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Adia Barnes to make Mother’s Day appearance on ‘SportsCenter,’ join radio roundtable | Arizona Wildcats basketball

By Elsie A. Dotson 7 days ago

“To be a mom means the world to me,” Barnes said in a promo for the segment, “but it doesn’t mean I don’t follow my dream.”

Additions to the squad

Over the past month, Arizona has added guard Taylor Chavez and forwards Koi Love and Ariyah Copeland to the roster. Barnes said she hopes to land one more transfer — a point guard.

What goes into bringing in a transfer?

Barnes said she first looks at how the player can make her team better. She examines their flaws, too.

“When I’m thinking about ways to make us a little better and fill in the gaps, and I look at the areas that we weren’t great in the tournament,” Barnes said. “We had a tough time inside. When Stanford made a conscious effort to pound the ball inside (in the national championship game), we had problems.

“Then my thing is

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What Brian Flores told Kyle Pitts after UF ‘unicorn’ put on a show at his pro day

By Elsie A. Dotson 2 months ago

Some significant bits of information emerged from the University of Florida’s star-studded Pro Day:

Tight end Kyle Pitts is built like a pass rusher, runs like an X receiver and has arms like Inspector Gadget.

And if he slips to the Miami Dolphins at No. 6 — which is far from certain — general manager Chris Grier and coach Brian Flores would have serious interest in taking him.

Flores made the four-hour trip to Gainesville to get a close look at Pitts, the 6-5, 245-pound tight end who clocked a 4.44-second 40-yard dash Wednesday.

And before Pitts slipped inside after a great day of work, Flores sought him out.

“Me and him did talk,” Pitts told reporters on a Zoom call. “We talked for a little bit. He said we’ll get back on the phone this week. I feel like I did pretty well performing. He said I was doing

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Ranking SEC football recruiting classes after National Signing Day

By Elsie A. Dotson 3 months ago

The SEC stacked many of the nation’s best recruiting classes in the 2021 class.

Alabama ran away with the nation’s top class, but a handful of SEC schools put together elite groups.

Here is how we ranked the SEC classes:

1. Alabama

Alabama won the national title, then signed the highest-ranked recruiting class in the history of the 247Sports Composite. The Crimson Tide landed 15 of the top 91 players in the 2021 class, including 12 of the top 58. They signed seven five-star prospects. The rest of the SEC signed eight combined. 

2. Georgia

Georgia did Georgia things in the 2021 cycle. The Bulldogs signed another five-star quarterback, a five-star offensive tackle and two five-star linebackers. Kirby Smart raked in 14 top-250 prospects to keep the program in Athens, Georgia, humming.

3. Texas A&M

Texas A&M signed nine top-200 prospects, eight of whom are from Texas.

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College football signing day headliners include Alabama, USC, Oklahoma

By Elsie A. Dotson 3 months ago

Want to win the national championship? Scratch that: Want to compete for the national championship? Then you’d better win on national signing day.

Decades of data and feedback — the wall-to-wall, yearlong coverage of recruiting began in earnest in the early 2000s — has established the obvious connection between recruiting success and on-field success. Those who win on the two signing days in December and February also win big in January.

And those who win big in the postseason then continue to own the recruiting trail, creating an almost unbreakable cycle of dominance.

As of early Wednesday afternoon, the nation’s best signing class belonged to defending national champion Alabama, according to the team rankings compiled by 247Sports.com. Following was Ohio State, which lost to the Crimson Tide last month in Miami. Georgia, LSU and Clemson rounded out the top five.

Combined, these national powers have gone 171-24 across the past

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