Sports

7:00 AM ET FORT WORTH, Texas — A year ago at this time, Sonny Dykes sat in a sparsely decorated office and watched film during spring practice. He didn’t have a lot of time to worry about organizing his shelves when he was making a mad dash recruiting, hiring a staff and managing the transfer

7:00 AM ET Tim KavanaghESPN.com Close Tim Kavanagh is a senior NHL editor for ESPN. He’s a native of upstate New York. With the regular season winding down, every game seems to take on greater importance. But tonight’s slate offers one contest that stands out above the rest. The Winnipeg Jets host the Calgary Flames

7:00 AM ET A Google search for “Houston Astros” and “evil empire” generates over 1 million results, with headlines such as: “Are the Houston Astros the new evil empire of baseball?” and “Jose Abreu signing helps Astros approach evil empire status” and “The new evil empire: Houston Astros look to erase stain of cheating scandal.”

1:27 PM ET The NBA’s Western Conference playoff and play-in tournament races are more than what commissioner Adam Silver could have ever hoped. There are still eight teams that could end up in the West play-in tournament. The remaining teams battling for the playoffs are also battling for seeding — and the right to avoid

7:59 PM ET Associated Press Kyle Larson spent the week watching videos of his 10-win, 2021 championship season, he said, “to remind myself that I used to be good.” He still is. Larson pulled away on a restart with 14 laps to go and easily won the NASCAR Cup Series race at Richmond Raceway on

9:27 AM ET OWINGS MILLS, Md. — Pro Bowl cornerback Darius Slay was, as he put it, almost a different bird this offseason. On his “Big Play Slay” podcast, Slay revealed that he nearly joined the Baltimore Ravens before re-signing with the Philadelphia Eagles. “I was almost — this close — a Baltimore Raven. This

8:00 AM ET Tim KavanaghESPN.com Close Tim Kavanagh is a senior NHL editor for ESPN. He’s a native of upstate New York. With the Boston Bruins clinching the Presidents’ Trophy this past week, it’s a good time to check in on where things stand in a division with a little less clarity: the Metropolitan. There

3:54 PM ET The implementation of the first nationwide anti-doping program for racehorses in the U.S. has been delayed by at least one month as it awaits approval by the federal agency that oversees it, the Horseracing Integrity and Safety Authority (HISA) said. The new rules, which had been scheduled to take effect late last

7:00 AM ET Major League Baseball’s new rules didn’t impact scoring significantly in spring training, and oddsmakers began the season without adjusting their numbers on runs scored, while taking a wait-and-see approach to the pitch clock and elimination of the infield shift. MLB games have averaged 9.1 runs scored over the past five seasons. Last

5:00 AM ET Ian DarkeESPN.com writer Close Darke, who called games for the network during the 2010 FIFA World Cup in South Africa, is ESPN lead soccer voice in the United States. He has covered the Barclays Premier League and the Champions League since 1982, and has one of the world’s most recognizable soccer voices.

8:32 AM ET After the UFC’s March schedule gifted MMA fans with four straight weeks of exciting fight cards capped by stellar main events, including the much-anticipated return of Jon Jones, the promotion takes a one-week break this weekend. The UFC returns on April 8 will return with another can’t-miss main event as former UFC

7:00 AM ET Five-stars Arch Manning (Texas), Malachi Nelson (USC), Dante Moore (UCLA) and Jackson Arnold (Oklahoma) headline the quarterbacks in college football’s 2023 recruiting class. They form as talented a top four as we have seen in years, but that doesn’t guarantee playing time — particularly for Nelson, who will be competing against Heisman

7:43 AM ET ARLINGTON, Tex. — After another signature win as a trainer, the car waited to whisk Derrick James back from the site of his latest success to the hotel. But after Errol Spence defeated Yordenis Ugas in April 2022, James waived away the black SUV parked in the bowels of AT&T Stadium. The

10:48 AM ET Paolo UggettiESPN This week, for the fourth time in five years, the best amateur women’s players in the world will descend upon Augusta, Georgia, ahead of the fourth installment of the Augusta National Women’s Amateur. Editor’s Picks In just a short period of time, the ANWA has become a premier showcase of

9:43 AM ET Washington Wizards star Bradley Beal is under police investigation over a postgame incident last week with a fan in Orlando, according to police documents obtained by ESPN. The Orlando Police Department is investigating Beal for battery but has not filed charges as of Tuesday morning. The incident occurred near the visiting players’

6:00 AM ET In 1999, the Washington franchise Dan Snyder purchased was one of the NFL’s hallmark teams. It was less than a decade removed from three Super Bowl victories and had recently moved into an 80,000-seat stadium, fulfilling demand for tickets by a rabid fan base. At one point, the team said, the waiting

2:46 AM ET Former Formula One world champion Jenson Button said that he suffered heat exhaustion and nearly retired from the race before finishing 18th at his NASCAR debut in Texas on Sunday. The 43-year-old Briton, who won the F1 world championship in 2009, said he feared fainting while driving his Ford Mustang during the

7:15 AM ET Tim KavanaghESPN.com Close Tim Kavanagh is a senior NHL editor for ESPN. He’s a native of upstate New York. Much of what we examine in this space revolves around the races to earn a playoff spot (or the race to the bottom for the lottery teams). But let’s look a little bit

7:00 AM ET Who will be the best player of the 2023 MLB season? Opening Day is almost here, which means it’s time to break down how baseball’s elite stack up to each other. To create our annual MLB Rank list of the top 100 players in the sport, we presented a panel of ESPN

5:18 PM ET AUSTIN, Texas — Reigning Craftsman Truck Series champion Zane Smith became the first repeat NASCAR winner at the Circuit of The Americas road course, holding off Kyle Busch to win the XPEL 225 on Saturday. Smith, a 23-year-old driving the No. 38 Front Row Motorsports Ford, led the final 15 laps and