Sports
Peat wows in debut as Arizona beats No. 3 Florida
LAS VEGAS — Arizona freshman Koa Peat had a chip on his shoulder before making his college debut Monday.
Feeling a bit neglected in Switzerland while playing for the USA 19-and-under team, the three-time Arizona Gatorade Player of the Year said he was going to remind people that he was one of the best incoming freshmen, despite not playing in the McDonald’s All-American Game or at the Nike Hoop Summit.
“I feel like I’ve been kind of forgotten,” Peat said during an earlier interview with Hoops HQ. “I’m just trying to remind people and show them what I’m about.”
And that’s exactly what he did Monday, announcing his presence in college basketball with authority during No. 13 Arizona’s 93-87 win over third-ranked and reigning champion Florida in the Hall of Fame Series inside the jam-packed T-Mobile Arena.
“It was a coming out party for him, so to speak,” Arizona coach Tommy Lloyd said. “Everyone’s known about him, but no one’s really, really studied him and watched him, and he’s a special player.”
The 18-year-old defied his freshman status in his nationally televised collegiate debut, leading all scorers with 30 points and adding 7 rebounds and 5 assists. He became the second Big 12 freshman to debut with 30 or more points, joining Kansas State‘s Michael Beasley, who had 32 in his debut in 2007.
Jaden Bradley was also impressive, scoring 27 points, including 11 of Arizona’s final 18 points, to help seal the win. He added five assists, making him and Peat the second pair of Arizona teammates in the past 30 seasons to each have at least 25 points and five assists in the same game. They join Chase Budinger and Nic Wise, who did it against Stanford on March 7, 2009.
Peat is a part of a family that has produced seven Division I athletes. He’s the son of Todd Peat, a guard in the NFL for nine seasons, and his brother, Andrus, is a three-time Pro Bowl selection who spent much of his time in the NFL with the New Orleans Saints and is now with the Pittsburgh Steelers.
Koa Peat’s athleticism was on full display late in the second half with the score tied at 70-all when he delivered back-to-back thunderous dunks, sending the crowd of 16,704 into a frenzy and giving Arizona a 74-70 lead. He gave the Wildcats momentum for a game-ending 23-17 run to provide the difference.
Peat said spending his summer playing for Lloyd while representing Team USA with the 19-and-under World Cup team that won gold in Switzerland helped prepare him for his first season at the collegiate level.
“He ran some of the same sets at USA, so coming to U of A in the fall, it was pretty easy to adapt to those,” said Peat, who was the national team’s third-leading scorer and leading rebounder. “I think what really helped me [tonight] was just the practices. We practiced really hard throughout the week, leading up to this game. And I’m just grateful to have coaches and teammates that put me in positions to be good, and especially [Bradley]. He just makes my game so easy … he’s one of the best point guards in the country, if not the best point guard in the country.”
Thomas Haugh led Florida with 27 points, Xaivian Lee scored 14, and Alex Condon and Micah Handlogten each had 11.
Ivan Kharchenkov, who shook off an injury late in the first half that sent him to the locker room, finished with 12 points for the Wildcats.
Arizona shot 49.2% (30-of-61) from the field, while Florida’s poor second-half shooting (14-of-38, 36.8%) sealed its fate in becoming the first reigning champion to lose its season opener since Syracuse in 2003-04.
The Gators opened the game strong, pushing their lead to 12 points after hitting 11 of their first 16 shots. But the Wildcats clamped down on defense and held Florida to 5-for-16 shooting the rest of the half while going on a 32-16 run by hitting 11 of 18 shots down the stretch.
ESPN Research and The Associated Press contributed to this report.
SYDNEY: As Twenty20 cricket competitions explode around the world, Australia’s Big Bash League is struggling to chart a vision for the future, after plans to privatise its franchises stalled.
Cricket Australia chief Todd Greenberg is adamant that outside investment is necessary to shore up the game’s financial future and keep pace with a boom in other well-funded leagues played in a similar time slot.
They include the UAE’s ILT20, South Africa’s SA20, and New Zealand’s privately-backed NZ20 scheduled to start in December 2027, all bidding for the best local and overseas players.
“If those salary caps (of other leagues) are significantly higher than ours over the coming years, and players can earn more in those areas, then players will follow those. That’s a real risk to us,” Greenberg told local media.
“I want to make sure that for Australian cricket, our ambition is to have a league that runs at the key part of the year for us, which is the December-January window, and it’s the best T20 league in the world at that moment in time.
“To do that, we have to have a significant amount of money in our salary caps to attract not only the best players from overseas, but to retain and attract our own best players.”
He added: “The concept of bringing private capital to cricket is inevitable at some point.”
While not a direct competitor as it runs in a different window, the benchmark Indian Premier League has seen massive success thanks to wealthy benefactors, with England’s The Hundred also on a roll after an influx of private capital.
But it is a thorny issue in Australia with an initial proposal to sell stakes in each of BBL’s eight teams stalling last month amid concerns about a loss of control for the game’s local custodians.
While the Victorian, Western Australian and Tasmanian cricket associations voiced support and South Australia said it was open to the idea, New South Wales and Queensland rejected the move.
Queensland Cricket, which controls the Brisbane Heat, said it was worried about player payments skyrocketing to unsustainable levels, and that private owners may not be as invested in the grassroots game.
Cricket NSW, which operates the Sydney Sixers and Sydney Thunder, was similarly concerned that it could be detrimental to how the sport is governed and how local players are produced.
‘Sugar hit’
There are also fears about an Indian takeover, with the most likely buyers seen as the rich IPL team owners who have invested in other short-form competitions around the globe.
Former Australian captain Greg Chappell is in the “No” camp, arguing that the BBL belongs to the states and communities that have built it into a successful and well-attended product.
While acknowledging the commercial realities, he said selling it off was not the answer.
“The moment you introduce private ownership at scale, you introduce a set of priorities that may not always align with the long-term health of the game,” he wrote in the Sydney Morning Herald.
“Private investors, however well-intentioned, answer to shareholders, not to Australian cricket.”
Andrew Jones, a former head of strategy at Cricket Australia who was instrumental in the launch of the BBL, is similarly unconvinced.
“A one-off sale is a sugar hit, not a solution,” he said in The Australian newspaper, arguing that revenues can be better grown through sponsorships, wagering, ticketing, and more focus on commercialising the women’s game.
Despite scepticism, Greenberg remains confident and is now eyeing a hybrid ownership model.
This would allow the BBL franchises keen to sell stakes to do so while allowing those against to maintain complete ownership.
“If we end up not going together at the same time, can we still extract the same level of revenue, and can we extract the same level of value?” he said.
“I think we can, but I’ve got to do the work to satisfy a recommendation that would ultimately go to the members and our board.”
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The New York Knicks took a commanding 3-0 lead in the Eastern Conference Finals on Saturday as the franchise eyes its first NBA Finals berth since 1999.
Jalen Brunson scored 30 points to lead New York to a 121-108 win over Cleveland, while Mikal Bridges added 22 as the Knicks never trailed in Game 3.
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The New York Knicks bench reacts during the fourth quarter against the Cleveland Cavaliers in game three of the Eastern Conference finals at Rocket Arena in Cleveland, Ohio, on May 23, 2026. (David Richard/Imagn Images)
New York is the seventh team in NBA history to win at least 10 straight during a postseason run. The last team to do it was the Boston Celtics, who also went on a 10-game run on their way to the 2024 title.
All but one of the Knicks’ wins have been by double digits, with an average margin of victory of 22.5 points.
Cavaliers star Donovan Mitchell finished with 23 points in 38 minutes, while teammate James Harden added 21. Cleveland shot 12 of 41 from 3-point range and 12 of 19 from the foul line.
Cleveland Cavaliers guard Donovan Mitchell (45) drives to the basket against New York Knicks guard Landry Shamet (44) during the first quarter in Game Three of the NBA Eastern Conference Finals at Rocket Arena on May 23, 2026 in Cleveland, Ohio. (Gregory Shamus/Getty Images)
Cleveland rallied and tied it at 50-all on a jumper by Harden before the Knicks countered with a 10-1 run. They went into halftime with a 60-54 advantage.
Music superstar Taylor Swift was courtside for Game 3 of the Eastern Conference finals on Saturday night alongside fiancé and Ohio native Travis Kelce.
Swift and Kelce, who recently signed a three-year, $54 million contract with the Kansas City Chiefs, took their seats in Rocket Arena shortly before the opening tip.
Singer Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce attend Game Three of the NBA Eastern Conference Finals between the New York Knicks and Cleveland Cavaliers at Rocket Arena in Cleveland, Ohio, on May 23, 2026. (Gregory Shamus/Getty Images)
With the Cavs trailing 91-82 at the end of the third quarter, Kelce and Swift were shown on the arena’s giant scoreboard. Fans cheered wildly as Kelce showed off his team cap and wine-and-gold shirt.
Game 4 is set for Monday night at Rocket Arena in Cleveland. The series will return to Madison Square Garden for Game 5 on Wednesday, if necessary.
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Meanwhile, in the Western Conference, the San Antonio Spurs will host the defending champion Oklahoma City Thunder in Game 4 on Sunday night. Oklahoma City enters the matchup with a 2-1 series lead.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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Sports
NASCAR’s Truck Series and O’Reilly Autoparts Series honor Kyle Busch with moments of silence at Charlotte
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The NASCAR world is paying tribute to Kyle Busch this weekend, and that includes some classy ones from two series in which the late driver had a lot of success.
While Busch — who passed away Thursday after “severe pneumonia [that] progressed into sepsis” — had been a full-time driver in NASCAR’s top series, the Cup Series, for more than 20 years, he still competed occasionally in both the O’Reilly Auto Parts Series and the Craftsman Truck Series.
He was especially known for his dominance in the Truck Series, winning 69 of his 184 races, and at one point owned a team. In fact, the final win of Busch’s career came just under a week before his death in a Truck Series race at Dover.
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Kyle Busch, driver of the No. 7 HendrickCars.com Chevrolet, is introduced before the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series SpeedyCash.com 250 at Texas Motor Speedway in Fort Worth, Texas, on May 1, 2026. (James Gilbert/Getty Images)
On Friday, the Truck Series was in Charlotte as part of the Coca-Cola 600 weekend for a race that Busch was supposed to take part in.
NASCAR, RACING WORLD REACTS TO KYLE BUSCH’S SHOCKING DEATH AT 41: ‘CANNOT COMPREHEND THIS NEWS’
Corey Day was in the No. 7 Chevrolet for Spire Motorsports, the truck in which Busch took his final win, and it was set to start on pole after Friday’s qualifying was rained out.
Kyle Busch celebrates the final win of his NASCAR career at Dover Motor Speedway. (Photo by David Hahn/Icon Sportswire)
Before the race was set to begin on Friday evening, teams and fans held a moment of silence for Busch.
Unfortunately, the race never got underway and was postponed until Saturday morning and then again to Saturday night.
The O’Reilly Autoparts Series, which Busch raced in many times and won many times during his career, also took a moment to remember him before their race at Charlotte on Saturday.
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That race was also suspended due to rain.
There will be some heavy hearts on Sunday when the Coca-Cola 600, the NASCAR Cup Series’ longest race of the year, gets started at 6 p.m. ET.
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