry, this undefeated title comes 50 years after Bob Knight’s basketball team went 32-0 to win it all in that state’s favorite sport.
That hasn’t happened since, and there’s already some thought that college football — in its evolving, money-soaked era — might not see a team like this again, either.
Players like Mendoza — a transfer from California who grew up just a few miles away from Miami’s campus, “The U” — certainly don’t come around often.
Two fourth-down gambles by Cignetti in the fourth quarter, after Fletcher’s second touchdown carved the Hurricanes’ deficit to three, put Mendoza in position to shine.
The first was a 19-yard-completion to Charlie Becker on a back-shoulder fade those guys have been perfecting all season. Four plays later came a decision and play that wins championships.
Cignetti sent his kicker out on fourth-and-4 from the 12, but quickly called his second timeout. The team huddled on the field and the coach drew up a quarterback draw, hoping the Hurricanes would be in a defense they had shown before.
“We rolled the dice and said, ‘They’re going to be in it again and they were,’” Cignetti said. “We blocked it well, he broke a tackle or two, and got in the end zone.”
Not known as a run-first guy, Mendoza slipped one tackle, then took a hit and spun around. He kept his feet, then left them, going horizontal and stretching the ball out — a ready-made poster pic for a title run straight from the movies.
Maybe they’ll call it “Hoosiers.” This was a program so bad that a coach once stopped the game early to take a picture of the scoreboard when it read “Indiana 7, Ohio State 6.” The Hoosiers lost 47-7.
This year, though, they beat Ohio State in the Big Ten title game on their way to the top seed in the playoff.
Indiana quarterback Fernando Mendoza celebrates after scoring against Miami during the second half of Monday’s CFP title game.
They won their first two games by a combined score of 94-25 and Mendoza threw more touchdown passes (eight) than incompletions (five).
This one was nowhere near as easy.
Fletcher was a one-man force, hitting triple digits for the third time in four playoff games and turning a moribund offense into something much more.
It ended as a one-score game, and the ’Canes — the visiting team playing on their home field — moved into Indiana territory before Carson Beck’s heave got picked off by Jamari Sharpe, a Miami native who made sure the only miracle in this season would be Indiana’s.
“Did I think something like this was possible? Probably not,” Cignetti said. “But if you keep your nose down and keep working, anything is possible.”
The 76ers must play with a sense of urgency against bad and/or undermanned teams.
Tyrese Maxey is a newly minted Eastern Conference NBA All-Star starter. But the Sixers point guard, and coach Nick Nurse, believe he has more to give.
And the Sixers need more production from their bench.
These things stood out in Monday’s 113-104 victory over the Indiana Pacers at Xfinity Mobile Arena.
Lack of energy
Maxey and Joel Embiid’s play, especially late in the game, enabled the Sixers (23-18) to avoid an embarrassing loss to the Pacers (10-34).
Maxey scored 14 of his 29 points in the fourth quarter. The 6-foot-2, 200-pounder also had four assists and four steals while playing 10 minutes, 35 seconds in the quarter.
In the quarter, Maxey was able to get to the paint more frequently and finish at the rim.
“We kind of opened the court up a little bit,” he said. “Me and Joel didn’t play a lot of two-man game. So it’s kind of like just getting him the ball, coming off screens, and doing that.”
But before Embiid reentered the game with 5:01 remaining, Maxey was paired with Quentin Grimes, Jabari Walker, Kelly Oubre Jr., and Adem Bona.
“And with that unit, I know I have to be ultra-aggressive for myself, for my teammates as well, getting to the paint, kicking it out, generating threes. That’s what I tried to do. Got a couple of corner threes with that group, and that’s good offense for us.”
For the game, Maxey made 12 of 24 shots to go with eight assists, four rebounds, a career-high eight steals, and one block.
“I was just trying to be aggressive, you know, make plays for my teammates,” Maxey said of his steals. “I think it gets us going when we get out in the open court [after stealing the ball] and get some easy baskets.”
Meanwhile, Embiid scored nine of his 30 points in the fourth quarter. The center also finished with nine rebounds and four assists.
But it was like the Sixers fell into a deep slumber against the Pacers before they took over.
Sixers center Joel Embiid poured in 30 points in a combeack win Monday over Indiana.
At the start of the game, they looked like a well-oiled machine.
Embiid had 10 points on 5-for-5 shooting. Oubre, who started in place of Paul George, had six points on 3-for-3 shooting. And Dominick Barlow had the other two points on 1-for-2 shooting, as the Sixers had an 18-15 lead with 6:19 remaining in the first quarter. They had made 9 of 12 shots at the time.
They couldn’t shake the Pacers and clung to a 33-30 lead heading into the second quarter. And things only got worse for the Sixers in the second. They shot 26.3% and trailed by as many as 10 points against the NBA’s second-worst team. Much of the defending Eastern Conference champions’ struggles are down to injuries.
On Monday, they were without Tyrese Haliburton (right Achilles tendon tear), Bennedict Mathurin (sprained right thumb), and Obi Toppin (right foot stress fracture).
The Sixers struggled through 3-for-13 three-point shooting over the first three quarters. They ended up making 5 of 17.
But struggling against an undermanned squad isn’t uncommon.
On Jan. 5, they put forth an inexcusable effort against a Denver Nuggets team playing without its entire starting lineup and three key reserves.
This time, the Sixers woke up from their slumber and escaped with a nine-point victory. But they need to do a better job of putting teams away that have no business competing with them.
Maxey impacted the game in many ways on Monday. But the belief is that the sixth-year veteran is just scratching the surface.
“I think I’m most definitely nowhere close to where I could be, as far as basketball-wise,” Maxey said. “I feel like I can keep getting better. And my thing is I just want to be better. You know what I’m saying, for my teammates, for this organization, my family. And I know I have a coach, an organization, and teammates who believe in me. And when you have that, it kind of pushes you to be even better than what you are.”
Right now, he must do a better job of adjusting when teams trap him. But Maxey is most proud of his leadership and the strides he’s made on defense. He was a good defender growing up. But he’s found that the transition to the NBA has been more challenging.
Sixers guard Tyrese Maxey had a career-high eight steals in Monday’s win.
“I feel like I figured it out a little bit on how to be impactful,” he said, “and impact the game on the [defensive] end of the floor.”
But even though he needs to regain his rhythm, Maxey is in the midst of a career season.
He is third in the league in scoring (30.2 points per game), second in steals (2.1), and 15th in assists (6.7). He is also fourth in made three-pointers (140), and has scored at least 30 points in 19 of 39 games.
“We’re trying to give him every opportunity to be aggressive and go do his thing,” Nurse said. “And he’s very talented. And I keep saying there’s still a lot of room for growth, which I think is exciting.”
The Sixers were outscored 35-14 in bench points, and even that was misleading. They only had eight heading into the fourth quarter.
Grimes had five points on 1-for-7 shooting. Walker had five while making 2 of 5 shots. He was, by far, the most productive reserve, finishing with six rebounds and four steals. Bona (two points, 1-for-2 shooting) and Trendon Watford (two points, 1-for-4 shooting) were the other bench scorers.
Justin Edwards and Jared McCain didn’t attempt a shot after playing only the final 47 seconds. But the Sixers must get more production out of their bench if they expect to remain competitive.
The Flyers snapped their losing streak at six games with a 2-1 victory on Monday against the Vegas Golden Knights. They ended the Golden Knights’ seven-game winning streak in the process.
After allowing at least five goals in the past five games, the Flyers were stingy, allowing just one goal for the first time since Sam Ersson stopped 20 of 21 shots against the Chicago Blackhawks on Dec. 23.
Vegas gave it their all to tie it up during a gut-wrenching end as Owen Tippett was called for delay of game with 1 minute, 33 seconds left in regulation. But Nick Seeler made a big block on Shea Theodore, and Sam Ersson stopped a slap shot by Jack Eichel with 23 seconds left on the clock. Golden Knights forward Pavel Dorofeyev was blocked twice, by Cam York and Travis Sanheim, as Vegas had six shot attempts in a final flurry.
Travis Konecny played his cards right and scored both Flyers goals. He gave the Flyers a 1-0 lead 3:46 into the game
Skating just inside the Flyers’ blue line, Vegas forward Tomáš Hertl was getting pressured by York and tried to feed a pass to his defenseman as he crossed in front of him.
The Flyers winger poked the puck away from Kaedan Korczak and took off. He skated in one-on-one with goalie Adin Hill and beat him glove side.
Konecny then gave the Flyers a 2-1 lead in the third period on a similar play — this time while shorthanded.
Eichel carried the puck across the Flyers’ blue line and passed it backward, thinking the Knights had numbers. Instead, it went right to Konecny, who outraced the defense for a breakaway. After beating Hill glove side, he went blocker side this time for the Flyers’ fourth shorthanded goal this season.
Asked postgame if he went blocker side on the second goal to switch it up, Konecny said with a smile, “No, that’s just more about, I’m just trying to mess with his head a little bit,” he said. Konecny knows Hill and his dad, as the Flyers forward spends his summers in Calgary, where the Golden Knights’ goalie grew up. The two also won gold at the 4 Nations Face-Off last February together.
Konecny now has 17 goals and 43 points in 47 games this season. He missed one game with an upper-body injury.
The first goal by Konecny came 42 seconds after Ersson made a spectacular save on Alexander Holtz. Ersson’s Swedish countryman got behind Sean Couturier and Emil Andrae for a tip-in chance off a centering pass by Cole Reinhardt.
It was one of several big-time saves by Ersson in the first period as Philly was outshot 11-4. He also read the play perfectly and stopped Hertl from the bumper during a Vegas power play. In his 18th start, it was the fifth first period this season that he did not allow a goal.
In the second period, he got some help when Seeler made a fantastic play on a two-on-one. Skating alone after Noah Juulsen pinched, Seeler stayed up as Mark Stone tried to go back to Ivan Barbashev and knocked the puck away.
The Flyers’ penalty kill, which allowed eight goals in 21 opportunities during the six-game losing streak, looked good across the first three power plays for Vegas. But if you keep giving the NHL’s fourth-best power play (26.5%) chance after chance, it is going to strike.
So on the fourth one, they did. Hertl, making up for his mistake earlier, glided through the slot and deflected in the shot-pass by Eichel past Ersson.
Ersson stopped 24 of 25 shots to earn his first win since Dec. 23.
Breakaways
The Flyers’ penalty kill went 6-for-7, and the power play went 0-for-2. … Konecny had his first multi-goal game of the season. … Center Lane Pederson made his Flyers debut after being recalled from Lehigh Valley of the American Hockey League on Sunday. He played 8:38. … Winger Bobby Brink returned after missing six games with an upper-body injury. He played 13:28 and had one shot, two missed shots, and blocked two more. …
Up next
The Flyers head to Utah to take on the up-and-coming Mammoth on Wednesday (9 p.m., NBCSP+).
St. Joseph’s seemingly was in command with a seven-point lead in the second half at Virginia Commonwealth on Monday. However, the Rams held the Hawks without a field goal for a stretch of five minutes and snapped their three-game winning streak with a 79-72 victory at the Siegel Center in Richmond.
St. Joe’s (11-8, 3-3 Atlantic 10) got within three points in the final 30 seconds following a three-pointer by guard Derek Simpson, but the Rams (13-6, 4-2) hit four straight free throws to seal the win.
Simpson led St. Joe’s with a career-high 27 points and four assists. Forward Michael Belle had a career high of his own for VCU, scoring 20 points.
Hot and cold on offense
The Hawks entered the game last in the A-10 with a three-point percentage of .280, but they took a 12-7 lead by making four shots from deep. On two-pointers, though, they started the game 0-for-7.
St. Joe’s ended the half on a nearly four-minute scoring drought as VCU held a 34-29 lead at intermission.
The second half was much of the same. St. Joe’s took a 46-39 lead five minutes into the half, making six of its first seven shots. Then it missed seven of its next eight. St. Joe’s ended the game shooting 47.3% from the field and outrebounded the hosts, 37-33. But turnovers were their downfall.
Steve Donahue’s Hawks saw their three-game winning streak snapped on Monday in Richmond.
VCU entered the game forcing 12.7 turnovers per game and forced 13 in the first half. The Rams forced five more after halftime, converting them into nine points. They turned the ball over only 10 times in the game.
The hosts powered through St. Joseph’s press in the first half and then Belle became the go-to player. The 6-foot-8 forward scored 14 points in the second half. Brandon Jennings finished with 18 points for the winners.
Anthony Finkley and Justice Ajogbor added 10 points apiece for St. Joe’s.
Up next
The Hawks will host Dayton (14-4, 5-0) on Saturday at 6 p.m. (CBS Sports Network).
The Miami Dolphins and Jeff Hafley have reached an agreement to make the former Boston College head coach and Packers defensive coordinator their coach, a person with knowledge of the decision told The Associated Press on Monday.
The person spoke on condition of anonymity because a contract hadn’t been finalized.
Hafley replaces Mike McDaniel, who was fired after going 35-33 in four seasons. The Dolphins also fired longtime general manager Chris Grier during the season.
Hafley, who spent two seasons in Green Bay, met with the Dolphins for a second interview earlier Monday before he was offered the job. He will rejoin new GM Jon-Eric Sullivan in Miami.
The 46-year-old Hafley left his job at Boston College in 2024 to become defensive coordinator in Green Bay, where he worked with Sullivan for the past two seasons.
Sullivan, formerly Green Bay’s vice president of player personnel, spent 22 seasons with the Packers before becoming the Dolphins’ GM.
