The NBA season is well underway and the Milwaukee Bucks are limping into the middle of the season. Sure, star forward Giannis Antetokounmpo has been sidelined with a groin injury, but if the rumor mill is to be believed, the team could be without him again rather soon.

Sitting at 9-13, Bucks could be forced to face an unfortunate reality this season: the Greek Freak might leave town. On Tuesday, Dec. 2, Antetokounmpo scrubbed his social media profiles clean of almost all references to the Bucks. While ESPN’s Shams Charania has reported that Antetokounmpo and his agent are in talks with the Bucks regarding his future with the club, that hasn’t stopped fans from speculating where Antetokounmpo could land in a potential trade. After all, Charania also reported that they believe the Antetokounmpo situation will resolve itself within the next few weeks.

Here are the latest rumors regarding Antetokounmpo’s future in Milwaukee:

What do we know about the Antetokounmpo situation?

We know that Antetokounmpo was unhappy with the Bucks’ organization. He deleted all mentions of the Bucks from his social media pages on Tuesday, Dec. 2.

Futhermore, a recent interview with ESPN’s Brian Windhorst revealed that Antetokounmpo had asked to be traded to the New York Knicks during the most recent offseason.

However, Windhorst also assured listeners that Giannis was not moved and that the team has no plans to move him.

Antetokounmpo is signed with Milwaukee through the 2027-28 season, but Windhorst seems confident that Antetokounmpo could be moved before the start of next season.

Bucks coach Doc Rivers said Wednesday that Antetokounmpo has not requested a trade.

‘There have been no conversations,’ Rivers said. ‘I want to make it clear for, I would say one more time, but for the 50th time it clearly is not getting to one network … Giannis has never asked to be traded. Ever. I can’t make that more clear.’

Possible destinations for Antetokounmpo

The New York Knicks are the obvious destination. Windhorst mentioned that Antetokounmpo had asked to be traded there during the offseason.

• Brooklyn Nets: lots of draft capital to trade
• San Antonio Spurs: win-now mode
• Houston Rockets: young talent to trade
• Atlanta Hawks: young talent to trade
• Los Angeles Lakers: win-now mode

Latest Antetokounmpo trade rumors

Outside of his interest in the Knicks, very little is known about Antetokounmpo’s potential suitors, but it is likely every team will at least touch base with the Bucks regarding the future Hall of Famer.

Other outlets have pointed at the Houston Rockets as a team that could provide the best possible NBA-ready talent, with players such as Amen Thompson, Reed Sheppard, and/or Jabari Smith Jr. (although his poison pill contract would make that difficult). Although the Rockets went out of their way to build a team centered around offseason acquisition Kevin Durant, a pairing with Antetokounmpo would obviously be a massive addition for a team looking to compete with the Oklahoma City Thunder. Still, reports have yet to emerge detailing Houston’s potential interest in The Greek Freak.

That said, the decision might ultimately come down to Antetokounmpo himself. According to ESPN’s Brian Windhorst, the Bucks might not make Antetokounmpo available to the entire league, instead opting to let Antetokounmpo pick a team with whom the organization will eventually work out a deal with. If that is the case, it might be only a matter of time before we see Antetokounmpo in Knickerbocker orange.

When is the NBA trade deadline?

This season’s trade deadline is set for Thursday, Feb. 5 at 3 p.m. ET.

Firing a coach in-season isn’t ideal — for many reasons. It means your season has gone south and likely your recruiting class with it. How do you retain commits and continue to recruit with so much uncertainty?

Just look at Penn State.

The Nittany Lions still have no coach after firing James Franklin in mid-October. And so when the early signing period opened Wednesday, Dec. 3, Penn State added just two players — putting their class at 150th nationally per 247Sports rankings. Right next to South Dakota State and Princeton.

UCLA fired coach Deshaun Foster in September — just three games into the season — and went the rest of the regular season without a permanent coach. Despite uncertainty beyond 2025, the Bruins stayed afloat in recruiting. UCLA was able to keep players committed, and opened the early signing period with the No. 71-ranked class. Modest, but not bad for a team whose new coach will be coaching another team this weekend.

UCLA will hire James Madison coach Bob Chesney, with a deal expected after the Sun Belt championship game on Friday, Dec. 5. But Chesney hasn’t done any official work for the Bruins yet, so how did the Bruins keep recruiting momentum?

That’s where general manager Khary Darlington comes in. He and his staff and assistant coaches continued to hit the recruiting trails even though they didn’t know who the next coach would be — or if they’d be retained.

The motto with the support staff was ‘straighten your back and let’s get out there and do the job.’ Even through the doubt about UCLA’s future, Darlington said the staff fed off the momentum of each other and fully bought into the vision it was trying to create. It was the extra boost they needed to keep forging ahead.

‘Having the conversations after the coaching change, I don’t know if I can clearly articulate how difficult some of these conversations were,’ Darlington told reporters Dec. 3.

There were players that re-opened their recruitment following Foster’s departure, and Darlington said some players still committed wanted to see what their options were. He said rather than ‘trying to handcuff people and not acknowledging what their experience is,’ Darlington and his staff took the approach of honesty and giving recruits space to explore every scenario. Ultimately, he believes that paid off.

‘Rather than convincing people not to waiver, we encourage them and respected them. We encourage them to go through their process and told them that we will respect whatever that process was,’ he said. ‘I think that is what I guess you could say what our secret sauce was.’

As a result, UCLA ended the first day of the early signing period with 12 players signed, and a few more expected in the coming days.

Not having a coach did hurt the Bruins though. Two of their top recruits, four-stars Micah Smith (Illinois) and Carter Gooden (Tennessee), flipped. Still, 12 players isn’t too bad.

That doesn’t include four-star defensive lineman Anthony Jones from Irvine, California. Jones was one of the several players who de-committed after Foster was fired. He committed back to the Bruins in November and intends on signing his national letter of intent in February.

Darlington said ‘there was a lot of appreciation’ within the staff for pulling Wednesday off. It was an emotionally taxing adventure, but there’s belief UCLA is set up well for its next regime.

Not something every under-construction team can say.

‘Just the mere fact that we were able to land the amount of players that we have landed, have our staff be as motivated as they were throughout the entire process and finish strong the way that we did is encouraging,’ Darlington said.

The seeds are set, now its time to get the NCAA Division I volleyball tournament started. The first round will take place Thursday, Dec. 4, and Friday, Dec. 5, at school sites across the country.

Sixty-four teams are vying for the title with the No. 1 overall seed going to undefeated Nebraska, which is 30-0. The Cornhuskers, who are in their first season under coach Dani Busboom Kelly, won the last of their five national titles in 2017.

Kentucky, Texas, and Pitt are the other No. 1 seeds. The Wildcats have lost two matches, the Longhorns three and the Panthers four this season.

Defending champion Penn State finished 18-12 and is a No. 8 seed in the Austin region. The Nittany Lions face South Florida (17-12) in the first round on Friday.

The 2025 NCAA volleyball Final Four will be held at the T-Mobile Center in Kansas City, Missouri. It’s the third time since 2010 that the venue, formerly known as the Sprint Center, has hosted the volleyball national championship.

Here’s everything you need to know about the NCAA volleyball tournament:

How to watch NCAA volleyball tournament

• Streaming: ESPN+ ∣ Fubo (free trial)

The 2025 NCAA volleyball tournament will air across the ESPN and ABC family of networks. All first- and second-round games can be found streaming on ESPN+, ESPN’s subscription streaming service, and Fubo, which offers a free trial to potential subscribers.

Watch the 2025 NCAA volleyball tournament live with Fubo (free trial)

What time is NCAA volleyball tournament?

• Date: Thursday, Dec. 4 and Friday, Dec. 5
• Start time: 32 matches, beginning at 3 p.m. ET Thursday. The last match starts at 10 p.m. ET Friday. Match-by-match times below.

NCAA volleyball first-round matchups, game times

Lexington bracket

• No. 1 Kentucky (25-2) vs. Wofford (17-13), 7 p.m. ET, Thursday
• No. 8 UCLA (18-12) vs. Georgia Tech (16-13), 4:30 p.m. ET, Thursday
• No. 5 BYU (22-8) vs. Cal Poly (25-7), 8 p.m. ET, Thursday
• No. 4 USC (24-6) vs. Princeton (18-6), 10:30 p.m. ET, Thursday
• No. 3 Creighton (25-5) vs. Northern Colorado (17-15), 8 p.m. ET, Thursday
• No. 6 Northern Iowa (25-5) vs. Utah (15-14), 5:30 p.m. ET, Thursday
• No. 7 Tennessee (20-7) vs. Utah State (23-7), 6:30 p.m. ET, Thursday
• No. 2 Arizona State (26-3) vs. Coppin State (23-11), 9 p.m. ET, Thursday

Austin bracket

• No. 1 Texas (23-3) vs. Florida A&M (14-16), 8 p.m. ET, Friday
• No. 8 Penn State (18-12) vs. South Florida (17-12), 5:30 p.m. ET, Friday
• No. 5 Colorado (22-8) vs. American (24-4), 3 p.m. ET, Thursday
• No. 4 Indiana (23-7) vs. Toledo (23-10), 5:30 p.m. ET, Thursday
• No. 3 Wisconsin (24-4) vs. Eastern Illinois (24-7), 8 p.m. ET, Thursday
• No. 6 UTEP (25-4) vs. North Carolina (21-8), 5:30 p.m. ET, Thursday
• No. 7 South Dakota State (23-4) vs. Arizona (16-12), 7:30 p.m. ET, Friday
• No. 2 Stanford (27-4) vs. Utah Valley (16-10), 10 p.m. ET, Friday

Pittsburgh bracket

• No. 1 Pitt (26-4) vs. UMBC (13-11), 6:30 p.m. ET, Friday
• No. 8 Xavier (26-4) vs. Michigan (21-10), 4 p.m. ET, Friday
• No. 5 Iowa State (22-7) vs. St. Thomas (21-9), 5:30 p.m. ET, Friday
• No. 4 Minnesota (22-9) vs. Fairfield (25-5), 8 p.m. ET, Friday
• No. 3 Purdue (24-6) vs. Wright State (21-10), 7 p.m. ET, Thursday
• No. 6 Baylor (17-9) vs. Arkansas State (22-8), 4:30 p.m. ET, Thursday
• No. 7 Rice (21-9) vs. Florida (15-11), 5 p.m. ET, Friday
• No. 2 SMU (25-5) vs. Central Arkansas (18-11), 7:30 p.m. ET, Friday

Lincoln bracket

• No. 1 Nebraska (30-0) vs. LIU (20-8), 8 p.m. ET, Friday
• No. 8 San Diego (25-4) vs. Kansas State (17-3), 5:30 p.m. ET, Friday
• No. 5 Miami (26-5) vs. Tulsa (25-6), 5 p.m. ET, Thursday
• No. 4 Kansas (22-10) vs. High Point (18-9), 7:30 p.m. ET, Thursday
• No. 3 Texas A&M (23-4) vs. Campbell (23-6), 7:30 p.m. ET, Friday
• No. 6 TCU (20-10) vs. Stephen F. Austin (23-7), 5 p.m. ET, Friday
• No. 7 Western Kentucky (27-5) vs. Marquette (17-10), 4 p.m. ET, Friday
• No. 2 Louisville (24-6) vs. Loyola Chicago (17-15), 6:30 p.m. ET, Friday

NCAA volleyball tournament rounds

• Second round: Dec. 5-6
• Regionals: Dec. 11 and 13 or Dec. 12 and 14
• Semifinals: Thursday, Dec. 18
• National championship: 3:30 p.m. ET on Sunday, Dec. 21

All games on ESPN Unlimited, ESPN, ABC

NCAA volleyball tournament automatic qualifiers

Here’s a look at the 31 teams that earned automatic berths to the 2025 NCAA volleyball tournament by virtue of winning their conferences:

• ACC: Stanford
• American: Tulsa
• American East: UMBC
• Atlantic Sun: Central Arkansas
• Atlantic 10: Loyola Chicago
• Big East: Creighton
• Big Sky: Northern Colorado
• Big South: High Point
• Big Ten: Nebraska
• Big 12: Arizona State
• Big West: Cal Poly
• CAA: Campbell
• Conference USA: Western Kentucky
• Horizon: Wright State
• Ivy: Princeton
• MAAC: Fairfield
• MAC: Toledo
• MEAC: Coppin State
• Missouri Valley: Northern Iowa
• Mountain West: Utah State
• NEC: LIU
• Ohio Valley: Eastern Illinois
• Patriot: American
• SEC: Kentucky
• SoCon: Wofford
• Southland: Stephen F. Austin
• SWAC: Florida A&M
• Summit: St. Thomas
• Sun Belt: Arkansas State
• WAC: Utah Valley
• WCC: San Diego

When is the NCAA volleyball Final Four in 2025?

• Dates: Thursday, Dec. 18 and Sunday, Dec. 21

The two semifinal matches in the Final Four of the 2025 NCAA volleyball tournament will take place on Thursday, Dec. 18 and will be followed three days later by the national championship game on Sunday, Dec. 21.

NCAA volleyball tournament champions

Penn State is the reigning NCAA volleyball champion, having defeated Louisville in four sets last year in the national title game. It was the Nittany Lions’ eighth volleyball championship since 1999.

Here’s a look at the past 10 NCAA volleyball champions:

• 2024: Penn State
• 2023: Texas
• 2022: Texas
• 2021: Wisconsin
• 2020: Kentucky
• 2019: Stanford
• 2018: Stanford
• 2017: Nebraska
• 2016: Stanford
• 2015: Nebraska

For the full list of champions, click here.

On a day where big questions arose about Giannis Antetokounmpo’s future with the Milwaukee Bucks, the team is now holding its breath about his immediate health.

The Bucks superstar exited Milwaukee’s contest against the Detroit Pistons in the first quarter and was ruled out for the game with what the team called a ‘right calf strain.’

Antetokounmpo went down suddenly while heading back up the court after feeding AJ Green for a layup. The two-time MVP headed back to the locker room and the Bucks ruled him out for the game a short time later.

He scored two points and had a rebound and an assist in just 3 minutes of play.

Despite Antetokounmpo’s early exit, the Bucks defeated the East-best Pistons, 113-109.

Giannis Antetokounmpo injury update

Bucks coach Doc Rivers told reporters during his postgame availability that Antetokounmpo was getting an MRI ‘right now.’ He was hopeful the team would know more about Antetokounmpo’s status soon but added the team believed it was not an Achilles injury.

The USA TODAY app gets you to the heart of the news — fast. Download for award-winning coverage, crosswords, audio storytelling, the eNewspaper and more.

AI-assisted summary
• Colorado coach Deion Sanders signed a small high school recruiting class, ranking near the bottom of the Big 12.
• Sanders defends his strategy of relying on the transfer portal over traditional high school recruiting.
• Critics argue this approach hinders team chemistry and long-term development after a 3-9 season in 2025.

Colorado football coach Deion Sanders signed only nine high school players to his 2026 recruiting class Wednesday after some top recruits withdrew their commitment to play for him recently — dropping the Buffaloes to 16th out of 16 teams in the Big 12 Conference, according to the recruiting rankings of 247Sports’ and On3, as of Dec. 3.

But signing such a small freshman class is all part of Sanders’ plan, according to him. He doesn’t make off-campus visits to high school recruits and was a pioneer in college football for relying on transfer players instead.

The question is whether this is the right strategy after his team finished 3-9 in 2025. Should he focus more on developing high school players and getting them to stick around in Boulder? Or is his strategy still sensible since players can transfer to a new school every year if they’re not happy with their playing time or compensation?

The debate rages on at the start of the football signing period on Dec. 3.

“Just to go into the (transfer) portal, it becomes like trying to build through free agency,’ former Colorado and NFL linebacker Chad Brown told USA TODAY Sports recently. ‘You can get it done in spots if you’ve got a hole that you need filled, but home-grown talent is always going to be the best to coach up and get up to speed with your offense and defense. 

‘If every year you’re trying to build a new team, you can’t ever get to layer two in your playbook. You’re always operating on the surface, and then these guys don’t get the chance to come together as a team.”

Deion Sanders sees it differently

The high school recruiting class Sanders signed included four-star defensive back Preston Ashley and four-star linebacker Carson Crawford. Colorado still could sign more players in the next day or two and move up in the subjective rankings after confirming nine high school signees as of Dec. 3, plus Ventura College defensive lineman Domata Peko Jr., son of the Colorado assistant coach and former NFL star.

But these signings are only a precursor to his bigger roster moves coming when the transfer portal opens Jan. 2. That’s when Sanders will bring in players from other colleges, many of them backups looking for better playing time or income opportunities. Sanders pioneered the portal-heavy strategy during his first year in 2023, when he brought in 47 scholarship transfer players from other four-year colleges to fill a roster limited to 85 scholarship players.

“You want about 15 to 17 high school kids,” Sanders said at a news conference last week in Boulder.  “Why do you say that, coach?’ Well, check the statistics. You get 30. Are they gonna be here in two years? Statistically, check the statistics.”

USA TODAY Sports checked the statistics: He’s signed 43 total high school scholarship recruits during his first three seasons at Colorado, an average of 14 per year, compared to the 25 or 30 that some schools sign. Only 21 of those 43 were still on Colorado’s roster at the end of the 2025 season. The rest transferred out already or left for other reasons.

One was freshman four-star linebacker Mantrez Walker, who signed with Colorado out of high school last year and recently announced his decision to transfer out.

“In Mantrez’s case, he had a situation where his playing time was pretty limited this season and there were opportunities that he believes are going to be a better fit,” said Jacob Piasecki, co-founder of A&P Sports, the agency that represented Walker’s name, image and likeness (NIL) interests for compensation.

Piasecki told USA TODAY Sports it was more about Colorado’s plan for him, not NIL money, per se, but playing time and money are intertwined. “There’s definitely a correlation between how much they pay you and how much they play you,” Piasecki told USA TODAY Sports.

Why didn’t Deion Sanders’ recruiting strategy work in 2025?

Sanders said he mostly “hit” on his high school recruits but missed on his transfer portal recruits. His most high-profile transfer recruit last year was former Liberty quarterback Kaidon Salter, whose record as a starter for Colorado was 3-6 in 2025.

In previous years, Colorado “hit” on transfer recruits that included his quarterback son Shedeur (Jackson State), Heisman Trophy winner Travis Hunter (Jackson State), receiver Jimmy Horn Jr. (South Florida) and receiver LaJohntay Wester (Florida Atlantic). All four were drafted into the NFL in April after leading the Buffaloes to a 9-4 season in 2024.

“Nowadays, if kids aren’t playing by that spring of that second go-round, they out — they jump in the portal,” Deion Sanders said. “You got to figure out the strategy. What do you want to go? How do you want to get it? The strategy a year ago was the same strategy it was last year. And you hit on your portal guys. You hit on your freshman guys. This year, you hit on your freshmen, to me, some of them. And you missed on your portal. So that’s why we’ sitting where we sit. It’s not like you didn’t have a strategic plan. No, you had a strategic plan. You missed. Sometimes it happens. And I’m going to take responsibility. I’m not going to say we missed. I missed.”

The risk of Deion Sanders’ strategy

Sanders’ teams have been up and down since his arrival: a 3-0 start in 2023 followed by a 1-8 finish, then 9-4 in 2024, followed by five straight losses to end the 2025 season at 3-9. It’s arguable that trait is a symptom of the roster churn, with so many new players every year who have no prior chemistry.

By contrast, several top teams today were expected to sign around 25 to 30 high school recruits this week, including Southern California, Georgia and Ohio State. Those schools just hope they can hang on to those players beyond next year.

In Colorado’s case, Sanders also hopes to hang on to his own former high school recruits, including standout offensive tackle Jordan Seaton and quarterback Julian Lewis. Lewis has said he’s staying after redshirting in 2025. Seaton’s future isn’t clear.

“Buffs could have consistently brought in great players from the high school level, but instead, just don’t,” On3 recruiting analyst Josh Newberg recently said on social media site X.  “You’re not finding Jordan Seaton-type players in the portal.”

But Sanders did find NFL-caliber players in the portal before. In 2025, his best defensive player was safety Tawfiq Byard, a transfer from South Florida who led the team in tackles (84). He has two more years of college eligibility but could jump in the portal Jan. 2 just like the rest after the NCAA allowed unrestricted annual player transfers last year.

Follow reporter Brent Schrotenboer @Schrotenboer. Email: bschrotenb@usatoday.com