Sports
How mid-major coaches are embracing — or resisting — being high-major launchpads
Posted up against a wall of the air-conditioned gym at Peach Jam in mid-July, Tulane coach Ron Hunter prepared to greet an approaching SEC colleague, expecting a handshake and pleasantries. But his powerhouse peer had other intentions for the interaction with Hunter, who has developed multiple players who have transferred to elite programs — including former Duke star Sion James — in recent years.
“He came over to me and he said, ‘Ron, you’re doing a hell of a job … getting kids ready for our level,'” Hunter told ESPN at the basketball camp in North Augusta, South Carolina. “And I didn’t know whether to be mad or to say thank you.”
Hunter’s reaction captures the conundrum facing mid-major coaches as their programs seemingly evolve into high-major launchpads. At Tulane, James and Kentucky transfer Kam Williams launched their college careers before moving onto bigger brands; they are just two examples of a trend that is reflected among college basketball’s biggest stars. Three of last season’s AP All-Americans — Mark Sears (Alabama), Johni Broome (Auburn) and Walter Clayton Jr. (Florida) — were mid-major transfers, with 60% of the first- and second-team selections from high-major schools having started at the mid-major level.
Once reluctant to accept that a feeder system is developing within the sport, more and more mid-major coaches believe they can leverage that reality to attract top talent who want to star for power-conference programs one day. And while some still resist embracing the role of being a high-major pipeline, they still acknowledge there’s a wave to ride.
“I try not to be the last person selling CDs out of the trunk of my car,” Wyoming coach Sundance Wicks said. “Nobody’s buying CDs anymore, so you can’t be the last person selling CDs out of your trunk to recruits or to families or to agents or to the players. You’ve got to get with the times.”
Fifteen.
That’s how many players jumped ship after Andy Kennedy’s UAB Blazers squad won 24 games and reached the American Conference tournament championship game last season.
It’s a list that includes Yaxel Lendeborg, ESPN.com’s No. 3 transfer in 2025-26, who picked Michigan. But rather than sulk over those losses to the portal, Kennedy leaned into the narrative. He has been selling his program to the next surge of recruits as a stepping stone to the high-major level — with a PowerPoint presentation. It compares what his top departing players earned last season to the size of the paychecks they will collect at their new schools. The message was simple: Spend some time in Birmingham, get rich a year or two later.
“Adapt or die, bro,” Kennedy told ESPN. “I’m old-school. But I also understand that I can be stubborn if I want to be and take a bunch of L’s and be frustrated for the rest of my life — or I can adapt to current circumstances and the limitations, from a financial standpoint, that you have at a non-Power 5 level.
“We all ball on a budget. We can be mad about it or we can just try to do the best that we can to figure out what works for us.”
Winning remains the ultimate goal for Kennedy, who has averaged 25 victories per season at UAB since his arrival in 2020-21 and has reached the NCAA tournament twice. He also craves the player retention once common for coaches in his spot. But he recognizes his program is better off adapting to the shifting culture instead of dismissing it.
Former Duke star Nolan Smith understands the appeal for players; he experienced college basketball on the biggest stage, winning a national title with the Blue Devils in 2010 before going onto the NBA. Though he will sell recruits on the benefits of Tennessee State, where he took over as coach in July, he also knows why some are working toward the experiences he had while playing at a larger school.
“I do not mind it at all,” Smith said. “As long as they buy into the [Tennessee State] culture and what we’re trying to build in the one year, two years that they’re here, I’m going to love ’em. And then when that time comes and [they] sarey, ‘Hey, Coach, I’d really love to go play in the ACC or SEC and I have an opportunity to go to one of those leagues and really see what it’s all about’ … I’m going to help them if that time comes.”
When the portal launched in 2018, it opened the door for mid-major players who previously might have been overlooked in high school to pursue their professional goals by playing at a more premier college later in their careers: Since 2016, 30 mid-major-to-high-major transfers have been drafted to the NBA, according to ESPN Research.
And with the introduction of name, image and likeness deals in 2021, transferring also came with the opportunity to earn cash that most non-power-conference schools couldn’t match.
According to Opendorse, a clearinghouse used by schools to process NIL transactions, the average payout for elite players at high-major programs last season easily topped seven figures: $2.9 million for a top guard, $2.8 million for a top forward and $2.3 million for a top center. Less than 10% of the players who earned $100,000 or more at the Division I level last season competed outside of the Big 12, ACC, Big East, Big Ten or SEC.
Wyoming’s Wicks has a vision for how the jump from mid-major to high-major could benefit programs the way it benefits some players: an official feeder system that could turn the possibility of players transferring from a risk into a strategy.
With the loss of 2024-25 Mountain West Newcomer of the Year Obi Agbim (17.6 points per game) — along with nearly a dozen other players via the portal — Wicks already had to rebuild his roster. He said a real relationship between multiple schools, comparable to Major League Baseball and its minor league system, could help everybody.
“If we were working with Iowa or we were working with NC State — I know both Ben McCollum and Will Wade really well — and said, ‘Hey, we’ve got guys here for two years, and after two years, most of our guys right now are looking to [move up].’ And after two years, we meet with the three to four teams that are in our cohort — mid-majors, high-majors alike — I mean, that’s a G league, right?
“That’s a farm system, but professional sports are already doing that. We would just have to fall into that.”
A few years ago, the idea might have seemed farfetched. But not anymore. The turbulence that has come with the transfer portal has demanded ingenuity and innovation from coaches who have been forced to adjust to remain competitive amid constant change.
Loyola Chicago coach Drew Valentine experienced the underbelly of this effect in February. As his team chased an Atlantic 10 regular-season title while riding a winning streak, he had discovered high-major coaches were courting some of his best players long before the portal opened in late March.
“In February, I had two guys, the best guys that I could get back next season, who were showing me vanish mode DMs from coaches,” Valentine told ESPN. “I’m not going to name names, but I called a couple of Power 5 coaches directly and said, ‘Can you please wait until after the season at least? We’ve got regular-season games left.’ So, that stuff is real.”
The meddling that unfolds throughout the season has been frustrating for Valentine, who was an assistant during the Ramblers’ Cinderella run to the Final Four in 2018. He said he respects the drive of mid-major prospects who hope to play at a higher level one day, but if a player comes to him and talks about using Loyola Chicago as a stepladder to a more prominent stage, he’ll advise them to take their talents elsewhere.
“I can’t do that. I personally can’t,” Valentine said. “Maybe if I was in a position where we weren’t paying what we’re paying our guys, which I think moving forward in this current model, I think it’s going to be extremely competitive.'”
Valentine is nodding to the dawn of the revenue-sharing era. When NIL was the only way to pay athletes, schools such as Loyola Chicago were in a tough spot as compared with their wealthier peers. But the Atlantic 10 and other leagues that operate without the financial burden of Division I football could benefit from revenue-sharing rules. According to sources with knowledge of the current rev-share distributions, multiple A-10 teams have seven-figure coffers for men’s basketball, with some of those schools surpassing the money available to programs in the Big Ten.
While power-conference schools are likely to maintain an edge in NIL opportunities available to their athletes, revenue sharing should help some mid-major programs close the gap on what they can offer players — but others will continue to focus their pitches on the bigger roles than players would have at the high-major level.
“It’s about the opportunity, the responsibility, you would have in leadership on the floor,” Bradley coach Brian Wardle told ESPN, “and being the featured player while still giving them some kind of money.”
Even if revenue sharing puts the mid-majors in a more favorable position to negotiate with top players, the portal will continue to create chaos — and uncertainty — for programs at the end of each season.
When former Morehead State coach Preston Spradlin first discovered Johni Broome in a high school gym in Plant City, Florida, he said the future All-American and NBA draft pick was “skinny and slow.” With the Eagles, Broome blossomed into a back-to-back All-Ohio Valley Conference selection before signing with Auburn in April 2022, a team he led to a No. 1 ranking and the Final Four last season.
Spradlin, now at James Madison, said he is willing to talk to potential transfers about Broome’s journey and give them a chance to follow the same path but refuses to willingly turn his team into a Triple-A affiliate for power-conference programs.
“I hear of coaches using that in their recruiting pitch and saying, ‘Hey, come here for a year or two and we’ll get you ready, and we’ll get you a big payday and we’ll get you to that Power 5 level,'” Spradlin said. “We don’t do that, but we don’t run from the conversation, either.
“I’m not going to devalue everything that we have to offer here, which is at a really high level, and it’s all encompassing, right? We have a prestigious degree, we have an unbelievable fan base, all the things outside of just the almighty dollar and basketball.”
Beyond individual development, team success and cash, Spradlin and some of his peers believe they have to pitch other ways their programs can offer value to top prospects.
At St. Thomas-Minnesota, coach Johnny Tauer has sold prospects on a prosperous alumni base and a brand-new, $175 million arena. San Francisco coach Chris Gerlufsen tells recruits about the advantages of living in the Bay Area. And Howard coach Kenny Blakeney woos potential players with the opportunity to attend and graduate from one of the most recognizable historically Black colleges and universities in the country.
But how much does all of that matter?
Tulane’s Hunter wasn’t sure after his unexpected interaction with his SEC counterpart at Peach Jam. The high-energy coach — you might remember him as the guy who fell off his chair after his son, R.J. Hunter, hit the game winner in Georgia State‘s second-round game against Baylor during the 2015 NCAA tournament — was left speechless after the exchange.
“Usually, I’m never at a loss for words,” Hunter said. “I had nothing to say to him. I didn’t know whether to say thank you or to get pissed at him.
“But he was right.”
MANCHESTER, England — Of all the things Ruben Amorim said during his time as Manchester United‘s head coach, the one that annoyed his bosses most was something about Benjamin Sesko.
Asked in November about the 22-year-old striker, signed for £73.7 million from RB Leipzig in the summer, Amorim said it was “a fact” that he had “struggled” to come to terms with the Premier League. The view from above was that the comments weren’t helpful to a young player trying to adapt to a tough league in a new country.
Sesko scored two goals in 17 games for Amorim. But since Amorim’s departure in early January, Sesko has seven goals in eight.
Starting under Michael Carrick for the first time Sunday, Sesko scored for the third game in a row as United came from a goal down to beat Crystal Palace 2-1 and move up to third in the table behind Arsenal and Manchester City.
Struggling? Not anymore.
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“I’m delighted for Ben,” said Carrick. “We’re working closely with him and connecting with him and building that relationship and trust. A lot is on Ben. He has put the work in. He is a good player and he has got some great strengths and scoring different types of goals.
“He is such a real threat. I am really excited where he can get to. He has got huge potential.”
Sesko is not just scoring goals — he’s scoring important goals. In his past three games, he has a stoppage-time equalizer against West Ham United, the winner against Everton and another winner against Palace.
Since Amorim was sacked, Sesko’s Premier League goals against Burnley, Fulham, West Ham, Everton and Palace have earned the team eight points. Without them, United would be outside the top six. Instead, Carrick’s team is third with 10 games left and on course to qualify for the UEFA Champions League for the first time since 2023.
“He has had a huge impact and he’s making big improvements,” said Carrick. “Part of it is getting used to being here. He is desperate to do well, he works so hard and he is a pleasure to work with. It’s a fantastic goal.”
Sesko’s revival started under Amorim’s initial replacement, Darren Fletcher. After the Slovenia international scored twice in United’s 2-2 draw with Burnley, Fletcher revealed he used the day before the game to show Sesko a video “showing his movement and showing his goals.”
The run of form which started at Turf Moor has continued under Carrick. Fletcher said he told Sesko he “needs to keep believing,” and there has been a similar boost of confidence delivered by Carrick.
Shortly after scoring at Everton, Sesko stopped in the mixed zone to tell reporters that one of the big changes is that “everyone believes in me.” It became an open secret toward the end of Amorim’s reign that he wanted to sign Aston Villa striker Ollie Watkins instead. If Carrick has injected some self-belief into Sesko, the former England midfielder also deserves credit for playing to his strengths.
One of the criticisms of Amorim’s football was that he played with a central striker, but didn’t appear to ask his wide players to put crosses into the box. Sesko started Amorim’s last game in charge — a 1-1 draw at Leeds United on Jan. 4 — and didn’t have a shot on target. Under Carrick, his goals against Fulham, West Ham and Palace all came from crosses whipped in from wide areas.
With long limbs and a gangly style, Sesko can still sometimes look awkward when asked to take part in the buildup. But at 6-foot-5, he’s terrific in the air and sharp in and around the penalty area. His goal against Palace was a bullet header.
First, Bruno Fernandes equalized with a penalty following an incident for which Maxence Lacroix — Palace’s goal scorer in the first half — was sent off for pulling back Matheus Cunha. Then Fernandes popped up on the right and delivered a cross from which Sesko darted ahead of Jaydee Canvot and arrowed his finish past former United goalkeeper Dean Henderson. He went off 10 minutes later to a standing ovation.
“We were a bit off to start with and they started really well,” said Carrick, who has now registered six wins from seven games in charge. “At about 20 minutes it started turning in our favor and we finished the half stronger and then talked to them at halftime about being in that position and showing personality and belief.
“To come back like we did in the second half and to turn the game in our favor is the biggest thing. To put together the run we have and to do it in different ways is encouraging to me.”
United are flying, and so is Sesko. No other Premier League team is unbeaten since Boxing Day, and no player in the league has scored more non-penalty goals in 2026 than Sesko.
Amorim’s reign looks worse with every win under Carrick, while every Sesko goal makes those “struggling” comments look ever more misplaced. United are heading for a Champions League return, and Sesko is proving the doubters wrong.
If you can’t beat them, join them. Liverpool were slow to get on board with the Premier League‘s set-piece revolution, but their willingness to embrace the game’s increasingly agricultural approach has been instrumental in their recent revival, including in Saturday’s 5-2 victory over West Ham United at Anfield.
When Alexis Mac Allister drilled home the hosts’ third goal of the afternoon in front of the Kop, he ensured Liverpool became just the second team in Premier League history to score three goals from corners in the first half of a match, after Manchester United against Leicester City in September 2016. It is the kind of statistic that would have seemed preposterous in the early months of the campaign, when the Reds’ lack of proficiency at both scoring and defending set pieces negatively impacted their fortunes on an almost weekly basis.
Liverpool’s woes in that department were so pronounced that the club opted to part company with set-piece coach Aaron Briggs in December — although manager Arne Slot publicly defended his former colleague when grilled on the matter last week.
“It would be very unfair to Aaron, who was only partly responsible for that, because in the end I’m responsible for everything,” Slot said. “In the end it’s always my responsibility. But we were, in that period of time, so, so, so unlucky.”
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On the evidence of Saturday’s first-half showing, that luck has now started to change. Having been perennial slow starters in the top flight this season, Liverpool raced into an early lead when Ryan Gravenberch recycled possession from a corner and picked out Hugo Ekitike, who finished smartly past Mads Hermansen at the near post.
It was Ekitike’s 11th league goal of the season and his 16th in all competitions, making the France international the first Liverpool player to reach 20 goal contributions this term, with four assists also to his name. West Ham, who had lost just one of their previous six league games ahead of this weekend’s trip to Merseyside, rallied well after the early setback but found themselves on the end of yet more set-piece misery when Virgil van Dijk rose highest to nod Dominik Szoboszlai‘s in-swinging corner into the back if the net.
Liverpool employed the same route to goal again on the stroke of halftime, with Ekitike helping Szoboszlai’s smart delivery into the path of Mac Allister, who finished with aplomb to double his Premier League goal tally for the season.
His strike was Liverpool’s seventh consecutive league goal from a non-penalty set piece — the longest run by any side in the competition’s history. While Slot was right to assert that his team’s drastic uptick in set-piece form should not be pinned on one individual, the contrast in Liverpool’s numbers is stark.
Across their first 20 Premier League matches this season, Liverpool scored just three goals from set pieces — the fewest of any team in the division. Their efficacy from corners on Saturday, however, means they have scored nine set-piece goals in their past eight league games: more than any of their competitors.
“That’s very pleasing because that is the reason we have won,” Slot said in his postmatch news conference. “In my opinion, we have played better when we have lost and conceded from set pieces. But, as I’ve always said, things went back to normal.
“We created quite a lot of chances from set pieces in the first half of the season and almost every set piece we conceded went in, and today you could see exactly the opposite happening. Their first big chance was a set piece that would have gone in, in the first six or seven months, I’m 100% sure. But then it doesn’t and we start scoring from set pieces, things start looking much better and brighter. That’s really pleasing for us, for the team and for the fans as well.”
In a season that has been characterized by late drama, Liverpool deviated from the norm by scoring three goals in the first half of a league game for the first time since the day they clinched the title against Tottenham Hotspur last April. Still, the Reds’ unwelcome habit of making life difficult from themselves once again reared its head in the second half, with Tomás Soucek diverting El Hadji Malick Diouf‘s drilled cross past Alisson Becker just four minutes after the restart.
With nothing to lose, West Ham continued to pose plenty of problems for their hosts before Cody Gakpo‘s deflected effort helped to calm some nerves around Anfield. It was only the Netherlands international’s second goal in the league since his strike in the reverse fixture at the London Stadium in late November, and his impassioned celebration suggested it was a welcome relief to find himself back on the scoresheet.
A late header from Valentín Castellanos and an even later own-goal from Axel Disasi only heightened the erratic nature of Liverpool’s second-half display, and Slot will know more control and composure is required from his team if they are to finish the season in a stronger fashion than they started it.
Nevertheless, Liverpool have now won seven of their past nine games in all competitions and are up to fifth in the Premier League, just three points behind third-placed Aston Villa. They irrefutably remain an imperfect side, and even in securing their joint-biggest top-flight win of the season, they showed there is still plenty of scope for improvement.
But having been late to the set-piece party, Liverpool now look determined to make up for lost time. It might just be the secret weapon they need to make this campaign a successful one.
Sports
US women’s hockey players crack jokes about men’s team on ‘Saturday Night Live’ after Trump controversy
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Players from the men’s and women’s Olympic gold-medal winning hockey teams appeared together on “Saturday Night Live” amid recent political controversy.
The men’s and women’s players had been publicly pitted against each other after President Donald Trump called the men’s team following their gold medal win against Canada to invite them to the State of the Union, and joked that he would have to invite the women too or he’d be impeached. The joke prompted backlash, primarily from American and Canadian liberals, against the men’s team after the players laughed in response.
Women’s players Hilary Knight and Megan Keller were joined by men’s players Jack and Quinn Hughes on SNL, and made light of the recent controversy.
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Knight appeared to reference Trump’s joke.
“It was going to be just us, but we thought we’d invite the guys, too,” Knight said.
Knight delivered another punchline after Quinn Hughes said the last time the men won gold was 46 years ago at the 1980 Lake Placid Games.
Knight followed by saying the women’s team last won gold two Olympics ago, at the 2018 Pyeongchang Winter Games.
Jack Hughes responded, saying, “Nice burn. These gold medals aren’t just for us, they’re for all hockey fans.”
“Heated Rivalry” actor Connor Storrie hosted the episode.
Several mainstream media outlets penned op-eds condemning the men’s team for laughing at the joke, visiting the White House to celebrate and attending Trump’s State of the Union address.
During an interview on ESPN’s “The Pat McAfee Show” Friday, Hughes opened up about his respect for the women’s team after McAfee appeared to reference the controversy by joking that Hughes and his teammates “hate” the women players.
“We are hanging out with them so much, the women’s team. We were supporting them. Like, we were at their games, they were at our games,” Hughes said.
Hughes then appeared to address the recent criticism of his team for its response to Trump’s joke.
“Like all these people talking, how many of them watched their gold medal game? Me and Quinn Hughes were at the game. We were at the game until, like, overtime ended on the glass, and we were jumping up and down so excited for these girls, so excited they won,” Hughes said.
“And how many of these people watched the gold medal game, watched their semifinals game? Like 10 of the 10 of our players went to their game in the round-robin. Like, we supported them so much, and we’re so proud of them. We’re so happy that they won, and they brought a gold medal back and that, you know, I said it, the men’s and women’s team both brought gold medals back. So, just unbelievable for USA hockey.”
Jack Hughes, who scored the game-winning overtime goal against Canada to win gold, reflected on his interaction with the player on the U.S. women’s team who did the same in Keller.
“Me and her had a great moment in the cafeteria after her gold medal game. We played Slovakia the next night, and it was like a late game. And we were in the pasta line — me and Megan. They were just getting ready to go out again, and I just gave her a massive hug, and I said, ‘I’m so happy for you. I’m so proud of you,'” Hughes said.
“A couple nights later, saw her again in the [cafeteria], and we took a great picture and, uh, she just gave me a big hug and was so pumped for me as well.”
U.S. women’s hockey captain Hilary Knight said on Wednesday’s edition of ESPN’s “SportsCenter” that Trump’s “distasteful joke” has “overshadow[ed]” the women’s success.
“I thought it was sort of a distasteful joke, and, unfortunately, that is overshadowing a lot of the success, the success of just women at the Olympics carrying for Team USA and having amazing gold medal feats,” Knight said.
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“We’re just focusing on celebrating the women in our room, the extraordinary efforts, and continue to celebrate three gold medals in program history as well as the double gold for both men’s and women’s at the same time. And really not detract from that with a distasteful joke.”
Hughes’ mother Ellen, a former Team USA player and current player development staff member, said the players only cared about “bring[ing] so much unity to a group and to a country.”
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