As you, the astute reader, are no doubt aware, there are a few events of note taking place in the sporting world this weekend. The conclusion of the pro football season and the start of the Olympic winter games in Italy will of course receive their share of the spotlight, but there are plenty of key contests in men’s college basketball over the weekend as well.

As luck would have it, there’s a Top 25 showdown in each of the five power conferences. A key tilt in the Big East gets things underway Friday night, and the Saturday slate includes one of the sport’s most intense rivalry games. Let’s delve into the Starting Five, shall we?

No. 3 Connecticut at No. 22 St. John’s

Time/TV: Friday, 8 p.m. ET, Fox

The Huskies quietly remain unscathed in Big East play, but the Red Storm can grab a share of the league lead with a win here at Madison Square Garden. St. John’s isn’t always the most efficient offensive operation, but forward Zuby Ejiofor’s work on the boards often makes successful possessions out of organized chaos. UConn gets great scoring balance with all its starters averaging in double digits, but if a big shot is needed it will usually be Solo Ball taking it.

No. 4 Duke at No. 18 North Carolina

Time/TV: Saturday, 6:30 p.m. ET, ESPN

Round one between these long-time ACC foes will be in Chapel Hill, where the Tar Heels have yet to lose this season. The Blue Devils, however, are looking to run away with the league race once again. While Duke’s national player of the year candidate Cameron Boozer rightly gets much of the attention, the Blue Devils are even harder to beat when Isaiah Evans is on target from the arc. UNC’s own standout freshman Caleb Wilson’s stats actually compare favorably with Boozer’s, but the Tar Heels will need better ball security than they displayed in their nearly disastrous second-half collapse against Syracuse in their most recent outing.

No. 6 Illinois at No. 10 Michigan State

Time/TV: Saturday, 8 p.m. ET, Fox

This week’s top-10 showdown in the Big Ten features teams heading in opposite directions. The Fighting Illini have won 12 in a row and are playing like Final Four contenders, while the Spartans have dropped their last two as some of the team’s on-court decisions have drawn the ire of opponents and coaches alike. Michigan State’s veteran floor leader Jeremy Fears is also likely to receive additional attention from game officials, so he’ll need to keep a level head. Illinois freshman guard Keaton Wagler will look to continue his hot shooting that has helped the Illini compensate for the absence of starting guard Kylan Boswell.

No. 16 Florida at No. 25 Texas A&M

Time/TV: Saturday, 8:30 p.m. ET, SECN

Kentucky and Tennessee are getting the main channel treatment from ESPN, but this one is actually for the outright SEC lead. That is still the case despite the Aggies’ close loss Wednesday at Alabama. They’ll be happy to be back at home, but the Gators have won seven of their last eight and appear to be peaking at the right time. There’ve been few answers for Florida’s interior trio of Thomas Haugh, Alex Condon and Rueben Chinyelu. The Aggies should have a depth advantage in the backcourt, but Ruben Dominguez and Rylan Griffen will have to be on target.

No. 8 Houston at No. 14 Brigham Young

Time/TV: Saturday, 10:30 p.m. ET, ESPN

The Saturday nightcap takes us to an all-Cougars showdown in the Big 12, where the host Cougars of BYU are trending the wrong way on a three-game skid. BYU’s issues have primarily been at the defensive end, which does not bode particularly well with Houston’s high-scoring guard trio coming to Provo. BYU will also have to keep Houston’s Joseph Tugler and Chris Cenac from controlling the boards, a more manageable task if center Keba Keita can avoid foul trouble.

Her love affair with ceramics started at the age of six, about two years before dad James introduced her to sliding sports in Lake Placid, New York. He was a bobsledder for the United States Airforce in the 1970s. She was his only daughter.

When James got sick – diagnosis: Stage 4 prostate cancer – Kirkby watched him deteriorate, delivering important messages from his deathbed. About how much he loved her. And how her little brother Matthew should walk her down the aisle.

Pottery provided an escape. Something to distract her mind and busy her hands as she confronted a future without her father. ‘I was a big daddy’s girl,’ she said. James died last summer.

Kirkby still works with clay, having purchased an open studio membership at Arts Center Lake Placid, so she can fit craftsmanship around training with USA Luge. She and partner Chevonne Forgan will compete in the Olympic debut of women’s doubles luge Wednesday at the Cortina Sliding Centre. Along with equipment and cold weather gear, Kirkby brought about 100 ceramic pins to trade at the Winter Games, a fraction of the 2,000-plus she’s handmade since July. 

She fancies herself ‘the MiCo ‘26 pin trading queen.’ What started as an outlet for her grief has blossomed into a dutiful enterprise. Each pin is stamped with the image of a women’s winter sport event or athlete (one exception being pins for Team Italy luger Dominik Fischnaller). Hilary Knight represents hockey. Kaysha Love and Elana Meyers Taylor represent bobsleigh. Mystique Ro represents skeleton. And Andrea Vötter and Marion Oberhofer of Italy represent doubles luge.

‘My sport is making its Olympic debut. How can I make the most of this moment to try and promote women’s sports?’ Kirkby said of the project’s origin. Having made ceramic gifts for family, friends and teammates most of her life, Kirkby also figured handcrafted mementos would prove most effective in advancing her cause.

‘Whenever I see someone again, someone I haven’t seen in maybe years, one of the first things they tell me is, ‘Oh, my God, I still have that cup you made me!’ … So this is definitely an item I can allow fans to have, and they aren’t going to forget. They will remember for years this item and how it affects them.’

Rabbi Alec Friedmann is another member of the Art Center’s open studio membership club. Like Kirkby, he found ceramics therapeutic. Fulfilling even. 

He is the product of two German refugees who fled their home for South Africa, where he was later born, during the Holocaust. His mother was an artist. Father was a metal worker. Following in his footsteps, Friedmann went to college for mining engineering and metallurgy.

While in school, he ‘got the calling” and decided to become a rabbi. 

‘Luck’ brought him to Lake Placid 33 years ago. After a stint as assistant to the president of Hebrew Union College, Friedmann started working as a chaplain for the New York State Department of Corrections. He did that for 20 years while also serving the Lake Placid Synagogue, which could only afford to take him on because he had another full-time gig. A dynamic, Freidmann said, that harkens back to rabbis of old. “They all had real jobs and did the rabbinic thing on the side.”

Freidmann started pottery at the Arts Center after retiring (or as he says, when one ‘take(s) off the old tires and put(s) on new ones’) from the Department of Corrections. It married his engineering background and his mother’s love of the arts perfectly. She worked with clay a lot, but never on a wheel.

After hearing about how Friedman used his 3D printer to replace a broken gear on the studio’s slab roller and to create a cutout for his kitchen tiles, Kirkby sought her own tool from him: A 3-by-4-inch cutout. She asked what he’d like in return. Just an espresso, he told her. Freidmann said, with a chuckle, he’s still waiting.

‘That just led to, ‘Well, can you do this?’ ‘Can you do that?’” Freidmann said. “And then she started thinking about the pins.”

Kirkby started her pin project at the end of July, rolling out slabs of clay, cutting out circles about the size of a silver dollar and stamping images of different sports onto them before firing. She gave Freidmann sketches of the art work, which he would take, reformat and upload to the CAD/CAM software used for 3D printing. The machine uses a thread of plastic 1.75 millimeters across to create whatever Freidmann asks it to. He said he can size the item within one hundredth of a millimeter.

The cutouts start about 29 millimeters, or just over an inch. After a bisque firing and a glaze firing, Freidmann said, they shrink to about six-sevenths of an inch. 

Pins are like currency at the Olympic Games. They can be exchanged for favors, used in place of real money or traded like at Disney World. On top of bringing a few hundred with her, Kirkby is selling pins on Amazon as well as local Cortina and Lake Placid shops Art House, Sparkle Jewelry and Gifts, USA Spirit Shop and Mt Van Hoevenburg, where Kirkby trains. Ten percent of proceeds go directly to the athletes whose names and images Kirkby used, while the rest ‘pay off the material cost and the minimum wage that I paid myself,” she said.

‘She’s very entrepreneurial, which is something that I admire,” Freidmann said. ‘And it’s really been a joy to just be a little piece of her adventure.’

Reach USA TODAY Network sports reporter Payton Titus at ptitus@gannett.com, and follow her on X @petitus25.

The NBA trading deadline has come and gone, so now it’s all about sorting through the implications of what it all means.

To be clear: this was a peculiar deadline, one that perhaps lacked the massive, where-were-you-when deal like last year’s Luka Dončić trade. But it was marked by the looming presence of the potential availability of Giannis Antetokounmpo, the two-time Most Valuable Player, who ultimately remained with the Milwaukee Bucks.

Paired with Ja Morant remaining on the Memphis Grizzlies, this perhaps is setting the stage for what could be a very busy summer.

Here are the winners and losers from the 2026 NBA trading deadline:

WINNERS

Milwaukee Bucks

Overwhelmingly, the Bucks are the biggest winners here, and it’s because they didn’t give in to external pressure and they exercised patience. This isn’t to say that Giannis Antetokounmpo won’t eventually be traded. That may still come in the summer. But it became clear early on that Milwaukee had no obligation to trade Antetokounmpo before the deadline, especially because suitors will have more draft capital and financial flexibility to improve their offers during the summer.

But there’s still a pathway for the Bucks to convince Antetokounmpo to stay. His public comments have been nothing but positive about the Milwaukee community and he has expressed a desire to win in the city. These are all signs that Antetokounmpo’s loyalty may win the day and get him to commit to the long-term future of the franchise. Now, the Bucks have work to do.

Oklahoma City Thunder

The rich(est) got richer. Not only did Thunder general manager Sam Presti pull off a sneaky-good deal to get guard Jared McCain, who was looking like the clear Rookie of the Year last season before injuries derailed his season, but they likely got some good news in this year’s draft lottery, too. Oklahoma City still owns the 2026 first-round selection that belonged to the Clippers from the 2019 trade that sent Paul George to Los Angeles for a package that included Shai Gilgeous-Alexander.

Fast forward to Thursday, where the Clippers traded two of their best three players, James Harden and Ivica Zubac, and the Clippers could reverse their recent solid play and may tumble down the standings. All of which could lead to a lottery pick for the Thunder.

How the Grizzlies handled Ja Morant’s value

Reading the tea leaves here, Ja Morant probably won’t be on the Grizzlies at the start of next season. Yet, credit Memphis for not caving in and forcing a deal when his value and market were entirely depressed.

The Grizzlies are rebuilding, so Morant and the $126.5 million he’s owed over the next three seasons don’t align. But suitors were wary about packaging assets for a player who has been injury prone, has seen his efficiency and production diminish and who has had off-court concerns.

Morant is once again sidelined with an elbow ligament issue, but when he returned from a calf injury for two games in the middle of January, he combined for 47 points on 50% shooting, adding 25 assists.

If Morant can return to form once he returns from that injury, it should increase his value, leading to a higher return when the Grizzlies ultimately decide to move on in the summer.

Boston Celtics

Quietly, the Celtics addressed their biggest need and shaved some salary in the process. Since Boston traded Kristaps Porziņģis and lost Al Horford in free agency, it has been looking for a reliable center who can stretch the floor. The Celtics leveraged backup guard Anfernee Simons’ recent hot play to land former Bulls center Nikola Vučević, who fits in perfectly with Boston’s high-volume perimeter shooting offense.

This comes as a huge relief for Jaylen Brown. And, with the Celtics (33-18) exceeding expectations, a potential Jayson Tatum return late in the season could make Boston an intriguing team to watch in the playoffs.

Charlotte Hornets

The hottest team in the NBA added more shooting and scoring in the form of Coby White from the Bulls on a relatively affordable deal, especially since White is already an upgrade from Collin Sexton.

There is a bit of risk here, as White is on an expiring deal, so Charlotte would be best suited to extend him. But since White is from North Carolina, and since he played at UNC, he may be inclined to stay close to home. He’s only 25, can play off the ball and should have plenty of chances to find a sustainable role.

LOSERS

Miami Heat

No team had more riding on Antetokounmpo and no team lost more than the Heat. Miami was the lone team in the Eastern Conference (and one of only three in the entire NBA) to fail to make a single trade before the deadline. Whether it was Kevin Durant, Donovan Mitchell, Kyrie Irving, Damian Lillard or a number of others, the Heat have been constantly linked to another white whale.

Yet, time and time again, this front office has failed to sell high on its assets and has therefore failed to stockpile the draft picks necessary to execute a trade for  stars like these. Case in point: rather than flipping players like Tyler Herro, Kel’el Ware, Andrew Wiggins or Terry Rozier for picks, Miami is plodding forward under the assumption it can compete in the East with this roster. It cannot.

Golden State Warriors

Similarly, the Warriors were in on the Antetokounmpo sweepstakes, only to be left to pivot. Golden State’s reported offer was heavy in draft capital, but the Warriors lacked young players to send Milwaukee’s way.

So, the team had to acknowledge an organizational failure to develop Jonathan Kuminga, the No. 7 overall selection in the 2021 draft, and settle for Kristaps Porziņģis. In a vacuum, Porziņģis is a seamless fit. Perhaps more than any big in the NBA, he can stretch the floor with extensive range and the Warriors have had a massive void at center.

But can Porziņģis stay on the floor? He has been battling an autonomic nervous system condition and simply cannot be counted on as a regular presence in the lineup.

Kawhi Leonard

Just when the Clippers started to turn their season around, Los Angeles pivoted and retooled for the future. The Ivica Zubac trade may actually be quite fruitful for the Clippers, but it doesn’t do much for Leonard, who suddenly becomes the lone star on the team.

Darius Garland is a younger player, but he has been injury-prone, so he may not provide immediate help. Leonard, meanwhile, is entering the final season of his contract next season, so he could potentially be a trade candidate over the summer, right as he’s set to turn 35.

Chicago Bulls

They had lost five of their last six games and were likely looking at a slide the rest of the regular season, but the Bulls continue to make confounding moves. For one, the team made several moves to acquire guards and now has seven on the roster, with six of them having strong arguments to get burn in the rotation. Simply put: there’s not enough minutes to be had for so many guards.

The byproduct is that their depth at center is abysmal, with newly-acquired Nick Richards in line to replace Nikola Vučević. On top of it all, the Bulls failed to sell high on guards like Coby White and Ayo Dosunmu when their value was better than it was in this cycle.

Sacramento Kings

Not only was Sacramento unable to move some of its overpriced veterans like DeMar DeRozan and Zach LaVine, and not only were the Kings unable to flip Domantas Sabonis and Malik Monk for future assets, but they made a confusing trade for De’Andre Hunter. This is not an indictment on Hunter; he’s a solid wing, albeit one who’s probably overpriced.

Sacramento likely felt it needed to get a return on Keon Ellis, a solid guard who can knock down shots and defend with persistence. Ellis, for what it’s worth, was a player several contenders were eyeing. Which, as a quick aside, it’s usually a bad sign when savvy teams are targeting players that a franchise is devaluing.

What the Kings need to do is raze this build to the ground and stockpile as many assets as they can — not bring on more veterans, especially not ones who are modest upgrades, if they’re upgrades at all.

Our latest NCAA men’s basketball bracket projection features a few changes in the upper quadrant. Several programs with national titles in the past decade are among the teams with upward mobility.

Kansas, riding a six-game winning streak, has surged to a No. 3 seed along with defending champ Florida. Purdue is also back up to the third line, as Michigan State slips to a No. 4 after dropping its second game in a row Wednesday night at Minnesota. Virginia is back in the top 16 as well, grabbing a No. 4 seed as Brigham Young slides to a five after a three-game losing skid.

STARTING FIVE: The biggest college basketball games to watch this weekend

Gonzaga, thanks to a stunning upset Wednesday at Portland, falls off the second line to a No. 3. That result wasn’t all bad for the West Coast Conference, however, as it moved Santa Clara into first place in the league standings. That puts the Broncos in line for the automatic bid, giving the WCC three teams in the field for the moment. Saint Louis is now the lone Atlantic 10 squad in the projected field with George Mason taking a damaging loss to Duquesne this week.

March Madness bracketology update for NCAA tournament

March Madness Last four in

San Diego State, UCLA, Ohio State, New Mexico.

March Madness First four out

Miami (Fla.), Virginia Tech, California, Missouri.

NCAA tournament bids conference breakdown

Multi-bid leagues: Big Ten (11), SEC (10), ACC (7) Big 12 (7), Big East (3), Mountain West (3), West Coast (3).

• Former teammates Rodney Harrison and Richard Seymour believed Mike Vrabel was destined to be a head coach.
• Vrabel was known for his high football IQ and for challenging coaches as a player.
• His leadership style is built on making individual connections and galvanizing the team.
• Vrabel is credited with quickly changing the team’s culture and leading them to the Super Bowl.

SAN FRANCISCO – Rodney Harrison saw the future with Mike Vrabel years ago. If anyone can become the first person to win a Super Bowl as a player and as a head coach, it is no surprise to Harrison that his former New England Patriots teammate might be that guy.

Harrison and Vrabel won Super Bowls together as mainstays of the Patriots defense during the early 2000s. Harrison was the star safety who revived his career after coming from the San Diego Chargers; Vrabel the versatile linebacker who also took snaps as a goal-line tight end and was a key influencer on three Super Bowl championship teams.

Now Vrabel, 50, in his first season as Patriots coach, can add to that ring collection with a victory against the Seattle Seahawks in Super Bowl 60.

“Back then, we all knew that Mike was different,” Harrison, on site as an analyst for NBC’s Football Night in America, told USA TODAY Sports. “You almost looked at him as a player-coach. Because Mike was so good.

“He wasn’t afraid to challenge the coaches back then. He would always ask questions. It was, ‘What about this? What if this happens? Hey coach, but you told us this yesterday.’ The thing I always loved about Mike was that he was so well-prepared. We would always have constant communication. ‘Hey, Rod, if he blocks on me, I want you to replace…’ and blah-blah-blah. So, to see the level of success he’s having with a Super Bowl team, it is no surprise because we knew he was going to be a really good NFL coach.”

That Patriots defense of that era was loaded with supreme players who led the way to the first few Super Bowl titles with Tom Brady, before the offense evolved as the dominant force for the latter crowns. Rugged cornerback Ty Law and hybrid defensive lineman Richard Seymour have busts in Canton as Pro Football Hall of Famers. Willie McGinest was the ace edge rusher, evidenced by his NFL career postseason record of 16 sacks. Tedy Bruschi aligned alongside Vrabel. Nose tackle Vince Wilfork was added in 2004 as a premier run-stuffer.

Harrison and others, though, saw Vrabel as the glue.

“Everyone that’s been around Vrabel knew that he would be a coach … and everybody knew he was on a fast track,” Seymour, who won his first ring as a first-round rookie during the 2001 season, told USA TODAY Sports. “He was always a coach on the field.”

Seymour recalled the nuances that made a difference and how Vrabel, who also joined the unit in 2001 as a free agent, was typically the one communicating adjustments that needed to be handled on the fly. He recalled how Vrabel would often predict an opponent’s play based on precise wrinkles. Maybe the tight end’s offset alignment, for example, might have provided a clue that led Vrabel to instruct Seymour to realign himself by a few feet.

“We had a saying that after a game, we were going to give a team back their playbook because we knew what they were going to do,” Seymour said. “That’s how well-studied we were. That’s how much he knew.”

‘Mike is a really nice guy. But Mike has an a–hole about him’

Bringing the X’s and O’s to life, though, represented just one facet of what made Vrabel special. His leadership style back then, like now, was built on individual connections. Seymour and Harrison are both struck by testimony coming from current players about Vrabel’s ability to tap into their psyche. It is reminiscent of how he rolled as a veteran player.

“He has the ability to read the room and knows how to touch buttons to galvanize the group,” Seymour said. “I think he’s a brilliant leader. He’s a guy that everybody liked. The guys want to be around him, and he has a way of making everybody feel a part of it. I think those are some of the qualities that it takes to be a really good head coach. He showed that during his playing days, too, being able to hang out with everybody, being able to bring everybody together.”

Then again, Vrabel has another side he can tap into that is, well, less accommodating. Harrison can explain.

“Mike is a really nice guy. But Mike has an a–hole about him that you have to have,” Harrison said. “And he’s not afraid to give it to the coaches or players.”

Harrison vividly recalls his early days with the Patriots, and how his connection with Vrabel was forged amid conflict. As an intense, hard-hitting safety, Harrison brought a reputation from his nine years with the Chargers as an over-aggressive player. His first training camp with the Patriots in 2003 was marked by dustups with offensive teammates.

“I got into fights because I was hitting Troy Brown and Kevin Faulk when I came in, and they were all over me,” Harrison remembers. “Mike Vrabel came up to me and said, ‘F-them! Keep playing the way you play,’ and walked away. I was the new guy coming in, everybody is fighting mad at me and that’s what he tells me.”

‘These guys have trusted Mike Vrabel, and they’re in the Super Bowl’

No doubt, Vrabel has found ways to connect with a new generation of Patriots players. That he has instilled a new culture – or brought back the old Patriot Way culture in some ways – was obviously the objective after Patriots owner Robert Kraft fired Jerod Mayo after just one season as Bill Belichick’s successor and replaced one ex-linebacker with another as coach.

After all, Vrabel, the NFL Coach of the Year for a second time after he previously won in 2021 during his six-year tenure with the Tennessee Titans, is already established as one of the league’s best coaches.

Yet even Vrabel’s former teammates probably would not have predicted that this trek back to the Super Bowl for the Patriots would happen so fast. While the team added some key newcomers this season – including Stefon Diggs, Harold Landry III and Milton Williams – the team that won the AFC title includes 23 players who were part of a 2024 team that posted the franchise’s second consecutive 4-13 finish.

“Let me tell you how hard it is to get trust in one year: It’s tough,” Harrison said. “It’s hard to come in and change the culture. It’s hard to come in and get to these veteran players who are stuck in a certain mindset. I mean, it’s easy to have a defeated mindset.

“Mike’s come in and gotten rid of people, and he’s also added a lot of positivity. He’s speaking into the players’ lives. He cares about these guys and that’s why they are playing the way they play. Sometimes, it’s not about an easy schedule, it’s not about X’s and O’s, it’s about believing in one another and the cause. This is a perfect example of it. These guys have trusted Mike Vrabel, and they’re in the Super Bowl.”

Just like some key Patriots players might have envisioned a generation ago.  

Contact Jarrett Bell at jbell@usatoday.com or follow on X: @JarrettBell