First of all, he doesn’t have to because in accordance with the NFL’s collective bargaining agreement, the first round of offseason team workouts are strictly voluntary. Secondly, if the Cardinals are actively trying to trade the second-year pro, they may not particularly want Rosen around for some obvious reasons.
One: They don’t want to risk the chance of him getting hurt, especially if they’re trying to draw a first-round draft pick for his services. And two: Think about how uneasy it could get for everybody if Rosen is exposed to a horde of reporters right now.
(The Giants) have certainly discussed the possibility internally, one source said, though those talks were extremely preliminary. They don’t even seem sure at the moment whether they’d prefer Rosen - the 10th overall pick a year ago -- to the quarterbacks in this year’s draft. Mostly, they are in a wait-and-see mode to see if the Cardinals do decide to trade Rosen and what their asking price might be.
Trading for Rosen would allow Giants general manager Dave Gettleman to replicate the Kansas City Chiefs model of developing a young quarterback behind a veteran while also freeing up the No. 6 pick to take the best player available.
However, the Cardinals might not deal Rosen, especially after head coach Kliff Kingsbury praised the second-year quarterback last week.
“People have said a lot of things, that are misconceptions,” Kingsbury told reporters in Phoenix, when asked about a potential Rosen trade. “I always thought watching him at UCLA that he played his best football in a spread system, which has some similarities to what we do,” Kingsbury said. “He’s a tremendous thinker. He’s very cerebral and can throw it with anybody. We take a lot of pride in building a system around the quarterback, so for someone to say that he doesn’t fit our system just doesn’t make sense.”
(NJ Advance Media’s Matt Lombardo contributed to this report.)
If the Phillies have the type of season they think they can, the type of season they think they will, they will look back at these three games as the stretch in which they notified the baseball world that they were a team to be reckoned with.
A three-game sweep of the Atlanta Braves, capped off by Sunday night’s 5-1 win and another Bryce Harper home run, left the Phils as baseball’s only unbeaten team at 3-0.
Statement series?
“No question about it,” winning pitcher Jake Arrieta said. “There’s something to it. There’s no signs of us being complacent. We’re happy with the way the series ended up, especially with the way the Braves played last year and winning the division. We wanted to come out and set the tone in our park. We really did that. I think it sets the tone for the season.”
There are four teams — the Phils, Braves, Nationals and Mets — talented enough to win the NL East and there are six months to go before this thing is decided. But after three games, we know this: The Phillies’ lineup is a lot more potent than it was last year — witness the eight homers it hit in the series, a franchise record for the first three games of a season — and a pretty interesting rivalry is shaping up between the Phils and Braves.
Manager Gabe Kapler was not happy that Braves reliever Shane Carle plunked Rhys Hoskins with a pitch moments after Harper went deep in the seventh inning Sunday night. It wasn’t the first time that Hoskins, who belted a grand slam on opening day, was pitched high and tight in the series. Carle hit Hoskins in the left shoulder and was ejected by home plate umpire Rob Drake.
“It really pisses me off when balls go underneath Rhys Hoskins' chin,” Kapler said after the game. “It really bugs me.
“He's one of our leaders. He is, in many ways, the heartbeat of our club. It really bothers me when it happens.”
It bothered Hoskins, too.
“I hit the ground three times in three days and that’s never fun, especially after the episode last year,” said Hoskins, who suffered a broken jaw on a foul ball in May.
This is a new Phillies team, with a growing chemistry and desire to have fun. The players celebrate home runs with designer handshakes and little dances and that doesn’t always sit well with opponents.
“Don’t give up a homer then,” Hoskins said.
The Phillies don’t see the Braves again until mid-June and by that time this whole thing might be forgotten. But if it isn’t, the two teams play 16 more times and things could get interesting. In the meantime, it will be worth watching how other teams pitch the Phillies, especially if they keep knocking balls over the wall and whooping it up afterward.
“I appreciate how enthusiastic our players are,” Kapler said. “I think celebration is a part of the game and deserved when guys are swinging the bats really well and feeding off each other's energy. I support our ball club in the way they've come out in these first three games, on the field, off the field, celebrating one another.
“I support the way our club is behaving from start to finish. Everything we're doing on the field and off the field in supporting each other is spot on.”
Arrieta had to grind for six innings in cold, blustery conditions. He survived six walks and a hit batsman. The weather had a lot to do with his control issues. He said the ball felt like a cue ball. Braves pitchers walked nine batters and hit two.
A year ago, the Phillies finished the first series of the season at 1-2 and Kapler was being roasted for some of his moves. This year, the Phils come out of the first series unbeaten, full of emotion and ready to take on Washington in another division series beginning Tuesday.
Click here to download the MyTeams App by NBC Sports! Receive comprehensive coverage of your teams and stream the Flyers, Sixers and Phillies games easily on your device.
The 2019 Final Four is set: Auburn, Michigan State, Texas Tech and Virginia.
By this point, we all know how each team got to the Final Four. But what about taking it a step further: How was each team built?
Below we take a look at the contributors for all four teams, and a wide-lens view of how each group was constructed.
*Okeke tore his ACL in the Sweet 16 and won't play in the Final Four.
One can trace Auburn's deep and talented roster back to its 2015 recruiting class -- which, not so coincidentally, was Bruce Pearl's first full recruiting class in charge. Pearl was hired in the spring of 2014 to replace Tony Barbee, but he still had several months remaining on his three-year NCAA show-cause penalty when he joined the Tigers.
The show-cause penalty expired at 12:01 a.m. on the morning of Aug. 24, 2014, and that marked the start of a five-year run that resulted in the first-ever Final Four appearance for Auburn.
Fewer than 24 hours before Pearl's show-cause expired, ESPN 100 forward Danjel Purifoy committed to the Tigers. And the minute the show-cause ended, ESPN 100 big man Horace Spencer arrived on campus for an unofficial visit. Purifoy and Spencer ended up being the key pieces in Pearl's 2015 class, a group that also included current star guard Bryce Brown.
The other star member of the backcourt, Jared Harper, was also an unheralded member of an Auburn recruiting class. The year after Pearl landed Purifoy and Spencer, he went out and got five-stars Mustapha Heron and Austin Wiley, the latter of whom would reclassify and enroll at Auburn in December 2016.
It's Harper who has carried Auburn at times this season, but he was overshadowed in the Tigers' 2016 class ... mostly because he was overshadowed at the high school level. Auburn did its work early on Harper, getting him to commit in March 2015, months before his true breakout performance. Harper helped carry his Georgia Stars team to the Nike EYBL championship that June, playing alongside the likes of Wendell Carter (Duke/NBA), Udoka Azubuike (Kansas), Brandon Robinson (North Carolina) and Trent Forrest (Florida State).
Pearl has actually seen several players transfer or decommit -- Heron left for St. John's, Davion Mitchell headed to Baylor and EJ Montgomery ended up at Kentucky -- but his stockpiling of talent starting in 2015 was one of the bigger storylines in the recruiting world. And we're now seeing it pay off.
*Langford suffered a left foot injury in December and won't play in the Final Four. Ahrens suffered an ankle injury March 17 and won't play in the Final Four.
There will be thousands of words written referencing how this season was perhaps Tom Izzo's best job as a head coach, how he was able to survive multiple injuries to get the Spartans to the Final Four. And those words won't necessarily be wrong, but this team also had more talent than it's given credit for. Of the four recruiting classes that made up this season's team, all four were ranked in the top 20.
Michigan State's 2016 recruiting class was the key -- and it was also the best recruiting class the Spartans have had since the ESPN recruiting database began in 2007. On paper, Miles Bridges was the big name, as Izzo beat out Kentucky and Indiana for him, and he also left after two years for the NBA. But the rest of that top-three group included Cassius Winston, Josh Langford and Nick Ward. Langford, of course, hasn't played in three months after suffering a season-ending ankle injury, and Ward has been hampered by injuries for most of the past month. But Winston, the All-America point guard, also came in the class, and without him, Michigan State isn't in Minneapolis.
Michigan State had made Winston, a Detroit native, a priority since his freshman year in high school. He was close with Bridges and played alongside him on The Family grassroots program. Langford and Ward had committed first, then Winston pledged in September 2015 and Bridges announced a few weeks later. Izzo hoped the last piece of that class would be elite recruit Josh Jackson, also Michigan native, but he ended up playing at Kansas.
While Izzo did land star power in Bridges and Jaren Jackson over the past four years, they were both gone after last season. Though talented, this season's team wasn't built on lottery picks. Izzo landed his usual collection of Michigan State-type players: hard-nosed, tough, winners. He beat out Purdue and Marquette for in-state prospect Xavier Tillman; poached onetime SMU commit Matt McQuaid out of Texas; and loaded up early in the 2018 class on Midwest prospects, getting all five players committed two months before the early signing period.
Aaron Henry has made the biggest impact of the five -- and he was the least heralded. Henry didn't have a single high-major offer heading into the summer before his senior year, but boosted his stock during the month of July. He ended up choosing Michigan State over a quartet of Big Ten and Big East programs.
Nothing was straightforward about head coach Chris Beard's path to the Final Four and, similarly, there was nothing straightforward about how he built the Red Raiders' current roster. There's a combination of leftovers from Tubby Smith's regime, graduate transfers, junior college transfers, players from overseas and freshmen.
Beard is used to quick rebuilds. He never spent more than two seasons at any of his pre-Texas Tech stops, whether it was a junior college, a non-Division-I program, a semipro team or even Little Rock. As a result, we shouldn't have been so surprised at Beard's ability to replace four seniors and first-round NBA draft pick Zhaire Smith off last season's team.
The key heading into last offseason was graduate transfers, and Beard secured two of the better ones on the market in former South Dakota guard Matt Mooney and former St. John's big man Tariq Owens. Tech beat out Northwestern and Creighton for Mooney, and surprisingly landed Owens ahead of Maryland. Beard also reached back into his days at Little Rock to attract Deshawn Corprew, who committed to the Trojans back in 2015 before getting a release and going to junior college.
But it wasn't all newcomers. Jarrett Culver, who is now seen as a top-10 draft pick, was a top-100-caliber player for a stretch of his high school career, but was hurt for his final AAU summer and fell out of the rankings. High-majors that were once involved backed off, and the Lubbock native ended up staying home with the Raiders. Tech brought over sophomore shooter Davide Moretti from Italy in the spring of 2017, and landed former Florida guard Brandone Francis as one of Beard's first pledges after taking over in Lubbock.
And here might be the best story: Starting center Norense Odiase originally committed to Texas Tech back in March 2014, when Beard was still at Division II Angelo State and more than two years before Smith left for Memphis.
One interesting thing to note is that the commitment of freshman Khavon Moore to Texas Tech in February 2018 was considered a massive coup for the Red Raiders. He was the highest-ranked prospect to commit to Tech since the ESPN recruiting database began in 2007 and the first ESPN 100 prospect since D'walyn Roberts in 2007. Due to injuries, however, Moore has played only two minutes all season.
Tony Bennett's 2016 recruiting class changed everything for the Cavaliers, and is at the heart of this season's Final Four group.
The backcourt tandem of Ty Jerome and Kyle Guy is the heartbeat of Virginia, so it should come as no surprise to see that Jerome and Guy got the ball rolling back in 2014. Bennett had already developed a reputation for getting his work done early on the recruiting trail, and he made quick work of his future backcourt. Jerome saw his stock rise that summer and was made a priority recruit by the Cavaliers, ultimately committing to Bennett's program before his junior year began. Six weeks later, Guy joined him. He too had a big summer on the grassroots circuit, and Midwest schools from the Big Ten and Big East were in the mix. Then he visited Virginia -- and committed one day later.
Bennett worked on the frontcourt next, getting Jay Huff and then beating out Villanova and others for De'Andre Hunter, Bennett's third ESPN 100 commitment of the 2016 class. Hunter and Huff would both end up redshirting, another trend that had been developing for Bennett. Mamadi Diakite redshirted the 2015-16 season, while Jack Salt, the lone senior on this season's team, sat out back in 2014-15.
Perhaps the best recruiting story belongs to the player who, in the words of Jerome, made the "play of the century" on Saturday, freshman guard Kihei Clark. Clark, who was 5-foot-9 and 145 pounds, had committed to UC Davis in May 2017, after a solid if unspectacular spring with the Oakland Soldiers on the Nike EYBL circuit. At the Nike Peach Jam in July, Clark continued to be just that: solid.
And then came bracket play, and Clark's career was never the same. He averaged 16.0 points and 3.0 assists, shooting 50 percent from 3-point range, while leading the Soldiers to a Peach Jam title. Clark decommitted from UC Davis one month later, Virginia offered after a few weeks and Clark committed to the Cavaliers in early October.
It is one of those historical ironies of the sport that Duke is heading home because the refs didn’t call many fouls on them. Usually, the free-throw disparity—the Blue Devils took 13 to Michigan State’s six—and perceived favoritism works in Duke’s favor. But not on Sunday, not in the closing seconds of the Spartans’ 68-67 Elite Eight win, when Duke would have given anything to have been whistled a couple more times.
No conspiracy here, just relatively disciplined Duke defense and a set of officials that swallowed their whistles for both teams (if anything, Michigan State could’ve been penalized more often for bodying Zion Williamson nearly every time he drove to the basket). However it happened, the Blue Devils had racked up just three fouls in the second half before R.J. Barrett missed a free throw—then accidentally made another—that would have tied the game with 5.2 seconds left. That meant that intentionally fouling did not send MSU to the line and give the Blue Devils back the ball; all it did was set up an inbounds play for a trip to the Final Four.
Before Xavier Tillman inbounded the ball, he gave Cassius Winston a glance. Oh, hell, might as well capitalize it. The Glance.
A lot can be conveyed in a nod, a raised brow.
“I kind of told him I saw the way Tre was guarding him and I was like, ‘I’m just going to throw it up court because nobody’s expecting us to go up court,’” Tillman said. “I told Kenny [Goins], ‘Go that way. Cash, go that way.’ And then I smacked the ball. I tried to fake it and Cash got open.”
Advertisement
Cassius Winston broke back toward the baseline, shedding Tre Jones, bumped R.J. Barrett, then broke free and broke upcourt.
Once Winston had the ball in his hands—and once he wisely dribbled to the corner instead of going for a quick bucket—the game was over.
“It was shocking,” Winston said. “I thought was going to get fouled. I was preparing my mind to knock down some free throws. But I got the ball and got away. And I was, like, ‘I’m like about to dribble it out, and this is really happening.’”
Advertisement
Why didn’t Duke foul Winston? It wouldn’t have done any good. They were still three fouls short of the bonus.
Michigan State basketball is going to the Final Four.
The Spartans upset top-seeded Duke in an instant classic Sunday afternoon.
MSU is playing as well as anybody in the country right now.
But so is Texas Tech, the Spartans' next opponent.
The Red Raiders have the nation's top defense and although he isn't Zion Williamson, Jarrett Culver is an outstanding player in his own right.
[ Big Ten fanatics, check out our free Best of the Big Ten newsletter! Subscribe here. ]
Texas Tech knocked off the top two seeds in its region, defeating Gonzaga on Saturday afternoon in the Elite 8 and blowing out Michigan on Thursday night in the Sweet 16.
Here are some lessons MSU can learn from the Wolverines' 63-44 loss to the Red Raiders:
Limit turnovers
Part of what makes Texas Tech's defense so dangerous is its aggressiveness.
The Red Raiders are one of the best teams in the nation when it comes to forcing turnovers. Opponents turn it over on 23.1% of their possessions when they play Texas Tech.
Entering Thursday's game, U-M averaged just 8.9 turnovers per game — best in the nation. But the Wolverines couldn't stop giving it away against the Red Raiders. Michigan turned it over on the first two possessions of the game. Through the first 15 possessions, the Wolverines had six points and six turnovers. They finished with 14 in the game.
U-M was careless with the ball, throwing plenty of errant passes. It also fell into Texas Tech's trap — the Red Raiders play a "no-middle" style of defense, forcing opponents to drive on the sides of the court and along the baseline. Once that happens, Texas Tech will collapse in with help defense.
The Wolverines lost the ball several times by dribbling straight into help defense. MSU turned it over just seven times against Duke. The Spartans will have to continue being careful with the ball against Texas Tech.
Slow down Culver
Culver does everything for his team, leading it in points, rebounds and assists. Although he isn't a great outside shooter, he has a well-rounded offensive game and can score in the mid-range and at the basket.
Against U-M, Culver got out to a slow start when guarded by Charles Matthews. In the second half, the Red Raiders did a good job of getting more favorable matchups with off-ball action. Several times, Culver faced a different defender because of a switch, and he took advantage.
Windsor: Izzo OK'd the play of his life. Then MSU stunned Duke
Culver scored eight points on 4-for-11 shooting in the first half and attempted zero free throws. In the second half, he scored 14 points on 5-for-8 shooting and shot 4-for-4 from the free-throw line. Matt McQuaid and Aaron Henry are solid individual defenders, but as U-M learned, it can take a lot more to stop Culver.
Keep poise
At some point, Texas Tech's defense will force MSU's offense into a drought. It could even happen multiple times. The Red Raiders are simply too good on that end of the court.
When that happens, it'll be important for the Spartans to keep their composure. For all of U-M's woes on offense, the Wolverines went into halftime down just eight.
And then they gave up a 12-2 run to Texas Tech, effectively ending the game. Michigan's defense played well in the first half, but the team allowed its struggles on offense to bleed over, and the Red Raiders put up 39 points in the second half.
Michigan State might find itself struggling on offense against Texas Tech. But it can't allow those struggles to carry over to the other end. And it'll have to find a way to get out of those situations without falling in a big hole.
Contact Orion Sang at osang@freepress.com. Follow him on Twitter @orion_sang.
That's one of the more random Final Fours we've had. And that's OK!
In fact, maybe it's even good. I like my Final Fours zesty and unpredictable. That's what we've got here, even if there's nothing wacky from a seed perspective like a No. 7, No. 8, No. 9, No. 10 or No. 11 moving on -- which was a feature, not a bug, of every Final Four since 2013.
Now the Final Four crashers are Texas Tech and Auburn, which have 30 wins apiece but are the two programs making their debuts on college basketball's ultimate stage.
The Cavaliers, Spartans, Red Raiders and Tigers survived the second weekend to make a march to Minneapolis after what was arguably the best quartet of Elite Eight games in NCAA Tournament history.
Looking back
And so before we set the Final Four table, an ode on what just happened on Saturday and Sunday, because it wouldn't feel right to move on before giving credence to a terrific set of regional finals. Thrilling games. Vintage tournament-type memories and images. The kind of stuff the fans of schools on the right and wrong end of those outcomes will not forget.
I do think it was the best Elite Eight weekend in tournament history. By pure numbers, it's got a good case: the four games were settled by a combined 18 points. That comes out to 4.5 points per margin of victory/defeat, making it the tightest in history in that round of the tournament. Plus, two of the four games went to overtime, the Virginia-Purdue affair doing so on one of the more memorable buzzer-beating chaos sequences you'll ever see.
Chills still.
The other two games that didn't require overtime were decided be seven points total.
Purdue goes down after getting the second 42-point performance from Carsen Edwards in this tournament. His 28 3-pointers in four games are the most in a single NCAA Tournament in the history of the event. I was courtside and on tenterhooks at what Edwards was providing and how Virginia was counterpunching.
Michigan State's poise -- that 3 from Kenny Goins to take the lead for good with 34.3 to go was pure -- and capability to end the Duke story was impressive. Only seven turnovers for Sparty, while Cassius Winston had 20 points, 10 assists and one turnover. Only other MSU players to have 20 and 10 in a tournament game: Magic Johnson and Draymond Green. Hello.
The TTU and Auburn wins were dramatic and compelling for their own reasons. But all told, given the knockout nature of the bluebloods, the fact that all four games were close throughout, that we had all-time performances and even a buzzer-beater, I think it nudges past the epic 2005 Elite Eight that featured Illinois' ridiculous 90-89 comeback over Arizona in OT; Louisville's 83-85 OT win against West Virginia; UNC's 88-82 staving of Wisconsin; and Michigan State's 94-88 win over Kentucky in double overtime, featuring the Patrick Sparks 3-pointer that extended the game.
Looking ahead
College football relies on Clemson and Alabama like clockwork to make the College Football Playoff. The Golden State Warriors are, barring a seismic upset, winning another NBA title this year. The New England Patriots, minimally, are likely to yet again make the NFL's final four come 2020.
The NCAA Tournament doesn't play by those rules. And that's why it rules.
The first weekend of the tourney turned out predictable, which set up a second weekend that paid off in a big way. Now the Final Four is a mixed bag. There's the letdown of not having a Kentucky or Duke or Gonzaga -- but now we've got really good stories to focus in on. New blood!
This is the first Final Four of Virginia coach Tony Bennett's career. He's no longer the best coach in college basketball without a Final Four on his résumé. He did it 19 years after his father made his one and only Final Four -- and what a powerful story that's turned out to be.
This is a Final Four filled with newbies. Texas Tech's Chris Beard and Auburn's Bruce Pearl are also here for the first time in their careers. Beard and Pearl's programs, as noted above, are also into the national semifinals for the first time.
Contrast that with the man whose last name is a synonym for March: Tom Izzo. He's back here for the eighth time in his career. Might this is the Big Ten's best chance to win a national title since 2000? It's also the last time the Big Ten had a champ; MSU took it that year, of course.
Izzo got here by winning his ninth Elite Eight game in 11 tries. As a school, MSU has a weird dichotomy. It's 9-2 record in Elite Eight games is the best in college basketball history of all schools with at least five trips to the regional final. But MSU's record when making the Final Four is flipped: 2-9.
Can this be title No. 2 for Izzo?
You'll also hear a lot about how this Final Four lacks a one-and-done player. The four teams are not only without that, 15 of the 20 starters on Saturday night will be juniors or seniors. It's a Final Four of experienced players but inexperienced coaches and programs -- mostly -- on this stage.
It's also the first Final Four in 12 years without a school from Kansas, Kentucky or North Carolina involved. Given how feverish those states' fan bases are with their college hoops, the ticket demand in Minneapolis will be worth tracking. Michigan State figures to have an advantage in fan support, but Texas Tech could prove to show up in stronger numbers than you might think.
If Tech or Auburn can win this thing, they'll become the first time since UConn in 1999 to win the national title as a first-time guest at the Final Four. Before you go doubting Auburn, take this into account: it just beat Kansas, UNC and Kentucky to get here. The only other time that's ever happened was in 1997.
Arizona won the title that year.
It's not a dream Final Four but it is one that will give us a compelling story, potentially even a controversial one, no matter who wins. And given the way these four teams are tough, physical and reliable defensively, we have a better-than-average chance of getting more close-if-not-great games to wrap up the season.
That's the most important part. You can wish for the hype and the stars and the biggest schools and usual suspects, but in the end, once we get to the games, we want close finishes and memorable moments and something that can give college basketball its best finish. And more often than not, college basketball gives us just that.
